Polish cure for stomachache

Krakow & the disco:

Karolina and some of her friends from the university arranged a trip to go to Krakow, one of the most beautiful cities in Poland. The day we were supposed to go I woke up and felt like shit. I had a terrible stomachache and felt like I was going to throw up. I didn't want to let down the other people going on the trip though so I said I would go. Well Karolina's mum took one look at me and said that I wasn't going. You don't want to argue with a Polish woman, trust me. I was relieved in a way and the trip was rescheduled anyway.

I then went to bed and lay in agony for a few hours with the family dog Bocek to keep me company. When I woke up Karolina had a shot of vodka with cracked pepper in it. Courtesy of her mother. Apparently this is the Polish solution to a stomach bug. I must say I thought it would make me throw up, yet amazingly I felt better. Don't worry about those antibiotics folks just get yourself a bottle of Polish vodka and some strong cracked pepper.

That night we went to a disco that her friends had organised at a local place. Bojor had told me that it was a dodgy place and that I should carry a knife so I didn't have the best impression of the place in my head when I arrived. We met her friends at the entrance and went in, they were really nice but I thought it might be a little awkward since everyone still had a fear of speaking English to me.

Well, I should have taken a knife. Not because the place was dangerous, but to stab the DJ who played the worst songs possible. There was about twenty people there, some of them I had already met and others I had not. I sat next to one of Karolina's friends planning to force her and anyone else to speak to me. All the guys seemed to be clustered up the other end of the table. Anyway, things weren't going to badly and I managed to talk to quite a few people. One of the guys, Slifka, came and got me and asked if I wanted a shot of vodka at the bar with all the other guys. Who am I to refuse vodka? The vodka itself was pretty good as fair as vodka goes, and we chased it with some sort of sweet drink. Unfortunately none of the guys except Slifka spoke good English, but all the same I appreciated the effort they made to include me.

Later on I was forced to dance to the music I detested, I still consider myself to be a terrible dancer but I think I held my own in a weird kind of way. The DJ was beside himself with happiness that people were actually dancing, until then noone had being. Looking back, I wish I had taken some photos that night.

We left late and got a lift home with some of Karolina's friends. If it hadn't of been for the Polish vodka I wouldn't have survived the day.

Krakow, for real this time:

A few days after the disco we woke up far too early to catch a bus to Krakow. Four of Karolina's and Gosia's friends from the university were coming with us. Fortunately for me they were all studying English philology and spoke very good English. It took about three hours to get to Krakow which wasn't too bad considering the quality of the roads (pretty shit to be honest, sorry Poland it's true). When we got off the bus we headed for the old part sections of the city. On the way I saw a pigeon with a piece of bread trapped around it's neck. When it walked it had to hang it's head due to the weight of the bread. How on earth the bread got there in the first place I will never know...

The old sections of Krakow had some beautiful building including a church, which we bought tickets for. I was amazed just walking into the place and then I looked up and saw an intricate web of gold lacing and paintings on the ceiling of the place. It must have taken an eternity to complete. You had to pay extra to take photo's and I didn't have the right ticket so after awhile we left. Next stop, big tower with too many steps.

We climbed the tower for at least ten minutes and as it got closer to the top the staircase got narrower and narrower until you felt semi-claustrophobic. The view up the top was quite impressive however, with four different viewpoints to look out on. Of course you had to pay extra to take photos but we didn't see the sign until the grumpy old man yelled at us for doing so. Senile old bugger still had good eyesight. We left the tower and went to the nearby city square.

It was pigeons galore. We took some great photo's of all of us with all the different statues scattered around the place. We then walked through the market which was being redeveloped. There was the typical touristic type items on display so we went and found somewhere to eat lunch. We ended up at this place recommended to us which turned out to be crap, so I won't post the details.

Time was going by very quickly but we still had the royal palace to visit. Inside was mainly old tapestries and nude paintings adorned 75% of the place. In each room they had a fierce looking woman stationed to prevent the taking of photo's. What is it with the no photo's policy in Poland! A palace is a palace in my books although I did buy a bottle opener in the gift shop.

All day I had been hearing from the others about this statue of a dragon that breathes fire, so we headed there next. We learned that to get the dragon to breathe fire you had to SMS a number which would charge you and subsequently the dragon would breathe fire. Apparently it used to be free. I wasn't going to pay for it so I just waited until some other poor fool did then we got photo's with it. Cheating the system feels so good.

It was getting late so we decided to head back to the bus stop. On the way in one of the main streets everyone stopped me and informed me that now a guy in the street was going to draw a caricature of me. I sat down on this little stool and the man started drawing. I was getting worried because everyone was laughing and people I didn't know were watching him draw the picture. Ten minutes later it was done. I was impressed, he had given me the body of a kangaroo (Karolina's influence) and I truly looked stupid. I will try to upload a picture here. our final stop was McDonald's for coffee and then we headed back home. I really enjoyed Krakow but to be honest I prefer the smaller towns in Poland, possibly because they remind me of where I grew up.