Me and my itchy feet: World in a nutshell

Monday, 14 May 2012

World in a nutshell

Kashuby is a region that is most famous for its lakes, really sweet and tasty strawberries, forests and Kashubian language. There are a few open-air museums in the region, in different parts of it. We decided to visit some of them while we were spending our holidays in Kniewo.

When our friends came to us, they said they wanted to see the house upside-down and the longest pile of wood and everything. So, basically, they wanted to visit CEPR in Szymbark. We’ve already been there and we didn’t think that’s a place for a three-year-old, so we decided to go to a totally different direction.

We headed north of Kniewo. Me having a travel guide in my hand all the way to our first destination point and, at the same time, looking out the window to spot any other place that looks so nice that I want to have a closer look at and stop for a bit. Oh, and I was also entertaining our child at the same time so that he didn’t get bored on the way. Talk about a multitasker? ;)

Our goal for the day – Kashubian Miniature Parkin Strysza Buda near Mirachowo. The names tell you nothing? No worries, we felt the same way. We couldn’t find Strysza Buda on the map (I mean, google shows it, but not the map we had in hand). Our GPS couldn’t find Strysza Buda either. But it found Mirachowo (we had Mirachowo on the map as well). So we headed off and wanted to enjoy our day.

Frankly speaking, that was the coldest of all days that we spent in Kniewo. It was sunny. It was warm. But a really unpleasant wind was blowing making us feel that it’s cold. However, the park was really nice. It is divided into zones in some way, so that all of us found something they liked in there.

We paid 12 PLN each for the entrance (full price ticket) and our three-year-old entered for free. First, we see all the miniatures, an overview of everything. But once you get on the path, you can give a closer look to all of them. Each miniature has a little information box that states what it is in three languages (Polish, English and German) and then gives a short history of the building or statue in two languages (no German, sorry).

After seeing something like half of the buildings (and they are from all over the world, eg. Statue of Liberty, Chinese Great Wall, the Brandenburg Gate) you find yourself at the entrance to a kind of bar (restaurant being too big a word) or cafeteria. You can buy some fast food there or a cup of tea or coffee. But that’s not what got our interest. It’s what’s behind the restaurant that really mattered to us. There started the children zone.

There was a small playground at first. Passing by the House of Horrors (I didn’t enter, my husband did, most were saying that it’s not worth it), you got to the Fairytale Land. Well, again, too big a word really. There were figures of some of the fairytale and cartoon characters like Winnie-the-pooh and company, Mickey Mouse, Spiderman, Three Little Pigs, but… Well, there is a big but… They were rather scary. Not really nice. The place was gloomy, hidden in shadows. Our kid was totally not interested in those figures and his sleeps with Winnie-the-pooh and loves Mickey Mouse! But apart from the Fairytale Land, there was also a mini zoo there. And that was cool. There were cutsie little goats walking around freely. There were some kind of fallow deers or other Bambi-like animals. There was a black sheep (or something like it). There was a donkey, a pony and a racoon. But they were in they "safety zones" (cages, pens and stuff). Probably safety reasons. Well, made me feel safe for sure.

On our way back to the sightseeing path, we passed by a trampoline, which my son had to try out (big enough for one kid to jump on). Then we got to the House of Mirrors, where we had a lot of fun! Seeing ourselves so deformed. Especially Artur thought it was nice. Although for some mirrors we had to pick him up to make his reflection deformed.

Then we got back to the path and finished watching the miniatures. Mostly Polish ones on this part. Some we have seen in reality, some we were about to see, some we still need to see somewhere in the future.

What really made us angry was the parking spot. It is rather small, I get it. There are no places designated, I get it. But to park your car behind somebody elses, not making it possible for them to leave the place – that I don’t get. Luckily quite quickly somebody was leaving so there was a really narrow way out for us. But we had to fight for it as when that car was leaving, another one was already on its way to get that spot. So watch out for that when you’re visiting the place. As, after all, it was worth visiting. And it’s not the only place to visit in the neighbourhood. We also went to a couple more places as we were already there…But next time on that one...