A Polish wedding and hiking boots

This morning we got up at six in the morning, had bigos and a couple of shots of Ewelina's grandpa's vodka, before saying goodbye to Ewelina's parents and getting on a train to Poznan. There is now quite a bit of vodka in my backpack...


The wedding this weekend was a lot of fun! Much longer than any other wedding I have ever been to - two days! There was much food, much vodka, dancing and games. The weather was also amazing, sun and blue skies both days, so we spent a fair bit of time outside enjoying the weather. Language was a bit of a barrier for me, few of the wedding guests were comfortable with English, and my Polish is quite useless. So I spent a lot of time hiding behind the camera and got loads of good pictures. But I also took part in the festivites, chatted, danced, played games and even (cringe) sang a song in Icelandic.

The singing didn't go so well, I forgot the lyrics half-way through, but that didn't seem to matter much, people seemed to appreciate the gesture all the same.

Compared with the Icelandic weddings I've been to, and the single Irish one, I'd say the biggest difference was the vodka. The wedding was also longer (2 days!), and there was much more food than I am used to. They really went all out! And although vodka probably sounds scary to those not used to it, the way it was drunk at the wedding made perfect sense; very small shots, not too frequently, and with lots of food. Nobody got visibly drunk, it was just enough to lift people's spirits and lower their inhibitions enough to have lots of fun and get the two families to mingle and get to know each other a bit.

Yesterday Ewelina and I did a bit of shopping and the catch of the day was a pair of very comfy, light hiking boots, which I expect to wear every day for the rest of the trip. I paid 349 zloty for them, which comes to about 80 euro - much less than I would paid for comparable shoes in Dublin. The brand is 'Alpinus', in case anyone is interested or has an opinion.