Romy's Appendix Ruptures: Day Two

Once Nicole and Marcel left last night, another patient was rolled in and took the other bed spot in the two-bed room. He was an old guy who had a ruptured hernia after it was supposedly fixed two years ago. Over night, the nurses kept coming in to check on Romy's antibiotics, IV, and his vital signs like temperature, and blood pressure. The pain medication wore off, it seemed before any of the nurses would come with more. I kept asking them when Romy would be scheduled for more pain killers, and they always reported a time. However, it seemed like we always had to buzz the nurse to actually get it. It was only until 6am or so this morning that one of the better nurses told us that the pain medication is by request only, and it is not given automatically like the IV or antibiotics. I wish somebody would have said that earlier! By morning, Romy was feeling a lot better, and his fever went away. However, Romy could not eat or drink anything, so no breakfast tray came for him.

A doctor that Romy nicknamed the "douche" came in (yet another different doctor) mid-morning (or yesterday? I can't remember) and asked Romy to recount his version of what happened. They do this to check if you are ok, I guess. So Romy said the whole story about how the first doctor ordered appendix removal surgery based on the wrong CAT scan, and then a second doctor changed the plan due to the misread CAT scan. This new doctor tried to cover for the other doctors saying that nobody misread anything. This just seems hard to believe. How do you decide to drain pus from a clear abscess, but then get another doctor to say that its totally too messed up to drain anything? At this point its very confusing. It seems like the doctors are going back on what they said, and trying to save their own ass because they totally didn't realize they were looking at the wrong CAT scan at first.


Romy felt a lot better this morning after sleeping and getting drugged up on pain medication.

The day progressed kind of slow. Romy was just resting and sleeping. The nurses were monitoring his urine and it seemed to be very dark. The nurse kept saying, "Oh that's dark, let me check if you can drink anything." But then they never came back with an answer if Romy could drink anything. Another doctor came in and he was the infectious disease specialist. He just asked a bunch of questions to determine if Romy was at high risk of begin infected with something already prior to entering the hospital. He determined no, and then left. He also said he would check to see if Romy could drink fluids, but never came back. Then we asked the nurse aid if Romy could drink fluids because we felt he might be getting dehydrated. She was very helpful. She was one of the only nurses (even though she was "only an aid") that we felt did her job properly. She told us to be demanding and keep bothering the nurses if we felt something wasn't right. She said a lot of them are bad nurses and they don't care. She said if we felt we were being ignored, to call the charge nurse (the one in charge of all nurses). So that's what we did. We called the charge nurse and 45 minutes later he came in. We asked about the fluids and the dark pee and told him how we've been asking all morning multiple times and nobody gave us any answer. He said he would ask the doctor and get it taken care of. Almost immediately, (he must of yelled at Romy's nurse) the nurse came in and told us the doctor said that now he could drink clear fluids and eat things like jello only. The nurse bought in cranberry juice and water. Romy drank it and his pee wasn't as dark anymore. Things were starting to get better.


The I.V. is constantly dripping, giving Romy fluids and antibiotics.

Also at some point today, the nurse brought in these inflatable pads that wrap around Romy's calves. They hook up to a machine that automatically inflates them in a pattern that massages his legs to keep blood flowing around in his veins. This is supposed to prevent blood clotting since he is laying in bed all day. I think they are good. I tried them today, and I liked them, but Romy thinks they are annoying.


The nurse brought Romy some air balloons that wrap around his calves and automatically inflate and massage his legs to prevent blood clots.

Also at some point, a PICC-line specialist came in, who was ordered by one of the doctors that wandered in today. He wanted to replace the IV in Romy's hand with a catheter that goes up Romy's bicep and up the arm, stopping right outside of the heart. This just seemed a bit unnecessary at this point. We said that we would rather not have that done, and the PICC-line specialist agreed, but said he was order by one of the doctors (we nick-named this doctor the douche doctor). So that was held off for now.

By the end of the afternoon, we gathered enough information about who Romy's doctors actually were (there were so many, it seemed, in the beginning). There were three in the end today (two in the ER, and a third that appeared today). There was the old guy (Dr. Fowler), who was the one to admit to us in the ER that the February CAT scan was mis-read, then the douche doctor, which might be the one who mis-read the CAT scan (the one who today denied any CAT scan was misread), and then the third woman doctor (Dr. Westergard) who wandered in after the PICC-line specialist. She also agreed that the PICC-line was unnecessary. She then told us that she was going to take over the douche doctor. So I guess now Romy has two doctors - the old dude and the woman doctor. We are okay with that so far. The PICC-line guy was held off, and there was also the infectious disease specialist who is analyzing Romy's blood samples everyday he will be here to monitor.

We found out that the old man in the other bed was a veterinarian doctor. He operates on dogs and cats. He was released later this afternoon and his semi annoying wife came to pick him up. Nobody was assigned to the other bed for the rest of the evening. Yay!

Romy's Appendix Ruptures: Day One

Here is the story of Romy's appendix bursting, as I write it from the hospital. . .

Background:
The story of Romy's appendix bursting actually starts a little over one year ago. One day, in February last year, Romy woke up with cramping and pain in his abdomen, so we called the nurse at the Tang center who told us to go to the E.R. So last year, I took Romy to the E.R. at Alta Bates to get it checked out. After some blood work and a CAT scan, they told him he was just constipated. Even though the pain was predominantly on his right lower side of his abdomen, they told him to take a laxative and go home. So that's what we did. He was still in a lot of pain for the following day, and the worst pain he ever experienced, but eventually it subsided after a few days.

Earlier This Week:
Somewhat suddenly earlier this week, Romy started feeling a lot of the same cramps and pains in the same spot in his abdomen. At first they were very mild, so we thought perhaps he was constipated again. Romy took a laxative, with very similar results, but the pains did not go away this time as they did before. However, since the pain was pretty mild, Romy made a next-day appointment with a doctor at the Tang Medical Center at UC Berkeley instead of going to the E.R. We thought it was a case of irritable bowel syndrome (again) because lately Romy had been eating a lot of gluten-full foods - birthday cake, beer, and more beer on his birthday weekend. For most of the week after, he was able to go to school, teach physics class at Dominican, and even go on a picnic Thursday night.

When Romy saw the doctor at the Tang Center on Friday, the doctor was semi-concerned. She understood that it may have been constipation, but since the pain was in the right side, she ordered a white blood cell count, which came back slightly elevated. She told him to go to the Urgent Care Clinic or the E.R. again to get an X-ray and another CAT scan because it may be appendicitis. She said that although he only had a few symptoms, she wanted to be on the safe side, and urged him to go to the E.R. She also gave him some pro-biotic pills to help his intestines get better in case it was actually just constipation again. However, Romy was apprehensive to go because of the horrible experience last year where he went through all of the same stuff and they told him to just go home and take a laxative. Romy took the pro-biotic pill hoping it would go away soon, but decided that if it didn't go away by the next morning, we would go to the Urgent Care Clinic or the E.R. When the pain still did not go away, and in fact got a bit worse, we went to the Urgent Care Clinic Saturday morning.

Day One (today):
We got to Urgent Care just when they opened Saturday morning. When Romy saw one of the doctors there, they again urged him to go the E.R. because they did not have a CAT scan machine. So we went to the E.R. shortly after seeing the second doctor at Urgent Care. At this point the pain that Romy felt was very bad but no different to what happened last year. After hours of waiting in the E.R. while Romy went through a CAT scan and blood work, they called me in to see Romy. The E.R. doctor said he was being admitted, and that his appendix was pussing and that they would have to remove it after first sucking out the puss. He was getting scheduled to have the puss sucked out and then get the appendix removed later that evening. For now, we just had to wait until the surgeon was ready. Romy would have to spend the night in the hospital after the surgery, but he would get released the next day.


Romy was admitted to the emergency room on Saturday morning after going to Urgent Care at the Tang Center.

Now here comes the screwed up part! About 30 minutes later (after I already wrote an e-mail to Romy's thesis adviser that he couldn't go into work because he will be getting his appendix removed that day), another doctor comes in. This doctor said something we could not believe. He asked us to confirm that Romy had a CAT scan taken for the same reason one year ago in February. We said yes. Then he kind of smiled and said that the previous doctor had looked at the February 2012 CAT scan by mistake and ordered the puss and appendix removal based on the FEBRUARY scan!!! It was only after they realized they were looking at the old CAT scan (which was supposedly just constipation!?), that they recognized how bad Romy was that day. The new CAT scan revealed a badly ruptured appendix. His appendix was ruptured so badly that they canceled the puss suction and the appendix removal. All the doctor could say was that the new CAT scan was very "messed up." Puss, scar tissue, and fluid everywhere. He said that puss removal could not be performed because there was no centralized regions where the puss was and that it was so messed up in there the surgeon would probably not be able to image the needle correctly with ultrasound. He also said that removing the appendix at this stage would not be clean, and that most likely it would require part of his colon to be removed as well (similar to what happened to Marty in Iraq when his appendix ruptured over the period of one week).

We then asked him, basically, WTF!? He asked us why we didn't come in earlier, since he suspected that Romy's appendix must have ruptured a day or so previously. We explained that his pain was relatively mild and that we thought, based on last year's ER visit, that it was just constipation and would end up going away. He then insinuated that what happened last year was most likely related to his appendix, but then also tried to cover for the other doctor by telling us that appendicitis rarely goes away by itself (this is bull shit as we later learned). He changed the plan of action to a course of antibiotics, pain killers, and IV so that Romy's body could heal the ruptured appendix on its own. He told us that Romy would have to stay in the hospital, receiving antibiotics, for at least a week. Only after the rupture could organize itself, will they clean it out. Then they will let it heal a bit more, and remove it after a 6 week time frame.


The doctor and nurses moved Romy to a semi-private room on the top floor of the hospital.

After receiving this new information, he ordered Romy to be put in a semi-private hospital bed, where he will have to stay for about one week. So soon Romy was carted upstairs into one of the rooms, and they hooked him up with an IV and antibiotics and some pain killers. I wanted to stay with Romy, so after he got settled, I drove home to pack some clothes and pillows so I could stay overnight with him. I packed everything so I could live in the room with him. When I got home, I called Marcel, who had a ruptured appendix and surgery when he was little. Nicole and Marcel came to the hospital with me to visit Romy and talk to him. Marcel said that a few years before his appendix ruptured, he felt intense cramping, but that it too, went away after a few days. Two years later, out of the blue, the same cramping returned but got very intense and didn't go away. When he got the the hospital (this happened while he was living in the Czech Republic), the doctor took the appendix out by cutting him open. He took 7 days to recover.

Based on all the information and events that happened today (and especially Marcel's story), we think the first time around must have been the beginnings of Romy's appendicitis. The ER was extremely busy that day (there were not enough chairs in the ER to accommodate everyone - people were sitting on the floor!). The CAT scan machine was not working properly that day either, so they kept having to call in a technician, and almost sent Romy by ambulance to another hospital. But after 5 hours or so of waiting for a CAT scan, when the doctor finally got one, he probably looked it over quickly. Due to it being busy, we figured he must have been tired and overlooked appendicitis based on Romy mentioning he recently switched to a gluten free diet. Crazy how a fresh new look at that February CAT scan by the first doctor today was met with a radically different diagnosis. If only Romy's appendix was removed a year ago, none of this would be happening today. Based on Marcel's story, it is possible for appendicitis to go away temporarily on its own. That probably what happened to Romy a year ago. It seems strange that they diagnosed constipation back then, since Romy had regualar bowel movements the entire time. How could that doctor overlook something like this?

Our Hot Spring Photos Are Published

Our copy of the hot spring book came in the mail today!

Out of the blue one day, I was contacted by the editor's assistant at Falcon Guides (her name was Jessica). I was contacted through my Flickr account, so I knew that it was probably a request to use one of my pictures. When I opened up the e-mail I was soooooooo surprised to see that the editor was looking for hot spring pictures to update the Touring Hot Springs California and Nevada book by Matt Bischoff! That is our hot spring bible! Literally, we've taken that book everywhere and it was the first hot spring book we ever purchased when we first got into hot springing!


This is the picture that made the back cover of the book, the source at Wild Willy's.

I was extremely happy, I couldn't believe it. I guess what started as a curiosity at one of the VW Bus camp outs (when Melissa told us about Buckeye Hot Spring near Bridgeport) turned into a total obsession! Since Melissa first pointed us to Buckeye and let us borrow her book (the same book our pictures were being requested to use in), we've been hunting all of the nearby hot springs down and taking pictures. On my Flickr account, I mainly just store pictures there as a back-up, so I had all of the hot spring pictures we ever took up there.


The bus is now famous because this picture was published in the book too. See the bus!?

Jessica originally asked to use a picture we took at Woody's Hot Spring near Quincy California. However, I let her know of my entire album of hot spring pictures that we've collected and posted on Flickr. She was really happy that I pointed her to all those pictures, because I guess she was having some trouble finding some good ones for a lot of the other springs in CA and NV! Well, after I signed an agreement giving Falcon Guides permission to use the pictures in the book, I didn't hear anything for a few months. Jessica said that when the book was ready to be published (the 3rd edition is what she was working on), she would send a copy to us. Well, today it arrived in the mail!!!!


Now this has nothing to do with hot springs, but I guess Jessica liked it. The bus again!

When I opened up the book today, I expected to find only our Woody's picture in it. But oh my god was it way more than that! Flipping the book over to look at the back cover, I noticed a very familiar scene - it was one of the pictures we took at Wild Willy's! Then when I opened up the book to start looking inside (the new edition had really nice glossy pages and everything's in color), we realized that a bunch of our pictures were in there! Woooooooo! All in all, our pictures of Wild Willy's, Woody's, Eagleville, Hunt, Buckeye, Hot Tub, Crab Cooker, Shepherd's, Little Hot Creek, Mono, Hyder, and Spencer made the book. Plus our VW bus got in two of the shots too, hehehehe!


The picture request that started it all, Woody's Hot Spring.

The book is available on Amazon here: http://www.amazon.com/Touring-Hot-Springs-California-Nevada/dp/076278069X/

The Thermal Waters of Budapest, Hungary

As a treat to ourselves, we decided to fly out of a totally different city in Europe after we were done in Norway, and Romy was done with all his combustion conferences in Germany and Poland. We decided before we left, to pick a place we've never been to. Budapest was what we ended up going for. The reason we chose Budapest was because (A) it was cheap, being Eastern Europe, and (B) more importantly, it had numerous natural hot springs with several spas you can go to and soak in the thermal mineral waters!


A lady working at Széchenyi baths lets us taste the mineral spring waters.

Our goal was to try as many of the spas (or bath houses) as we could in our 3 short days there. The interesting history about Budapest's bath houses is that many are very very very old, dating from the Turkish times (1541–1686 during Ottoman rule). The bath houses that have the Turkish style resemble domes, with the main bath under the dome. Some dry or wet saunas encircle the main hot bath under the dome, and cold or even hotter tubs also encircle it. But in the Turkish style bath house, the dome was the center of attraction. The inside of the bath house was kept dark and dim, and sometimes the dome has holes punched into it so that it resembles a starry sky when you look up. The rays of light beaming through the holes also make a cool laser effect when the beams hit the steamy air inside the bath house.


Inside the pool rooms at Gellert Baths.

We went to one of the Turkish style bath houses the first night for the night swim. It was called Rudas and was originally built in 1550. As it was dark, we didn't get any pictures. But it was super relaxing and we were so excited to be there, it didn't matter that we stayed until about 2am. We weren't tired! We went that night because the late night bath time was co-ed. Normally, the bath houses separate genders. One day, only women can go. The next day, only men can go. Turkish bath houses were normally for men only, back during the Ottoman rule. Women just weren't allowed. Good thing we now live in modern times, otherwise I wouldn't be able to go!


The Gellert Baths.

The rest of the bath houses are more modern. The funny thing is, when the political situation changed, and the Turks were no longer such a prominent influence on the culture, the Turkish bath houses went into ruin. They just started rotting and nobody gave a damn. Well, sometime in the late 1800s and early 1900s, there was a revival of spas and cleanliness, and bathing started anew! However, the culture had a different style, more extravagant and flashy. Some of the Turkish bath houses, which were very simple in style, were restored. But new ones were built over the old Turkish ones too, and they reflected the modern style. This is when Gellert Baths were built. Comparably, it was very ornate and had such detailed and beautiful ceramic tile work. The style was Art Nouveau, MY FAVORITE!!!!!


The cold dipping pool at Gellert Baths.

The Gellert bath house was gigantic! It had a men's and a women's side. The day we decided to go (strategically) was when they had the co-ed bathing. Both men and women on that day could go into the men's and women's pools. I must say, the men's pools were much better looking. Structurally, they were the same, but the decoration and stuff was better looking. The women's pools were just kind of blah (comparatively). These baths were also popular with the tourists. We had to wait almost an hour to get into the pools. The staff only lets in a maximum amount of people in at one time. They don't want to over crowd the pools. So if 3 people go out, they let 3 people in. That's why we waited so long. But once we got in, we spent the whole afternoon there, until closing time (for the public).


An old man spits out cold drinking water, to quench thirst.

The last bath house we visited on our 3rd day was called Kiraly, and it was an old Turkish bath. It was kind of hard to find, out of the way of the typical tourist route. While we were waiting in line to get in, we noticed a big difference in the clientele. A lot more regular folk, locals, but a few tourists mixed in. The price was the cheapest too! Being a Turksih bath, it had a predictable arrangement on the inside, so it was already familiar after going to Rudas. I think I liked the Turkish baths the best. They just focused on the hot water, and had a more simplistic but stylistic vibe. You could really relax in the dim light and geometrical patterns all around.


The main hall at Gellert Baths.

Kiraly also had a mini museum when you got out of the baths. It also had a middle open outside section. It reminded me of the old hospitals or sanitariums. But it was nice to take a nap outside and hear the birds singing, even though you were in the middle of a city. There were a few weirdo tourists there, doing funny stuff. It all added to the entertainment. We went to so many hot springs that we never took a shower in our hostel while we stayed in Budapest!

A Train Ride to See Sebastian and a Salt Mine

Catching the early train to Krakow from Warsaw Main Central Station.

We took a little break from Romy's conference in Warsaw to go sight-seeing in Poland. Also, Romy's friend from the army, Sebastian, happened to be in Poland at the same time we were for a wedding (he is Polish and originally from Poland). So we called him up and decided to meet in Krakow for a day. We didn't have that much time off (just literally a day), and Sebastian didn't either, so we made it a quick but packed trip.


We had the train compartment to ourselves that morning on the ride to Krakow!

We decided to take the regional train to get from Warsaw to Krakow. We looked for the cheapest and earliest train, and we found one that left around 5am from the Warsaw central station. Since it left so early, we went to the train station the night before to buy our tickets, so that all we would have to do the next morning was show up to the correct platform. It was early as hell, but we figured we could relax in the train for a while. The ride wasn't too long, only about 3 hours. When we got on the train, there weren't many people at all. We had an entire cabin to ourselves! Woo hoo!


Bazylika Mariacka stands tall in the center of Krakow's old town.

The train ride was very exciting. We rode through the rolling countryside, past many farms, and through a few small towns. When we got into Krakow, the train stopped, we hopped off, and walked into the main train station. It was connected to a big and modern shopping mall. Sebastian texted us saying that the only train he could find wasn't going to arrive until about 45 minutes after ours, so we had a little time to walk around the mall, get coffee, etc. Before we knew it, Sebastian was here and we set off into the old town of Krakow.


Wandering inside Wawel Castle.

We didn't have any plan at all while we were there. The trip was mainly to see Sebastian, and walk around and sight see. I took a bunch of pictures but unfortunately I don't really know what building or church was what, or what was significant about them. I just took pictures of what I thought was cool. The main attraction in the old town of Krakow is the Wawel Castle. We stopped there to do a tour of the royal treasury, and the royal rooms (or something like that). We wandered around the courtyard, and inside some of the castle buildings. We went up an archery tower and got a great view of the city from above. My favorite part was going to see a museum of all the old armor, swords, and cannon guns. The collection was so interesting and amazing. Very old weaponry!


Many towers at the Wawel Castle.

The town was getting packed as the day went on, with more tourists milling about. It was getting hot outside too! So we stopped at a cafe to have a beer break. We sat right on the main square, under the shade of a cafe sun umbrella. We planned out our next move, as we still had the entire afternoon open. I was getting hungry but it was so hot out, all I wanted to do was drink water and cold beer. Sebastian loved the dry pretzels that street vendors sold for literally a penny, so he bought a bunch of those and we munched on them. Sebastian is a very spartan kind of guy.


Kościół Św. Piotra i Pawła, Peter and Paul's Church

A lot of tourist shops advertised side trips out of the town, and we were all interested in taking a trip to the salt mines, which were only about 45 minutes away by car or bus. We inquired about going on a trip, and the timing was right, the price was right, and so we said, "Let's go!" Heck, it would be nice and cool in the cave if nothing else, and the dry air was something I was looking forward too (Poland is very hot and muggy in the summer, like Chicago).


I like the odd stonework here. I am not sure what church this is.

Before we boarded the minivan bus thing, Sebastian said we should stop for some Polish ice cream. It was so cheap and so good! It was like a less sweet soft serve ice cream. It was white, like a vanilla cone, but it didn't have any vanilla flavor. It was literally something like sweet cream. Mmmmmmm, very good. Then we boarded the minivan to go to the salt caves. It was so comfy, we all fell asleep on the ride until we got to the salt caves, less than an hour later. Energized by our nap, I fueled up with some coffee, and we started our descent into the salt mine.


Entering the Wieliczka salt mine - going down down down!

There were literally hundreds of steps down a spiral staircase that we all trudged down. It got cooler and cooler as we went, and we felt a nice cool breeze. The air was remarkably dry and nice. After the mine stopped operating as a salt mine, rooms were made inside for a health spa. The dry salty air is supposed to cure all kinds of ailments. I thought it was better than the hot muggy air outside on the surface.


I loved all of the salt carvings. They were so interesting.

We had a very nice tour guide, which gave the tour in English. She told us a lot of the history, but of course, I forgot it already. We walked through many mine shafts, reinforced by large wooden beams. The tour guide said that wood was the best support material for the mine because it can naturally flex, and it does not corrode from all the salt like metal would. As we walked around, we were literally surrounded by salt. The walls were pure salt, which looked greyish and waxy. In some places, the moisture from people's breath would dissolve the salt in the air, and then it would re-crystallize on the ceilings and walls. The re-crystallized salt was white and crystal looking, very different than the walls.


These statues and scenes were life-size, and all carved out of salt!

Many artists and miners (who were not artists really) began carving sculptures into the salt. Many were religious sculptures. Others were scenes of everyday mining life, or Polish history of kings and queens. Some had lights that back-lit the salt sculptures, which was semi-translucent. It made for a very interesting effect. We walked through a cathedral that the miners carved out - everything in there was made of carved salt, even the chandeliers!


Walking through the salt mine.

We walked a long time, but we didn't even walk through 10% of it. Many parts of the mine went deeper, and were unsafe for tourists, because they might collapse. Other parts of the mine were flooded. We saw one of the rooms that had a lake inside of it. The water was perfectly still and had a reflection of all the wooden balcony boardwalks that took miners past the flooded room, into another. It was very interesting. We were down in the salt mine for a few hours before we took an elevator back up to daylight! By the time we got out, we were very hungry and pooped from walking all day. The bus ride back was nice and we all fell asleep again. When we arrived back in Krakow, our first goal was to find something to eat.


Incredible detail in the carvings. The back lighting is awesome!

We were interested in eating traditional Polish food. We found a restaurant that had just that, and so we ordered a bunch of food to share. Goulash, some open face sandwiches with lard and stuff, and more. We were sooooooo full after we got done eating, and it seemed food just kept coming. It was starting to get dark by the time we were done, so we started to look for a cheap place to sleep. The hotels were very expensive for some reason, so we opted to try and find a hostel that we could share. Sebastian never slept in a hostel before so he had no idea what it was going to be like. We found a place just a few blocks from the train station, and split between three people, the price was acceptable. The hostel was in an old apartment building, and they gave us a room with three beds, with a crooked and creaky floor. We were exhausted, so we didn't care. Plus, we had to wake up and take the hella early train the next morning to make it back to Warsaw for another day at Romy's conference.


A maze of jumbled wooden support structures.

The next morning, it was tough waking up, but we said good bye to Sebastian, and then somehow made it to the right train on time, and soon arrived back in Warsaw.

A Few Days in Warsaw, Poland

After a fun week spent road tripping through the Netherlands with Mark, we next headed to Poland, where Romy attended the International Combustion Symposium, a huge scientific conference on combustion (the science of burning things). I was looking forward to it (especially since I didn't have to attend the conference) because we got to stay at a nice hotel very close to downtown and old-town Warsaw.


This old town market place was completely restored (after it was blown to pieces in WWII) according to old photographs only!

Warsaw is the capitol of Poland, and its history goes very very far back in time. It was first settled as a small fortified town in the 9th century! Today, it is a survivor of many wars, including WWII, where roughly 85% of its buildings were destroyed. This is the reason that a lot of people prefer to visit other Polish cities instead, such as Krakov, because many of the historic buildings are now gone. But Warsaw still has a really nice old town district. While we were visiting, there was a public exhibit installed on the streets of the old town, showing how every single building was either completely or partially rebuilt and restored to its original pre-war condition. The amount of work and effort must have been incredible!


Scanned photographs from Marek Tuszyński's collection of WWII prints, showing the old town market square completely destroyed!

In my opinion, the most dramatic restoration occurred at the old town market place, which is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site (along with the rest of old-town Warsaw). The whole square was restored to what it looked like before the war, using only a few photographs that somehow survived! I really wish I snapped a few pictures of the exhibit, which showed the restoration project that went on (in the 60s I think) and the photographs they had to go off of.


A warm summer night in Warsaw, Poland.

The metro system in Warsaw is very convenient to use and pretty cheap if you buy a three day pass to ride unlimited. When the conference was over in the early afternoons, we hopped aboard the subway lines and explored the city. We went out for dinner in a new place each night, trying all the cuisine. The first night we got cow stomach soup (mmmmmm so good!) at a cafe on the square in old town.


The Palace of Fine Arts in Warsaw looks a lot like one of the Seven Sisters in Moscow, Russia (inset)!

In the new modern downtown section of Warsaw, there stands the most gigantic, impressive, and tallest building in town. Its the Warsaw Palace of Fine Arts. When we first saw it, the building reminded us of the Seven Sisters in Moscow, Soviet skyscrapers built by Stalin. The architecture, in my opinion, is very beautiful, but also seems to imply power and control, almost evil in a way. After our visit, I learned that the Palace of Fine Arts was actually designed in the same Stalinist architecture as the Seven Sisters when Poland was under communist control. Looking at a drawing of what the lost 8th Sister was supposed to look like, the resemblance is uncanny, and in fact, I just learned that it is the 8th Sister! After Stalin died, plans to build the 8th Sister in Moscow were scrapped, and they decided to build it in Warsaw instead. Woah!


Who ever invented mixing beer with juice, and then drinking it with a straw? POLISH PEOPLE!

One of the hot afternoons, we took a walk through the Royal Gardens, where we stopped at a small cafe for a refreshing beverage. We ordered a cold beer, but the waitress asked us if we ever tried it "Polish style." We looked at each other, and then decided, what the heck, we'll try it "Polish style." When she came back with the beer, it was actually pink and had a soda straw! She explained to us that when it's really hot outside, the afternoon beverage is beer with sweet juice syrup, drank through a straw. It wasn't bad (but really sweet), since the beer was really light. Certainly refreshing! We relaxed with our beers for quite a while as summer thunderstorms rolled by us.


We found a letterbox in the Royal Gardens!

As you might know, I recently got into letterboxing (see previous post here). Before the trip, I learned that letterboxing is an international phenomenon, and there were a few letterboxes hidden around Warsaw that we would be able to find. The one we tried for first was near the Chopin statue in the Royal Gardens. It was hidden in a bush, and Romy found it!


Mmmmmm, pierogi, filled dumplings of goodness.

During lunch on one of the conference days, I lured Romy into trying some pierogi at a Bar Mleczny. These are cafeteria-style cheap eateries offering homemade fast food. Historically, they used to be operated and subsidized by the state, offering cheap milk-based food, but eventually expanded to serve regular stuff too. Many closed down, but there is a recent revival. We found one not too far from the university where the conference was being held, and we ordered cheese pierogi and Russian-style pierogi. The cheese ones were stuffed with semi-sweet cheese. They were soooooo good! The Russian ones were very fatty (but so delicious), stuffed with bits of fried lard, bacon, and caramelized onions. OMG! I don't think we ate dinner that night.


A lit up water fountain danced in sync with classical music along the banks of the river near old-town Warsaw.

Fresh out of spending the summer in Norway, we had forgot that there was a such thing as hot weather. One of the things we realized we missed were the hot summer nights. I am so used to taking a sweater with me everywhere I go, especially if its the evening. In Warsaw, it was hot during the day and hot during the night. We found a really cool fountain one of the evenings that was lit up and the fountain danced to music that was played on a huge PA system. It was refreshing when the wind blew the mist off the fountain your way. While we were sitting watching the fountain, next to the banks of the large river that runs through the city, we also noticed a bus that ran along the road next to the river. The next day, we tried getting on that bus to see where it would take us.


Trying out the exercise equipment near the walls of a large fort and dry moat.

The bus took us a little farther out in the city where most tourists probably don't go. We found an old fort, with the moat (mostly dry now) still there, and attempted to take a walk all the way around it. The moat area was turned into a park, and there was random exercise and fitness equipment placed all around. Finally, we found what looked like the entrance to get inside the fort. It was open, so we walked in. There was nobody at the huge gate, so we kept walking. Our crappy tourist map showed we could walk through the fort, back towards old town, so we decided to try that out.

The sun was starting to set, and the road through the fort took us past old bunkers, and other military buildings in various states of decay. The place was totally deserted. We poked around, but then realized that the road that looked like it went through was blockaded by a high fence, complete with constantine wire. So we started to turn around, but were still kind of looking at all the old stuff. Out of nowhere, a fat old man walked out between some buildings, and started yelling at us. I guess he realized we didn't speak Polish, so he started saying, "Closed! Closed!" and pointed us back towards the old door. Oops! We hurried back out the large gate, and by now it was getting dark. He slammed the gigantic door behind us as we left. To this day, we wonder how we would of got out of there if he didn't see us on his way to lock the gate! It was a fort, after all.


I came with Romy to see what this International Combustion Conference was all about.

On our last day in Poland, I wanted to go with Romy to the conference to see what it was like. The university was very old, and the lecture halls were huge and tall. The room was pretty full by the time we arrived, so we walked all the way to the top row of seats, and sat down. It was soooo hot! We stayed for one talk, and that was it!