International Travel Group Meeting - Sunday March 3 @ 9:30a.m. Pacific Time

Andrea, I will plan on coming--it will be my last visit before my trip! Thanks!

Please include me for the upcoming meeting.

Oh, fooey! I probably can’t make it since I will just have arrived in Norway…. But you never know. I would love to talk about Poland. Lol.

I'd like to join in.
Would Norway independently as a topic be of interest to other?
Or where to see Northern Lights?

Andrea, i will be on a short cruise this weekend - my daughter’s 40th bday. So i can’t make it. But would it be possible to e-mail you a few fun things and thoughts we did that maybe you could share with the others. That is if course if you think they are fun or worth sharing.
Also, If by any remote chance i have wifi, I could join. There are 10 ladies on this cruise (all family) and they won’t miss me for an hour or two.

Interesting topics. Please include me.

Please include me!

Andrea, please include me.

Yes, please!

Poland:
- have been to Krakow, Wroclaw, Warsaw
- headed to Gdansk in August, interested in hearing from others!

Hope to see you! Please include me.

I live Poland! But not laundry. Though I can speak to laundry avoidance. LOL!

Please include me. Thanks!

Great idea! Unfortunately your Zoom schedule conflicts with my regular Sunday golf game, but it will be fun to see what you all discuss.

MariaF, my Norwegian cousin who lives in Stavanger, has this weekend travelled to Tromso to see the Northern Lights.

Andrea, yes please I will join. Thank you!

Mardee, I’m glad you can make it before your trip.

Maria, maybe a combo of Norway and where to see Northern Lights would be a good topic. I’ll add it to my list.

Barbara, I hope your daughter has a very happy birthday and that you all have a great time on the cruise. Of course you can email me with anything you would like to share. I’ll send you the zoom link, just in case you find that you can join us.

TTM, I will send you the link as well. Hopefully you will find you can join in. I would love to hear your experiences in Poland.

Carroll, unfortunately I’ve seen what laundry avoidance looks like. Lol! At least you can talk about what you love about Poland.

jphbucks, I’m sorry the meeting conflicts with your golf game. The only way to hear the discussion is to join us.

I can’t make this one as I’m in Mexico now and won’t be back until 3/9. Would love to hear about Poland as I’m going in a few days ahead of the RS tour and staying a day after. Bummer!

Please include me in the zoom invites, thankee

I’d like to attend, thank you!

Diane, I’m sorry you won’t be available to hear about Poland. Hopefully there will be good information from people added to the thread after the meeting. I hope you have a great time in Mexico.

I'd love to join in!
Thanks as always for hosting this!

I would also like to join, if there's still room.

Please add me. Always enjoy our group!

Hi Andrea. I am going to have to withdraw from Sunday's session. Hope to catch it next month.

MariaF, thanks for letting me know. I hope next month works out for you.

I may have to miss this round

Hope I'm not too late. Count me in, please, Andrea.

Hi Andrea,
I won't be able to make it to this month's meeting.
Hope you all have a great time.
See you next month.
Mark C

I’m looking forward to seeing those who can make it tomorrow and hope that those who can’t make will be available in April. We still have more room if anyone else is interested.

We usually aren’t available on Sunday mornings but we find ourselves at home, isolating and would love to join for some travel talk and see some friendly faces if you have another square open.

Out near Fairbanks to see the lights this weekend so I will have to miss!

sorry you're poorly, Mona

Mona, I’m sorry to hear you are isolating but I’ll be happy to see you & Dave tomorrow.

Hi Andrea, I may be able to join you this month. I just received my 2nd Shingles vaccine this afternoon, so I’m planning to hang around the house tomorrow. I’d love to hear creative ways people deal with laundry since I have a month-long trip coming up.

I'm not going to be able to attend afterall. Will miss you great travel buddies! I'd like to suggest a topic...(I don't think we've talked about this.....) What about day of travel anxiety? I'm so worried I'll miss my plane.....forget something, etc etc. Do you seasoned travelers suffer from this also? Seems to be getting worse the older I get.

Have a wonderful meeting.

I’m sorry you can’t make it jody. Thanks for the topic suggestion.

looks like I can probably attend this evening after all - negotiations went well and evening session unlikely

Okay folks, I just emailed the zoom link. Please let me know ASAP if you didn’t get it. See you all soon.

I sent a PM.

Den, thank you for the message. I hope you can join us another time.

I'd like to join if not too late.

Thanks

Warsaw Pierogi Restaurant (chain)

Zapiecek
https://karczmazapiecek.pl/en/home

There is one Zapiecek restaurant on the "Royal Way" as you are approaching Old Town. All of the locations have an extensive menu of sweet and savory pierogi.

Excellent food tour in Warsaw, which I see is also offered in Gdansk and Krakow.

https://eatpolska.com/

Bring your appetite!

Amazing chocolate cafe in Warsaw: Chocolate Cafe E.Wedel

Their hot chocolate was memorable!

The original location is worth seking out:
Pijalnia Czekolady E.Wedel, Piękna 18, 00-549 Warszawa, Poland

Not Poland, but since Ukraine and ancestry research was mentioned briefly...

RE: Ukraine....My husband's paternal grandparents both came from Western Ukraine, so he's 1/2 Ukrainian. We visited relatives in 1997 and brought a high school aged cousin home for a year. (She went back and became an English teacher) My husband hired a researcher for further family research in Ukraine (several years ago). Reputable and good. There is an Eastern Europe genealogical society in Ontario which now has their monthly meetings on zoom. We have done dna with many companies and he has had some E. European matches.

Please feel free to message me for any chat about ancestry research/encouragement/dna. (My heritage is pretty much UK/Ireland and a smidgen of other northern European. My husband and I have helped several dna cousins connect with bio families.. We are not experts but we enjoy learning and sharing resources/experiences/help. My husband is also a member in several FB groups. Cheryl

Here is my 2023 trip report for Warsaw:
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/3-weeks-4-capitals-solo-in-warsaw-and-the-baltics

And 2019 for Wrocław:
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/trip-report-wroclaw-and-swidnica

So far, I found this hotel room "ConvertAHanger" Adapter
https://www.convertahanger.com/products/hanger

And here is a DIY solution:
https://www.instructables.com/Coat-hanger-Hook-for-Hotels/

OK, here is my low-tech DIY solution: take a long-ish flexible twist tie. You know, the kind that comes wrapped around cords. I had a stash of 16" ones, but they don't need to be quite that long.

Fold it in half and wrap the folded end around the hotel hanger hook. Wrap the other end around whatever you want. Give it a twist so that it stays. 2nd iteration works better: wrap the twist tie around the "arms" of the hangar. Well, you'll figure it out.

I just tried it on some regular hangers, pretending they were the hotel hookless kind. It works. And if you twist it, it can hold "any" weight.

Bring 5, they're tiny :-) I just added a few to my always-packed travel laundry kit!

Here's the thread where acraven mentions the adapter for hotel hookless hangers:
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/packing/valuable-purchases-due-to-rs-or-forum-recommendations

I'll ask!

And here's foldable hangers with clips (I've not tried these yet).

Thank you CW for finding the hanger adapters and post/asking acraven.

For those who use clothes lines, this looks interesting.

For people headed for Poland and/or people who wear clothes while traveling this meeting this morning was a goldmine.
Thanks to A&J for hosting and all who had input.

I went back to my files this morning. I was in Poland from Sept 8 to 21, 2017. I wrote a diary for the first 4 days in Gdansk and then nothing, guess I was too busy. I did take a 2nd class train to Warsaw and wrote: The Warsaw train station is huge. I walked forever to the exit and taxis, but at least there were no stairs. Highlights of Gdansk: Solidarity Museum (get there early, I arrived 2 hrs before closing and would have liked more time inside), Artus Court and riding the giant wheel (great views and good photo ops). I ate lunch at Pueblo one day, very good Tex-Mex that was recommended both in the RS guide and In Your Pocket. I leaned heavily on the trip report Christa wrote (tried to find it with the search function, no luck, maybe it's too old). She also gave me a lot of advice on the forum and was very enthusiastic about the Hanseatic League cities, which convinced me to add Gdansk. I spent 3 full days in Gdansk, 3 full and 2 half-days in Warsaw, and 4 full days in Krakow. No regrets about the allocation, when I left I thought I would like to return to Gdansk. I also got a lot of good advice and recommendations from Ann Craven. I do remember using the RS Guide extensively, including self-guided walking tours and restaurant recommendations.

In Krakow I schlepped out to the salt mine. I'm sure it would have been easier and more efficient to pay the extra and take a guided tour from the city, since the only entry is with a guided tour. It was the one thing on the trip I regretted since it took up a lot of time and I was underwhelmed by the sculptures. Definitely leave plenty of time to visit the Schindler Factory, there's a great deal to see, experience and absorb.

Be sure to look for the Chopin benches scattered around Warsaw. And E. Wedel chocolates (though there is nothing as good as the hot chocolate at Angelina's in Paris).

this is an absolute gold mine. and, avi, I intend to wear clothes

Thanks to all for posting more information and links to items we discussed. I like this format as opposed to putting it in the chat and then have it disappear after the meeting. I hope others find this useful as well.

Another desperation laundry experience that we only did once. We arrived in Trier in November on one of our 3.5 month trips with a lot of dirty laundry. We noticed that the Christmas markets just opened, our next 2 days in Trier were packed with WWI day trips and our spacious hotel room had radiators everywhere. We quickly threw all of our dirty clothes in the bathtub with body wash. Got in the tub and stomped them like we were at a grape harvest festival, wrung them out and headed out to the Christmas Markets near the Porta Negra. It was a highlight of our time in Trier. We never laughed so much.

Oh my gosh, Mona, I love that Lucy-stomping-the-laundry story!

You did wash your feet first?

@ Joe, Our feet had been riding on a coach all day, a transit day so we were good to step in and get started.

It sounds like I missed another great meeting! I hate that, but I had just arrived in the Oslo airport & was looking for the train. :) I thought I’d toss the link to my 2022 Poland report in here in case it’s helpful.
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/poland-north-to-south

Oh man! Looks like it was a really great meeting!! I was leaving for Madrid that day and taking the train to LAX. I haven't done that before and was just so nervous I couldn't sit still. All week I tried to have everything done so I could participate Sunday. (I LOVE this meeting). Of course I packed light and had to wash clothes one day.....hate I missed the washing stories...although Mona certainly has a "plan B" example for all of us!! (The train to LAX worked well, saved me alot on parking and waiting for a shuttle. I would recommend it to anyone from SoCal who wants to fly from that airport.) Hope to see ya'll next meeting. Looks like everyone is back in the Travel Mode. Yay!

Jody, where does the train stop at the airport. I have never figured out a way to take the train to the airport. I often take the Surfliner from San Diego to LA Union Station.

Laurie Beth, there is a "Fly Away" bus that leaves Union Station about every 30 minutes and goes to the airport. You can buy a ticket from a little kiosk in Patsaouras Plaza. If you are buying a mobile ticket. you can add your Fly Away bus ticket to your fare to Union Station. That plaza is at the opposite end and upstairs from the main entrance. I've been very pleased using that...traffic is awful around the airport and parking is expensive and requires a shuttle. I plan to use it again.
One thing I didn't pay good attention to, is that pickups at the airport go to two locations. Make sure your return bus has a sign that says "Union Station" on it. (which is probably obvious to seasoned bus riders) but i came close to ending up in Van Nuys instead. Good luck!