The New Normal

Dzień dobry!

Well, I am back at my new home and have spent a couple of nights. Friday was a day of errands. The house is furnished with furniture, but still needs all those little daily things. I want to get several items before the family arrives.

Gdansk has a new big mall called the Galeria Baltycka. It is a very nice mid to upscale three story mall with about 200 stores, and several others in the surrounding area. Like any mall, it is full of chain stores (the local stores are out on the streets in the surrounding area) but the Galeria stores are mostly from European chains (German, French, UK), etc. It does have a Zara (Spain). This is mentioned for my dear friend Turner White, who has an odd obsession with that store... 

Our bus, (nearest our house) takes you right to the front door of the Galeria in about 10 minutes. I decided it was time to brave everyday Polish shopping. 

Now getting there and back poses my first problem. With a SUV and a minivan at home- we drive to the store, and fill the cars up to the top. However, with only only public transportation, you only shop for what you can carry. I am assuming this is true of anyone, even in the States who lives in a large urban core like New York. But it is very different for a suburban boy. My first and best purchase was one of those personal wheeled cloth shopping carts that you can take to and from the store. They must be very unhip as only senior citizens (and I) seems to have them- but I am good with that. Shopping will be much easier once my four little mules get here on Monday (no, Lisa is not considered one of the mules).

First, I went to open a bank account. Initially, I did not think I needed a Polish bank account, but my two banks in the States take a nice bite out of any transfer of money made to and from. I spoke limited Polish and the bank person spoke limited English. To make matters worse, her computer kept freezing up- but we managed. I think she said a few four-letter Polish words when her computer continually froze- but I don’t know them yet. It is harder for a foreigner to open a bank account post-9/11; so there were lots of forms and security matters and complicated procedures. I signed a bunch of Polish forms- Gods knows what I agreed to.

Then off to get some household items. They have a French store called Carrefour. It is pretty similar to a Wal-Mart. On my list -I needed four types of soap: shampoo bath, laundry and dish. This utterly confused the hell out of me. I am not sure I could pick out the right thing in the States; but add Polish labels to everything and I just stared in the aisle for about 15 minutes. I never did figure out the laundry soap, so left without it. Why do we need so many types, brands and styles of soaps? (As of Monday, soap becomes Lisa’s responsibility- I abdicate). I filled my little cloth cart up to the top and continued down the mall.

After my issues with the bank and with soaps, I really needed something familiar. Yes! There is a McDonald’s (my first since arriving in Europe). I had the McZestaw McRoyal with frytki and Coca-Cola Light. Very nice and comfortable!

I also need to buy a printer and some other geek items. Also in the Galleria is a store similar to a Best-Buy called Saturn (German Chain). Electronics are odd in Poland. All familiar brands- but the prices are all over the place. Many of the computers and TVs are substantially higher than the US. I did find the printer I wanted- but alas, it was too much for me to carry on the bus given my Carrefour trip. So I will go back on the bus today.

Finally, to the bus station to get a metro pass. You can purchase a city metro card that gives you full unlimited access to the public transportation system (buses, trams and local trains)- instead of having individual tickets every time you get on. Of course, they wanted a passport photo for the card (which I did not have). Now, where in God’s name can you get a passport photo in Gdansk? It’s these rather simple issues that are the most complex. Luckily I found a Kodak shop a couple of blocks away and went back to complete my application for the card.

After getting home from my trip to the mall- I still did not have all the grocery items I needed. I then walked to our neighborhood grocery store, Biedronka (its like an Aldi). Prior to leaving for the store, I did want any normal geek would do about the laundry soap- I searched Google; and found the answer. I got laundry soap, but no bleach (another story), and filled my little cloth cart again.

I returned home, did a load of laundry (electric dryers are uncommon in most of Europe- line drying really sucks) and made tortellini.

My final assessment- shopping is ok as long as you do it in smaller amounts, and the walking to and from and waiting for the bus is fine- but will get quite cold in about a month or two.

My first day of real living.

BTW- my last post might not have been delivered. Account problems with our internet service in the States (I am sure Lisa will blog on that, as it took her two days to fight AT&T). So, read “Trains”  http://mylesgartland.blogspot.com/2009/09/trains.html  if you have not.