Krakow

My Trip to Poland

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Krakow Weather etc.

Kasia, Magda and Kasia

you can click here and see pictures of my trip to Blackpool

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Poland tourist information on Meet Poland : www.meetpoland.com

The Town of Tain, Scotland, UK

The Wawel Dragon (Smok Wawelski)

Wawel Castle on the River Wisla

St. Mary's Church (Mariacki)

Sukiennice

Polish friends

Nessie's Den on Allfm



	Getting the "Craic" in Krakow Just to fill you in on the bigger picture, I live in Scotland and work as a delivery driver. I love my job because while I am out driving I see lots of the beautiful Scottish countryside. I also meet many people whom I would never have been able to meet otherwise. These days I get to meet an awful lot of eastern europeans who are now coming here to work. I have taken an interest mainly in the Polish people because we had a young couple employed in our depot, Magdalena and her partner Rafael (I am not sure if thats how to spell his name, still its a good guess :) ) Magdalena is still with us but Rafael moved on and got employment elsewhere. These two helped me learn a little bit of the Polish language and this got me hooked on trying to learn as much as possible. Every day they would tell me new words and I would write it on my hand just the way I thought it sounded so that I could look at it later and try saying it myself. I used to transfer the words from my hand to a piece of A4 paper so I could keep it and remind myself of all the words I was learning. This was great fun and eventually I started to kinda show off in the hotels and stuff, by using it on the boys and girls who worked there. Some of these people were Polish and some were from other countries and it became fun for everyone, probably because they had a good laugh at me trying to speak Polish. Another reason for wanting to learn Polish was that I found Polish people really nice and friendly and easy to get along with. Thats not to say that the other Eastern Europeans are not nice or anything, cos they are, its just that I met Polish folk more often and got used to them first :) Another young Polish woman was Marysia, she worked in one of the hotels which I deliver to, I used to see her in the morning when she was having her break. Marysia also helped me with my Polish and she would tell me some words so that I could go back to the depot and repeat them(ok! so "show off " would have been more appropriate phrasing hahaha) to Magdalena and Rafael. I had so much fun learning and it wasn't long before I wanted to go to Poland to see for myself what life was like over there. Plus I wanted to put the Polish I had learned into practice and see if I really was getting the hang of it, or if the boys and girls that I was working alongside were just being polite by saying I was good at it. A Special Hi to Magda's Mum :) I went over to Poland in May by myself and I reckon I was dead lucky because the weather was fantastic, sunny and warm, not at all what I was expecting. I got off the plane and didn't have a clue where to go or how to get to my hotel. Well I just walked out of the airport pulling my case and I saw a load of coaches lined up so just walked the length of them checking to see if any had the number on them that I was looking for. Also to see if any were public buses cos thats what I was to get to my hotel. I could have simply got in a taxi and asked the driver to take me to the hotel but that wasn't what I wanted. I wanted to learn as much as possible during my stay about the language and the country and to see if I could survive in this strange foriegn country where I knew no one and nowhere. I finally got to the last coach and had not seen one bus that even looked like a public bus. The driver of the last coach was standing outside, having a smoke, so I decided to ask him where I got the bus to my hotel. Now how could I go about this I thougt to myself. Well I decided to just speak in English because I felt a little embarrassed about trying to ask him in Polish. I said excuse me and asked him if he spoke English, imagine my face when he looked at me with that blank expression, shocked wasn't the word honest. I shouldn't have been surprised that he didn't understand me but I was, so then I started to wonder what I had let myself in for. At least the polish boys and girls back in Inverness could speak some English and if they didn't understand what I was saying there was always someone around who did and could translate for me. I had this marvellous idea, why not just show him the paperwork which showed the numbers of the buses I had to take. Surely he could understand the numbers and see what I was getting at. Well after a minute or two and arms going in all directions he took out a pen and changed the numbers, by this time I realised that he was giving me the correct bus numbers and also telling me that I had come out of the airport and went in the wrong direction. I should have went to the right rather than left, the bus stop was on the opposite side of the airport. Well I thanked him, in Polish smiles, and proceeded across to the bus stop. When I got to the bus stop I had a look at the notices and there was what I thought was a timetable, and I was right it was a timetable but I couldnt really understand it because the spelling of words was not the same as I had learned, the days of the week looked similar but were spelled different and the times and numbers I didn't really understand either. Well a funny thing happened as I was looking at the timetable, an elderly couple came up to me and asked me if I knew when the next bus was. Before I could answer the man told his wife that she would have to ask in Polish because I probably didn't understand her, they were English. I had a wee snigger to myself and told the man it was ok cos I was Scottish and wasn't really very good at Polish and it was my first time here. We got chatting and I explained to them what I thought the timetable said and between us we figured out when the next bus was due. The bus came, there was loads of people waiting to board, most of them being French and they were a noisy lot. I boarded the bus and then approached the driver for a ticket. Well here was my next problem. Where was I going, how much was the ticket, how would I know where to get off, this was a real test for me. Yeah and you probably guessed it the driver didn't speak English! I was going to have to use the Polish I had learned and just hope that the driver knew what I was saying. Between using my new language and showing the driver my papers with the hotel details, I managed to get a ticket. He also told me that I had to get off his bus, at The Krakowia Hotel, and get another bus to my hotel. WOW! this was kinda exciting( scary but exciting, hahaha). Now I was actually speaking to a "REAL" Polish person and making myself understood, and when he spoke back to me, I was "Understanding" him (well bits at least lol). I was finally doing it talking Polish to survive yippeeeee!!!

			This is Magda(center) and Kasia(right) who were the 2 Polish girls who worked with me, they were great, they were also very helpful to me in learning Polish and they were great workers too. Kasia(left) is Magda's cousin and she had came over to visit Magda and have a wee holiday. She was nice but was a bit like me with Polish as she didn't really understand us Scottish hahaha.

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