It was the second time we brought our son Adrian to Poland, and the journey was very long, taking nearly 30 hours. We had our flight the day after the presidential election in Taiwan. In the morning, my husband felt sick and weak, so he bought some medicine before our travel. We finished packing and left home at 3 p.m. to go to the HSR (High-Speed Rail) station.
Since we live in the north of Tainan, we had to go to Chiayi. We tried to book tickets in advance, but they were all sold out. We had no choice but to buy tickets there and wait. My husband thought it could take a very long time to wait, so instead of taking the train around 7-8 p.m., we arrived at 4 p.m. Fortunately, the first train after we arrived still had some available space, but we had to stand all the way.
Due to my husband's illness, I was carrying our son, two luggages, and two backpacks. I had to stand for 1.5 hours from Chiayi to Taoyuan, which was really tiring, but we still had plenty of time before our flight. Taoyuan was much colder than Tainan. We left home wearing short sleeves and suddenly had to wear winter jackets there.
We received a message that scared us, stating that our flight was delayed. My husband misunderstood and thought it was delayed from midnight to 6 a.m. the next day. Fortunately, it was only a 10-minute difference. After 9 hours since leaving home, we finally boarded our flight to Vienna.
Our seats were somewhere in the middle, not in the front like last time. It was uncomfortable with a kid. Luckily, he slept for about 9 hours, but the remaining 4 hours were not very good.
He doesn't like sitting for long, and there was no space for him to stand in front of the chair because the person in front always kept the chair reclined. I understand that people want to sit comfortably, but if someone behind you has a kid, maybe they should give us a little more space.
Towards the end of the flight, he was crying a lot and pushing the chair to create some space. Finally, we arrived, but there was very little time between our flights. It was already 6:30 a.m. when we arrived in Austria, and we had only half an hour to rush through the airport to catch our plane to Poland. We waited onboard, and the plane was delayed for half an hour due to the cleaning of all the airplanes. It was our first time seeing airplanes being washed.
After a little over 1 hour, we finally arrived in Poland. I could only contact my family from time to time using Wi-Fi, so at least they knew I was safe. We still had to wait 2 hours for our rental car, and the road to my hometown took 2 hours, so we finally arrived at 1 p.m. In total, it took 29 hours from leaving our home to arriving in my hometown.
Before and during the flight, we didn't feel very excited about traveling, but after finally arriving, we all felt better. My father took the day off to welcome us home and cooked lunch. I haven't felt so happy eating food in a long time. I have already gotten used to Taiwanese food, but there are always some flavors I will miss. After lunch, we still had time to go to the cemetery. It's quite cold in Poland, with only 2 degrees Celsius. We planned to visit my aunt, who lives only half a kilometer away from my home, but the travel and jet lag made us feel exhausted. We tried to wait a little longer and went to sleep at 7 p.m.
The next day was better. Unlike last time, it was a sunny day with a blue sky. We took Adrian for a walk, and he could play with the dog, Futrzak. There is also a cat here, but he is so scared of us that we barely see him. Towards the end of the day, it got better, and I could even pet him, but he would still bite and scratch me. However, he is still afraid whenever he sees the kid screaming.
We also visited two aunts, and finally, I could have a lot of conversations. In so many months in Taiwan, I barely had someone to talk to, so finally, I felt really happy. The first aunt, Ewa, made us lunch, and we stayed there for half a day. There are plenty of toys left from my cousin's kids, which kept Adrian busy. Actually, no, he was more interested in my aunt's cookware than those toys. We also needed to go to town, which is only a 10-minute drive from their place. We left Adrian there, and to our surprise, he didn't even notice when we left. Later, we picked up my uncle from work. It was 4 p.m., and it was already getting dark, so we drove back home soon after.
Another aunt, Monika, gave our son a nice toy that can speak Polish to help him learn. One of my cousins stayed in his room and didn't want to come out to see us, while another cousin was back home with his girlfriend. He told me a lot of things that other family members had been hiding because they didn't want to make me feel bad.
On the third day, the weather was nice, so we went to visit another uncle. His place had changed a lot since the last time. Also, my grandfather's sister was there. I barely remembered her. I learned that she travels to Norway a lot because her daughter got married there. She is 90 years old but looks really well, and unlike other family members, she is not afraid to travel to other countries.
To my surprise, there are still some flowers blooming despite the cold weather. Actually, compared to the north of Taiwan, the weather here feels better. It's cold but not as windy. Although it's a huge difference compared to Tainan, where we currently live. We left for the airport wearing short sleeves, but in Taoyuan, it felt freezing, so we had to wear winter jackets.
Probably due to the time difference, our son often cries every day. We also have problems feeding him as most of the time he refuses to eat, except for candies, which I have to hide from him.
I feel like packing to go back home will be difficult. We have already accumulated so many clothes for the kids, and my family said to bring toys as well. I also want to buy some food that I cannot find in Taiwan. I don't like sending things by post because it takes 4 months to receive them all.
I hope the weather will remain good throughout our stay. There are still more places to visit and more family members to see.
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