A Weekend in Poland
It was my first trip in Club Europe (British Airways business class) with champagne and 2 helpings of fillet steak. And to top off the flight I got to sit in the jump seat on the flight deck (pilots cabin) for the landing at Warsaw Airport! It was epic - watching the lights streaming away beneath, a rabbit running for its life, the pilot straining at the controls and then touch down!
That experience was organised by my team leader - Anne. A good way to start our team fam trip. There are 4 others in my team besides myself and Anne: Julie - from New Zealand, Helen - who's last weekend away was to Ibiza, Mat - an -ex-comedian from Newcastle, and Sarah-Lou - with a gentle exterior - but who instigated a debaucherous vodka drinking session on the Saturday.
Our first impression of Warsaw was not one of awe, so much as 'hooray we're drunk' from the free drinks in the Executive lounge at Heathrow and on the plane. We were only slightly abused by a taximan to the hotel - one cab charging 12 Zlotys (£2) and the other 21 - maybe we'd just got things the wrong way round. This tone continued till 3am with champagne obtained from the plane before crashing in our booked-over-the-internet, communist style apartment.
Waking was a painful experience, made slightly better by the power showers. We still weren't too overawed by Warsaw though - we spent a couple of hours trying to find our way into the old Palace, now a science museum, before being distracted by the local 'Camden Town' style flea market. We all ended up buying something - from a puffy jacket (Mat) to trainers (Me). After lunch at the very unPolish Champions bar, we said a tearful goodbye to Helen and Julie - who had to get back on Sunday and could not accompany the rest of us on our trip south to Krakow and Aushwitz.
It only took as about an hour to get our tickets sorted, but soon we were rolling south in our first class carriage, through an autumn painting of yellow and orange. For a country of 40 Million people, there is a lot of countryside and forests and only a few people poughing fields with their horses.
Our Hotel in Krakow was a touch of class - new and fancy, with fluffy towels, and digital tv. But Sarah-lou, Mat and I gave it all up for a night on the town. It started off with a beer in Krakow square, surrounded by beautiful historical buildings, churches and buskers singing Eric Clapton tunes. We also had the dubious pleasure of watching Polska beat Belarus 3-1 - a sore point as we were all still chaffing from Englands disastrous day at Wembley. We left the cheering crowds to find our dinner in a restuarant which served excellent Euro food, red wine, and the best coffee ever and after chocolate pancakes we had the energy to try out the nightlife. First stop was a beautiful cellar bar with real vibe, hand clapping and polish pop music. It was here that we took our first steps on the road from which there is no return ... Vodka Shots. After we had done the Cranberry and other assorted flavours, we had to move on in search of new Vodka experience - and the description of a night club called INSOMNIA soon had us on a taxi across town. However it pulled up outside the not-so-clubby looking TABBOO. Well since we'd come all the way here, we'd have to see what this place was all about. We should have got the hint fairly quickly from the fact that there were more girls than guys on the couches inside, but by the time the girl in a bunny outfit emerged from the bathrooms and started to take her meagre kit off with wild gyratory movements, we had already bought the next round. Maybe it was the tattoos, maybe the drink, but Mat and I both agreed that she would be better suited to working at the check in desk at the local vasectomy unit. Lets just say that there aren't too many strip joints when the cheering starts when the clothes start going back on!
After a few more rounds (and Sarah-Lou sneaking in double round (or was it two?)) we were not in any fit state to be in a debating contest, never mind trying to figure out what the locals were saying - although this didn't stop Mat - who was somewhat confusedly chatting up the only 2 blokes in the bar. Did he know? - is the question we were asking. In a desparate bid for freedom we took a taxi back to the square, wondered round in a very small circle and got back in a taxi. Only a drunk person will trust a drunk person when they say 'Trust me', but thats what Sarah Lou and I did when Mat said he'd get us to INSOMNIA. I was in a fit of hysterical giggles when where should the taxi pull up to? Taboo. What the hell - the night was still young. At least that what I thought while lying on the road outside the club before some kind local pulled me up, burbled something smurfish at me, reintegrated with his twin and turned into a small green dragon before flying away. I needed a stiff drink to sort that experience out, and headed back into the tavern of sin. Somehow I managed to engage a Polish lady in a conversation in French. At least I think so because I distincly remember her saying "Vu lez vous coushe avec moi?". I thought that was pretty funny till she said "No really, Vu lez vous coushe avec moi?". Right. Oh you don't take Visa. Problem solved! It was round about then that Mat told us to leave him alone (after taking a fairly large quantity of money off me and Sarah-lou), and we headed home. In all fairness, Mat still had a load of money on him in the morning - but we think the hotel receptionist may have given it too him to leave him alone. You have questions? Only Mat has the answers and he aint telling I'm afraid.
Needless to say we missed the first train to Auschwitz the second morning, and on the next train the concerned conducter didn't seem to mind Mats dribbling on the bench he was passed out on too much.
Auschwitz though was a different story. They warm you up with a video shot by the Red Army which liberated the camps in the area. Not pretty. Then there are the rooms filled with shoes, baggage and clothing. It was the shoes that did it for Sarah-Lou, but the blonde, grey and brunette hair all piled together to the ceiling that was shaved off the women killed in the gas chambers that did it for me. The corridors are lined with the photos of those killed in the camps, giving faces to those meaningless numbers bandied around - 2000 people killed at a time in the gas chambers... horrors we will never know, an evil I will never truly understand. Human sterilization experiments? Who even wants to go there?
We left severly sobered up.
A little more sightseeing was done in Krakow by Anne, Mat and Sarah-Lou, minus the vodka. Then early to bed, before a full day of travellin on Monday which say us back in Warsaw, and flying Eurotraveller back to London. And dodgy weather which we had been lucky to escape in Poland.
Truly a memorable weekend.