Winter

My first two experiences of Polish winter were disappointing. The temperatures for the two weeks I spent here in February 2007 were all well above freezing, and last winter we barely had any snow after November. Thus I was pleasantly suprised this year when Krakow had snow for most of January, and even happier when the mercury dipped to nearly -20 one day. Yeah, I know you all think I'm crazy, but I grew up in Edmonton, and we pride ourselves on our cold winters.

Plus, I just like snow.

Or at least I thought I did.

I've only been on two roadtrips in Poland this winter: the first one in December with my parents to Krynica, and the second one this weekend to Wroclaw and Boleslawiec with some friends.

On the first trip in December I had to drive through the mountains in blowing snow for nearly 5 hours to reach a town that is normally a short 2 hour drive away.

Yesterday, it started to snow early in the morning, and kept up all day, snowing particularly hard when we left around 4:30. Snow was piled up on the highway, and I constantly used my windshield wipers. But when we reached Wroclaw around 8 pm the snow had stopped and the town was bare.

However, when I woke up this morning at 7 am to drive to Boleslawiec (a town that is all about pottery), sure enough, snow had accumulated over night and was still falling.

And it continued to fall throughout the drive there, the entire day, and the drive back. We witnessed several cars in the ditch and one big pile up, but made it there and back safely.

As soon as we got out of the car, the snow stopped falling.

I am just waiting for it to start again tomorrow around 2 pm when I plan to head home.