Okay, I landed in Poland. It's time for me to see my father
My first time ever in Poland with my dad
Let's see how this is gonna go. I think we gonna have a good time
Damn b**** I'm stylin
(Music)
(polish)
S: It's good to see you dad
(Music)
Let me remember this forever.. having my first beer with my dad
Cheers!
D: Good stuff S: Good stuff
Hey, so here's something different. I'm in Poland right now.
Couple months ago
I was on a call with my dad and
he told me that he was gonna be visiting Poland so he could see some of his family and after Martina's father passed away
she told me that I should really go because this is a chance that I might not get again in the future
I've never been to Poland with my dad and now that he's getting older
I'm not sure how many more chances I'm gonna get
This is gonna be a chance for me to connect with my roots in a way that I've never been able to do before
I'm visiting my father's hometown in Płock
I know nothing about it. I know nothing about the family that we're gonna meet there
but I'm hoping that I could go there and
talk to them and hear their stories and in the process learn a little bit about myself as well and at the same time
this is something that is really making my dad really happy, so I'm..
thrilled to be able to do this and I hope you like the video that I show you today
My dad already met his cousin
(polish)
OH WOW! Hello! What a big boy!
Oh, you're a big boy. Oh yeah
This is my family. Let's go
My dad really wants me to eat cow stomach soup. It's a very polish thing to do
D: Fantastic S: Okay
Oh, yeah
This is great!
Cow stomach
D: I told you!
This is my chance
To pet a big boy
Oh yeah
Oh yeah, how you doing big boy? Oh, yeah. Look at you, you big old doggy..
Oh Yeah, look at that big ol' hand
Wow
You see this big dog I want a big boy like this
Fortunately, he's a Polish dog. So he doesn't understand English
So I could say this safely
very bad smell
Yes, you are. Very smelly boy. Yes
*heavy breathing*
*Simon howling with big smelly dog*
You sweet boy. Oh, you sweet boy. This is my video of Poland from now on. No more family. Just doggie
When they finally pried me away from Max we drove over to Andrzej's just
beautiful beautiful house, and that's where we're gonna meet a surprise relative
Andrzej told my dad that he'd have to guess who this person was
Because they haven't seen or spoken with each other in nearly 40 years
more of this amazing men story in just a bit
Well, that was a hell of a night for me last night and one that I'm not gonna forget
..probably forever
Last night was a very different experience for me because I don't speak Polish as well as I speak English and I found myself
last night, really
Stumbling. I'd want to be able to convey something but there're words that just don't know. Now, I would lose my momentum and I'd get frustrated
And I actually had to apologize because of I said
You know in English
I'm usually a lot faster and I'm actually funny in English
Sometimes not all the time, but sometimes and I couldn't really convey that
So a lot of last night I spent listening. I got to hear a lot of other people stories
I got to hear a lot of stories from my dad
That I never heard before and just sitting back and listening for the nights
I felt something real special
Because I saw the way that my dad was able to
talk to everybody the way that he could tell his stories the way that he got everybody to laugh and the way that he really
controlled the crowd in some ways in ways that I really haven't seen him do
..in English and I felt really proud, you know felt really
Just real nice to see my dad in that light
Dad, you're real cool, dude, and I wish that I could hear you speak more Polish more often in crowds like this
But while I'm here and while I have your attention allow me to introduce you to some of the family members
That I never knew I had
starting with
I don't know how this cuts gonna go. But let's hope it turns out all right
So if I understand this correctly
This guy is my dad's uncle but thirty years younger than my dad because I think
He was born when his dad was sixty
By the way, if you're 60 and still having kids it's time for you to get snipped. All right, just... just leave your poor wife alone.
Ahh, what a great story loved it
S: Which one; the third, fourth? D: In the middle
Yeah
Sh*t
In the first part of the video I was with my dad in Płock
and I got to see his side of the family that I never got to meet before
But today I'm in Złotokłos
And I'm visiting my auntie Zuza who's on my mom's side of the family and 20 years ago when I visited
Poland and I was here for I think I was I think it was a month that I was here
this is where I spent all my time
and it's... it's great to be back. It's great to see my aunt still doing well.. her husband
her kid and now
now my cousin has two of their own kids and it's weird because they've seen my YouTube videos and I'm kind of embarrassed
But the point is I get to play with doggies and that's the most important part of this trip
I get to play with lots of doggies. Come here. You beautiful doggy you yes, you are
I can't tell you how happy I am to play with all of these nice doggies
When I visited my aunt last I couldn't actually eat any of her food because I had my braces done and
today was the first day that I could try her home cooking. This is tomato salad with breaded chicken
potatoes and dill and homemade pickles. I loved it. I spent most of my time that night eating and talking and
drinking so my camera operation skills were no good a couple hours in
But we talked to midnight and then my father and I woke up the next morning and went to a very special place in Warsaw
So right now with my father in the National Park here, it's called Łazienki ..which if my polish serves me correctly
It can mean toilets. That's not the point. The point is..
back in May of 1977
My father went on his first date with my mother here three weeks later. They..
submitted their papers to get married
It's interesting that when Martina and I started dating within one month
We bought our wedding rings and we wore them on our pinky fingers because we knew that we were gonna get married
What's more important is I really like
watching my father
feel nostalgic walk around and look at his past and have his memories of my mom
It's a really sweet f*cking wholesome feeling
and I'm loving it. Just loving it.
Yeah, I'm finished my father and I spent the rest of that day walking around Warsaw
after I saw where he went on a date with my mom I
Took him to the pierogi shop that Martina I ate at six years ago when we did our European tour
I loved it because I ordered the same pierogies from that time and I remember them the same way
And I'm glad that my dad liked it. What do you think?
D: It's good stuff S: Good stuff
Then we split some blueberry pierogies, which I don't really remember having often as a kid
But I remember my dad telling me how much he remembers them when he was a young child
Is it how you remember it? D: Yeah, this is it
S: This is it! D: Absolutely!
I'm 70 years younger
S: Oh yeah ..when your mom used to make these yes?
D: My mom would make at least once a month this kind of stuff
S: Blueberries?
D: Blueberries sometimes, strawberries.. any kind S: What was your favourite kind?
D: I prefered blueberries S: Ahh.. good
After that we went to the Zamek which is big gorgeous
Museum in Warsaw's old town with really huge vaulted ceilings and a really distinct feeling
my father, interestingly
has never been
The Zamek was reduced to rubble in World War 2 and when he lived in Warsaw it was still in ruins
This was the first time that he actually got to go and enjoy it after it was fully restored
We also got to see a lot of Polish art and I had a really enjoyable time sharing some fun history facts with him
such as: (Simon to his dad) Did, you know a history lesson also back in the day
this was a sign of respect for people instead of saying hello, you just wave your elbow
Yeah, so you are being very respectful right now.. to get it. It's a good style..
You see, back in the day in Poland women just used to like to hang with their ****** out
So that was the eh.. that's the fashion that they did back then
FYI
(Accordion Music)
And now my trip comes to an end my father and I had five full days in Poland
I learned about new family new people that I could call my own and
More importantly for me..
I learned a lot about my father and I think he learned a lot about me as well
for example:
(shouting) DAD!
D: Yes? S: What are you thinking about my hat?
D: I hate it!
You see..
I learned that I got my awesome sense of fashion from my mother. Thanks mom!
Next time I'm gonna shoot a video with you
S: (voiceover) Hi Simon, this is your cousin Magda and for some reason, you forgot to film my intro
but I understand, we were so wrapped up in great conversation
Hi Simon! This is your other cousin Monica who you don't even have any video of
you just have this one picture of me closing my eyes.
At least you got some good videos of my doggies
D: You know who I am! I don't have to introduce myself! *laughter*
(Music)
So that's it for this week's video if you wanna see more footage of doggies
Yes you do cuz they're really good ones! Click on this video right here
And if you wanna learn more about Mr. Stawski and my family.. we got a few videos with them
They're all really fun, wholesome videos. Check them out right here as well.