Now This is what I Call Vacation! (Vol. 21)
1 Rowboat
2 airmatresses
3 beautiful girls
5 meters of rope
20 beers
OK Macgyver, what do you do with such an ensemble? I think the answer is rather obvious: turn it into the good life…
200 meters away from our little cabin isolated in the dense woods of the Masuren lay a massive lake whose visable depth and cleanliness were rivaled only by the friendly outpouring of the local’s hospitality. No common language was ever found though that didn’t keep us from conversing for 10-15 minutes at a time.
As the Polish sun beat down on us, we considered our necessary rations, packed up the tiny rowboat beached beneath a tree and set out for a 3 hour tour on that lake that was now our playground. We needed to row the 5 km into town to fill up on food, water and other essentials (beer). We also needed to lay-out in the sun without a care in the world.
Intelligence kicked in as we proved the worth of our college diplomas. Jeff and I lashed the airmatresses we had to the back of the boat. The girls took hold of the paddles. We jumped into our rafts. Joanna threw us a couple of beers. And we lapped up the good life. It was a little like floating down the Guadalupe River. Only I never had the luxury of having 3 beautiful girls physically paddling me down the river.
The church spires in the distance lead us to our destination. We stumbled on to land, much to the amusement of the crowd gathered at the shore, and continued on into the store. A short pause at the restaurant for some pierogi may have also occurred, but after such consumation of pierogi during the week, it all seems to run together. We raided the store. The grocery ladies helped us once again take care of business and giggled at the amounts of beer we bought. They were so impressed that they even gave us free beer glasses to go with our liters and liters of spice.
Back to the boat. The return trip. The sun was already beginning to set. 30 minutes into the 2 hour trip, a slight rain began to fall on us. Darkness fell with an even heavier thud. Nerves began to get rattled. Suddenly we were amongst a wall of weeds that had grown out from the shoreside. We hadn’t seen them coming. They were simply there. Nicole and I each took a paddle and mechanically brought us closer to home. Far in the distance, a faint flash was seen illuminating the western sky. Fear kicked into high gear. We needed to get off the water and we needed to do that immediately. In the mists of the rain we saw the lights of a nearby hotel. It would prove as a fantastic beaching point. We hoofed it the last kilometer back to our cabin. A cold beer immediately helped to cool the nerves that were on such end.