Still in Warsaw

I took a taxi to meet the folks on Friday night. Got to the meeting point just as Steve got there, bringing with him Mike, another Nottingham Trent academic, and Chris, who lives in Warsaw, comes from Croydon and has a Real Estate business in Warsaw.

Mike and Jackie had got lost :-S They were ages away in another part of town. They got in a taxi and Chris, who is fluent in Polish, gave instructions to the taxi driver on how to get to us. Mobile phones, doncha know!

So at about half nine, I found myself in a Polish restaurant in the Old Town. Had a bean and sausage soup for starter. It was very nice, if a little salty for my taste. But the salt wasn’t over powering. Then I had pork with potato dumpling. The pork was wonderful. The potato dumpling was rather nice too, although enormous. The cabbage was well cooked but had been flavoured with something I couldn’t identify and didn’t much like. And I neither expected nor needed French Fries with it all. There was enough on my plate for a GIANT! Couldn’t eat it :-S Ate the pork and half the dumpling and a bit of the cabbage. The others also left much of theirs, except for Steve who was determined to finish his, and finally did so, leaving only a few fries. How they all managed to find room for dessert is a mystery to me. And quite how Steve manages to be as skinny as he is is an even bigger mystery! We finished up with a cherry liqueur which was lovely!

Up bright and early on Saturday morning and left the hotel for my teaching engagement in good time. Arrived at the venue about half an hour before I was due to start. Managed not to get lost this time! Steve and Nick, the SHU course leader, who had come in from Prague on the overnight train, met me in the room and set up Steve’s laptop for me to use. I don’t think Nick enjoyed the trip by train from Prague. He hadn’t slept very well, and said he felt crumpled. Have to say, he didn’t look crumpled. Everyone was very smartly dressed when they were meeting the students. I must take something other than my normal work clothes to Prague in October. A skirt and a jacket, perhaps.

The session went quite well, I think. There were the obligatory few at the back who didn’t care about the electronic information resources and couldn’t see why they were wasting three hours being told about them when they could have found them for themselves. Everyone else seemed to be listening closely, and they asked questions and seemed engaged. Then Nick, Steve, and Mike the academic from NTU came back, the students went to lunch and we took ourselves off to Coffee Heaven (like Starbucks only with better coffee) for lunch. Mike went off to entertain the students for the afternoon. Steve and Nick trundled off to the airport to head back to England. And I wandered off up the Royal Route. Had I realised there was a flight back to the UK on the Saturday afternoon, I would have taken it. I don’t actually need to stay in Warsaw into Sunday. But I’m booked on the same flights as Mike the Admin bloke and thought that there wasn’t one late on Saturday afternoon.

Had a lovely walk back up the Royal Route. They had been setting up what looked like a street market when I had been walking down in the morning. I was able to walk back up in the afternoon at a much more leisurely pace. I’m not absolutely sure what they were doing. Some of the stalls had things for sale, but many of them seemed to be information stalls - for the police and fire service, and for things like aid for Afghanistan, and church related things, and lots of other stuff. I was hampered, rather, by my inability to speak Polish, so couldn’t work out what some of the stalls were about. But it was interesting poking about. And there was a stall with jazz musicians playing, and other stalls with music further up. It was all rather jolly. I had a quick look into the grounds of the University of Warsaw, ambled about in the Old Town Square and pottered about. Then I decided that I really was rather tired and headed back to the hotel.

There are some more musicians back near the hotel, only they’re made of brass and play very silently.

I was tired. I was watching a DVD on the laptop (River Cottage hits the road) and suddenly realised that the DVD had finished, I had no idea what had happened after the first 15 minutes and it was half past seven!

Had to have room service in the evening. The restaurant was hosting a function. I consulted the room service menu. Looked OK. I ordered a shrimp starter, a lamb chop main and a carafe of white wine. My experience in the restaurant on Friday night had suggested that a glass of wine comes as a serving of about two mouthfuls! You’d have thought I might have learned from my food experience on Friday as well. But I didn’t. I was expecting my shrimpy entree to be a small plate with a few shrimps and some salad. But no. It was an entire small lobster with two beautifully shaped mounds of rice and a huge salad. It was very, very nice (and, when I checked the price list - very, very expensive!). It was more than enough as a main meal. But still there were the lamb chops to tackle. FOUR of them. With roast potatoes, a very strange sort of ratatouille and yet more salad. With the addition of three or four more potatoes, it would more than easily have fed both The Builder and me!!! I did my best. I did my best with the wine as well. I was expecting, well - a carafe. And got what looked like a litre or more of white wine.

I slept remarkably well last night!

And now it’s Sunday and I’m heading home this afternoon. I had intended to go and visit the zoo this morning. But the weather remains grey and drizzly (though it’s brightened up a bit now) and I have a seriously cross foot. For some reason it has the father of all blisters at the back of my right ankle, where it’s obviously been rubbing on the shoe. Don’t know why - the shoes are not by any means new. So I’ve stayed in the hotel this morning. Am about to go and check out (checkout isn’t until midday) and see if I can sit in the lobby until it’s time to leave for the airport. I can’t imagine they will say no!