Monday, April 25, 2011

Płock

Today we decided to go and see Kath's cousin and her boyfriend. We took along Karolina, Wojtek couldn't get out of bed.

Płock was about an hour away by bus. Briefly the capital of Poland 1079–1138, so has some nice buildings and architecture. The current source of wealth is the nearby oil refinery.

First stop was the Zoo where we met up with Kath's cousin. The zoo is fairly new and very well done. With a range of animals, Penguins, Kangaroos, Lions, Snow Leopards and a really nice butterfly enclosure that you can walk through and watch the butterflies close up. I enjoyed the Zoo, especially the Meerkats and the Pengiuns.

Karolina, got a chance to go in the petting zoo part to see the goats sheep and rabbits. She seemed to have a fun time.

After the zoo Karolina went off with her cousin while Kath and I went into the town. The weather was gorgeous and it was a nice walk from the Zoo past the Cathedral then down into the old market town. We found a nice bar with its own brewery, we tried out several of the beers. The wheat beer was really nice. Then we had a lunch, I had a highlander special, a kind of pancake filled with meat and sauce served with cabbage, it was really tasty. While we were sat we watched people playing in the fountain and squirting each other with water. Apparently it is Polish tradition to throw water over young women on Easter Monday, it ensures that they get married apparently! 

After lunch we went to see the cousins flat they had decorated. It was quite a nice place however, I found it very difficult as they spoke no English so it was a very awkward time.

We all left an attempted to get the bus back to Gąbin, unfortunately it being Easter Monday the bus we had been trying to catch wasn't running. Instead we had to wait for a while and goto a different place to get a city bus. Killing time at McDonalds, where I was able to get online. My mobile plan doesn't have roaming data so I was reliant on free WiFi. I was stuffed and just had a drink but Karoline and Kath shared a McFlurry with smarties, yummy!

After a long wait finally we managed to get the bus back, as we alighted and walked back to Kath's parents a car drove past and someone sprayed us all with a water pistol, nice!