This post is definitely long overdue, but I must say the past few weeks have been beyond busy, plus I haven't been able to focus long enough to sit down for longer than 7 minutes. I have officially started my practical's and still have classes and am in full force with my marathon training. Let me give you some details.
Practicals
We are now the first year physical therapy interns at the local Rehabsports Clinic here in Poznan. When we first walked into this place, I was blown away. The marble flooring and high tech equipment combined with people walking around in suits and ties was not what I expected at all. We were motioned to go to the changing rooms and put on our intern clothes which we were informed were white scrubs. When we walked into the main therapy room, we immediately felt uncomfortable. Why? Well because it turns out that we were not supposed to wear all white, but a white t-shirt and black sweatpants. Oops. We obviously upgraded our wardrobe the next time we went in. Our main therapist that we were working with is Rafal Hejna who is absolutely amazing at his job, which is probably why he was offered a job two days ago to be the personal therapist for Ireneusz Jelen who is one of the best Polish soccer players that plays for a French team. After working as a therapist for about 10 years, Rafal landed his dream job. It was really neat to see how quickly you can move up when you're good at your job. And Rafal is REALLY good at his job. I mean this in all seriousness.
One of the first days at our practical, we were checking our range of motion. I was one of the volunteers for internal and external rotation of the hip. Once we realized that my internal rotation was on the smaller scale, Rafal started to tell me what he learned from this one simple test. Ready for this? He says, "So Ola, you don't really wear dresses a lot. When you go out, you don't get too dressed up and don't wear heels. You also have lower back pain and you run a lot. Am I right?" I nearly passed out when he said all this because it was all true! That's when I realized that being a physical therapist is even better than I thought it was. Our practical training is basically all observation and sometimes we get to do things on patients, but not so often. The cool thing about working at the clinic we work at is that we are surrounded and I mean surrounded by athletes. Everything from a professional basketball player recovering from a pulled hamstring to a ballet dancer that dislocated her patella to a national soccer player post ACL surgery. I absolutely love working in that kind of environment. It's definitely high up on my list of places I would like to work at. The best part is this- most of the therapists actually travel with some of the sports teams. How awesome is that?
One of the things I learned the other day is probably something you guys are not going to be looking forward to, but I'm super excited about. One of our PT's said to us that when we do deep massage techniques, the goal is to inflict pain in order to relieve pain. And when we do exercises with patients, pain is not something that should be visible. You know what that means? You guys are my guinea pigs. Can't wait to try new techniques I learned on you!
So basically between classes and practicals, my days are packed. Oh and the running of course.
Marathon Training
Enough about practical training...onto the good old marathon training. I officially have a countdown on my dry erase board that currently says "16 days until Milan". That's right- 16 days! I just got the chills. I'm obviously very very excited and also very very nervous about the race. I wasn't this nervous about the Chicago marathon, but I think it helped that I was in my own city running the race with one of my best friends (shoutout to KayBren!). My mom and friend from my program will be coming with me to Milan. I don't know if I'm more excited for the race or to actually be in Milan- I mean, it's MILANNNN! Don't worry, I will take lot's of pictures. Today is the day that I'm supposed to run my longest run aka 20 miles, but unfortunately when I woke up this morning and pulled up my shades, I saw the unthinkable. It was snowing sideways. I mean- really? Come on! I put all my winter clothes away two weeks ago and refuse to bring them back. It's supposed to be sunny and warm starting tomorrow again- today's snow "flurries" are apparently just a freak falling so let's hope those Polish weathermen have it all under control and are getting this weather right. Milan, on the other hand, has been 60 and sunny for the past 3 weeks straight. I'm just hoping it doesn't rain when we're there- especially on race day! I will keep you updated with this whole Milan thing the closer it gets.
Mama
Guess who is coming to visit me?! That's right- Hanna is making her way over to the PL next week. I'm not allowed to say when exactly because she wants to surprise the fam (which they are REALLY trying to pry the day out of me). My cousin Robert said he would call me every 5 minutes until I told him when my mom was coming. Fortunately, he only called three times. Thanks Robson! Oh and guess who is making her way back to the US of A?! MEEEE!!!! My parents surprised me with a plane ticket back for Easter because I technically have three weeks off. The reason being, I'm the first group to do my practicals and the other group has their practicals during the Easter break time which I happen to have off. I will be missing literally one important class, but it's no big deal at all. Needless to say, I'm very very excited and so surprised because I did not expect to be home for Easter. I will be home from April 21st until May 10th- canNOT wait.
Other News
The rest of my time here has been pretty busy with school and practicals and running. I have been able to hang out with my friends though quite a bit. It was my friend Nathan's 25th birthday a few weeks ago and it was deemed a success by many to say the least. Then there was the traditional St. Patrick's Day celebrations which we also celebrated with green beer and whiskey and traditional Irish songs at an Irish bar called "The Dubliner." We even got to go bowling one night which proved to many that my friends and I are probably the worst bowlers Poland has ever seen, but it was very fun- I mean it was cosmic bowling! What could be better than that? The other weekend I fell victim to IKEA. That store is deadly when it comes to a college budget and fun college things, so I bought a few things that were absolutely necessary such as a lint roller, can opener and a few picture frames. I had to get a new can opener because the can opener I bought before, I had to youtube instructions on how to use it and still could not figure it out. Ha!
Alright my fwends, it is time for me to run over to the gym to pump some iron or something. Maybe some volleyball today? I have been awful about taking pictures lately, but I promise the next post will include mostly pictures and no words. Pinky swear.
Peace and Love!
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Weiner Schnitzleland! Yaaaaa!
When we stepped off the intercity train in Berlin, it was as if we were at an airport. And not just any airport- it looked like an airport out of an architecture magazine or something. Our first 20 euro were spent on a 48 hour train pass that we could use on the S-bauhn, U-bauhn and whatever other bauhn there was. We were immediately impressed with the warmer temperature in Berlin and decided that we could- for the first time in a week- take off our leggings that we wore under our jeans. After finding our hotel...I mean hostel (which I received a 6 out of 10 on due to the fact that it smelled like smoke everywhere, but location-wise was ideal) we made our way to the east side of the city visiting the East Side Gallery which is a 2km mural of politically and socially inspired paintings. The murals definitely sparked an array of interesting topics that our group of friends has probably never really discussed.
We also got to try our first weiner schnitzle and German sausage with potatoes which we were all stoked about at a local restaurant in Friednrishnitzlewitzle. I'm pretty sure that wasn't the name of the street or restaurant, but German for me is absolutely impossible to pronounce- believe me I tried mannnnyyy times and all the words just ended up sounding like 'schnitzle' so the girls decided that I should probably be the last one to attempt to speak the language. Later that night we grabbed some German beer, but some of us decided that the Czech beer we tried was a bit better (do I hear another Eurotrip coming along to Prague? hahaha). When we were going back to our HOsTEL (that's for you Jill), we noticed that everyone was walking around with beers in their hands, so since we were trying to fit in and look like locals, we decided to grab a few 1 euro roadies. I'm sure that we still didn't look local due to the fact that we still had a map in our hands and were looking around to make sure roadies were in fact legal. After a quick kebab (with feta cheese might I add- amazzinggggg) we hit the hay and woke up at the butt crack of dawn the next morning to get ready for a tour filled day.
Our original plan was to do a tour bus of Berlin, but then Jill found an awesome walking tour that only cost 10 euro and started right in front of our HOsTEL. Our tour guide was a born and raised New Yorker who did his undergrad at NYU and grad school at Columbia for architecture and moved to Berlin two years ago. He explained to us that not only were living costs in Berlin a lot less expensive, the lifestyle was a lot more up-and-coming versus the overrated NYC (his words, not mine). He works as an architect during the week and does tours on the weekends to help pay off his student loans from college (surprised right?). When he said that, we all just looked at each other understanding EXACTLY what he was talking about. To say the least, he took us ALLLLLLLL around Berlin and explained to us everything about the history and architecture of the buildings we passed by. He was probably the most informative and knowledgable tour guide I had ever had. Our tour even ran 1.5 hours longer than expected. We ended the tour at Brandenburg Gate where we were fortunate enough to not only see a beer bicycle, but also a man proposing to his girlfriend which we were so excited about. Next, we attempted to go into a museum, but 12 euro a person was not something we were prepared to spend, so a quick stop in our room to change and a LONGGGGG walk to find a restaurant that our tour guide recommended were our next order of business.
When we asked our tour guide for a good place to eat if we only had 15 euro a person, he immediately said Spatzneazle (or something like that) because "you get a huge amount of food for cheap" which sold us on the spot. It turns out that the restaurant was a very local place where people from the neighborhood stopped by to grab a bite to eat. What we thought was very interesting, but amazing was the following: when a couple was sitting at a table for four, they would move to one side of the table and let another random couple sit at their table when the restaurant was full. It was very different than anything we're used to, but we thought it was very cool. Later that night, we packed up our bags because the girls all had flights at 10am and I had a train back to Poznan at 9:30am. After one last kebab from the place under our HOsTEL, we went back up to the room for our last night of the best Eurotrip there has ever been. Although we all expected to stay up late, little Jilly was the first one to pass out making her an easy target for the classic, "Jill you woke up in the middle of the night and ate the rest of the kebab which is still hanging out of your mouth" trick. She obviously didn't think it was as funny as we did, but it was a very well planned out scenario. The following morning, everyone got ready and we made our way to the train station. I was very nervous for the goodbye, but we did VERY well. There were no tears! Honest to God! Nobody cried! Well that is expect for Lauren the whole plane ride back to New York, but honestly, who looks at vacation pictures and watches two sad movies?! Not a good idea. Overall, our trip was beyond a success- we laughed, we cried, we ate like pigs, we walked hundreds of miles and we talked about a million things. It was exactly what all of us needed and it definitely rejuvenated everyone.
One last sappy thing and I promise that will be all. I am so fortunate to have such amazing friends. I mean honestly, which one of your friends would travel halfway across the world just to spend ten days with you? I love you girls to the moon and back.
We also got to try our first weiner schnitzle and German sausage with potatoes which we were all stoked about at a local restaurant in Friednrishnitzlewitzle. I'm pretty sure that wasn't the name of the street or restaurant, but German for me is absolutely impossible to pronounce- believe me I tried mannnnyyy times and all the words just ended up sounding like 'schnitzle' so the girls decided that I should probably be the last one to attempt to speak the language. Later that night we grabbed some German beer, but some of us decided that the Czech beer we tried was a bit better (do I hear another Eurotrip coming along to Prague? hahaha). When we were going back to our HOsTEL (that's for you Jill), we noticed that everyone was walking around with beers in their hands, so since we were trying to fit in and look like locals, we decided to grab a few 1 euro roadies. I'm sure that we still didn't look local due to the fact that we still had a map in our hands and were looking around to make sure roadies were in fact legal. After a quick kebab (with feta cheese might I add- amazzinggggg) we hit the hay and woke up at the butt crack of dawn the next morning to get ready for a tour filled day.
Our original plan was to do a tour bus of Berlin, but then Jill found an awesome walking tour that only cost 10 euro and started right in front of our HOsTEL. Our tour guide was a born and raised New Yorker who did his undergrad at NYU and grad school at Columbia for architecture and moved to Berlin two years ago. He explained to us that not only were living costs in Berlin a lot less expensive, the lifestyle was a lot more up-and-coming versus the overrated NYC (his words, not mine). He works as an architect during the week and does tours on the weekends to help pay off his student loans from college (surprised right?). When he said that, we all just looked at each other understanding EXACTLY what he was talking about. To say the least, he took us ALLLLLLLL around Berlin and explained to us everything about the history and architecture of the buildings we passed by. He was probably the most informative and knowledgable tour guide I had ever had. Our tour even ran 1.5 hours longer than expected. We ended the tour at Brandenburg Gate where we were fortunate enough to not only see a beer bicycle, but also a man proposing to his girlfriend which we were so excited about. Next, we attempted to go into a museum, but 12 euro a person was not something we were prepared to spend, so a quick stop in our room to change and a LONGGGGG walk to find a restaurant that our tour guide recommended were our next order of business.
When we asked our tour guide for a good place to eat if we only had 15 euro a person, he immediately said Spatzneazle (or something like that) because "you get a huge amount of food for cheap" which sold us on the spot. It turns out that the restaurant was a very local place where people from the neighborhood stopped by to grab a bite to eat. What we thought was very interesting, but amazing was the following: when a couple was sitting at a table for four, they would move to one side of the table and let another random couple sit at their table when the restaurant was full. It was very different than anything we're used to, but we thought it was very cool. Later that night, we packed up our bags because the girls all had flights at 10am and I had a train back to Poznan at 9:30am. After one last kebab from the place under our HOsTEL, we went back up to the room for our last night of the best Eurotrip there has ever been. Although we all expected to stay up late, little Jilly was the first one to pass out making her an easy target for the classic, "Jill you woke up in the middle of the night and ate the rest of the kebab which is still hanging out of your mouth" trick. She obviously didn't think it was as funny as we did, but it was a very well planned out scenario. The following morning, everyone got ready and we made our way to the train station. I was very nervous for the goodbye, but we did VERY well. There were no tears! Honest to God! Nobody cried! Well that is expect for Lauren the whole plane ride back to New York, but honestly, who looks at vacation pictures and watches two sad movies?! Not a good idea. Overall, our trip was beyond a success- we laughed, we cried, we ate like pigs, we walked hundreds of miles and we talked about a million things. It was exactly what all of us needed and it definitely rejuvenated everyone.
One last sappy thing and I promise that will be all. I am so fortunate to have such amazing friends. I mean honestly, which one of your friends would travel halfway across the world just to spend ten days with you? I love you girls to the moon and back.
When in the Poz
The adventures continue...
When we arrived in the gymnasium sized airport of Poznan, I just had this feeling that this would be the part of our trip that would be the most relaxing or party filled. Not sure what I thought exactly, but something along those lines. We were fortunate enough to have an amazing apartment to use for the three days that we were in Poznan- compliments of one of my friends- shout out to Malin! After getting ready for the night, we went to the first restaurant we could walk into due to the negative degree weather outside. Unfortunately, after dishing out the big bucks in Krakow, we realized that we could only really afford a bowl of soup each (gotten get the soup) and a bottle of wine, of course. After going to a bit less expensive restaurant and stuffing our faces like it was our job, we headed to a classic Irish Pub. Ha! When in Poland, right? Although we were all very tired, my friends Tim and Fil showed up and were determined to keep us out until the late hours of the night in which they succeeded. The next morning was slightly rough to say the least, but somehow we managed to dominate the shopping centers of Poznan aka the Old Brewery. We also got matching bracelets at a custom jewelry store called Lilou which we thought was just plain old precious :) After a full day of shopping, we went to my favorite sushi place, Hanami. A few dozen rolls and chicken teriyaki dishes later, we were getting ready to go out so the girls could experience a typical Poznan night out which we deemed successful after a quick pregame where we got to see Ethel, a round or two at Shot Bar and a hilarious dance session at Czekolada. The following day was even rougher than the previous day, but we were able to see my dorm room (don't worry, the girls took pictures and those will be posted as soon as I get them) and go to the Malta Gallery aka another shopping center where the girls were able to get most of their souvenirs from Poznan. Later that night, we attempted to watch the Lech Poznan soccer game, but every restaurant and pub was packed and we had to settle for Pizza Hut. After searching for food for quite a while, we decided to head back to "our" apartment and pack up for the last part of our adventures. Tim and Fil joined us, but unlike us, they decided that they would go out. They stayed at the apartment until about 1am after we decided we would have breakfast together at Bagels and Friends before our train left for Berlin the following morning.
Now picture this. You're sleeping on the couch covered in blankets. You're nice and warm. Dreaming about a traditional German meal or something. Then, all of a sudden your hear the doorbell ring-not once, not twice and not even three times. As you bolt out of bed, you realize it's pitch black outside and you're blind anyways because you can't find your glasses. When you walk closer to the door, you hear the giggling- yes giggling- of two boys that sound like those same two boys that you are apparently friends with. Opening the door, you realize that you were right- Tim and Fil are standing in front of you at 5:30 in the morning. Although you try to stop them, they think it's hilarious to wake up a certain Gill and Kasia which they insist on jumping on. Long story short, the boys woke us up at 5:30am. No big deal. Hahaha.
Since it took us a while to clean up, we grabbed a quick Mickey D's breakfast...sorry Bagels and Friends- maybe next time! We said a quick goodbye to the boys and headed towards the train station where we exchanged our wonderful Polish zloty to Euro. That's when we realized that we should probably stock up on food and drinks in Poland because we would have to pay three times the amount for everything in Germany. A full supply of water, candy bars and chocolate filled our bags. Once we hopped on the intercity train, we said goodbye to the second part of our adventure and prepared for the beginning of the adventures of the Schniztlenizzleland.
When we arrived in the gymnasium sized airport of Poznan, I just had this feeling that this would be the part of our trip that would be the most relaxing or party filled. Not sure what I thought exactly, but something along those lines. We were fortunate enough to have an amazing apartment to use for the three days that we were in Poznan- compliments of one of my friends- shout out to Malin! After getting ready for the night, we went to the first restaurant we could walk into due to the negative degree weather outside. Unfortunately, after dishing out the big bucks in Krakow, we realized that we could only really afford a bowl of soup each (gotten get the soup) and a bottle of wine, of course. After going to a bit less expensive restaurant and stuffing our faces like it was our job, we headed to a classic Irish Pub. Ha! When in Poland, right? Although we were all very tired, my friends Tim and Fil showed up and were determined to keep us out until the late hours of the night in which they succeeded. The next morning was slightly rough to say the least, but somehow we managed to dominate the shopping centers of Poznan aka the Old Brewery. We also got matching bracelets at a custom jewelry store called Lilou which we thought was just plain old precious :) After a full day of shopping, we went to my favorite sushi place, Hanami. A few dozen rolls and chicken teriyaki dishes later, we were getting ready to go out so the girls could experience a typical Poznan night out which we deemed successful after a quick pregame where we got to see Ethel, a round or two at Shot Bar and a hilarious dance session at Czekolada. The following day was even rougher than the previous day, but we were able to see my dorm room (don't worry, the girls took pictures and those will be posted as soon as I get them) and go to the Malta Gallery aka another shopping center where the girls were able to get most of their souvenirs from Poznan. Later that night, we attempted to watch the Lech Poznan soccer game, but every restaurant and pub was packed and we had to settle for Pizza Hut. After searching for food for quite a while, we decided to head back to "our" apartment and pack up for the last part of our adventures. Tim and Fil joined us, but unlike us, they decided that they would go out. They stayed at the apartment until about 1am after we decided we would have breakfast together at Bagels and Friends before our train left for Berlin the following morning.
Now picture this. You're sleeping on the couch covered in blankets. You're nice and warm. Dreaming about a traditional German meal or something. Then, all of a sudden your hear the doorbell ring-not once, not twice and not even three times. As you bolt out of bed, you realize it's pitch black outside and you're blind anyways because you can't find your glasses. When you walk closer to the door, you hear the giggling- yes giggling- of two boys that sound like those same two boys that you are apparently friends with. Opening the door, you realize that you were right- Tim and Fil are standing in front of you at 5:30 in the morning. Although you try to stop them, they think it's hilarious to wake up a certain Gill and Kasia which they insist on jumping on. Long story short, the boys woke us up at 5:30am. No big deal. Hahaha.
Since it took us a while to clean up, we grabbed a quick Mickey D's breakfast...sorry Bagels and Friends- maybe next time! We said a quick goodbye to the boys and headed towards the train station where we exchanged our wonderful Polish zloty to Euro. That's when we realized that we should probably stock up on food and drinks in Poland because we would have to pay three times the amount for everything in Germany. A full supply of water, candy bars and chocolate filled our bags. Once we hopped on the intercity train, we said goodbye to the second part of our adventure and prepared for the beginning of the adventures of the Schniztlenizzleland.
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Eurotrip 2011? Don't Mind If I Do
Here it is! The moment you've all been waiting for! The post of a lifetime! Well cross that. There will actually be three posts about Eurotrip 2011. As many of you know, my four girlfriends from Loyola came to visit me in Polska for a ten day trip. I must say that I had an absolute blast and never thought I'd have such amazing friends that would travel to the other side of the world just to spend a week with me and use up most of their vacation time as well. Cheers to five!
Part 1
I decided that it would be a great idea to not sleep the night before the girls came since my flight was at 5:45am and due to the fact that I almost missed my flight for Christmas, my thought process seemed flawless. Turns out that staying up until the butt crack of dawn isn't the best idea because my narcolepsy kicked in every time I sat down for more than a three minute period. Needless to say, I somehow made it to Krakow where I waited for the girls to arrive. Unfortunately, their plane was delayed 30 minutes, so I had to wait even longer to surprise them at the airport. When they came out of the baggage claim, I'm pretty sure everyone thought we were crazy. The amount of screaming and yelling and shrieking and sheer excitement was not visible anywhere, but in our corner of hugging and crying.
Our apartment in Krakow was right on the Main Square which was not only the perfect location, but also the perfect view. After we unpacked, our first stop was dessert and wine (Lauren's suggestion of course). After getting ourselves familiar with the area, we grabbed dinner at a place called "Miod Malina" where we had an assortment of traditional polish food complimented with some vino. After a long dinner, we decided to stop at an underground karaoke bar where we spent most of the night. Let's just say that after a few Polish beers we were ready to yelp out our Hamilton's classics (shoutout to LUC!) and represent. We met a lot of people, including a group of British army guys who were impressed by our unique rendition of Spice Girls. Although we were not planning on it, we went to bed very late. The next morning wasn't exactly the most smooth one, as we had a 12 hour tour scheduled of Auschwitz and Wieliczka (salt mine). We agreed that seeing Auschwitz was one of the most uncomfortable experiences that we had ever had, but was also a great way to discuss history and our opinion about the situation in the early 1940's. Our next stop was the Wieliczka salt mine which was incredible. We took many pictures in the mine, but the pictures don't do justice to the remarkable chapels and sculptures that were made of salt. You were allowed to lick the walls since they were made of salt (believe me, they really were!), but you were not allowed to lick the sculptures which the two Asian guys that were on our tour could not process since they kept getting in trouble for licking the sculptures.
The next day we explored the city of Krakow after we purchased good ol' Gill a new pair of shoes due to the fact that the ones she wore soaked through and would have caused her to have frostbite which none of us wanted to deal with. Our last night in Krakow we spent eating pizza and kebabs (very American of us, we know) and checking out an underground jazz bar. We had to wake up very early the next morning to catch the 8:30am bus to Zakopane which we made in perfect timing. What happened on the bus, however, was something that we were not expecting. Let me set the scene for you. There were about 20 people on our coach bus so everyone got to sit alone in a double seat. Unfortunately, after our filling breakfast on the bus, our little Theresa started feeling sick, so she decided to start switching seats towards the back of the bus and then the front and then the front middle and then the back middle and God only knows how many times she changed her seat. At this point, Jill was hiding in the back of the bus away from Theresa due to the fact that vomit and Jill just don't work well together. After a while, Lauren remembered that she brought some Dramamine with her just in case someone got motion sick. Fortunately for us, we had the perfect candidate for this motion sickness drug. Although Lauren said that it should take about 20 minutes for the drug to work, it took double that time due to the fact that our little Theresa was fighting it like it was her job. After about 40 minutes, Theresa started telling me, "Ola. I think I'm having a heart attack. My pulse is going so fast. Ola. Can you check my puuu...." Yes. That's right. Mid word. Theresa literally passed out in the middle of her word. Not even sentence- word! My reaction to this was, of course, "Oh my God! We drugged Theresa!" Naturally, being the good friends we are, we took a whole photo shoot of our dear friend completely coma-tosed.
Once we arrived in Zakopane, we dragged Theresa off the bus and made our way to our adorable cabin-like hostel where we quickly dropped our bags off and went on an adventure into the city. I had a whole fun filled day planned for us which included a quick hike or two. Okay. Maybe the hike wasn't exactly quick...it would have been three hours one way, then only 2km back plus a sleigh ride! What could be better than that? Well actually, I can name a million things that could be better than that considering that it was- no joke- 2 degrees Fahrenheit outside. Once the girls broke it to me that the last thing they wanted to do was get frostbite, we started our adventure through town stopping at four or five cute restaurants for some warm wine or tomato soup or just plain old hot chocolate. Later that night we even got to listen to a highlander band which doesn't sound too cool when I write it down, but it was really neat. The next day we took the bus back to Krakow where we had a flight to Poznan with a connection in Warsaw. When we got to Warsaw, we were exhausted and just needed some coffee. And a Polish beer. So, in college fashion, we all got a coffee and a beer at 1pm...hey it's 5 o'clock somewhere right?! The problem arose when we realized that we didn't have an hour and fifteen minutes until our flight, but actually fifteen minutes until our flight. Fortunately, we still managed to drink our coffees and our beers and make it to the plane with plenty of time to spare- I call that skills.
This all leads me to part 2 of our trip which will be posted tomorrow! Stay tuned!
Part 1
I decided that it would be a great idea to not sleep the night before the girls came since my flight was at 5:45am and due to the fact that I almost missed my flight for Christmas, my thought process seemed flawless. Turns out that staying up until the butt crack of dawn isn't the best idea because my narcolepsy kicked in every time I sat down for more than a three minute period. Needless to say, I somehow made it to Krakow where I waited for the girls to arrive. Unfortunately, their plane was delayed 30 minutes, so I had to wait even longer to surprise them at the airport. When they came out of the baggage claim, I'm pretty sure everyone thought we were crazy. The amount of screaming and yelling and shrieking and sheer excitement was not visible anywhere, but in our corner of hugging and crying.
Our apartment in Krakow was right on the Main Square which was not only the perfect location, but also the perfect view. After we unpacked, our first stop was dessert and wine (Lauren's suggestion of course). After getting ourselves familiar with the area, we grabbed dinner at a place called "Miod Malina" where we had an assortment of traditional polish food complimented with some vino. After a long dinner, we decided to stop at an underground karaoke bar where we spent most of the night. Let's just say that after a few Polish beers we were ready to yelp out our Hamilton's classics (shoutout to LUC!) and represent. We met a lot of people, including a group of British army guys who were impressed by our unique rendition of Spice Girls. Although we were not planning on it, we went to bed very late. The next morning wasn't exactly the most smooth one, as we had a 12 hour tour scheduled of Auschwitz and Wieliczka (salt mine). We agreed that seeing Auschwitz was one of the most uncomfortable experiences that we had ever had, but was also a great way to discuss history and our opinion about the situation in the early 1940's. Our next stop was the Wieliczka salt mine which was incredible. We took many pictures in the mine, but the pictures don't do justice to the remarkable chapels and sculptures that were made of salt. You were allowed to lick the walls since they were made of salt (believe me, they really were!), but you were not allowed to lick the sculptures which the two Asian guys that were on our tour could not process since they kept getting in trouble for licking the sculptures.
The next day we explored the city of Krakow after we purchased good ol' Gill a new pair of shoes due to the fact that the ones she wore soaked through and would have caused her to have frostbite which none of us wanted to deal with. Our last night in Krakow we spent eating pizza and kebabs (very American of us, we know) and checking out an underground jazz bar. We had to wake up very early the next morning to catch the 8:30am bus to Zakopane which we made in perfect timing. What happened on the bus, however, was something that we were not expecting. Let me set the scene for you. There were about 20 people on our coach bus so everyone got to sit alone in a double seat. Unfortunately, after our filling breakfast on the bus, our little Theresa started feeling sick, so she decided to start switching seats towards the back of the bus and then the front and then the front middle and then the back middle and God only knows how many times she changed her seat. At this point, Jill was hiding in the back of the bus away from Theresa due to the fact that vomit and Jill just don't work well together. After a while, Lauren remembered that she brought some Dramamine with her just in case someone got motion sick. Fortunately for us, we had the perfect candidate for this motion sickness drug. Although Lauren said that it should take about 20 minutes for the drug to work, it took double that time due to the fact that our little Theresa was fighting it like it was her job. After about 40 minutes, Theresa started telling me, "Ola. I think I'm having a heart attack. My pulse is going so fast. Ola. Can you check my puuu...." Yes. That's right. Mid word. Theresa literally passed out in the middle of her word. Not even sentence- word! My reaction to this was, of course, "Oh my God! We drugged Theresa!" Naturally, being the good friends we are, we took a whole photo shoot of our dear friend completely coma-tosed.
Once we arrived in Zakopane, we dragged Theresa off the bus and made our way to our adorable cabin-like hostel where we quickly dropped our bags off and went on an adventure into the city. I had a whole fun filled day planned for us which included a quick hike or two. Okay. Maybe the hike wasn't exactly quick...it would have been three hours one way, then only 2km back plus a sleigh ride! What could be better than that? Well actually, I can name a million things that could be better than that considering that it was- no joke- 2 degrees Fahrenheit outside. Once the girls broke it to me that the last thing they wanted to do was get frostbite, we started our adventure through town stopping at four or five cute restaurants for some warm wine or tomato soup or just plain old hot chocolate. Later that night we even got to listen to a highlander band which doesn't sound too cool when I write it down, but it was really neat. The next day we took the bus back to Krakow where we had a flight to Poznan with a connection in Warsaw. When we got to Warsaw, we were exhausted and just needed some coffee. And a Polish beer. So, in college fashion, we all got a coffee and a beer at 1pm...hey it's 5 o'clock somewhere right?! The problem arose when we realized that we didn't have an hour and fifteen minutes until our flight, but actually fifteen minutes until our flight. Fortunately, we still managed to drink our coffees and our beers and make it to the plane with plenty of time to spare- I call that skills.
This all leads me to part 2 of our trip which will be posted tomorrow! Stay tuned!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)