Thursday – Not all that well
I missed leaving with my colleagues this morning by about 30 minutes. I was just in time for back to back meetings. Pretty uneventful stuff. My stomach feeling better. I had a sandwich for breakfast, and for lunch.

Even so, I really wasn't feeling well. People were staring at me because my nose was running non-stop. I was coughing a real deep cough. My head hurt and I had problems concentrating but I tried my best.

Still, I feel left out. While I have got a lot out of the training, it's been a little restricted because of me being sick.

I got home, got some groceries for supper—ironically yet ANOTHER "kanapka" (sandwich.) I fell asleep. I woke up a few hours later and watched "Charlie's Angels" on the tele.

I tried to fall asleep but I could not. Like my heart was racing. I finally got up and blogged.
- posted by Matt @ 2:20 AM 0 comments

 
Wednesday – Recovering
At 6:45, I buzzed my boss' room to get some drugs to relieve the achy pain I still had. 15 minutes later, he was at my door with a pill. I felt like hell, so I went back to bed where I stayed until 11:00.

I logged on to my work, got ready and was at the meetings at 1:00 or so.

The meetings went well. I was surprisingly awake and felt like I was getting a lot out of the session and had some things to contribute. The meetings ended around 3:45.

Janusz, the boss, had planned a nice afternoon for us. We were to go to the Palace of Science and Culture Panaroma deck and stroll through the exhibit they had on the mind. We left at 4:15 or so and headed to "Stalin," the affectionate name of this building.

Later, we met our group in front of the tomb of the unknown soldier, where a very loud man in his 60s walked us around, offering history, etc.

The man was a nice guy, a bit selective in his history. (For example, he talked about Russia as being "the Evil Empire," but really brushed over the "whole Nazi thing."

My guess is that it was about 20F outside. Really freaking cold. Some people in the group did not have hats & gloves. I had forgotten my scarf, but I was wearing my trusted Old Navy wool jacket that had served me all through my winter Eastern Europe trip in January. While I had worn decent walking shoes, they soon got wet and, without my wool socks, my toes froze.

The tour went on and on. I'm not saying I didn't enjoy it; it's just it could have been a bit shorter. The guy was a tad senile and repeated himself a lot—one factor for the half hour tour becoming 1 hour 15 minutes.


Warsaw Old Town square at night. Does it look like it's 20F outside?

Finally, we arrived at the old town square. It was really nice, but I was ready to get inside. Although the group had solid food, I just had some bread and two different types of soups. I was still not feeling well and I didn't want to push things too much.

I was sitting at the end and I could not hear much and my head was a bit woozy. I decided it would be best to leave. I quietly bid my farewell to my boss, not wanting to break up the party.

One person in my group really gets on my nerves. The person constantly complains about Poland and she doesn't realize people may take offense to what she says. Tonight it was cold and she was complaining about it like it was the next ice age. I finally told her that "she probably wouldn't complain if she were out in the cold, in Beijing." I think she got the picture and shut her mouth. There are a couple of reasons why she is so successful at pressing my nerves, but I'll not go into it.

I got back to the hotel, blogged and immediately hit the sack. I couldn’t sleep right away, though. I called Kevin then laid in bed unable to sleep.
- posted by Matt @ 4:30 AM 0 comments

 
Tuesday VB (Vomit Breath)
I woke up this morning around 7:00 am, marginally late as I had some early morning meetings. I managed to get ready and go to work despite feeling like crap. I was so tired and it took all the energy I could muster to stay awake during the meetings. I had a Red Bull at lunch.

During the day, I got to feeling progressively worse in my meetings. Around 4:00, I couldn't take it any longer and I went home and proceeded to vomit and have other "digestive issues" that are not appropriate to talk in front of a lady, or in front of Chase. I've napped and felt awful.

I'm here in Warsaw this week to work and I really need to attend those meetings…
- posted by Matt @ 1:35 AM 0 comments

 
Snowy Monday in Warsaw
I was in the lobby to meet my American colleagues and share a taxi to drive us to the Polish HQ. It was snowing pretty well.

My day was hectic to say the least. I had back to back meetings from 8:00 am to 5:00 with people in Warsaw then met later via conference call with Jaime and Alex. I was exhausted. Company had really gotten their money's worth for me. I was spent from all the brain activity.

I went to "Some Place Else," a restaurant in the Sheraton, where I had a Fajita and a couple of beers, alone. (We will be having group dinners all week; no offense, but I like some time to myself, too.) The fajitas were pretty good, but I was a bit leary of the guacamole. I once got food poisoning on guacamole, in Caracas. (I scraped it OFF the tortilla shell as it taste bad.)

I really had had good intentions to go to bed early. But then Mike called my room and asked if I wanted a beer. I didn't refuse: "Just a quick one." Famous last words. I probably had 3 over the course of a couple of hours. Not excessive, but enough to make me sleep really well.
- posted by Matt @ 5:34 PM 0 comments

 
Krakow II
I put Mike and Brad to bed around 2:00 am. But I still was not tired. So I decided to go to Klub 7, which is a very short walk from the Atrium Hotel. It was snowing. As I walked from street lamp to street lamp, the snow glimmered and fell. It was almost magical.

Piotr was at the bar and was in costume as "Rita." He introduced me to Marcim and Darek. We talked and drank beer. Then another beer. Then another. Then another.


"Rita"


Darek, "Rita" and Marcim

I was getting kind of drunk and I realized that it was probably late, so I left.

I exited the bar and realized something was wrong. It was snowing. But it was also daylight! I looked at my cell phone. It was 6:30 am! Jesus. I was supposed to meet Brad and Mike in just one and a half hours.


Daylight!

Needless to say, I didn't make my breakfast appointment with Mike and Brad. The phone rang at 8:00ish, but I ignored it. Screw them, I thought. They are taking a private tour. They can do it on their own. They don't need me. So I slept onward. Bastard.

I woke up at 11:30. I packed up all of my stuff, paid for the room and went to the train station. Even with 5 hours of drunken sleep, I was still hanging. Time for more doghair.

Since the train didn't leave until 2:00 pm, I locked up my baggage and went to a rather nice restaurant. I got a Polish soup and some Indian style "empanadas." The couple of beers made me feel better.

I found my way back to the train station and jumped on the train. I marginally made it. Within 1 minute, the train was pulling away from the platform. Very close call. Or was it really good, accurate planning?


The train was to leave at 2:00...

I sat in a compartment with the Polish people: a couple and a tired woman. The man was reading Da Vinci code. I asked him if he liked it. For the next three hours, he, his wife and I talked. We talked about travels and showed each other pictures (from our laptops.) We talked about Poland, lots of stuff. They were kind people. Interesting conversationalists. I think it was the first train ride that I did not drink some form of alcohol.

At 5:00 pm, the train dropped me off at Warszawa Centralna, my favorite train station ever.


Platform


The neo-communist facade


Stalin

The taxi took me to the Sheraton, where I made myself a bath and relaxed. It's a very good business hotel. Very comfortable.
- posted by Matt @ 12:02 AM 0 comments

 
Krakow I
I woke up on my own around 8:30. I cleaned up and went to breakfast. The Atrium Hotel has an excellent breakfast buffet. I gorged, trying to ignore my hangover.

Next came sightseeing and power shopping. I had made a list of specific items that I wanted to buy in Europe. (Things like A4 notebooks, a Da Vinci calendar that I had seen at Christmas, etc.)


Cloth Halls


A really bad idea. A mother thought it was funny to have her little girl "play" with the pigeons. Later on, the mother had the girl crawl in the sewers to "find rats."

I found almost everything on my list and got some small things for Kevin. It's a surprise. Not that if I wrote it here he would ever know. He doesn't read what I blog.

I had lunch at my favorite kabab place. Actually, I had a nice salad:



Salad and drink


The inside of the kabab place

I walked around town, taking pictures.


Ducks


Wawel Castle


Wawelito

Around 2:00, I headed back to the hotel, as Brad and Mike were to come at that time. I sat in the hotel restaurant and drank beer. Then another. Then another, all while studying my new Polish book that I got in Lublin.

Finally, I got a text message from Brad that they had been delayed and would be coming 7 hours later than expected. I went to my room, hung out then decided to get a bite to eat. The theme for the balance of the day was walking in the cold. I had been nice and warm in the hotel restaurant, drinking beer, so I decided to go back there and get something to eat.

For a starter, I got a borsht soup that had meat ravioli in it. Supper was a very tender veal with mushrooms in a white wine sauce, served with French fries. It was exceptionally good.

Upon arrival, Brad and Mike knocked on the door of my hotel room. We went for a nice midnight walk along the royal route. Mike had some kababs. Strangely, a grocery store store was open, much to the delight of Mike, who is a bit geeky when it comes to stuff like that.

We took some pictures of Wawel and other things; they were cold, so we had a quick drink at the Sheraton and got a taxi to take us back to the Atrium.
- posted by Matt @ 12:51 AM 0 comments