... you know it's probably getting a bit cold.
I think I've acclimatized nicely to the weather in Poland. Mum would probably be ready to fall on her sword but I don't find the cold too bad.
Let me rephrase that, I don't find the cold too bad when I'm outside. For about two weeks the heating wasn't working properly in the flat and do you think I could buy a tracksuit that wasn't one of those ultra-expensive 'label' ones that didn't actually have any fleece in them anyway?
But I digress. On Sunday I was walking back from the supermarket and I thought it felt quite warm, almost summery so I checked the thermostat. 3 degrees. There have been several occasions where I've noticed my face going numb but I don't really find it too uncomfortable. Last night the condensation from everyone's breath was frozen to the windows of the bus. Buses generally aren't heated...
Snow is another matter entirely. You discover fairly quickly why most Poles hate it. True, it makes everything look very pretty and if your visiting in winter as a tourist you should hope for snow because otherwise everything looks dead.
Actually living here is a different matter all together. It's hard to walk through, your pants get wet, it gets really dirty really quickly and it turns into sludge which makes it even harder to walk. It can also hurt a bit if you're walking around while it's snowing. It gets into your eyes, you open you're mouth and the flakes just fall right in, making you wonder just how polluted it is. Imagine being caught in a sandstorm, it's a similar feeling. And when it starts to melt, ugh!
Storm drains are few and far between here, come to think of it so are gutters. The roads and footpaths are often full of potholes. Sometimes the puddles are so big you just can't avoid them. The problem is that they're dark and semi-frozen so you can't tell how deep they and these potholes can be BIG. There is nothing like the sensation of stepping in a puddle you can't avoid only to have your boots filled with freezing water. I speak from experience. Also, you have to make sure you don't stand near the road (assuming you can tell where the road starts and the footpath ends) unless you want to get soaked to the skin by the big van who just happens to drive into that huge, filthy puddle.
I also haven't had the chance to make a snowman or even a snowball :(
All that aside I'm told this hasn't been a 'real Polish winter'. Not enough snow, hasn't been down to minus 30 enough etc etc. People always take a pride in the extreme.
