The Journey 2000

We boarded a charter Lot Airlines flight in Edmonton, Alberta Canada on July 13, 2000 and we were on our way! We flew eastward for 11.5 hours chasing the sunrise. What a delight it was to see Poland again from the air.

The thing that struck me the most was how unbelievably GREEN the countryside of Poland is from the air! I read somewhere that 38% of Poland is wooded, and I believe it. What a pleasure it was to see the strips of fields, the trees, and the red roofs on the buildings!

When we landed, we were met by my cousin and her friend. We took a taxi to the train station and had our first meal on Polish soil there before boarding the express train to Krakow. We stayed with my cousin in Krakow recovering from jet-lag, did some sightseeing and visited some of my cousins. After a few days I telephoned my English-speaking Polish friend Andrew and made arrangements for him to take us on a two-day trip to Nart Stary.

Andrew picked us up early one Sunday morning, and we were on our way! We drove northeast to Nowa De~ba, and then turned eastward towards Nart Stary. On a map the driving distances appear fairly short, but in reality they are quite long because the roads wind through the countryside and are very narrow so that one is not able to drive very fast. It's a wonderful way of actually seeing the countryside! We turned right at Bojano~w and continued on the road to Nart Stary. We arrived at a T-intersection 11 kilometers from Bojano~w and made another righthand turn towards Nowy Nart.

As soon as we saw the Nart Nowy sign I asked Andrew to stop so that my husband could take a picture of me beside it. We slowly drove past some trees and there it was! The first building we saw was a huge new church under contruction, the priest's house and then the current church with the cemetery behind it. The church is the first building on the righthand side at another T-intersection where we saw the road sign pointing north to Nart Stary. Three kilometers to Nart Stary!

We were almost there! I got out of the car, took a deep breath of Polish air, and thought to myself " Even though I am not directly related to you, Jan Re~bisz, I am truly honored to see where you came from!". Andrew decided that the first thing we should do would be to speak to the priest and see what kind of information he had in the church records. 
 

To be continued...  

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