Our trip began in July 1998. My cousin Mark and I left New York not knowing what to expect when we arrived in Poland. We had never met or even talked to any of the relatives we were going to stay with except for email. I had never been outside of the U.S. before. Mark has traveled frequently for his job but had never been to Poland.
We left New York at 6pm and arrived in Poland the next day at 9am Poland time. The flight was uneventful except that someone else had the exact same seats as us so we were moved up to the Business Class section of the plane which made the 9 hours of flight time a lot more bearable. We went through customs with no problems and entered the airport where hundreds of people were waiting to greet people getting off the plane.
As we entered the airport after going thru customs we seached for Tadeusz and his family in the crowd. We heard "Mike!" and were greeted by Tadeusz and his wife Henryka and their daughter Anna,who took us to their home in Warsaw. We found Tadeusz and his family to be very nice and we knew that our trip was going to be memorable.
The next day we began our journey to Wolka Medrzechowska in southern Poland which is the birthplace of our grandfather, Andrew. It took us about 6 hours to get there and when we arrived we were warmly greeted by many other Korzec relatives. After eating and having a few toasts of vodka, we went to the actual field where Andrew Korzec's farm once stood. It is hard to describe the feeling that came over me standing there with my relatives. This was the place where my grandfather was born and lived before coming to America. Everyone was very interested in how I had discovered Tadeusz and the pictures that Mark and I had brought with us.
The following day we visited Krakow which is a very beautiful city. The temperature was close to 100 degrees on the day we were there so we were happy to stop at one of the many outdoor cafes to rest and enjoy a cold piwo!
After visiting Krakow we were told by Tadeusz that he had a surprise for us. We were going to spend the night at a different place and Mark and I had no idea where. We drove for over 2 hours into the countryside of southern Poland when we came to an old cart road. The road had deep ruts and we had to get out and walk the last few hundred feet. We had arrived at a farm that the family uses as a summer place. We couldn't believe how beautiful and peaceful it was there. We sat down at a picnic table for a relaxing meal and more showing of the pictures we had brought with us. That night we had a camp fire where we cooked kielbasa and talked until after midnight. The sky was so dark and clear there. I have never seen the stars so clearly and we were even able to see a satelite going by.
The following day we travelled back to Warsaw for the final two days of our visit. Tadeusz took us to see some of the sights of the city which were very interesting. The week went by much too quickly and we were wishing we had more time to spend in Poland.