01 January 2002 - Day 3 - The Conga
30 minutes sleep after 13 hours in the bars of Krakow, and our heroes were dragged from their comas (and their beds) for a day on the piste, still totally piste...

A few drunken grunts later and Dan had remembered the events leading up to the pain that was by now stopping him from moving his arm. The events leading up to his boxer shorts being shredded were still alluding him though...

Dan (looking more Mini Love than Max Love) was loaded up with painkillers and a very attractive sling was fashioned for him from a ladies silk scarf (kindly loaned by our hostess!) Woolly hats and gloves were donned and the minibus loaded... with 4 drunken idiots who promptly went straight back to sleep! The roads to Zakopane provided a couple of hours in which to sober up (if only!) and the by now obligatory McDonalds Breakfast also helped a little, as did the waitress (very interesting little uniforms they wear up in the mountains...)

A quick tour through the ski / snowboard hire shops proved fruitless and no equipment could be found... Perhaps they could smell the booze?

Not to be undone, a very British contingent of Nic, Fingers, Colin and Dan got on the ski-lift anyway and headed up to the top of the main slope; bootless, boardless, brainless, drunk, and in fine voice if not feeling a little unsteady and slightly ill...

Given that all traditional forms of mountainy-sport-type activities were out of the question, the obvious thing to do was joy-ride ski-bikes around the mountain top! Dan decided for some reason that his arm (by now feared broken!) wasn't up to the adventure and opted for sitting in the snow, as opposed to certain death on the back of a misguided, tree seeking missile controlled by one of his less than competent friends... Big girl's blouse...

After 4 or 5 capsizes by the Fingers / Costa team (bit of a momentum issue?!), a 6ft drift, a couple of 'stuck throttle' incidents, a whole host of new Polish swear words courtesy of our guide, and some spectacular driving by Col, we returned to find Dan looking for beer again...

A quick game of 'Roll Fingers Down The Mountain' followed, then Dan was packed into the lifts for a safe ride down to the bottom (Tart!) whilst Col, Nic and Fingers decided to... conga down... Fortunately they sell beer and sausages by log fires, even half way down mountains, so 2 hours later all was right with the world once again...

Warm food was sought at the bottom whilst Nic taught Colin 'the sparrow' Edwards how to ski like a pro, having by now acquired some skis...

The return to Krakow was interesting, as the weather had taken a turn for the worse, however it gave us a chance to catch up on a few z's!

With energy levels dropping fast, a strategy change was implemented - we couldn't run the risk of Dan falling asleep in a New Years Eve party, as we may never have found him again! So, we decided to stay in for a lovely meal with our hosts and see the new year in with a Brandy!

2002 firmly underway, our heroes retired - at this point (2am Tuesday) a total of about 12 hours sleep each had been clocked up since Friday morning... and there was no sign of the pace changing for a while!!!


More soon......

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