Jelena & Tomek Bańka

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Winter in Brussels and New Year's Eve with children, but always in excellent company :)

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Jadwiga joined the crèche in the 6th month of her life and left 2 years later, Momo was 11 months old when started and should be 4 years old while quitting. It is a fabulous place.

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On the 26th October Jadwiga and her friend Tomek celebrated their 2nd birth days. The preparations and the party were great fun - belive or not.

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Momčilo was born on our 9th wedding anniversary (October 2nd 2008) at 13h17 after 10 hours from first contractions. He was 2370g heavy and 50cm tall. The birth was 100% natural - no drugs only tough and well prepared mother. Both him and Jelena are healthy and without a scratch. He is a sweet, peaceful baby boy :)

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From Day Zero, when birth room stayed behind

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Jadwiga was born in Brussels in the Ixelles-Etterbeek hospital. We have entered the hospital at 3 a.m. and after 6,5 hours she was out - 3,52 kg and 52 cm. Jelena has given birth without any anastesia!

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Check how pretty were Jelena and Jadwiga, while in one body. There is a news section in Polish about the baby - click here.

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The official site of the house: http://vila-antica.com/

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On the Eve of the All Saints we went to London by train and stayed at out PL-FIN friends there. We spent 3 days walking aroun the town. The weather was great, people were great and prices high :)

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Tomek with his old high school bud Michal went to have a quick look at this nice part of France. In 2 days we have visited the northern part of the region, concentrating mostely on cathedrals, as it was raining.
All the pics taken with Michal's digital Olympus.

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Sydney:
It was our transit hub during the trip as well as a first destination to explore. We had great time there spending almost all of it with our hosts - family of Jelena's cousins: Marica, Vlado, Brany & Zlatko. We have spent 5 days there and have lots of pleasure from testing great food of Sydney's Crows Nest restaurants. 2 photos from Hong Kong not Sydney!
Blue Mountains:
It was a one day trip to the Mountains 100 kms from Sydney, giving us an introduction to Australia's wildelife, which we were to excersise later during the trip. We were guided by Vlado.

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Bruny Island is pretty close to Antarctica but we were lucky to enjoy a sunny and warm weather. We tried to enjoy oysters as well but we seem to be be not mature enough for their taste. And we have seen wild albino wallabies!

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Melbourne - Tomek's favourite town since the trip. Pictures can not express the atmosphere. We have spent most of the time in chinatown eating seafood. The most visitors' friendly city we have seen ever.
The Great Ocean Road is worth to drive through and the South Australia is worth to taste their wines and enjoy cool and powerful waves. A farewel part of the trip - full of ocean, sun, wind, cows and flies.

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Tomek with his nephew Michal and his girlfriend Iza went to England and visited countryside of Oxfordshire and part of "Campden Way" area. The greatest number of pictures comes from churchyards, which shall be used as England's logo for tourists as they are so beautiful.

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Jelena with her cousin Sanja and friends Matilda and Ania come to Brussels in July 2005. They spent most of the time travelling around. The itinerary included: Paris, Strasbourg, Mastricht, Versailis, Brugge, Amsterdam, Gent and our cousins' house in Holland.
Pics taken with the film SLR Minolta Dynax 5

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One day Janek simply has sent an email to Tomek with pictures showing a boat. It said: "I have hired it. Are you joining a crew in 2 weeks?". Most of us have gotten the e-mail at the same time.
The trip went during weekend of 3-5th June 2005. The huge boat called Averechts with professional crew consisted of captain, 1st mate, captain's girlfriend and 2 dogs. We were almost 30 with different sailing experience, all called by Janek. We have started and finished in a port called Monnickendam close to Amsterdam. We've been sailing on internal see - beautiful and no stress.On the boat there was a lot of partying with music served by Rafael and Julien and food by Tony.
It was really fun! Most pictures' titles by Janek!

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Tomek went for the funeral of the Pope.

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As Tomek was unemployed since September 2004, having nothing to do, went to the south. It was the EU mission to Mozambique to observe presidential elections . Tomek worked in Zambezia, in a mountainous district with capital city of Gurue in northern part of the country. He got there from Warsaw via Zurich, Johannesburg, Maputo and Quelimane. The great adventure, except it was not enough time for sight seeing. Questions: tomek@banka.pl
Pics taken with the SLR film Minolta Dynax 5 by Tomek

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Jelena, her mother Franciska and Tomek went to Montenegro to catch last warmth of summer. We went to an ancient city of Ulcinj, the closest to the Albanian border. It was October 2004.
Questions: tomek@banka.pl
Pics taken with the film SLR Minolta Dynax 5 by Jelena & Tomek

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Tomek together with Robert went to Iraq for a fact finding mission to set up a permanent mission of Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights. They flew from Europe to Amman in Jordan, took a taxi to Baghdad, hired a car with a guide/driver and got to Al Hillah. Al Hillah is a capital of Polish troops in Iraq. The trip took almost 2 weeks. It was January 2004. Questions: tomek@banka.pl
Pics taken by Robert with his digital camera.

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The last OSCE observation mission Tomek went with was to Georgia. It was in the fall of 2003 and President Schevardnadze has fallen after these elections. Tomek was sent to a remote mountanoious area (a town called Martvili) with 3 other observers: Amy (US), Frauke (D) and Richard (UK). On the way back home, in Istambul, we have encourted anti-war student demonstration with the biggest police presence Tomek has ever seen. Questions: tomek@banka.pl
Pictures taken mostly by Tomek with the film SLR Minolta Dynax 5

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It was just before of after the referendum. Jelana was preparing to visit her parents & Tomek was not to have any holidays. We've decided (within 80 minutes) to take a night train to Gdansk, from where we went to a village Skowronki (sentimental place for those from Myszkow) and to Malbork on the way back to Warsaw.

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Another OSCE election mission Tomek took part in. He was sent to Ulcinj, wich is the closest town to Albania on the coast of Montenegro. The city has an ancient history and oustending atmosphere. It is inhabitted mostly by ethnic Albanians, but none here has a problem using Serbian. Most of local people still love Tito! For those reading Polish we have two links: info about a travel guide book and article about Ulcinj by Tomek.

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We went from Poland to Ukraine, Romania and Bulgaria, and then Jelena went to Bosnia and Tomek to Strasbourg (to learn French :) and to visit the Thuns in Bavaria on his way back home. As we had a problem with a camera, these pictures have only sentimental value.

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As Jelena was preparing for exams to get to the economic faculty of Novi Sad, Tomek went alone for a Balcans' tour starting in Slovenia ending in Montenegro. Here you can find Greek part of the trip only.
Pictures' description soon.

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Tomek alone wanted to get overland to Sudan from Poland. He managed to make it to Egyptian-Sudanese border, visiting Romania, Turkey, Syria, Jordan and Israel on the way. The journey ended 2 weeks before he met Jelna in Bosnia.
Pictures taken with an old Russian SLR ZENIT without UV filter, what can be easily noticed.
Pics' description will come soon

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We all were scouts, we were young and except sailing decided to visit ruins of never finished Nazi comlex for submrines rennovation / full of bunkers, canals and water/gates. It was among Mazury lakes in the Eastern North part of Poland, close to the famous "Wolfsschanze" , where Hitler was almost killed.

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During first 9 months in BXL, Tomek shared a flat with Janek, Grzegorz, Zizou (a dog) & Ratzi (a canary), then Jelena moved from Warsaw, Jadwiga was born and we have moved to our loft. Here are pictures, which do not really fit to any other album. Different dates and places.

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Our Christmas 2008 lasted from November when we set up a christmas tree till January, when Orthodox christmas take place. We enjoyed that time with guests (Jelena's mom and our best friends from Poland). As in mid December we all got infected one by one by some virus, we spent three weeks at home - eating, drinking, singing, playing wii and running with kids.

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Momo was born and the Bosnian family joined us for few weeks in November 2009. Jelena's mother came from Teslic and her brother Srle from Toronto.

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We were very happy to have great weather during Orthodox Easter in Belgium. We managed to have an Easter breakfast and dinner with guests, go to sea side, do some touring in Brugge and play with a dozen of kids in our backyard.

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Our first self-owned place was available for settlement in early May 2007 after over 3 months of works. We leave in the district of Brussels called Forest. This is how the place looked like on the eve of moving into it.

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Here are pictures showing how we were setting up our brand new family loft! We have bought the empty place in January 2007 having already plans, archtect and booked workers, The works started a month later. You can also have a look at the loft of our neigbours at their blog - it was designed and constructed by the same team. And the second blog of our architect, which includes pictures of our place as well.

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Our best friends with their little baby Jagoda visited us for a first time in Belgum. All pics by Jurek and Silwia.

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We lived in this appartement from October 2005 till May 2007, when we had moved to the loft. It was Jelena's first place in Brussels and Jadwiga was born there. It was located in Brussels close to La Chasse.

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Renata & Ivo are siblings and cousins of Jelena. Our 3 families met during Christmas

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We were hosting Jelena's family for a couple of weeks - mother and brother with family. Mother came from Bosnia and the rest from Canada. We have been visitinig with them some of the Belgium's neighboring countries. It was June & July 2006.
Most of the pics taken with digital cameras of the Canadians, some with our film SLR.

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On the February 25th, we went to a Bosnian restaurant somewhere in the Netherlands. Bosnians from Jelena's home town Teslić, decided to revive an old tradition from their town - Maskenbal. The tradition disappeared from Teslić with war and refuge of big part of town's elite. We were invited to the 1st one abroad and had a lot of fun!

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The town of Tomek, which he left in 1995. His parents, brother with a family and most of friends live in Myszkow. It is located in the south of Poland in the region of Silesia, 35 km from the city of Czestochowa.

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Jelena lived in Warsaw since 1999 until October 2005 and Tomek spent there 1/3 of his life - between 1995 and 2004. Here you can find some of their places, friends and events.

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Many of Tomek's good friends from the secondary school have got babies in 2006 the same as Jadwiga. Here are photos of the walk we made in April 2007 in Zarki Letnisko, a tinny town close to Myszkow.

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We were invited to a wedding of Sylwia and Jurek (the best man and friend of Tomek). There were a lot of old, good friends from Myszkow. The atmosphere was great thanks to good music and companion.
There was a preparatory :) meeting, once called "Bachelor's evening". This time all sexes were invited.
The JAPKO which is a band of our friends from the secondary school had its 1st performance for 10 years. It was Jurek, Mietek & Szwed who played and Edek was replaced by Mumin. Look and feel a bit of the atmosphere!
All pictures stolen from the site of Marek

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Kamil is a cousin of Tomek - the closest one. Before the marriege, Gabrysia & Kamil were the great couple for over 10 years. The wedding took place in Myszkow. G & K are going to have a baby in February 2006. CONGRATULATIONS!

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We have married on October the 2nd, 1999 in Tomek's home town Myszkow. The pictures from our 2nd (church wedding) of 2005 are here.

Most of the pictures her were taken by Marek.

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Tomek started in the Foundation in 1996 as a volunteer and moved further in 2003, when he was already its managing director for 3 years. It was not only work but learning everything and making friends, some for a lifetime. A nice summary about the Foundation and its people is under this link. Here are very few pictures, so any of old PFRS friends is welcomed to send us more.

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Jelena and Jadwiga went for holidays and Tomek stayed in Brussels. All pictures by Zwyrle.

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There are photos from 4 events in this album, which took place in Bosnia during 2 first weeks of May 2004;
- Slava (kind of family name-day) of Jelena'a family - Saint George,
- Wedding of Milena & Zwrle,
- Our church (Orthodox) wedding after 6 years from a state one - have a look at the photos Marek took in 1999 and at the album above.
A short trip to the castle of Tesanj.

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It was a very difficult visit to Bosnia. Jelena's dad Momcilo died (no funeral pictures). Afterwards we all tried hard to go on as regularly as possible...

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The last year, when Momcilo (Jelena's dad) was still fully enjoying his life.
Pictures' descriptions will come soon.

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In September of 1997 Tomek went to B&H to supervise elections for a 1st time. Jelena has been an interpreter during the elections for a 1st time as well. It was in Jelena's home town of Teslic, where we met and felt in love. Two months later another elections were held and we met once again. She was 18 and he was 21 years old.

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Here are pictures, which used to be in the NEWS section but after last selection did not make it to a permanent category, when an album was moved.
Have a look, maybe we were wrong and some pics shall be moved back?

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