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2015 Poland

    Hi! Well, I’m on a business trip to Poland; so I am not going to be able to take as many pictures as usual or walk around as much as I’d like. However, so far, I have been eating meals and chocolates and cookies and drinking teas a bit excessively, as per the norm! 



    A Brief Trip to Poland: The Daily Journals
    Krakow: Beautiful Old Architecture with a Young Population

    Here’s a brief overview. I’ll try to make this more interesting and organized later!

    SFO.
    Chicago. Met colleauge. The flight was long but not terrible. The seats were tiny. I got to sit next to an unfortunate fellow who was humongous. Not overly wide, just really large; well over 6ft and big boned; he said he was of Lithuanian heritage. Poor guy… It was a struggle for him to squeeze into his seat or get out of his window seat.
    Brussels to Krakow.
    Flight to krakow was on a brussels airline plane. The seats were freezing. I was wishing I had brought the blanket from the last flight! I dug out my coat and that kept me warm. The takeoff and landing were choppy, especially the landing. Must have been windy!
    Arrived.
    It’s a bit cold. Not too bad though. We deplaned and loaded onto a bus to be driven back to the terminal. Turns out the international terminal is under construction so we went to the tiny domestic one. We missed the luggage belt so we walked out and saw our driver and had to go back through the do not enter door to go back to the luggage belt. Got the luggage with no problems. Went back to meet our driver and headed out to the Mercedes. Pretty nice 🙂 he drove us to the hotel and explained how this was the warmest winter so far some the temporaries started being recorded. So no snow as of yet. The hotel is right across the street from the office building. Convenient. The hotel is simple but clean and pretty nice. 9th floor room let’s me see a view of the Mercedes storefront. Room seems nice and spacious. There’s a need and a sleeper couch, a huge closet, and a desk with a top that rotates to transform the desk to a wrap around. The lights only turn on when you leave your key in the slot inside the door. I guess that helps them conserve electricity. Anyway while unpacking I noticed all my clothes are quite cold. Huge winds all night. Windows don’t seal so very noisy.
    20150212
    Breakfast with tons of choices. Work. Meet with colleagues. Lunch. Food is great and tons of chocolate candies and cookies in the meeting room all day. The lunch catered to the meeting room was amazing. Open faced sandwiches with all sorts of meats, cheeses and random other stuff. Two large bowls of salad. The weather is chilly but not unbearable. I have been enjoying the crisp air; although the weather indoors is pretty warm due to everyone having the heaters pretty high. Lots of chocolate and cookies. Taxi to rynek market square. Talked to driver while waiting for others. Walk around market square and see old architecture. Tour rynek underground with friendly tour guide. Dinner with team at wesele. 5 course meal: salad with exotic cheeses, amazing tomatoe soup with ‘homemade’ noodles, zander (some sort of fish) or chicken breast with prunes, some vegetables, picked beetroot, boiled potatoes, dumplings, vegetables, and the most scrumptious chocolate mousse with quince. Mint tea.
    20150113
    Meetings all day. More of good sandwiches and salads for lunch. Lots more cookies and chocolates! Great teas. After work ate dinner with a colleague in lobby. Very friendly lady as sever. Assisted in picking out tea flavor. Thai coconut chicken soup with rose tea with vanilla. Discussed stuff. Worked
    20150114
    Met with colleagues. Ate dinner with a colleague at restaurant near hotel. Had to be let in cause door was locked. Another friendly lady as sever. Teriyaki noodle sesame chicken dish with large pot of green tea.

    Thursday, January 15 – Day last: The Long Krakow Walk

    Last full day here and tomorrow doesn’t really count since I am leaving the hotel at 4am! Headed over to the office early to finish up some projects and discussions. Had lunch with a few colleagues in the canteen next door. We tried tomato soup again (not nearly as good as the one at Wesele!); some sort of fried bread dough thing with plums in it and confectionary sugar sprinkled on top (apparently this isnt dessert, but a main course); a crepe thing with sweet cheese inside and powdered sugar on top. These were very filling. Headed out of the office soon after. Asked in the lobby about getting downtown in a taxi and was told it was an easy 30-45 minute walk. Well, of course I chose to walk! Got the directions wrong initially but backtracked and made it to Wawel castle then the Market Square. I took a lot of pictures, but no one is surprised by that. I also bought some chocolate and cookies. Also, no one should be surprised by that 🙂 As you browse the pictures, you may notice some of the same buildings popping up multiple segments of my trip. Well, I left the hotel at 315 and walked around Krakow until 9 when I could catch the free taxi shuttle. (No way I was going to pay for a taxi! ) Hope you enjoy viewing the many locations I did not plan to visit but found as I galavanted around. Oh – and as a side note, I walked so much I wore a hole in one of my socks and almost a hole in the other sock! Yikes! On the ride back to the hotel, I found out the taxi driver’s daughter lives in Sarasota Florida. Weird coincidence! At least that is what I think he said. Our communication wasn’t 100% understood by either party. But I’m pretty sure that’s what he said!