Before I started traveling, I watched a LOT of stuff on traveling. You know what always bothered me about the professional travelers?
They never fucked up completely. A bone headed jarringly stupid thing.
At least none they'd admit to on their slick sites and such.
That's where I am different.
A lot of people out there think "Oh, I can't travel - it's hard". After reading this, you'll say "If HE can do it..." Actually, you might be thinking "How is he still alive?"
And that is true. Both parts. You too can travel if you choose to and yes, at the time of this writing I am still alive. (If found to be dead, please drink some alcohol and 'cheers' my bloated corpse.)
So here's what happened.
Before coming to Poland, I'd booked a place for a three day stay. Figured I could stay there, scope out the city and then - after I'd figured stuff out a bit - more to a better place.
Unfortunately, I didn't check the small box stating that my building had to have an elevator in it.
It was up on the fourth or fifth (or higher?) floor. And it was those kind of stairs that go all the way around in a box due to the high ceilings.
Had the night porter not come down when I was dying on the second floor, grabbed my bag and humped it up to the top, I'd have turned around, gone and gotten a hotel (any hotel) and stayed there instead.
As it was, I barely made it to the top of how ever many flights of stairs and took two breaks doing it.
So now I've got a problem.
A different problem than being fat and hideously out of shape I mean.
I'd not eaten all day and it was night time.
Working with the night porter (whose English was limited) I got a pizza and two liter of soda delivered. When they came they weren't exactly what I wanted but close enough. I knew that once I went down those stairs there was no more going up them.
The next day, I had one more piece of the pizza and did my best to do some research for a better place to stay.
Found a place on Airbnb. Checked the map of Krakow (where I was) and it looked fine.
Had to pay the entire price up front.
Since the crazy time known as 'May Day' - May first - seems to be a thing here as well I decided to book a place from today (7 Apr) till 7 May. That way, hopefully everyone who was clogging up the hotels with wanting to be on holiday would have buggered off by then and returned 'from whence they came'.
Since it was AirBnB, you have to pay the whole thing up front (about $1200) and their draconian return policy says that if you cancel, you don't get the first month back. Ie, the whole thing.
Contact an Uber, have him take me there.
When we get there, rather than the nifty hotel I was expecting, it was a house. A house with an unlocked and easy to open front door I discovered when I knocked. I quickly closed it again because I didn't want them to think some fat foreigner was there to steal their food.
Which was tempting, I admit.
It was time to call the number.
My uber driver was happy to do that - and discovered...
They were in a different town.
Three plus hours away different town.
WTF.
Somehow, my search for places in Krakow had given me results in Wroclaw.
So now, I have a choice.
I can either get on the phone with AirBnB and argue against their draconian refunds policies for an unknown amount of time or say 'fuck it' and go to Wroclaw.
After finding out the taxi driver wanted to charge me about $100 to get there, I decided to take the train. Second class was $11, first class was $22.
Decided to take first class because nothing else was going right today and I wanted to have at least one nice thing.
Met a nice Polish lady who had been living in the UK for 15 years working for British Airways. Had a two hour conversation with her. Also met a nice yoga instructor lady but she got kicked out because she was suppose to be in second class. Pity.
So now, I am in Wroclaw.
The apartment isn't bad. Questionable if it is worth $1200 per month or not but it's comfortable and very close to the city center.
More later!
They never fucked up completely. A bone headed jarringly stupid thing.
At least none they'd admit to on their slick sites and such.
That's where I am different.
A lot of people out there think "Oh, I can't travel - it's hard". After reading this, you'll say "If HE can do it..." Actually, you might be thinking "How is he still alive?"
And that is true. Both parts. You too can travel if you choose to and yes, at the time of this writing I am still alive. (If found to be dead, please drink some alcohol and 'cheers' my bloated corpse.)
So here's what happened.
Before coming to Poland, I'd booked a place for a three day stay. Figured I could stay there, scope out the city and then - after I'd figured stuff out a bit - more to a better place.
Unfortunately, I didn't check the small box stating that my building had to have an elevator in it.
It was up on the fourth or fifth (or higher?) floor. And it was those kind of stairs that go all the way around in a box due to the high ceilings.
Had the night porter not come down when I was dying on the second floor, grabbed my bag and humped it up to the top, I'd have turned around, gone and gotten a hotel (any hotel) and stayed there instead.
As it was, I barely made it to the top of how ever many flights of stairs and took two breaks doing it.
So now I've got a problem.
A different problem than being fat and hideously out of shape I mean.
I'd not eaten all day and it was night time.
Working with the night porter (whose English was limited) I got a pizza and two liter of soda delivered. When they came they weren't exactly what I wanted but close enough. I knew that once I went down those stairs there was no more going up them.
The next day, I had one more piece of the pizza and did my best to do some research for a better place to stay.
Found a place on Airbnb. Checked the map of Krakow (where I was) and it looked fine.
Had to pay the entire price up front.
Since the crazy time known as 'May Day' - May first - seems to be a thing here as well I decided to book a place from today (7 Apr) till 7 May. That way, hopefully everyone who was clogging up the hotels with wanting to be on holiday would have buggered off by then and returned 'from whence they came'.
Since it was AirBnB, you have to pay the whole thing up front (about $1200) and their draconian return policy says that if you cancel, you don't get the first month back. Ie, the whole thing.
Contact an Uber, have him take me there.
When we get there, rather than the nifty hotel I was expecting, it was a house. A house with an unlocked and easy to open front door I discovered when I knocked. I quickly closed it again because I didn't want them to think some fat foreigner was there to steal their food.
Which was tempting, I admit.
It was time to call the number.
My uber driver was happy to do that - and discovered...
They were in a different town.
Three plus hours away different town.
WTF.
Somehow, my search for places in Krakow had given me results in Wroclaw.
So now, I have a choice.
I can either get on the phone with AirBnB and argue against their draconian refunds policies for an unknown amount of time or say 'fuck it' and go to Wroclaw.
After finding out the taxi driver wanted to charge me about $100 to get there, I decided to take the train. Second class was $11, first class was $22.
Decided to take first class because nothing else was going right today and I wanted to have at least one nice thing.
Met a nice Polish lady who had been living in the UK for 15 years working for British Airways. Had a two hour conversation with her. Also met a nice yoga instructor lady but she got kicked out because she was suppose to be in second class. Pity.
So now, I am in Wroclaw.
The apartment isn't bad. Questionable if it is worth $1200 per month or not but it's comfortable and very close to the city center.
More later!
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