Awkward, thats how I describe this trip. Everything about it has some element of that word in it...
Ill apologise now for the fact that this blog entry is a little more of a rant than usual...
Also Im having to go slightly out of sync with my order of events. Had a lovely time at my sister and law's wedding this weekend but Im holding back on the photos until they return from honeymoon so expect a belated thorough blog entry accordingly. The fact that the very next morning I had to get in a car at 5.30am was...well.....
Right back to Awkward Poland...
Firstly the journey here involves flying from heathrow to munich then munich to krakow, direct flights from gatwick were an option until i saw the times were pretty much useless for a business traveller. Easyjet have obviously made the strategic commercial decision to prioritise stag and hen parties over business travel.
Oh and by the way the return is via frankfurt, not munich just to make it more....you know.
Next is the currency. Its demotivating, let me explain. It took me a while to get my head around the euro, and dollars but they are nearer a ratio to the £ than most. Indonesia with its 1:1 squillion ratio was so far out there it was fun working it all out. But the polish Zlotty, its 3.8 to the £, thats just an awkward number. because you look at a meal menu in a restaurant for example. and a burger is 25 zlotty, but my western europe brain can't help but for a second follow this thought process...
25, thats a might expensive burger... dammit thats actually only £6.50
so what you think, right? well its the fact that Im doing it with every thing I see, so Im constantly thinking damn this place is expensive followed by damn your an idiot that cant do maths quick enough, awkward and demotivating.
Then there is the language, It's not the fact that its so very different to western european languages you cant have a diddly squat clue about what is being said, its the fact that even if you attempt to learn any of it there are so many ZXYQXZZZXXX's in it that your primitive monolingual english brain just doesnt have the filters to absorb it.
so far Ive learnt that about 10 words are all written as "ZSYCHZZSZZZ" and these happen to be 10 of the most common words, so frankly, its awkward and I give up...
Enough of the negativity... I have one positive story to tell before I quit and make my way home.
In the room next door to the training I'm doing yesterday, was the Wisla Krakow football team. (one of the biggest football teams in Poland) It was their cup final last night against some second devision side called "ZSYCHZZSZZZ" and they were doing their pre match planning. I sat and listened to the manager give his pre match talk through the dividing wall and it went something like this...
"Even if we are losing 3-0 in the final minute, don't lose focus, we only need one goal to have a chance"
Now pardon my ignorance, I'm no Sir Alex, but surely thats a little 'glass half empty'
He also uttered the words (and I'm not kidding here) "stick it in the goal" and "if you get the ball shoot"
by the way...they lost 1-0 to ZZZZYYYCCCCSSS utd.
I had the amusing situation where I was in the bar of the hotel, and they chose to show the chelsea v man utd game over their own cup final. combine that with the fact that we had lunch with the players and some of the polish colleagues I was working with were loudly slating them, polish football and anyone in association with it, it didnt paint a pretty picture. We think english football has issues!
Right so I'm off home soon, so far now signing off...
cheers Joe
