All Saint's Day

Last night we got to participate in a wonderful Polish tradition, the celebration of All Saints' Day!

All Saints' Day is a festival which has been celebrated in Poland and the rest of the Catholic community for many centuries.  It is a national holiday and a day when people all over Poland visit the graves of loved one and place candles and flowers on the graves.  The special candles, which can burn for many hours, are placed there so that departed souls can find their way through the darkness.  Cemeteries are lit by many hundreds of these candles and at night many cemeteries can be seen glowing from long distances. 

The Polish take it particularly seriously and even the graves of the unknown or forgotten are cleaned up and littered with candles.
We were fortunate to head to one of the oldest and largest cemeteries in Poland.  It was PACKED with people..it was so busy in face that there was a line to get into it.  Inside it was so serene and beautiful with candles and flowers everywhere on the graves.  While you may not think lurking around a cemetery in the dark is the best way to spend an evening, it’s incredibly beautiful to see the cemeteries lit up by candles all night long.  It is a gorgeous tradition and nice way to take time out of our busy lives to remember those family members that are no longer with us on this earth. Tom and I were really happy we got to take part in this special tradition.  Although Tom and I were thousands of miles away from the graves of our loved ones we took the opportunity to think about all of them and light candles in the Warsaw cemetery on their behalf.

Beautiful Fall in the Cemetery

Lines of people waiting to enter

The Church in the Cemtery



Chopin's parents' grave

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hallow-what?



We haven't seen more than a handful of jack-o-lanterns here in Warsaw these past few weeks.  They are selling pumpkins at the markets.  But, these are meant to be cooked with and not to

be carved.  So, I started asking some Polish friends about Halloween.  And found out that Halloween is simply not celebrated here in Poland. 

Instead, the Poles celebrate All Saints Day on  Novmeber 1st.  All Saint's Day is such a major holiday over here that Tom has the day off of work.  We are excited to celebrate it later this week and share our experiences. 

It's a bit odd not to see any signs of Halloween around this city....no Halloween candy in the grocery store for sale, no Halloween decorations in local businesses, no jack-o-lanterns on front porches, and no one dressed up in costume ready to trick-or-treat.  We did see an advertisement about one Halloween party at a bar that caters to expats but not much more. 

So, tomorrow will be just another day here in Warsaw.  But, our thoughts will be with our nieces and nephew.  Some of our favorite Halloween memories are of taking them trick-or-treating around Chicago.  During this trick-or-treating Tom happily "held" their candy bags when they got too heavy and treated himself to a snack or two. : )

 If you are in Bucktown tomorrow night, look for one adorable Flamingo and a gorgeous Rapunzel....that will be our Chicago nieces.  Give them some extra candy for us so they know we are thinking of them!

LONDON!

We returned earlier this week from an exciting weekend in London!  We had beautiful sunny skies to enjoy this fabulous city.  The main purpose of our trip was to go to the NFL International Game at Wembley Stadium which was featuring the one and only....Chicago Bears!

We arrived Saturday morning and met up with one of Tom's friends who works for CH Robinson in Europe.  We decided it was only right to grab a proper British lunch of fish and chips at a pub and wash it down with a pint!  After lunch we were off to Trafalgar Square to attend the NFL Fan Rally.  On our walk to the square we wandered through Buckingham Palace where we saw Chicago Bear defensive lineman, Anthony Adams, doing a television interview.  In typical me style,  I ran up to him and told him how excited we were to watch him play on Sunday.  I asked the guy interviewing him to take my picture with him.  I think Tom was partially embarassed and partially amazed.  I thought it was a cool photo opp but didn't think much more about it til we started getting emails from friends.  Apparently they were still filming during my photo opp and Anthony and I were on Comcast Sports Net on TV in Chicago.  Pretty funny! 

The fan rally was a fun time and Tom got to see some of his favorite 1985 Super Bowl Bears players being interviewed.  After the rally we met up with some friends from Chicago who happen to be expats in London right now.  It was great catching up with them and sharing typical expat experiences. 

After breakfast on Sunday we made our way to Wembley Stadium for the big game.  They hosted a large tailgate outside the stadium the entire afternoon leading up to the game.  It was great fun!  We enjoyed meeting people and talking to the many Chicago fans that had travelled from the states for the game.  We headed into the stadium for the game.  We lucked out with GREAT seats!  We were sitting in the section with all of the Bears fans and had an amazing view.  We were sitting behind Lovie Smith's wife and son...it was pretty cool!  The Bears played a solid game and took the lead in the first half.  Tampa Bay started catching up in the second half making Tom a bit nervous, but in the end the Bears WON!  The crowd at the game was a bit quieter than we are used to, so Tom was definitely one of the louder ones there.  : )  We went out after the game to celebrate the win!

We spent our final day in London, Monday, taking in the sites.  We started the morning watching the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace (sadly we did not have a queen sighting).  From there, we took the big red tour bus all around the city to take in the sights.  We tried heading to the Ritz for afternoon tea but apparently you need to make reservations 3-4 months in advance.  Good to know for next time!  We spent the late afternoon walking around Regent Street and headed to a final farewell dinner before heading back to Warsaw Tuesday morning.  We had a wonderful time in London and are already talking about trying to head to next year's NFL game.

Buckingham Palace

Anthony Adams #95

Fan Rally!

Waiting in security lines...

Olympic Coutndown Clock

Arriving at Wembley

Charlie's buddy was working security

Bears Flag going around the stadium

The game was technically a home game for Tampa Bay so everyone got a free flag...not cool

Tom and Ben living it up!

Changing of the Guards...a little hard to see things with all the crowds

Riding the Tour Bus

Changing of the Guards

Big Ben and the Parliament

Tower Bridge

Tower of London

The London Eye