Winter Break, Pt. 1 (8.-10. Feb.)

Oh boy, this post has been a long time coming.

It also MUST be broken up into several posts. There is no way I can post all the pictures here in 1 post.

From the 1st - 14th of February, we School by the Sea teachers (and just about all of northern Poland) had our Winter Break. One girl went to India on a mission trip. Two girls went to Greece and Southern Poland right after. Another girl was in Southern Poland half the time. The new girl was sent to a town near Poznan, Poland to teach an older lady English, while living in her home. As for me, I stayed in Kołobrzeg the entire 1st week and until Wednesday morning of the 2nd. I even had 2 classes during the first week.

Then a good friend came to visit, who made the second week begin so much better than the first.

***

~Monday~

My friend from Switzerland was "on tour" and gracious enough to put Northern Poland on his itinerary. Since the last time we saw each other was a little over 4 years ago, I was excited. 

So he arrived, I took him out for lunch, and he was very pleasantly surprised at how how far his money could stretch here in Poland. For the price of just his meal back home, he paid for us both here in Kołobrzeg. It's beautiful when that happens, right?

So we walked around. I showed him Kołobrzeg and both its beaches. Walking (with a bit of driving) around gave us an appetite, so we had pizza--and then walked back to the touristy beach, to walk off the meal.

From the restaurant/cafe at the end of the pier.

The lights/colors make this pier fun (for me, at least).

Something else that makes this pier fun, is that the lights change color--not just at the pier, but at the restaurant/cafe at the end of the pier too.

Speaking of getting to play with color . . . 

Red light

Green light

Thank you, whoever came up with the idea of self-timer.

***

~Tuesday~

This damp morning found us at Słowiński National Park, about 2 hours east of Kołobrzeg. What's so special about this park? Sand dunes. This place has one of the highest sand dunes in Europe (by far the highest in Poland). Since my friend wanted to go, I was curious, and he has a car . . . what more did we need?

We arrived, parked the car as far into the park as we could, and started our exploration.

Barbed-wire fences just can't keep people out as they used to.

Of course, we went through this fence ourselves.

Dunes along the Baltic.

See the effect of the wind on the dunes?

Dunes along the coast . . .

. . . and panoramic dunes inland, surrounded by forests.

Lighthouse in the forest.

Some info.

Over 2 hours and 10 km of hiking through the forest, walking along the beach, climbing up and down sand dunes, climbing up a hill--and all this under a constant drizzle--made visiting this park a fun experience I'm glad I had.

***

~Wednesday~

The time has come to depart: my friend to Germany, and I to Southern Poland.

Wait a tick; we're going the same direction (south/southeast), why not travel together as far as we can? So we did.

We made time for a stop after Szczecin, just outside the town of Gryfino: The Crooked Forest.

Info, only in Polish. Sorry.

1 of (+/-) 400 crooked pines.

Started in the 1930s, then interrupted by WWII.

Just to give an idea of the actual size.

Weird, right?

Here we are, doing what we do best: my friend is behind the camera, and I'm just randomly standing on something a little higher than the ground.

How strong would these trees be as bows?!

It wasn't so bad getting here, but it was slightly tricky.

You want to see this sign.

Here is where you should enter (and we succeeded in parking the car at this apartment's parking lot without anyone yelling at us or otherwise making us understand that we can't park there).
Walk under these arched pipes down the path. The 1st path on the left you see, take that. You'll be at the Crooked Forest in under 15 seconds. There are a couple of tables and a trash bin, if you'd like to have a picnic there.

One heck of an entrance to a unique forest.