The weekend started out with St. Patrick's day. Fil and I purchased a nice bottle of Irish whiskey to begin the evening. Tomek had reserved a table at the Dubliner under the Castle so that is where we were going to head eventually later. Earlier that day we had a histology test that went well so I have enough points to not take the last test. I left for Konin at about 1430 on Friday. My Polish teacher let me leave early and was happy/surprised that I was going to go to a nearby town to spend the weekend.
Konin is about 90 km away from Poznan, so roughly an hour and you will be there. Konin allegedly in invented the condom. Kon means horse in Polish and that is the origin of the name. It has a population of about 80,000. Fil's parents grew up there. Fil's cousin, Tomek also grew up there, as did Mikloj. Fil's dad and Tomek's dad are brothers and Fil's mom is sisters with Mikloj's mom. We walked around the city Friday night seeing the sights and sounds. We ended up going to Tomek's 'bomb' shelter, an underground bar, to spend most of the night as all of Konin was closed. It was quite nice hanging out drinking and smoking cigars with Tomek's dad for much of the night. It was a funny weekend with respect to the language barrier between me and all of their families.
The following day we went to the Konin Zoo. Next we went to the 5th largest basilica in the world, Basilica of Our Lady of Lichen, in the nearby city of Lichen. It is allegedly the 2nd largest with respect to its size above ground. It was breathtaking. Later we went back to Mikloj's house and watched a Polish movie with his parents and drank some good Champagne. The next day we went around to a few other places ending the night with a great dinner. It has been a while since I had a delicious proper meal, needless to say breakfast every morning. It was a great time and I was happy to finally make it to Konin, I'm sure it won't be the last time.
Konin is about 90 km away from Poznan, so roughly an hour and you will be there. Konin allegedly in invented the condom. Kon means horse in Polish and that is the origin of the name. It has a population of about 80,000. Fil's parents grew up there. Fil's cousin, Tomek also grew up there, as did Mikloj. Fil's dad and Tomek's dad are brothers and Fil's mom is sisters with Mikloj's mom. We walked around the city Friday night seeing the sights and sounds. We ended up going to Tomek's 'bomb' shelter, an underground bar, to spend most of the night as all of Konin was closed. It was quite nice hanging out drinking and smoking cigars with Tomek's dad for much of the night. It was a funny weekend with respect to the language barrier between me and all of their families.
The following day we went to the Konin Zoo. Next we went to the 5th largest basilica in the world, Basilica of Our Lady of Lichen, in the nearby city of Lichen. It is allegedly the 2nd largest with respect to its size above ground. It was breathtaking. Later we went back to Mikloj's house and watched a Polish movie with his parents and drank some good Champagne. The next day we went around to a few other places ending the night with a great dinner. It has been a while since I had a delicious proper meal, needless to say breakfast every morning. It was a great time and I was happy to finally make it to Konin, I'm sure it won't be the last time.
Yummy
Nice Ola
At Dubliner
Na Zdrowia (to health)
Michal
Tomek
Professor and Ola
Dubliner, it really has the feel of Ireland
Michal
Sour face
Another sour face
arm wrestling Tomek
Poland is SO colorful
Relaxing in Milkoj's living room. The house was awesome, so many cool things about it. Shower with a huge built in shower head in the ceiling. upstairs and downstairs with 2 kitchens, I could go on
Sweet tunnel
All the clocks are wrong in Konin
Entering the 'bomb shelter'
Cutting off the end of the cigar
Traditional poland, vodka and meat sticks. The shot glasses were 60 years old.
Bartender Tomek
The zoo
Broken compass
Nice carving. There are tons of churches around Konin too.
Some animals
The statue that would be covered by plastic to represent a condom
part of their stary rynek
something to do with the KON (horse) in Koning
the official shield/symbol of Konin
where Mikloj had his 21st birthday. Cool flower paintings on the walls.
Town hall
Rare gems were taken to central Europe from the Baltic Sea using a route that went through Konin right at this point.
Basilica of Our Lady of Lichen
The backside
it is huge
A wedding was taking place
The picture doesn't accurately portray its immense size
A replica of the Jesus' journey up to the mountain
The group
The Church where Fil's parents got married
Polish sunset
?
Mikloj's mom's garden, she talks to her plans, like my mom!
The caribbean blue water. It's color is due to pollution from the power plant in the distance.
The van almost getting stuck in the mud
Mikloj's Family
Ahh, it's good to be you.
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