On to Poznan, Poland

After all in all 5 lovely days in Berlin, we took the very comfortable and cheap Polski Bus due west for the 4 hour ride to Poznan, Poland; we were VERY fortunate that a young woman Natalie's age was sitting directly behind us and heard our speaking English. Kasia was returning to her home town of Poznan to visit her parents and sister from her current home in Berlin although she and her husband both did their undergraduate and PhD degrees in the States.  Kasia joked about their 11 year old daughter being a 'valley girl' after spending so many years in California.  I know Steven and I would have finally muddled our way getting to the hostel via the tram but Kasia was a huge help taking us directly there from the bus station located far away from the city center. Thanks so much, Kasia - please remember you're always welcome to stay with us when you next get back to the States.

I'm sure many of you are wondering why we'd want to stop in Poznan if only for a night rather than in one of Poland's larger and more famous cities? That was certainly a topic of conversation I had with Steven when we planned this trip.  His inclination is or was to visit the 'major Central/East European cities' but I wanted to get away from only seeing those and discover some of the smaller towns in each country so we'd have a sense of what life is like off the beaten or Ameerican tourist track.

With Poznan we certainly achieved that; it's a beautiful and exquisitely charming town filled with tourists but virtually no one we heard was speaking English; coming from Berlin, the change was very apparent and took/takes
time to get used to especially with a language as difficult for foreigners as Polish. After being in Poland for the last 5 days, I certainly know quite a few words in Polish from reading signs, etc but I can't get my mouth around the pronounciation worth beans.

After dumping our luggage at the spanking clean lovely hostel, we walked the few minutes it took us to the Old Town central square; we knew right away we'd made the right decision to stop off in Poznan for a night as the square was the epitome of Old World charm everywhere we looked.

Some photos of Poznan:

 Our very spacious room with our own bathroom
 nonetheless - what luxury!

Town Hall - oh my, oh my.

Walked from the Old Town over to Cathedral Island
to see the 1st Polish cathedral which was built in the 10th C.
Statue of Pope John Paul II visiting the Cathedral below.

Parish Church of St. Stanislaus aka Fara below.

You've probably figured out by now I love
 taking photos of ceilings!