Walk through Olsztyn

The other day there was a nice sunny weather so I went for a walk through my home town. Below are some photos I took during my walk.

This building is in a very characteristic Prussian style, this part of Poland used to be Prussia in the old days.

View of the old town.

This is the old and historic Town Hall.

Decorations on a building in old town.

A small river Łyna flows through Olsztyn

The entrance to the old Town Hall.

Old Town again, the castle in the background.

A real Christmas tree in the Old Town.

In this church Ross and I got married nearly 17 years ago on 4 January 1992

Cemetery visit

Before Christmas I went with my parents to visit graves of my grandparents and aunt. Poland being a Catholic country has huge cemeteries with millions of graves. People visit graves of their relavites regularly and they leave flowers and lit candles.

This is a chapel at an old cemetery

View of the cemetery where are my maternal grandparents and paternal gradmother.

With my family

These are my parents.

This is my lovely nephew Kuba who is 17 years and 11 months old.

Snowing

We had some very wet snow for 1 day and it melted the following day as the temperature continues to be above 0C. The first photo below was taken from the window of my parents unit and the following photos even captured falling snow flakes. It does look magical but believe me it often doesnt feel magical when it is wet and cold around you.

Christmas tree

Ever since I was a little girl I remember that decorating a Christmas tree was a special ritual each year at my home as this was my Mums passion and over many years she collected thousands of different decorations. A lot of them are older than me and they are hand made of glass. I still remember lying on a sofa with my sister as children and picking our favourite decorations. It is special to be back home at this time of the year and to experience my Mums Christmas tree again. Below are some photos.

Chunky Xmas ATC for Marlene

Before leaving for Poland I created this wooden ATC for my friend Marlene in lieu of a Christmas card. I am becoming a great fan of chunky ATCs.

In Poland now

I arrived in Poland a week ago and it was such a great surprise for my parents, they nearly had to pinch themselves to believe that it was me. My Dad opened the door, went silent and then called my Mum saying there was someone at the door for her. They were both stunned but very happy, my Mum had to ring her sister straight away to tell her and my Dad was telling everyone he met next morning when he went to buy some bread. They said it was a surprise of a life time so it was worth the effort.

It has been quite cool since I arrived, around +3 degrees during the day but it is quite mild for this time of the year. It looks like we won't have white Christmas this year as snow is not predicted for a while yet.

A photo taken while we went for a walk with my sister.

My sister during the walk.

A little chapel in the forest, quite traditional for this region of Poland.