The many sleeps of Poland

I was a little bit nervous about the trip with Brock to Zakopane. We were looking at a 9 hour flight to Warsaw, one hour layover, one hour flight to Krakow, and finally a 4 hour bus ride to Zakopane. Little did I know, Brock is a travelling champion, and good fortune was squarely on our side.

Our first bit of luck was evident upon the closing of the plane doors. Brock and I had somehow landed three seats entirely to ourselves in the front row behind business class. They put all the babies in these front two rows, and it really was a murderers row of wailing children. I can't imagine paying for business class and having only a curtain (which Brock would later use for much peek-a-boo delight) to block the non-stop screaming. Brock just stared at the mayhem. "What's their problem?" he asked with a confused look, and went back to playing.

Eventually the sleep caught up to him, and he nestled in at my feet for a very long nap. When the sun came up and filled the plane as we reached Europe, Brock simply lifted Murray into the air and dropped him over his own face. Problem solved!

The hop from Warsaw to Krakow was a delight. We had a window seat, and Brock spent the entire flight standing on my lap, glued to the window, and giggling. I have no proof of this, as my hands were quite busy. When the stewardess made him sit back down for descent, he went right to sleep in my arms. He stayed passed out all the way to the baggage claim. Eleven hours of travel down, still no crying.

The next leg on our original plan was a taxi ride from airport to bus terminal, then a bus into Zakopane. But Brock had hooked us up with a much better plan. Being the adorable flirtatious little man he is, he had made friends with a Polish couple all the way back at our original gate in Chicago. When they heard he was headed to Zakopane they exclaimed, "We live ten minutes away from Zakopane. We must share a ride!" I nodded in acceptance unsure of how real the offer was. Perhaps they were simply making conversation. But when we exited the Krakov airport, they were standing there waiting for us with a driver ready to go. We split the tab, and it cost me about 10% more than the taxi/bus combo we originally had in mind. He knew a way around the heavy weekend traffic that saved us about 3 hours. With a full-sized van for just the four of us, Brock stretched out and slept through the entire countryside drive. Thanks for looking out for us Angie and Joe!

Zakopane is a beautiful old mountain town and we were both delighted to be back in mommy's arms. Here we are out to lunch where I had an incredible sauerkraut soup and some blood sausage. (the soup and sausage here is amazing)

Yesterday we took a short bus ride into the national park to do some hiking to Morskie Oko, a beautiful lake in the mountains.

We can't help but take sleepy Brock pictures, but please don't get the impression he does nothing but sleep. Here's a few more pics of the hike. We saw a caribou, splashed in a duck-filled lake, and goofed around plenty as well. 

Yay! Poland is fun.