june #3, mazury #2
The Lakes District, Part Two, 19-21 June.
On Boguś’s birthday, it rained all morning. Julka and I put on socks and curled up in our beds with Sudoku and chocolate. Good times.
Darek’s current work, a carving he was making for a friend’s birthday. Yes, he’s ridiculously talented. I would keep him if I could.
The Birthday Group, basically all the trainers. Stryjek was absent as he’d been in Warszawa all day at some kind of committee meeting. There were strawberries and cakes and various alcohols, which of course never, ever bode well.
Mr. Opiela, the couple who do lifesaving, and Boguś.
Michał, Przemek from windsurfing, and Kamila from… windsurfing?
Kamila and Michał (aha! He’s from windsurfing, she’s his fiancée), and Adam (I think), one of the head trainers.
Boguś and Darek.
Yes, well, so that was that night. We went to sleep in the very, very late early hours of the morning (you know what I mean) and woke up the next day feeling not so great. We headed down to port in the morning to check out some of the windsurfing trials. Was her crush there? No. But mine was. Oh yes, my stalking powers are still intact. *evil laugh*
Information for the day.
Windsurfing trials and some people sunbathing; Julka posing.
Cousins, as taken by the crush (who was ridiculously tall).
Ah, yes, I forgot. At the camp there were a couple of days of lessons, and then by the end of the ten days each student had to get a grade for each subject (swimming, lifesaving, yachting, kayaking, windsurfing, orienteering and some other things). The following was part of their assessment: there were a couple of events to be done around the complex (bowling with logs, a few target practice sort of things, skipping rope) and also a kilometre or two trek through the forest surrounding the complex. Julka and I were volunteered (by Dagmara of the 18th birthday party’s father, to add the coincidences up) to oversee the target practice things - for hers, everyone had to hit shuttlecocks into an upturned umbrella, which wasn’t as easy as it seemed, and my activity was target practice involving sticks in the ground and throwing a log. Which was apparently impossible, if the students are to be believed. Pah, I say.
In any case, here’s Julka’s thing. From left to right, there’s Magda, Konrad, Julka, Paweł and Paweł. I knew the guys but didn’t know the girl. And for the record, every second name on the student lists was either Łukasz or Paweł (Lucas or Paul). No joke.
Mateusz, Łukasz/Paweł and Łukasz/Paweł (or as I liked to call him, Marc Blucas Guy). Honestly, one of them was called Lukasz and one of them was called Pawel, but I have no idea which was which. The second shot was taken later that evening from the volleyball court upwards to Styjek’s cabin. The students organised a volleyball tournament so they were playing for a fair few hours. That photo was taken at 8:30pm, by the way.
Down in port, students were doing some assessment in lifesaving, rowing and kayaking. This is Paweł attempting to beat the all-time camp kayaking record. As he spent five days tanning in the kayak training for this, let’s just say he succeeded.
Rowing assessment.
Two photos taken by a random guy, this is Grześ (Greg), me, Mateusz (Matthew), Maria, Konrad and Julka.
… and our feet. By the way, no one’s heard of Havaianas here.
That evening, Boguś, Darek, Michal and some of the other trainers decided to make a bonfire to say goodbye to Julka and I, as we left the next day. Boguś, Julka, Darek.
Myself and Darek. You can find shots similar to this one on www.divorce.pl.
Boguś and Julka.
Darek. Also, foreshadowing. Oh yes.
Last day. Julka in her togs waiting to head down to port; the view.
Darek putting the finishing touches on his present, which turned out brilliantly.
The following are all taken with my SLR and then scanned in by the photo lab, so the colours and quality aren’t as good as I’d like them to be.
A guy called Łukasz having trouble with windsurfing assessment.
I think that’s Crazy Łukasz also having trouble with his assessment (wasn’t kidding about the names, was I?); Gosia, girlfriend of one of the guys at camp who came to visit, waiting for the wind to pick up.
Julka and Kamila.
Julka and Piotrek (cyclist).
Julka and Crazy Łukasz.
Pastor (real name Wojtek) and Piotrek.
Julka and Pastor. That’s the guy Michał the trainer decided he was going to set me up with, just so everyone knows.
Julka and Boguś, who told me to call him when I got to Warszawa so he could give me a job. Ha! As if jobs are that easy to come by.
Our darling Stryjek/Wujek/mutual godfather, Sławek.
And that was it. A couple of trainers were going back to Warszawa by car so they said they’d drive us back to the train station, where Julka could catch a train to Lodz and I could head to the metro. It was the one place in my entire stay in Poland that I’ve been truly sad to leave. We drove out of a beautiful place with perfect weather, and then when we reached the borders of Warszawa, everything was grey - literally. Cloudy skies, concrete skyscrapers, rain. Not nice, but it was definitely a bit of a reality shock.
And June continued.