Poland - Saturday and Sunday (Kraków & Geocaching)

Saturday, 28 October 2017

It's already our last day in Ustroń , and since we are not leaving early we have an easy morning.  Also, because we don't have to clean, I have been informed by Anna, because they have a cleaning lady who comes in after we have left.  How good is that?

I take my time packing my suitcase, as I want to keep things handy for when we are at Renata's place, but also have to have it packed for the flight to Paris.  Weight wise it is a bit of a precarious situation, but up till now I have managed.

I also take a few pictures of the apartment:

Living room

Kitchen

Patricia wants to walk to the markets one last time and since I have seen it all I prefer to stay home.  Also because it is still raining.  Never took a liking to it. ;-)  I tidy the place and read a bit until Patricia returns and then we have lunch.

And then, 10 minutes before we have to leave, Kevin rings me on Skype.  Finally contact, but..... alas, we have to keep it brief.  I need to pack the last few things and check the house for forgotten items, so we have to keep it very, very brief.  Hopefully I get another chance next week.

We close the door behind us, one last time, and hand in the keys at the guard's.  The walk to the bus stop is not long and the bus is on time, so we're on our way.

In Kraków we look for a taxi after we have had a brief rest with a cappuccino.  At the taxi stand I ask a man if everybody there is in line for the taxi.  As he doesn't speak English he calls out to a few young man with the question if any of them do, and yes, one young man comes forward and tells us, no, there is nobody waiting and we can walk through the little opening in the fence and wait there.

A few minutes later he returns and says, not to worry, the taxi will come.  And then he returns again and tells us that there is a better place to wait for a taxi.  He takes hold of Patricia's suitcase and we follow him to some other waiting taxis.  He asks for our address and asks one of the drivers if he could take us there. Then we get a hand-kiss and a kiss and off we go.  Obviously he was part of the larger group who had been drinking heavily near the taxi stand! :-)  However, he was polite at all times and a great help to boot!

The taxi driver didn't not speak a work English, but got us where we wanted to be, so all was fine.  Renata and Eva were out and had left a note to that effect, so we settled with a cup of tea and a sandwich later till they come home later in the evening.  Renata made some more sandwiches and afterwards we sat down and talked till bed time. Patricia (the non-drinker in our group) joined Renata with a vodka (or two, or.....), but I didn't as I am not to use any sugar at all while on antibiotics.  I know that vodka doesn't contain any added sugar, but I don't really know what the alcohol does, so I don't want to take any chances.

Sunday, 29 October 2017

On Sunday we get up a lot later than usual, because the clock was turned back during the night at the end of daylight saving time.  We have breakfast with Renata, as Eva is a healthy sleeper (teenager!) and gets up a lot later.  We have the usual bread, ham and tomato, but today Renata has added sery goralskie as well and lovely olives.  Our cheese slices are cut from one of the bigger pieces that you can buy.

It was a very stormy day, but I really wanted to go for a walk to get some fresh air.  Renata and Eva were going to church and on our walk we could perhaps look for some geocaches.

We tried three, but did not have any luck.  Of the first one I noticed too late that it had been archived, and the next one we couldn't find.  (DNF - Patroni ulic Podgórza Duchackiego #18 A. Bochenek)

It was near a hospital and a security man approached us, because, of course we were behaving suspiciously.  I tried to tell him what we were doing, showing the app on my mobile phone, but he got annoyed because he didn't understand and let us do what we were doing.  It must have seemed harmless after all. ;-)

The third one we couldn't find either.  (DNF - SP nr 27 Kraków)  It was supposed to be a magnetic, but after having tried all the metal places in the vicinity we gave up.  It stormed, it rained and it was no longer a pleasure to be outside.  We were also standing next to a tree, half of which had already come down during the night, so it was safer to move inside.

When Renata and Eva returned from church Renata printed out our train tickets for Rennes and booked a taxi for the following morning.

Dinner consisted of some kind of pork stew with mashed potatoes and a beetroot salad.  Although I love all the Polish food, I had to get used to the enormous amount of salt which is being used in most of the meals.  As Patricia always adds some salt to her meals, and I never use salt when I am cooking, it must have only been me who had to get used to the salty taste, but it didn't really take away from the lovely Polish dishes.  On the contrary, I may even try and cook some myself when I am back home.  As for the restaurants, you can't find many better restaurants outside of Poland.  For us westerners the price is obviously attractive, but the ambiance, the cleanliness, the friendly service and of course the food, makes it for one of the best experiences.

Then a last chat and time for bed, because it's travel time again the following morning.