Last month in Poland the weather was cold, damp, and overcast – just as I remembered fall. It so successfully transported me back to my years there in the early ’80s that, at 2:30 every afternoon, I felt I should be heading to my classes at the English Language College.
Even Poles remarked on the premature chill – it rarely got into the 60s – though it’s tourists, who are out and about, who are most inconvenienced by bad weather. And it’s not just our personal discomfort but the fact that one of the pleasures of travel – strolling and observing the street life – is greatly reduced when people are bundled up and walking briskly. Of course, the cold made the hot chocolate at Wedel Chocolate Shop taste even better.
Also, wearing a scarf every day, I was able to hide my lymphedema. Yesterday I went to physical therapy for the first time in over a month and my therapist measured my neck in three places, as always, and found slight reductions in size in every one. She explained that cold weather sometimes helps reduce swelling.
