Polish dog breeds

Polish dog breeds

Did you know there are five dog breeds indigenous to Poland?

First, there’s Chart Polski, the Polish Greyhound – so called, but actually no relation to the greyhound found elsewhere. This one is thought to have been bred  from the aisan sight-hound (think Saluki).

Ogar Polski, the Polish Hound, is a handsome hunting dog. Unlike the Greyhound, the Hound is a scent-hound.

Next up is Gończy Polski, the Polish Hunting Dog (can you see a theme running through this?). Another strong scent-hound.

Four is Jurek – or at least his close relative, the Polski Owczarek Nizinny or Polish Lowland Sheepdog. This breed almost died out during WW2, but lives on as a show, pet and working dog.

The Owczarek Podhalanski – Polish Tatra Sheepdog is a big white beauty! True working dogs – the shepherds even cut the hair and made wool from it – this Sheepdog is also trained as guard, rescue and police dogs, despite being decimated in WW2 and still a rare breed.

About bloody time!

The US Supreme Court has at last ruled on DOMA – the Defence of Marriage Act, which denied same sex, legally married couples, the same rights as heterosexual married couples.

At the same time, they refused to rule on California’s Prop 8, opening the door for the State to reconsider this piece of legislation which took the right of same-sex couples to marry away from  them!

It’s a good start, but the ruling only affects those in states where gay marriage is legal – look how far there is still to go!

Gay marriage and all similar unions are STILL banned in 30 states.

Polish ravioli, cabbage and beetroot

Pierogi, gołąbki and barszcz

What’s the best way to describe Pierogi? Polish ravioli, perhaps?

Small parcels of pasta, containing a savoury or sweet filling, Pierogi are very much a staple of Polish cooking. John is still getting his head around the idea of eating ravioli without a sauce, but as is the Polish way he now eats his either boiled then fried with chopped onions or bobbing in a sea of barszcz (not the sweet ones, obviously!).

In general, Pierogi will be filled with one or more of:

–       mashed potatoes

–       fried onions

–       cheese

–       cabbage

–       sauerkraut

–       ground or minced meat

–       mushrooms

–       spinach

or:

–       fruit

–       jam

–       sweetened curd

–       soft cheese

On Xmas eve, it is traditional to eat a meat-free pierogi dish, either normal sauerkraut and mushroom filling or smaller, mushroom, pierogis served in delicious barszcz.

Gołąbki

This is one of those foods which is SO much better than it sounds. How would you feel if we offered you “cabbage parcels”?

But gołąbki are so much more.

They’re basically parcels of lightly boiled cabbage containing minced pork, beef or chicken, chopped onions, mushrooms and rice or barley, baked in a tomato sauce.

Served with mashed potatoes (watch out for the dill) they’re a cheap filling meal on a cold day.

Rajmund grew up eating foods like these (and loving dill). John’s getting used to his “dry ravioli” but his favourite Polish meal is gołąbki and mash.

A favourite of both J and R is barszcz. The proverbial beetroot soup, known as bortsch further east.

We make it from scratch, and it could hardly be easier. You need:

–       beetroot

–       chicken or vegetable stock

–       water

–       salt and pepper

Peel, then grate your beetroot. Whack it into a pan with lots of water and 4 chicken stock cubes. Bring to the boil, then simmer for about 2½ to 3 hours.

It’s then a matter of checking the beetroot is cooked and tasting to test the flavour of the liquid. Too weak, continue to simmer, with the lid off and/or add stock cubes.

When you have the right degree of beetroot flavour in the liquid, add salt and pepper to taste.

Serve, with sour cream, mashed potatoes or pierogi.

Of course you can (we do) pickle beetroot. To get to an English flavour:

–       clean the beets. Cut off any skanky bits

–       bring to the boil, the  simmer of 3 hours

–       allow to cool

–       peel and slice your beets

–       fill a jar with your sliced beetroot, then add vinegar to which you’ve added some peppercorns and any other spices you’d like to try.

Put the lid on, leave it for a week, then consume! In the meantime, you’ve got clear barszcz to drink

Rajmund prefers beetroot salad – follow the barszcz recipe then strain the grated beetroot out of the soup (which you can still drink), add some chopped apples and anything else you fancy and a light dressing.

When the weather over-rules fashion

Someone – I won’t say who – once asked me if we saw the Northern Lights from Poland. I explained that we are actually south of all the UK, save for the Channel Islands so he was more likely to see the Lights from his home in D***yshire.

Then today on TA someone asked how the weather would be in mid-October … never having been north of the UK, she was uncertain what to pack. It was calmly explained that in fact her home, in Nottingham, is a fair way north of here destination, Kraków.

This gives me a very tenuous link and excuse to show you some pictures from my 2006 Hurtigruten trip in Norway, sailing from Bergen to Kirkenes and back.

That was late September – mid-October.

Bergen is sort of where the gulf stream ends – the last of the warm water brought over the Atlantic – so it has a decent climate.

As you go north, it gets cooler.

You cross the Arctic Circle

And you get right up to the North Cape

And to Kirkenes, close to the border with Russia.

Where it was BLOODY cold and the wind cut through your layers!

Vest, t-shirt, n’other shirt, fleece and still could not wait to get back on the bus!

I still have that very fetching hat, I’m not allowed to wear it when out with Rajmund!

Traditional v less substantial construction

I love Alexander McCall Smith’s books about Mma Ramotswe, Mma Makutsi and The No 1 Ladies Detective Agency.

For those who have not read them, Mma Ramotswe is a larger lady – or, as she puts it, “traditionally built”.

In this extract from The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party Mma Ramotswe has been offered a glass of water “A big glass. Very big”.

“She did not blink. Why did he imagine that she would want a very big glass? Was it because she was traditionally built? If so then he had no right to assume that a traditionally built person would drink more than a moderate amount of water. Traditionally built people did not necessarily eat or drink more than those of less substantial construction. It just did not follow.”

So, those of you who are of less substantial construction, remember Mma Ramotswe when you think the traditionally built among us are big eaters!

Wooden churches

The wooden churches of Southern Poland

Everyone who knows me also knows that I’m basically an evangelical atheist, with no time at all for religion in any form – I believe that only one rule is necessary … do no harm to anyone.

Nevertheless, I was pleased to read that another four of the wooden churches of Malopolskie have, with another four close-by and eight in Ukraine, been added to the UNESCO World Heritage List.

These are just some of the closer wooden churches – to whet your appetite for a tour of Southern Poland.

Of course, not all the local churches are wooden – we have some stone beauties

And some modern, um, things!

Living in the foothills

Living in the foothills

Here in Kamionka Wielka, we’re in a “mountain” range called the Eastern Beskids, part of the Carpathian Mountains, and close (less than 20km in a straight line) to the Tatras and the border with the Czech Republic.

The first thing we realised about living in the foothills is it makes getting satellite TV a bugger! Four companies assured us we’d get an excellent signal – three lied. The fourth gave us (sold us) a dish that works unless it gets clogged with snow or “atmospheric conditions” interfere with the signal.

Most of the time, it’s OK. But Polish TV is not up to much and the English language channels show the same shows and films day after day after day.

Some Beskids

Then there’s electricity. It comes on poles (actually, ugly little concrete towers) and gets cut off in storms and strong winds. Then all the clocks and timers need resetting. About once a week.

Internet. We have broadband! It took several goes, but we eventually got wired broadband – at a speed somewhere up there with Stephenson’s Rocket and the cable comes from Gregory’s house, via a wire through the canopy of our big tree.

Rocket – our broadband runs just as fast!

Our ISP? His name is Gregory, and he lives down in the village. His power goes off more often than ours does, and at different times. Humph.

Our water comes from a spring. When we’ve had damp weather, we get water. After a prolonged dry spell, the ground water dries up and we empty our cistern, so Rajmund, Gregory and Gregory’s brother take a big plastic tank into the forest and fill the tank with water from a spring. Then they fill one cistern after another.

Just popping out for some water

We aren’t on mains drainage either. Septic system ‘R’ us. There are all sorts of do’s and don’ts when you have a septic system. We think ours lets everything soak into the ground. Not sure – but there’s no sign of a tank and the vendor said that in the ten+ years he lived here with his mum and dad he was never aware of an emptying.

A slight oddity is that we do not pay any local council rates/tax because the house is so old. We do have to pay for rubbish collection – which means we must buy and use bags supplied by the council. The bags which are see-through to show you’ve separated plastics, cans etc are cheaper than the black ones for those who can’t be bothered.

When we mentioned “what a good idea” this is to the neighbours they looked askance – what, you sort your rubbish????? They all burn everything but cans – well, we’re in the country, aren’t we?

And mobile phone signals are rubbish here. Rajmund uses a Samsung Galaxy and has to go onto the porch to talk to anyone. John uses Skype through his laptop or his IPod. Neither is what you’d call convenient!

Amazon (.co.uk) still delivers free to us in Poland – so long as you still have a UK address on file, they’ll deliver wherever you like. Mail goes into our mailbox down on the gate, but anything remotely parcel-like or official looking they come to the door (and knock on the window in case John did not hear and wants to take whatever they’ve brought without getting to the door!) But Amazon’s free delivery only applies to things they sell and deliver. Anything where there’s a third party involved will not be sent (nor will they charge postage – they simply reject your order).

Still, living in the loghouse is wonderful; the view is still magnificent; John spent the (32 C) afternoon in the garden with two dogs, three neighbour’s children and a neighbour; we’re going to be planting tomato plants Rajmund’s sister gave us in the next few days and starting our herb bed.

Chickens are still in our near future and Rajmund still intends to get “Shakespeare” by Xmas. Things on the goat front have gone quiet again – probably to be discussed again when someone we know has a billy they want rid of.

Złoty and groszy

Złoty and groszy

A quick Polish lesson coming up.

The Polish currency is the Złoty, which means “gold”.

Rajmund assures me there’s no such thing as a singular “Złot” – it’s one złoty, two złoty, three złoty.

So that’s one lesson – we count one gold, two gold, three gold.

Then there’s groszy – like German groschen, they’re hundredths. 1/100 x 1 złoty = 1 grosz. Here, we’re more sensible – one grosz, two groszy, three groszy. One one-hundredth, two one-hundredths and so on.

That was lesson two.

Lesson three concerns the Polish W. W in Polish is pronounced V. So you pronounce Warsawa Varsharva. Kraków is Crackoof. But what if you actually want a W sound?

The answer here is that you write an L with a little diagonal line through it. Unhuh, Polish really is that weird. So Wrocław is V-rots-waff.

I’m going to throw you a hard one now. Łódź.

Ł is W

Ó has a little hat on, so it’s OO

D … well, it’s D, and

Ź has another little hat, so it’s sort of DJ

So  Łódź is, in fact, Woodj … sort of thing

“Łódź is, in fact, Woodj … sort of thing”

That brings me to Y. Y on the end of a noun is the same as an s in English. That’s why it’s one grosz, two groszy.

Finally, £ … or, rather, PLN. When we’re writing down a price or monetary figure we use either zł or PLN. Usually you’ll see PLN used for bigger numbers.

Two on a train

Two on a train

I was working on my other laptop-based hobby – the Access All Facebook group page – where someone was asking about taking her wheelchair-bound sister to Brussels on Eurostar, and about suitable hotels.

The hotel issue is going to have to be another story, except to say that I’m having a right struggle to find any complete information. Lots of hotels are “accessible” and have “disabled” bed-and bathrooms, but what is that makes them suitable, what’s been done – and in this case, does the room have a hoist?

Eurostar is an easier matter – there’s an excellent website which not only covers the Eurostar service but links you to the St Pancras website which lists places in the station you might find yourself, shows you photos and tells you blow by blow what to expect … to the level of “these doors are always open” or “these doors are wide-opening” … so a person with access issues can not only get a vague general idea that they’ve been remembered, but that they’re core to the operation of the station and access was planned into its redevelopment.

As for the actual trains – Eurostar have two wheelchair places adjoining two companion seats, next to the disabled toilet, on each train. That’s two, but at least it’s two on every train! And book both the chair place and the companion seat together and you get a discounted fare.

The company also offers a selection of “special” meals for those travelling in Business Premier and Standard Premier classes (served to your seat, book at least 24 hours in advance) and Waitrose snacks for the proles in the buffet car. Ha, the spellchecker does not know what a “prole” is – cool!

FYI, there’s also 10cm more legroom in the Premier classes.

I like the way Eurostar think!

Added:

Overnight to the slopes

In addition to the Corail Lunea services from France, there’s also a direct day- or overnight-service ski train from St. Pancras International or Ashford International to the heart of the Alps. The train takes you to Moûtiers, Aime-la-Plagne or Bourg-St-Maurice.

There’s no sleeping cabins or couchettes, but the Eurostar train operates the normal Standard and Standard Premier service, including meals at your seat in Standard Premier.

Specialist equipment for disabled travelllers

D’oh … of course … it was so obvious.

Anyone who needs specialist equipment – hoists, a profiling bed – needs to google “disabled equipment hire” for the destination of their choice.

It’s gonna be a hassle and a cost, but realistically a fully adapted room is going to be a lot more expensive anyway.

Hire companies have beds, hoists, power chairs and scooters and can deliver them to and collect them from their holiday home or hotel.

Train London to Frankfurt

Germany’s Deutsche Bahn has received permission to run its 200mph Inter-city Express (ICE) trains through the Channel Tunnel from 2015/6.

The DB plan is for three services a day in each direction – each carrying 888 passengers in 16 coaches – on a new generation ICE train. In Brussels, the trains will split, with eight carriages carrying 444 passengers heading to Rotterdam and then Amsterdam. The other eight carriages will head to Cologne and then Frankfurt.

Deutsche Bahn officials said the journey time from Cologne to London would be less than four hours

Three pairs of trains will connect Frankfurt and London via Cologne, Brussels, and Lille, with one train running in each direction in the morning, at lunchtime, and in the evening.

This will also be the first time that Amsterdam and Rotterdam have a direct connection with London.

All ICE trains feature a disabled toilet and wheelchair spaces.

John’s (sometimes pretty desparate) Car History – illustrated!

John’s Cars

Since starting to drive in 1976, John has owned, or had long-term use of:

Mk II Ford Cortina 1300L (green)

Datsun Bluebird (metallic pale blue)

Austin Allegro 1300 (beige!)

VW Golf 1.1 (red)

Fiat 126 (red – which, as you’ll remember, tried to kill him)

Mini 850 (red)

Mk I VW Golf GTi 1.8 (red)

Rover 2600 (red)

Mk III Ford Escort 1300 Estate (yucky brown)

Peugeot 205 GTI 1.9 (white) (his first brand new car)

Peugeot 205 Junior convertible (ice-white) (his only soft-top)

Peugeot 309 (blue)

Seat Ibiza GTI 16v (black)

BMW 330i SE (silver)

Skoda Octavia vRS with subsequent AMD conversion (cat-vomit yellow)

Citroen DS 21 (grey)

Skoda Fabia 1.6 auto (black)

Porsche Cayenne S (black)

Fastest car – empirically, the BMW, but the 205 GTI felt faster!

Fastest drive – not saying where, but after modifications 160mph in the Octavia

Slowest car – Fiat 126. 0-60 in, um, soon-ish, maybe?

Best roadholding/handling – Porsche (biggish 4WD but handles like a sorted GTI)

Most comfortable – Porsche (tight, but even comfortable after 17 hours on the road)

Least comfortable – Mini (even the 126 was more comfortable!)

Biggest rust-bucket – Ford Cortina/Datsun Bluebird (too close to call!)

Most reliable – Ibiza (J’s first experience of VW’s non-VWs was a good one)

Least reliable – Porsche (aka the moneypit)

Biggest boot – Octavia (strange, but true, except for the cross-braces)

Smallest boot – 126 (under the bonnet)

Most space – Rover (otherwise, a truly sh*te car)

Least space – 126 (tiny, tiny, tiny)

Smallest engine – 126 (652cc)

Biggest engine – Porsche (4.5 litres)

Most mpg – 126 (it was too scary to go fast – and with a top speed of bugger all, what was the point?)

Least mpg – Porsche (but R’s Dodge gets even less on petrol, though LPG is more economical)

Easiest to drive – Porsche (power, good auto box, good handling and roadholding, comfortable …)

Most fun to drive – Ibiza (flat under 2,000 rpm, but get it on song and it flew!)

Most work to drive – 126 (really, really, not a lot of fun)

John’s favourite – Octavia vRS (the BMW was a beautiful car, beautifully built but not worth 2x the Octavia)

Least powerful car ever – US Ford Escort 1.9 with the air-con on – seriously, you had to turn the air-con off if you wanted to overtake anyone

Scariest car moments – when the 126 tried to kill me; when the auto-box on a US hire car refused to kickdown on the on ramp to a busy freeway; any and all US combined on-off ramps (one of the stupidest ideas in the driving world!); Mexico City in an elderly Dodge Dart, in seven lanes of traffic going one way and a bus lane going t’other; LA in the wrong lane of an eleven-lane freeway, with the exit approaching fast; sliding down Acomb Bank with the handbrake on, while the Bellingham bus slid backwards alongside, and a corner was approaching; getting out of the car at the top of Acomb Bank to see what was going on, feeling myself slide, grabbing the car and feeling IT slide

Oldest car – the Citroen. It was a 1967 model, the first model year with turning headlights, and had an automatic clutch/wand gear selector

Best car trips – over 3,000 miles in Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee and back to Florida on a US holiday; driving the Grossglockner Pass in the Ibiza; Hardknot Pass in the Golf GTi; dirt-road driving in Death Valley in a hired Thunderbird; racing the clock back to the ferry, five-up, in France in the 205 GTI; half way up a Polish mountain in the Porsche – with all systems engaged!

Most surprising – a loaner Vauxhall Corsa with a 3-cylinder engine. Sounded just like half a V6.

Most disappointing – a 2001 Golf GTi – I test drove the standard Golf GTi back to back with the unmodified Octavia … and bought the Skoda and kept the spare cash to spend on mods

Least accessible – Rajmund’s truck – we had to have some steps made so I can get up into the passenger seat, and I’ve still never driven the beast!

Best mate’s car – Richard’s Lotus Cortina

Craziest car weekend – I’d ordered but not yet received the Ibiza. A lady from a market research company rang me and invited me to go with her company to Dusseldorf. When I, and 80 or so other hot-hatch owners, got there, it was the final customer clinic for the first New MINI. I met the designer, too, in a model shop where we were both buying model cars.

Only vehicle to need more water added than the Porsche on the longest day – Eddie’s Transit van … his ex-wife had, unknown to us, stabbed the radiator with a knitting needle. We were driving from Hartlepool to Gatwick… (for the worst flight … LGW to Malaga on a Dan-air BAC1-11)

Vehicle I’d most like to own – and here I admit it changes by the hour, but

Dammit, when I picked up this picture I remembered this one. Can I have two dream cars at once?