8 March 2009

So, I've finally have a second to actually sit down, and put some thought into what we've just done. Mom and I left London yesterday at 9 am, and drove to Detroit. From there, we flew to JFK in New York, then on to Amsterdam, and finally to the Chopin Airport in Warsaw. We arrived just fine, after only one slight mishap at Detroit (one computer wasn't working, so we thought we had to de-board and get a new plane, but the mechanic fixed it).

Sitting on the plane with mom was the FUNNIEST thing in the world. We're sitting there (not DTW-JFK, but JFK-AMD) and she was like, "Do you get drinks before take off?" I just started laughing, considering on the flight before, we didn't get drinks AT ALL! Then she was shocked with the lack of room, and the food in the cardboard containers (although we did get real cutlery, which was a nice change). She also complained- multiple times- about the lack of foot rest. Well, not so "complained" but kept trying to put it down, and pouting when she realized it wasn't there. Warsaw Airport (Chopin Airport), wasn't as exciting as we thought it would be, but still cool to get the pictures.

It's now 7:45pm, and we've been in Warsaw now since 11:20 this morning. While we've only been here a short time, we've managed to do a LOT. After landing in Warsaw, we opted to take the bus (2.50zl) instead of a cab (80zl)- and we mastered it! It's a little frustrating not even knowing how to say "thank you" and "please" and "excuse me" in Polish, but smiling tends to work out a lot. Getting to our hotel, we opted for no sleep, and just headed out on the town. We went to the Chopin Museum (which is closed until May 2010), and got a bunch of pictures of the outside. We then headed to go on a city tour, only to find that they don't do tours in the winter, so we did it ourselves. We didn't complete the full tour (Which was about 3 hours on a bus), but did cover a large section of the city. We started at the Old City Square, and worked our way down. We saw where Chopin's Heart is buried, the Warsaw University, and a LOT of cool churches. Mom even got in some pictures! lol. We ended our day by trying to take the bus back to our hotel, only to COMPLETELY miss our stop! So instead of getting off the bus, and crossing to the other side of the street to take it back, Mom thought it would be fun to take the bus all the way to the end of the route: it would be an adventure! It was more of a challenge than an adventure as we finally sat in warmth, trying to not fall asleep. We finally got to the end of the route, but instead of turning around right away, the driver sat there for 15 min, before going back. We were probably on the bus for an hour, trying to stay awake just a little longer and make it back to the hotel.

One of our challenges (set by my father) is to save as much money as we can. With mom's status everywhere we go, it's not so hard. We go into the executive lounges, here and at the airport and load up on drinks, snacks, and whatever else we can find. We're very frugal!

Tomorrow we head off to Krakow and Auschwitz. I'm very excited even though we have to take a 3 hour train ride, followed by a 1h 40min bus ride to the place- it will be well worth it.

The weather here has been pretty good. It's a little cold (mom bought a hat- can you believe it?) but it hasn't rained or snowed yet. Thankfully, we managed to find routes to everything that involved narrow streets that blocked the wind nicely.

Right now, I'm looking forward to bed, and a shower, but those will all come soon enough (I hope). That's all for now, but you know I'll be filling you in every moment I get.

Love,Creighton