Basia, basia, basia

In case you were wondering about the title - let me start by saying that I am not talking about Basia Trzetrzelewska - that Polish singer my father likes so much (Papa, bet you didn't know she was Polish, noh?). Incidentally, "Basia" is actually short for "Barbara" - however, this topic is for another day.

The "Basia" I am talking about can be seen in the picture below:

I am not sure if you can clearly see, but that is actually a squirrel - eating a walnut I think. Since it was such a nice day, we spent a couple of hours walking around Lazienki park - it was just a short bus ride away.

The polish word for "squirrel" is "WIEWIÓRKA." However, for some reason, all squirrels here in Poland are called "Basia" - apparently all of them have the same name. That's why while we were walking around, we could hear kids (and some adults) calling these furry animals by whistling "Basia, Basia, Basia."

They were surprisingly friendly, and will gladly come close if you can offer them something to eat. Unfortunately, we didn't have any walnuts with us - so initially they didn't pay attention to our "Basia, Basia, Basia" calls. I then picked up a small stone, this was enough to fool some of them to come close and stay long enough for a photo op.

Hehehe - sucker!