Nowy Rok

Probably the most spontaneous NYE I've ever had. Kinga invited Doro and I to join her at her friend's party. Our instructions were to bring what we wanted to drink and snacks. I picked-up a bottle of vodka, some chips and pretzels and at 8pm we headed to the party. 

My favorite pic of the night. I took a pic at the same time as Kinga and our flashes crossed

It took us forever to get there. This girl, Magda, has a nice apartment way out in the middle of nowhere. It's about 30 minutes from the Rynek by tram, assuming the trams run punctually - which they rarely do. We also had to take several different trams and a bus to get there because we had to pick up Kinga2 on the way. It was funny because the tram was filled with people all carrying bags of food and liquor. You could hear the bottles clink as they entered and left the tram.

We finally arrived and met the guests. We ended up having lots of duplicate names. There were three Magdas and two Kingas. To make matters worse, these identical twins arrived wearing the exact same outfit, with the same hair and make-up. I got a bit of a shock because at first I didn't know there were two of them because they came into the room at different times. I met the first girl and then all of a sudden, there were two of her sitting on the other side of the room. I definitely did a double take. All the guests were Polish and spoke no English, which I loved. A few times they tried, but I couldn't really understand them in English. A mixture of their strong accents and bad grammar made it almost unrecognizable. So we stuck to Polish, and dear Magda acted as an interpreter when I couldn't fully express myself in Polish (her English is superb, although Kinga made it very clear she was not to speak English with us). 

Magda, Me, Kinga

We all sat around the room and were given a shotglass and a cup of pepsi or juice. You placed  them on the floor in front of you or on a table if you had one and we were told that it was our glass to take care of. There is a special word for this in Polish. Basically, you had to keep your shotglass empty. Simple enough, right? Then you've never drank with the Poles....

Kinga had some fun with her computer

(Magda, Doro, Me, Kinga, Kinga)

A bottle of vodka was pulled from the freezer (I'm convinced every Polish home as one at the ready) and shot glasses were filled. 'Na zdrowia!' and you took your shot followed by a swig of juice. Then we'd chat, watch some of the NYE concert in Warsaw and then your shot glass would be filled again. Then snacks and sweets would be passed around and moments later your glass would be filled again. I am proud to say that I held my own, didn't get wasted and didn't get sick! 

M&M

The plan was to get to the Rynek for the big countdown. We couldn't get a taxi, so we hopped on the tram, which unfortunately was scheduled to arrive downtown at 12:03am. Somehow, this ended up being perfect. We got a tram car all to ourselves. We did the countdown all together and at midnight popped champagne and exchanged wishes. Every single person on the tram car came and gave me a hug or shook my hand and gave me wishes for the new year and only three of them had met me before. One guy came up and gave me a big bear hug and said, 'I wish you health, happiness, luck' and then he pulled back, but didn't let go of me, looked me straight in the eyes and said, 'and love.' We all had some champagne and then a couple of the guys shook up the bottles and started spraying everyone. The whole car was covered in champagne. It looked like there had been a rain storm.

Smokin' a Palushek (pretzel)

We arrived downtown to a crazy scene. The streets were packed with people passing around open bottles of champagne. The street was filled with bottles so that you had to be careful because about every other step you'd start to roll on a bottle. People were smashing bottles in the street and shouting greetings to each other. There was a huge stage erected in the main square and a concert was going on. We stayed for awhile, danced and then when it got too cold we headed our separate ways and called it a night. 

Mayhem at the Rynek

Parties went on all night long. There were several in my dorm. The people above me  woke me up at 9am singing 'stand by me' followed by lots of loud Polish conversation. They finally crashed around 10am and things started to settle down. The Rynek was spic and span by the next morning and it left you wondering if it had all been real. Not a piece of glass in sight and the stage was gone. New Years Day was sunny and there was not a cloud in the sky. I'm taking it as a sign of good luck because we hardly ever see a full day of sunshine here. I got to start the New Year off with a nice long walk in the park.