May 12th - Let's travel!

     So the day finally arrived for us to depart for Poland!  Chris arrived late last night from Roswell and we had a nice visit from mama and Cocia Lidia to bid us farewell, for promptly at 4am, Andrew (Jon and Chris's dad) arrived to take us to the airport. 
     When we arrived at the airport I will admit that I was a bit surprised on how much luggage we all had.  Jola (Andrew's wife) was also coming to Poland to visit her mother and was also bringing alot of things for family in Poland.  Poor Jola had 3 large suitcases (which were perfectly packed and weighted in at 49.5 lbs each since 50 lbs was the limit) and we had one extra box to take to Agnieska (Jon's cousin who lives in Warsaw) who is due to have a baby boy any minute now.  Wait for these 4 pieces of extra luggage to pay a role in our adventures later. 

     After paying EXTRA money for these extra bags (evidently the 2 bag rule is only for US, apparently when people travel domestically they travel heavier and when they travel internationally they don't.  (Moving on) We boarded our plane for Berlin.  Our flight was smooth and only took about 4 1/2 hours.  Connor did GREAT and in fact was asleep before the plane took off.

     We arrived in Newark/Liberty airport without any trouble and were able to stretch our legs for our long haul from NJ to Berlin.  Our plane left NJ at about 6pm and we made the 8 hour journey "over the pond."  We all got to sit together and Jola was across from us which was great because she was a big help with Connor.     

C cubed - Ready for take off!

     Connor did pretty well on this flight, he took little cat naps here and there (thank's to Jon's idea of bringing pillows).  One mistake we made was the baby Benadryl.  So we tried it first at home and he did great, he was out in 30 minutes, but over the Atlantic, not so much. He wasn't bouncing off the walls, but he wasn't sleeping either. I also, took Benadryl to help me sleep and about 3 hours into my flight, my head exploded.  Connor eventually fell asleep and slept for about 2 hours, but Jon and I on the other hand hardly got any sleep.  I was in the middle seat and couldn't get comfortable with a child in my lap and poor Jon had a child behind him playing games on the back of the seat (on the overnight flights, they have screens on the back of your seat so that you can play games and watch tons of his 9 year old was playing games and pressing hard on the back of the seat.)


Welcome to Berlin - We won't speak English

  We arrived in Berlin at 8am (5-13) and Connor and I got our first official stamps in our passports.  Everything that was going right with this trip would stop here.  Since we had so much luggage we were unable to take the bus to the train station, so we found a nice cabbie that was willing (and luckily able) to cram all of us into one van. 

DB Train Station - Berlin

     Being that I was born and raised Arizona-American, I have never really seen a train station (that I can recall) and I was completely in awe of this station. It was about 4 levels and had trains on all levels going every which way. Unlike America, these trains travel all throught Europe, and this train took us directly from Berlin, DE to Gorlitz, DE.  This is where it got crazy.  These trains only stop for a few minutes (similar to a bus or the Metro) so there is no time to waste.  There was 4 of us with a baby and 10 pieces of luggage that we had to rush on (all weighing 50lbs) in a matter of seconds while Germans are trying to get on and off to do their daily activies (and I'm sure cursing us under their breath).  We had to do this twice which proved to be a NIGHTMARE.  We were all so exhausted lugging this on and off and then rushing to the next platform that I know I fell asleep on Connor's carseat at one point on the ride.  On the first train the German woman who was checking our tickets couldn't get a read on my credit card so she was all in a tizzy, yelling at us in German, thankfully we had a nice German musician sitting next to us who spoke English who tried to help.  When we got off the train (hauling at 10 pieces of luggage and Connor) and we weren't sure what was going to happen next. The musician helped us with the ticket agent who wasn't sure why there was anything wrong. Basically we need to chance it and get on the next train or buy new ones.  We chanced it, got on the new train and the next German ticket agent had NO problem with our tickets. I think the previous lady was trying to scare us (and it worked).
   We finally arrived in Gorlitz and we were greated by Jon's cousin Thomas and his Uncle Cesar (who looks just like Andrew)  I know we drove to Jelenia Gora but I'm not sure how long it took to get there for Connor (who was in the Bjorn since there was no room for the car seat) and I fell asleep sitting up.We had a nice dinner with his Uncle (the food was AWESOME) and we came to stay with our host family the Baraniecka's and they are so nice. They have a beautiful home and I'm so thankful they are letting us stay here. Hopefully we will have more time to visit with them later in the week once we have recovered from jetlag and they aren't working (we may be on vacation, but life is going on as usual!) and now, we are going to crash for it is now 8:30 here in Poland and in the past 36 hours, we've had maybe 3 hours of sleep. Tommorrow begins our adventures in Poland!!
Good Night Poland!