Copernicus Droppings & Virgin Apparitions

We had a slower start today, with one of our hosts picking us up from the hotel at 9:45 AM. We headed into the town of Olsztyn and visited the small castle there. This castle was administered by Copernicus and he lived here for a while. There are some actual original instruments that Copernicus used in the museum and even a book that he bequeathed to a friend on his death. This is apparently the book he was reading when he died – a medical book on curing fevers! Even though this place is normally blocked off, because the museum was not busy and since we were not a large group, we were allowed to take the narrow stairs up to Copernicus’ toilet. We climbed a steep and narrow staircase to a chamber that stuck out of the wall of the castle and included a bench with a hole that dropped the famous feces outside the grounds. The chamber led off from his main bedroom, office, and chapel. The castle itself is quite beautiful and well maintained. We also walked all the way to the top of the castle tower (a pretty impressive workout in itself) which afforded us great views of the city.

We then walked around the city and visited the local mall, bought a couple of unique products for use in our classes (you can buy McDonalds brand ketchup here). We also stopped by a music store in the mall (which I was told was the biggest music store in town) and looked for some interesting CDs. This was actually a very small store with a relatively small collection. I found a couple of interesting CDs and found them to be quite expensive. Since I didn’t think I’d get another chance to do any shopping, I went ahead and bought them.

We then headed to a restaurant near an ancient church in the town of Gietrzwald for lunch – Kapuœniak (sour cabbage soup) and cabbage & mushroom pierogis. We walked to the church where a couple of kids had a vision of Virgin Mary in 1877 (this is one of the “church approved” apparitions). After the vision, there was, apparently miraculously, a spring of water that started flowing. So, after admiring the inside of this beautiful church, we walked to the spring and drank a few sips of the water from the stream. Lots of people were filling up bottles of the water – supposedly with some healing powers.

We were back in the hotel only long enough to change and quickly check email before one of our hosts, Wojciech Kozlowski, came by to pick us up for dinner at his apartment. Wojciech and his lovely family (wife who is a lawyer and two kids – a 16-year-old girl and an 8-year-old boy) were great. While the young boy was off playing his PS2 during the evening, his pretty daughter, who is quite fluent in English as she is taking classes after school, and the rest of the family entertained us all evening. His wife had made a really spectacular spread for us. There were numerous dishes (I can’t remember all the names, sorry), several desserts, and beer, wine, and vodka. It seemed like she must have spent all day cooking the dishes. There really were more items than we could even sample. The family had just recently moved into this spectacular, modern apartment that was quite dazzling all around. It was clear that the place had been scrubbed and tidied for our visit. It felt like such a pity to waste all the food she had made, but she could have fed 12 people or more with all the food that had been made. To make matters worse, we had lunch only at about 4 PM. Apparently, the typical time for lunch in Poland is about 3 PM, and dinner is at 6:30 or 7:00 PM. I don’t know how they do it!