Suwalki Favorites

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Fondest memory: On our first visit to the area we stayed on a farm at Potopy and the hilly fields around with the steep paths did not invite walks. The gravel roads were unpleasant to walk on too: whenever a car passed it raised a cloud of dust, which covered both the car and the passers-by. So, when not doing any sightseeing, the only thing we could do was to hang around the house feeding the farmer's goats for instance. The goats grazed in the field at the back of the house but could not get at their delicacy - the apples from the nearby orchard. So we would pick the ones that had dropped on the ground and take them to the animals, which devoured them with great gusto. A really nice job for city-dwellers and probably even more so for children.

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Fondest memory: One night I woke up before 5 a.m. and on my way from the bathroom incidentally looked out of the living-room window which overlooked the valley. What I saw was so unusual that I quickly went to get my camera and wake up Chris to join me. It was still quite dark but we could see that the valley was bathed in thick white mist which looked like snow. It filled the whole valley like an enormous lake but you could see the hills emerging from it like islands in the distance. I had only seen similar mist once on our way back from the Bialowieza National Park but never such an expanse of it. It looked lovely and mysterious but didn't last long as the sun began to rise. Just one of those fleeting moments that you can remember for the rest of your life.
The pictures I took are not too good, I'm afraid. I would need a much better camera to capture the white in the dark.

Favorite thing: I noticed this little old timber cottage right across the street from the Jewish Cemetery in Suwalki. With the traditional porch, the well by its side and windows characteristic of the area it seems to have come straight from a picture book. Only the roof has been changed. And the cottage is definitely lived in and well kept - the beautiful flower beds tell you a lot about the owner.