Bialowieza National Forest

On Monday morning, we took a private tour of Bialowieza National Forest. Our tour guide, Maria, pointed out all the different types of flora, and gave us a bit of history of the area. There is a place in the forest where there are some crosses. They are a memorial to the Jews that the Germans had killed here in the forest during the war. At one point on the tour, we were close (about 3 miles) to the border of Belarus. We saw a wolf cross the trail in front of us right before we exited the park.

After our tour, we drove to Lublin, which was about 240 km (150 miles). The roads here are not very good. It took us about 4 hours, not counting stops.

Along the way, and in fact all over Poland and Lithuania, we have been seeing Storks nests - lots of them. They are huge: they can be up to 6 feet in diameter and 9 feet deep. They are made of sticks - very large sticks - and are built on top of telephone poles. Because they can weigh several tons, the telephone companies have to reinforce the poles. We have not seen any storks, though. They've already headed south. From here they go to Africa for the winter.

When we arrived in Lublin, we checked in to our hotel. The place we are staying in used to be a convent. It still has the look of a convent. The rooms feel like retreat rooms. There is a kitchenette down the hall from us, and an outdoor balcony with patio furniture. The church is still attached, and we just had to walk down the hall to go visit it.

We went to a local restaurant in search of authentic Polish food, specifically pierogies. We found a place that had goose filled pierogies. The food prices here are very reasonable. For dinner, Joe had 2 beers, I had a glass of wine, we each ordered a main course, Joe ordered an additional side dish, and we shared dessert. The total bill was 156 zloty (the Polish currency), which is about $42 in US currency. It was the same way in Lithuania. Our all you can eat buffet was about $7 per person.