Bears in Warsaw, Poland. Artistic display with a bear for every county.

Warsaw. Likely a church building. Portrait is of Pope John Paul II.

Poniatowskiego Bridge over the Wisla River, in Warsaw.

Jerzy, in Wroclaw, Poland.
Jerzy and his three brothers were orphaned when Jerzy was 9.
One brother was 11; another, 7; the youngest, not quite 5.
World War II, the NKVD, long sad story.
The boys grew up in an orphanage, always wondering about family.
Finally, research and serendipity allowed Jerzy to meet two 1st cousins.
Jerzy welcomed them warmly, hosted them, and showed them his town.

At the tram station in Wroclaw.

Wroclaw, two first-cousins.
One survived WW II in an orphanage.
One was born in a refuge camp after WW II.
No contact until 2007; they met in 2008.

Steam engine in Wroclaw.
Still in use, the steam engine was built during the time of Joseph Stalin.

Jerzy bid adieu as the train left Wroclaw.

Train arrived in Wagrowiec, Poland.

Transport from Wagrowiec was by a Catholic priest.
Arriving at the rectory in Miescisko, Poland,
with Fr. Stanislaw, Jerzy's brother.

Fr. Stanislaw was the baby of the four orphaned brothers.
Like his brother Jerzy, Fr. Stanislaw warmly welcomed his cousins.

Fr. Stanislaw grew up at the orphanage in Gniezno, Poland,
served in the military, and returned to Gniezno to study in the seminary.
He was the "baby brother" to Yevjeni, Jerzy, and Anatoli.
An image of their parents is here.

Church in Gniezno, Poland.

In Gniezno. Statue of Boleslaw Chrobry, first king of Poland.

Three kilometers from Miescisko.
Small chapel where Fr. Stanislaw sometimes holds mass.
Church of Saint Wojciecha.

Wawel Castle, in Krakow, Poland.

Wisla River, Krakow.

Hotel dining room in Pripiat Hotel, Pinsk, Belarus.

War monument near Pina River, in Pinsk.

Open market, Pinsk.

Topolnoya Street, Pinsk, Belarus.
House is next door to the house where Dyonizy grew up.
Dyonizy's childhood house has been modified;
house above looks similar to what Dyonizy's house would have looked like
when Dyonizy was growing up.
That is a dirt road in front of the house; it is not a driveway.
Dyonizy was the brother of Jerzy and Fr. Stanislaw's mother (Irena).

Cemetery on Hodoyenko Street, in Pinsk.
Interred in the cemetery: Dyonizy's father, Dyonizy's mother,
Dyonizy's brother Trofem, Dyonizy's sister Irena and her husband,
and Dyonizy's wife's father.
Road in photo is a road inside cemetery, not Hodoyenko Street.

Polish cathedral in Pinsk, as seen from bridge over Pina River.

The village of Malyy Kholozhin, Belarus, 25 kilometers northwest of Pinsk.

See video at youtube: At country-side dacha of a new friend.

Storks sitting on poles, in Malyy Kholozhin.

Leaving the "dark side of the moon."
Pinsk railroad station.
Letters on building spell "Pinsk" in the Cyrillic alphabet.