We had talked with Caesary about maybe doing some sightseeing during our weekends, maybe flying to Krakow or somewhere else in Poland. I did some looking online and discovered Torun was four hours away by car (it was almost five via train) and the old town looked interesting. If you've never heard of it, it's the birthplace of Copernicus, there's a planetarium, although we only walked past, because we were so busy!
The train ride was almost 5 hours after Caesary drove us to Stargard so we wouldn't have to change trains, leaving at noon. The seats were six to a compartment, we were in the center seats facing each other, while the ladies in the other seats, who didn't seem to be previously acquainted, talked around us the whole time.
We ended up taking a taxi to the hotel, probably saved us getting wet, because it started to rain as we got to our room. We were right in the Old Town, across the street from a large old church. We went for a walk to find dinner in the rain, sat under an umbrella on a patio, they said food would take an hour as everyone had popped into the restaurants as the rain had started coming down harder. It didn't take quite that long, and it was a great meal, so worthwhile. We went for a walk after as the rain had slowed down, the buildings, churches, old town hall were all amazing to walk around.
We messaged our friend Marina from Zaporosia, who we had discovered was living in Torun after I had picked it as a possible place to visit and arranged for her to come in the morning and go to church with her. After breakfast at the hotel, Marina came and we walked to the bus stop with her, talking all the way. We were early and met a few people and had tea with the pastor before church- it was a Baptist church that Marina has been attending, she arrived in Poland in May. There was lots of singing during the service, some songs we recognized that we know in English like The Deer Pants for Water, or Amazing Grace, which we have sung in Russian also of course, and one song they did was one they always sing in the village church in Nikolaipolia at the end of the church service, so we have sung it in Russian many times. Of course they were all in Polish, but we tried singing anyway. The pastor's wife kindly helped us find the scripture references in English.
After church we headed back, Marina went to change into walking clothes to go sightseeing with us. First we looked for a place for lunch, the restaurants were busy and we ended up in a fancy place called Foodie, which was an experience. Garry got the taster menu with five small courses including dessert. Dessert was his favorite. He also had herring, goose liver, fish with vegetable pasta (my entrée), and duck (Marina's).
Two hours later we were off to see the sights. First we took a boat tour on the Vistula River, then walked to find the Leaning Tower and went in the opposite direction to find the Teutonic knights' castle ruins, which we toured.
We got back to the hotel after five, and while Garry tried to buy return train tickets with the help of the desk, I discovered a message on my phone from another young lady we knew who is also living in the city! We arranged to meet for coffee at seven o'clock, and had a great time talking with Sweta, daughter of our dear friend Tonya from Dnepro and SEI. She took us to the cat café. Which had live cats walking around but also a robot cat to deliver your order.
Afterwards we discovered the organ concert was still on across the street in the church and caught the second half hour before another walk before bed. Ceasary had emailed us our tickets, because he had to buy them when the desk had trouble doing it.
In the morning we enjoyed breakfast again (if you're ever in Torun, I'd recommend Hotel Solaris) and went for a walk around the Old Town. We took a taxi at eleven to the train station for the long ride back. This time only one lady in our compartment, and she got off after the first two hours, so we opened the window and enjoyed fresh, cooler air for the rest of the trip.
Caesary picked us up again and we went to a Chinese restaurant to eat before heading home to the regular life. Garry went to the park with the neighbor boy to play basketball while I sorted laundry and cut out elephants for Wednesday's English club.
Torun is also famous for gingerbread, like cookies. We didn't end up going to the museum of gingerbread, where you can make your own. There were lots of shops selling it too.
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