Hi Friends,

I know this post is really out of date… But I thought that I might as well finish the story of my trip to Poland with 2 kids under 4.  Better late than never ;P

The last two days started with us having breakfast in Aparthotel, which had a good variety of different hot and cold meats, eggs, salads, different types of bread, jams, etc. Alexei by that time started to be tired of heavy food and asked for cereal, while Matthew was happily eating his porridge.

Then we took a tram to the Old Town in Warsaw. The only problem was that none of us had tickets and there was no ticket machine either at the tram stop or on the tram itself. So we decided to get off at the next stop and see if we can find a machine or a kiosk to buy the tickets. I stayed with boys, while my sister, her boyfriends and my hubby went to source those tickets.

While waiting for them at the tram stop I witnessed a gypsy family of four. Father, Mother, a little girl around Alexei’s age and a little boy that was around two. Father and Mother were teaching their kids how to ask for money from the passengers and then Father and the boy boarded one tram and the mother with the daughter boarded another…

It made me really sad to think what kind of life those two kids are going to have. I do not know laws in Poland, whether begging is illegal or not? and what do you do as a foreigner if you witness something like this? Let me know if you do. If this happened in Ireland, I would have called Gardai and reported this, as it is illegal for minors to beg in this country or to be exploited in such a way.

Finally, we managed to source some tram tickets and boarded the next tram to the old town. When we got to the stop there was another obstacle. The only way up to the old town were two very steep flights of stairs and no lifts in sight. I am not sure if there was any other way to gradually go up with the buggy, we couldn’t find it. So my hubby had to carry the buggy with Matthew inside (as he was asleep) up those steps. However, this exercise was well worth it as what we saw up those stairs was just beautiful…

Take a look at these photos of what it was like 🙂

It was a lovely walk as well, with very few cars so Alexei could have his run around. Once we got hungry we went to the main plaza, where the waiters were fighting to get someone to come over to their place. It is actually quite entertaining to watch, although some of them can be quite pestering.

The food in the place that we picked was absolutely amazing. Here is a taste of our starters:

By the time we finished our meal, we were absolutely stuffed and shattered. So we decided to go back to the Arcadia shopping centre to do a bit of final shopping for presents to bring back and some more food to cook for our final meal together.

That was great fun, especially for Alexei as he spent most of that shopping time sliding down the slide going from 3rd floor to 2nd and having lots of giggles. He even met a friend, a Polish boy around seven, who spoke very good English and taught Alexei couple of words in Polish.

Next day we woke up and had a breakfast together, as we have a lot to pack we spend the next two hours sorting everything else, washing and dressing kids and finally going to the reception to check out and get our luggage into the car.

My sister’s flight was only in the evening so they decided to visit some park that we haven’t been to, while we decided to go for a walk and see if we can find somewhere to have lunch as we had a long trip home ahead of us. We said our tearful goodbyes and separated. I hope we can go somewhere away together soon as it was a lot of fun and I really miss my sister…

We ended up going to McDonald’s to have our meal and Alexei was over the moon to get a happy meal as we rarely go to any fast food places.

After that, we decided to give ourselves plenty of time to go back to the airport and made our way there. After returning the car, we went to wait for the flight. The airport was extremely hot and there seemed to be no air conditioning. As a result, kids were getting cranky, but at least we managed to get some seats so we were comfortable. Finally, we heard the announcement for boarding and queued for the plane. While queuing, Alexei managed to make another friend, who kept calling him buddy, which was very cute as both of them were around the same age.

The flight was uneventful and seemed to be quite short. Matthew was not feeling well, so as a result was very clingy and did not want to be put down and away from my lap, which suited us fine. He managed to fall asleep and slept most of the flight.

Next, we drove back home… We were about 5 km from the house when we hit a massive pot-hole. The tire was busted and had to be replaced next day, but was good enough to get us home. It felt really nice to be home, even though it was around 1 am and everyone was happily tired.

I hope you are all having a wonderful day:)