The Trenerowski's: Our Recent Adventures

As most of you know... Michal and I recently took a trip to Europe where we were able to visit his family. Michal left about a week before me, as I was not able to take as much vacation time from my job. I quickly joined him in Berlin and we traveled to Wroclaw, Poland where I spend the next week meeting all of his friends and family. It was really nice to see where Michal was from and understand more about him and his past.

Food...

One of my absolute favorite things about Europe is the food. I love it! Every time we passed a PIEKARNIA (Polish Bakery) or CUKIERNIA (Polish Cafe), I begged Michal to go in and check out the different desserts and check out the various breads. I always had to try one without leaving. Above I bought all of those treats for about $4 USD. Now, in America... it probably would have cost me about 4 times that much. And the other picture above Michal made me try a special danish called MAKOWIEC. After trying it he told me that it had miniscule amounts of opium in it. There was also all the good homemade polish meals that I had there. Michal's Mom made us the best dinners and his grandma made us traditional Polish BARSZCZ, USZKAMI. I had BIGOS and ate so many good polish desserts at people's house. The most popular by far is this "torte"

As I ate this I asked if it had any Chocolate in it... (of course, Michal translated) and they replied to him saying "No, only Cocoa." Which is Chocolate, but being a missionary I have learned to eat many things that I never liked, Chocolate being one of them, so I ate this as well.

Michal's cousin Adam & Agnieszka Laskowski had us over for dinner several times and made incredible food. It was so delicious that I wished I could put away more. Agnieszka is such a good chef that she even has her own bakery where she makes tiny cookies. She sent us home with 6 boxes, but by the time we got home... there were only 3 left to share with friends here. They were my favorite... in fact I almost asked Michal for some more of those cookies for my Birthday, but I knew that it would be too much of a hassel to get them here and that they wouldn't arrive on time. Here are a few pictures of me visiting their bakery.

One thing that absolutely threw me off is that a Kitchen-aid mixer in Poland costs over $1,000 USD. This time it is 4 times as much in Poland than in America. I was surprised, but it made me realize not to take my mixer for granted.

Friends & Family....

Michal's family was so kind to me. I could communicate with them at all... but they were so kind to make me feel welcome and included. Big shout out to you guys and a big huge "DZIEKUJE"!!!

Michal's Grandma