Day 13: New Year's Adventures in Kraków
The breakfast room the next morning was infested with Russian tourists and kids, both of whom had their hands all over the food. Kevin and other germophobes would not do so well in Poland.

Chase took about 2 hours to get ready, so I decided to leave his ass in the hotel. I took my camera and did a photoshoot. The city is absolutely photogenic. It was somehow even more so with 4+" of snow.

I loved the apostles at the one church:



I ducked briefly into an empty café, on the way. I had a beer. Then another. Some Russians came in. They were so obnoxious and dressed so scummy. They wanted vodka drinks. How people can drink so early in the day amazes me.

They were loud. I think these were the same people that sat next to me at the classical music concert in Prague last year. At the time, I commanded them in German to shut up. The German language works great for these type of situations.



After taking dozens of pictures, Chase and I met up at 2:00 pm and had a late lunch at the Kabab place across from the Kabab place that I like. Scrawny bitch picked this particular restaurant. My kebab had two thin pieces of chicken. Probably the only "bad" meal that I have had on this trip. I mean, it tasted fine, but just was not the best.

We walked around some more.

BREAKING STUFF

I was wanting a beer and to get out of the cold. So we ducked into a bar. The woman waitress did a longwinded soloquay in gibberish, or in Polish. Not sure which.

I explained we spoke English and she apologized that the bar was closing.

No problem. We packed up our stuff, put on our coats then went to the door. The door was locked with the key on the door.

Although Chase is a high falootin' Wall Street tax lawyer, he is a bit "Glenn Doyle"ish when it comes to things like locks. He couldn't get the door to unlock.

I tried it. No dice.

We asked the woman to help us with the door. She tried and tried.

"Let me try again," I said.

I forced the lock hard to the left and it gave.

"F***," I said as I realized that I was holding the broken key. Two cuties in a nearby table thought this was terribly funny.

The woman was not happy with me. The door was now useless. She went to get the manager and we sat and waited patiently. The manager came and inspected the door. Yep. Still a fragment of the key in the door. She gave us a dirty look as she walked by.

After 10 minutes, the original waitress led us through the kitchen and out the side door to the cold air outside.

LATER THAT AFTERNOON

We found another tiny café and I had a couple of beers there while we wrote some quirky postcards to the boyz back home.

We bought some small groceries and champagne to drink at midnight.

Neither of us were really in the mood for going out into the cold, so Chase suggested I go down and ask if we could eat in the hotel's restaurant. One waitress spoke English. She told me that we could eat there. The 5 year old, daughter was adorable. The mom encouraged her to say "hello" in English. The girl timidly spoke the word, smiling.

About 20 minutes later, Chase and I took a seat and the waiter sat us and told us he was only serving desserts and salads.

Smiling, I told him that I had just talked with Mom Waitress and she said it would be ok for us to eat. I was not bitter about it. I just stated the fact. He went to check with her, and agreed that we could eat anything on the menu. Thanks, buddy. Thanks for giving us the opportunity to eat at your establishment. Appreciate it. Really.

"Mały chuda suka" (Chase's new Polish nickname) and I split an inexpensive bottle of Chilean wine. I had stuffed chicken with potato thingies. Very good.

We relaxed a bit in the hotel room, before Chase took another 2 hours to get ready. He's just like a woman.

NEW YEAR'S EVE FESTIVITIES

Our reservations for Klub 7 were at 9:00 pm, but we got there a bit later than that. Fortunately, the woman in the coat closet allowed us to check in the bottles of vodka and champagne, despite the fact that the bouncer said "no bottles." He wanted to "claim them" probably for his own usage.

We danced a bit then at 11:30, we left to walk to the main square.

Thankfully, it was not as busy as the year before. We stood in a nice place. Moments before midnight, we did a countdown, in Polish.

Then it was midnight. The sky filled with fireworks as we got splashed with champagne. Chase troubled himself with the champagne bottle for a few seconds before I grabbed it and pulled the top off.

With no other alternatives, I gave Chase a quick peck on the mouth.

We gulped down the entire bottle as the fireworks continued and people danced to the live rock music.

They make bottles of champagne increasingly smaller and smaller and before we knew it, it was gone. I promptly dropped my bottle of vodka, on accident. The glass was at my feet. I picked up some shards and discarded them.

BACK AT KLUB 7

We walked back to the club and there were more people there. We danced and drank. A crazy-dancing dark haired guy danced with me for a bit. Chase, being a nelly little man wanted to go home. Go for it!

Dark haired guy brought me a beer and we embraced a bit and danced more. I must have been inappropriate at some point, as he suddenly left, frowning. He didn't speak a lick of English. I was fully drunk and it was past 2:30 am, so I decided to grab my coat and hit the road.

There were not so many taxis, so I decided to walk the 3 miles or so back to the hotel. People were walking about, even at 3:00 in the morning. Some Italian tourists wanted me to take a picture and I got a picture with the pretty Italian woman.

I managed to stagger back although I didn't find the hotel at first search. I woke Chase up at 3:30 am and was very obnoxious.
- posted by Matt @ 12:04 PM