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Kraków October 2015 - Day 1

Day 1 - 36 Gigabytes remaining

I woke up at around 5AM a few minutes before the first of my many alarms were set to go off. Just enough time to have a cup of tea and get my shit together.

As usual I decided not to eat breakfast before travelling. About 5 hours after leaving my house I arrived in Kraków's shiny new Terminal 2 building (it was more like an oversized shed last time I was there). Another change was that (after a year's break) the shuttle train was running between the airport and Kraków's main railway station. Anyway, I decided that as I was on holiday there was no need for me to save money and I would take the taxi. The traffic wasn't as bad as last time, but still bad enough.

Just before the designated check-in time of 2pm I arrived at Hotel Qubus. I had stayed there last time I was in Kraków, but this time I decided to splurge on a slightly larger room. This decision was made on the basis that I was on holiday and I bloody well deserved it and the extra space would make it a more comfortable place to work if I should want to.

I had a few work things to fix (my own fault for breaking my own rule of not making changes to stuff before a holiday) After checking out all of my room's facilities and putting all my stuff away I decided to do a little shopping. Rather than taking the option of Galeria Kazimierz which is a rather short walk away from the hotel I decided to go to Centrum Plaza a walk of well over half an hour along the river near my old flat. Last time that walk was a rather emotional experience (for reasons that I won't go into here). This time those memories had almost faded. Safely inside the shopping mall my first port of call was Rossmann's to top up my phone and to see if I could stock up on my beloved Studentenfutter (I think I've spelled that correctly). Sadly, they didn't have any. Heartbroken I made my way to what used to be my favourite McDonald's (it stopped being my favourite when they built a gym which deprived me of my view of the lake).

I decided to walk back by the most direct route possible, passing my old flat. A few things had changed. The new blocks of flats were now finished (all the mud and noise created during their building). I had to take a double-take when I saw a corner shop at the end of one of the blocks. A Spolem shop with a rather gay-looking rainbow on the signage. "That used to be a Zabka" I thought to myself. I walked along a little further and say that Zabka was still indeed a Zabka and that the Spolem was a new shop that had sprung up. I tried to have a look at my old flat to see if the pigeons were still there or if there were some other tenants (actual paying tenants) in the flat. Neither pigeons nor tenants could be seen. The Theatre right near my house was now well and truly open. Grzegorzecka was looking a more and more desirable place to live. Perhaps I should buy a flat there. Phong Hai, another temptation on my way back to the hotel. I decided that I should eat something at the meeting I was going to later.

Galeria Kazimierz, one of my most-visited places in Kraków. Alma was a disappointment, they didn't have my favourite breakfast cereals on their shelves. I bought a few presents for the folks back home anyway. After all that walking about I decided I definitely needed some orange juice. At Grycan I had the freshly squeezed orange juice that I really needed and some cheesecake. It still comes as a surprise when I'm served with a warm cheesecake. This one (warmth aside) was particularly nice, with sultanas, a crumble topping and served with a raspberry coulis.
 

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