You've heard of Murphy's Law-If anything can go wrong, it undoubtedly will?? Well, I'm entitling this blog "Murphy-ski's Law" because on my trip to Poland, this was pretty much the theme all along. While actually IN the country of Poland things went pretty smoothly, but getting there, and getting home were another story all together!
I left our little corner of London around 9AM to get to Heathrow for my 11:45 flight to Amsterdam where I was connecting flights to head to Warsaw. All was going well, and I even was able to help some American tourists on the way. I got to the airport printed my boarding pass and was headed toward security when I heard, "M'am, M'am, Excuse me, M'AM!" I turned around and the stupid TSA agent asked me to put my bag in their little suitcase measurer thingy that says what you can carry on and what you can't. Very confident that my bag would fit, I hurled the bag up and NOPE...couldn't get it in. I got a lecture from the snot nosed kid about how I must not travel enough to know the rules but I would have to check my bag. Well, I got into a little spat with him about how I do in fact travel quite a bit and that it had never been a problem before. I realized that I wasn't going to win, so I headed back to check-in to check my bag. I finally got through security and called Mike to tell him my big debacle...it was then that I realized that I forgot to take the new camera out of the bag...Luckily it was still there when I arrived in Poland. I boarded the plane on time but we were delayed for about an hour. There was a hailstorm going on in England and we couldn't take off. Finally, the plain takes off but much to my dismaythe captain wouldn't allow the meal service as it was a very turbulent flight--I still hadn't had breakfast!!
My connection in Amsterdam was tight, and I knew that I wasn't going to make the flight given the delay. When I got off the plane I headed to the transfer desk to see what they could do for me. After waiting in the line for 20 minutes I was told that the flight to Warsaw was actually delayed and that if I hurried I would make it. I still had to clear customs in Amsterdam which took FOREVER (even though I was the only person going through) and sprinted to the gate. I made it just in time, but the gate worker said that my bag wasn't going to make the flight. Fair enough, I thought. They'll just bring it to the hotel. As I was walking down the jetway, I head someone shouting, "M'am! M'am!"...This time I figured it must be me. The other gate attendant said that my bag HAD made it...Yippee!
The flight from Amsterdam to Poland was pretty uneventful except for the guy sitting next to me asking what my political views were. I'm reading the Barack Obama book for my book club here, so I guess it gave me away as an American. I really don't like to talk about politics in public as I find that it often spurs an argument and I just don't have the energy to debate my theories. I simply told the man that I generally had more conservative views but the book shed some light on the candidate. I think he sensed that I wasn't going into a political debate with him, so he turned the questioning to our election schedule and how we arrive at the candidates. The man was from the Netherlands and it's always interesting to see how foreigners are so interested in our politics. It really effects them. Whatever we do, most nations follow, so they keep a close eye on us!
When I arrived in Poland I went to baggage claim, but I was NOT optimistic that my bag had arrived and was even less optimistic that it would have my camera inside. After waiting about an hour though, it was there...camera and all! Whew! I then went to the taxi line where I hopped into a taxi. This was the craziest cab I have ever been in...Black Mercedes with hot pink and black leopard print fuzzy seat covers. The driver had Polish punk music playing quite loud. All I kept thinking was that this was the perfect finish to this trip!
That night Mike and I just went down to the hotel bar for dinner. We had to be up at 4:30AM to catch our train to Krakow for our tour the next day. And 4:30 came really quick after a couple of liters of Polish beer consumed watching an American cover band at the bar!
We got to the train station, where "Surprise" nobody speaks English. Mike gets us what we think are 2 First Class Round Trip Rail Tickets to Krakow. Later we found out that they weren't round trip, but we sorted that out with the help of our driver! After the 3 hour train ride, we arrived at Krakow and met with our driver, Luke. Luke was a University student who spoke "good enough" English and was extremely helpful to us!
We drove an hour and a half to Auschwitz where we took an English guided tour. While this is a place that I really wanted to see, I think it was possibly the saddest place I have ever been in my life. Mike and I didn't take any pictures here as we thought it was in poor taste to do so. I am sad to say that other people in our group were not as respectful. There was a family that had a posed pictures taken of them outside of the crematorium--with them smiling. SICK! It was really a hard tour to take. To see how terribly people were treated and how systematic the Nazis were and how they ran this place like a well oiled machine. One fact that I wasn't aware of was that the Red Cross visited the camp twice and on both occasions they set up a German Band and made it seem like a normal prison. Our tour continued at Birkenau which was a nearby camp that housed a lot more prisoners and had 4 more crematoriums. Our driver drove us around the back and we walked through quickly. Mike and I had had enough.
Luckily, we had a lighter tour ahead of us. Our driver took us to a Polish restaurant for lunch and to the Salt Mine in a nearby town. Here we took a tour that brought us down 800+ steps and through the mines where salt was mined until 1996. Walking through the mine was very interesting. The walls were salt, the floors were salt. Interestingly enough, the miners created several salt statues and over 200 chapels. It was said that mining was so dangerous that they never knew if they were going to make it out alive, so they prayed every chance they got! There was even a cathedral in there where the chandeliers were even made of salt! This is where the blog picture comes from--the alter in the cathedral...completely made from salt. Luckily there was an elevator back up to the surface!
Luke brought us to the train station and made sure we got the right tickets and then drove us around the city of Krakow until our train came. We got back to Warsaw around 11PM and were exhausted! The following day, our 3 hour walking tour of Warsaw started at 10AM. Magdalena, our tour guide picked us up at our hotel. Neither one of us was really thrilled to do a 3 hour walking tour after the VERY LONG day before. It was very interesting to see something nice in Poland. The Old City of Warsaw was completely demolished and the citizens rebuilt it to look exactly as it had pre war. The buildings really look like they are 500 years old, when in all actuality they are only 50. We visited the city of Warsaw on a Sunday and it was interesting to see all of the people attending church. With the growing secularism in the states and the state of the Catholic church, having to close parishes, etc. it was eye opening to hear from our guide that they were opening new churches all the time in Poland.
After our tour we head to the airport. Mike got upgraded to business class, but I was stuck in coach! He was a gentleman and offered it to me, but he needs the extra space for his legs, so I let him stay up front. This time we connected in Paris and made it to our connecting flight with plenty of time....only because THAT flight was delayed for 2 hours!!!! Yes, we were on the plane and sat at the gate for 2 hours because of various problem, weather, technical difficulties, weather at Heathrow, you name it! It was about 10PM in London by the time we got home and we were EXHAUSTED!
Mike's got a rough week at work this week, so he's been coming home and falling asleep really early. I (like always) am sick after the flights, so I'm nursing what I think might be bronchitis. We have a party at our house of Saturday for the expats, so hopefully I feel better before then!
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