An August getaway to Poland to (try to) escape the heat turned into a wonderful patchwork of family history, sightseeing, card games, and at least one questionable negotiation strategy.

In Żywiec, we found the church where my great-grandfather was (we think) baptized, and managed to make the priest laugh with our clumsy Google Translate retelling. We also visited the brewery founded there by Archduke Albrecht Friedrich Habsburg—because family roots and beer pair surprisingly well.

Kraków was as beautiful as I remembered it from backpacking there years ago, actually, even better, now that I wasn’t staying in very sketchy hostels. The salt mines—something my mom loved—were a highlight: vast caverns carved into underground cathedrals.

Wrocław felt mythical, a city of bridges, spires, and gnomes. The kids negotiated a deal: one euro for every photo with a gnome. They disappeared until 3 a.m. and came back with 137 selfies. 

In Gdańsk and Poznań we stumbled into festivals, played cards in shady squares to escape the heat, and went boating. We sought coffee everywhere and found it consistently excellent. Lilly and I were always on kielbasa patrol, though honestly, all four of us did our part.

Poland wears its history on every street, with lots of WWII scars that we tried to absorb. It’s a country both heavy with memory and light with celebration. For us, it was a bit of both: family roots, salt mines, sausages, history, gnomes, tours, and a very exclusive after-hours party in Room 505 when we all ended up with our own rooms.