02 January 2002 - Day 4 - An early night then....
To sleep, perchance to dream... What we believed to be our last day in Poland started at about Lunch time. No point wasting a morning doing things when you can sleep through it.

Scrambled Eggs and snow fights followed as Colin 'The Sparrow' Edwards took to the slopes once more for a bit of Xtreme sledge surfing with our Host! Meanwhile, Dan started the hunt for his daily dose of floaty-smiley-happy painkillers...

After a post-breakfast beer, the Mini was dug out from the igloo that had formed over it and a journey back to Tescos was planned to stock up on the all important Vodka and Kielbasa... Well, that was the plan anyway. Sadly, Tescos was closed (it was New Years Day after all) although
it gave the now smiley Dan a chance to practice his sideways driving in the snowed over car park...

Shopping trip prematurely cancelled, the obvious thing to do was to pop out for a quiet drink... After all, it was our last night and we needed an early start for the return journey. A bunch of mature adults such as ourselves would have no problem calling an end to the evening to get home at a sensible time...

Cafe Restaurant Europejska. Beer. Vodka. Beer. Gorgeous waitress... much dribbling...

Onto the Restaurant next door - one of the nicest in Krakow - for a slap up feast and, in true Withnail fashion, 'the finest wines available to humanity'. A slight mis-pronounciation of 'puff pastry' and Colin had made a new friend... was that the waiters’ phone number in the chocolate sauce on his dessert? Then home to bed... Ok, maybe a quick nightcap somewhere first...

Bar Stowle Magnowli... Vodka, singer (oooer), more vodka, a quick doze (Dan), some more dancing on the bar (Col), some more friends made, some more vodka...

Having picked up where we left off as an international, diplomatic force of drinkers and party makers, we now had an obligation to entertain the gaggle of people now following us hopefully... It would have been rude to have shattered their dreams and denied them the chance to tell their grandchildren about the night 'The British' arrived... Besides, one last drink wouldn't hurt, would it?

A quick tour of the square following our dancing guide (no prizes for guessing who) revealed an alarming number of closed bars... Luckily Meisha and Fingers could remember where we had been on our previous vodka voyage - again there was much rejoicing!

Safely ensconsed in the corner of what was now our 'local' and we went back to doing what we're best at - drinking vodka and making friends!

Colin went back to dancing with everyone and improving UK - Polish relations. Dan, in an effort to stay awake, started his own personal mission against Vodka Redbull. Al fell in love and started the easier than expected task of stealing a girl from her boyfriend... whilst sitting next to both of them...

A few hours later found us outside the now closed bar, having a snow fight with our new friends and a less than impressed bouncer... After waiting for Fingers to arrange a date with his new friend (Nic and Col kindly ‘distracted’ the boyfriend), a search for taxis was launched... By now it was approaching 7am...

It had been snowing rather hard throughout the night and the roads outside the town were too deep to pass, so abandoned by the cab (after the driver had tried to kidnap Al) we continued on foot... not in the best condition to be trying to walk anywhere, let alone through deep snow! Watching people on their way to work getting stuck in the snow reminded us of a journey we were meant to be starting round about now...

Home at last, as the household was rising to start a new day around 7:45am. Maybe we could review the plans of the return journey in the morning... Ok, the afternoon...


More soon.....

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