24 DECEMBER. I GOT UP AT 7:00 AM. I FELT FAIRLY WELL-RESTED AFTER 5 HOURS OF SLEEP.
300 min REMAIN TO THE HOUR ‘D’ LIKE – DEPARTURE.
I REALLY WANTED — BEFORE LEAVING THE COUNTRY — TO POST PHOTOS FROM OUR FIRST DAY IN BILBAO FOR EVERYONE FOLLOWING OUR BLOG. I HAD THE PHOTOS READY. ALL THAT REMAINED WAS TO ORGANISE THEM PROPERLY, DELETE THE DUPLICATES, TAG THE LOCATIONS ON THE MAP AND REDUCE THEIR SIZE. SO THAT UNCLE GOOGLE WOULD HAVE NO GROUNDS TO THREATEN ME THAT MY STORAGE SPACE WAS RUNNING OUT AND I’D HAVE TO BUY MORE.
THESE STEPS ARE SIMPLE. BUT ONLY WHEN EVERYTHING GOES TO PLAN. AND UNFORTUNATELY, THAT’S RARELY THE CASE WITH THESE OPERATIONS. SOME PROGRAMMES HAVE A TENDENCY TO CRASH SUDDENLY AND UNEXPECTEDLY. FORTUNATELY, THEY USUALLY REMEMBER THE CHANGES MADE BEFORE THE CRASH…
OF COURSE, THERE WERE ALSO OTHER, PERHAPS EVEN MORE IMPORTANT THINGS TO DO.
BY 11:40 WE HAD DEALT WITH ALL THE PRE-DEPARTURE CHAOS AND WE WERE TRANSPORTED BY A FAMILY FRIEND TO THE PKP (POLISH RAIL) RAILWAY STATION TO COMPLETE THE FIRST — ONE OF THE SHORTEST — STAGES OF OUR GREAT TRIP.
IT WAS BRISK OUTSIDE, TO PUT IT MILDLY. ABOUT 0°C, REINFORCED BY GUSSES OF WIND, INTENSIFYING THE FROZEN FEELS.
OF COURSE, IT’S WINTER AND TEMPERATURES BELOW 0°C ARE NOT UNUSUAL.
EXCEPT THAT WE’RE DRESSED MORE FOR SUMMER …
FIRSTLY, BECAUSE WE ARE FLYING TO THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE, WHERE THE TEMPERATURES AT THIS TIME OF YEAR ARE HIGHER THAN THOSE WE WILL HAVE IN POLAND DURING THE VACATION MONTHS;
SECONDLY, WE’RE RETURNING IN EARLY SPRING, WHEN — LET’S HOPE — THE AIR TEMPERATURE IN OUR HOMELAND WILL REACH A LEVEL ACCEPTABLE FOR THE AVERAGE CHILLY PERSON.
FORTUNEFULLY, THE IC SOBIESKI TRAIN FROM BUDAPEST TO WARSAW WAS ONLY 10 min. DELAYED. BUT IT WAS A CLOSE SHOT – THOSE FEW EXTRA MINUTES OF WAITING ALMOST TURNED US INTO ICE CUBES …
IT’S AMAZING HOW MANY PEOPLE TRAVEL ON CHRISTMAS EVE. THE TRAIN WAS PACKED THE WHOLE TIME. BY THE TIME WE REACHED THE CAPITAL, THE DELAY HAD INCREASED SLIGHTLY.
NOW ALL WE HAD TO DO WAS GET TO KOCHLIWA, WHO WAS PREPARING A ‘TRAVELLERS’ CHRISTMAS EVE’ FOR US AND HER SON, WHO LIVES ABROAD.
BUS LINE 504, WHICH DEPARTS FROM THE DOOR OF WARSZAWA CENTRALNA TRAIN STATION EVERY 15–20 min, PROVIDES IDEAL ACCESS TO THE BUS STOP, LOCATED 150 m FROM HER RESIDENCE.
IT TOOK US 8 min. TO GET FROM THE STATION PLATFORM TO THE BUS STOP FOR THE 504. WE ARRIVED 5 min. BEFORE THE BUS WAS DUE TO LEAVE.
WE WERE SLIGHTLY SURPRISED WHEN, FOR THE NEXT 10 min., NO VEHICLE SERVICED THIS LINE APPEARED.
THE ‘HELLISH COLD’ IMMEDIATELY DROVE US INSIDE THE STATION BUILDING. WE WAITED THERE IN SLIGHTLY WARMER CONDITIONS, SEPARATED FROM THE PLATFORM BY A GLASS PANEL.
WHEN THE TIMETABLE WAS IGNORED BY ANOTHER BUS, OUR ANXIETY GREW…
I WENT OUT TO INVESTIGATE. ALL I MANAGED TO FIND OUT FROM DRIVERS ON OTHER ROUTES WAS THAT THEY HADN’T HEARD ANYTHING ABOUT ANY CHANGES TO THE TIMETABLE FOR ROUTE 504. UNFORTUNATELY, THE SHELTER AND CLOUDY SKY PREVENTED THEM FROM CHECKING THE STATUS OF THE 504 BUSES ON THEIR OWN APPS.
20 m PAST THE STOP FOR BUS ROUTE 504, THERE’S A PICK-UP POINT FOR UBER-STYLE TRANSPORT SERVICES. THERE SEEMED TO BE QUITE A LOT OF TRAFFIC THERE. I WENT OVER TO HAVE A LOOK. IN THE FIRST CAR, THE THIEF, PRETENDING TO BE A TAXI DRIVER, REQUESTED AN UNSPECIFIED SUM FOR A 10 km RIDE, EXPRESSED IN THE WORDS “…DEFINITELY 100 PLN… BUT IT COULD BE MORE…”
I RETURNED TO WOMBACIK, WHO WAS TAKING SHELTER BEHIND THE STATION WINDOW AND STARTED SEARCHING THE TAXI APPS FOR A VEHICLE, ONE THAT WAS REASONABLE IN TERMS OF WAITING TIME AND PRICE…
I chose “Free-Now.” Mr Władek was initially supposed to pick us up in 3 min., which almost immediately turned into 6, and after another 5 min., into 9. i followed the guy the entire time, texting him where I was waiting and asking him what colour car he was driving. There was a lot of traffic outside the building. It was freezing cold. standing behind the windscreen, 5 m from the kerb, shrouded in darkness, I wanted to know what colour the Skoda Fabia is that’s coming to pick us up. Time flew by. The driver got closer and closer, and I still didn’t know the colour of his car… Suddenly, a message popped up on the screen: ‘I’m here’. But the thing is, I didn’t see him after that. neither in person nor on the app’s map. My 2,500,000 km behind the wheel of a taxi tells me that Mr Władek is a typical ‘hack’. He didn’t give the car’s colour so that he could pick up anyone else if it turned out that the passenger he’d gone to collect had disappeared – perhaps because he’d got bored with waiting for 30 min.
LUCKY, ANOTHER DRIVER – THIS TIME FROM UBER – REALLY GOT TO US IN 5 min. IN ALL, THE WAITING FOR THE RIDE TOOK 90 min.
Do you remember the French and Brits when their countries were flooded with hordes of Eastern European professionals? At first, they were worried that a Polish plumber or some other specialist would destroy their job market. They quickly changed their minds. The newcomers turned out to be better than the local professionals, who did what they wanted and how they wanted. Now I would like to thank the taxi drivers from other countries who work in Poland. especially the Ukrainians and Belarusians. As for Mr Władek and the drivers like him, I’ve already said my goodbyes…
WE REACHED KOCHLIWA PLACE AT 5:00 pm.
WE WARMED UP A LITTLE BEFORE THE START OF THE GALA DINNER PREPARED BY OUR FRIEND. IT WAS A SPECIAL OCCASION FOR SEVERAL REASONS. NOT ONLY WAS IT ‘TRAVELLERS’ CHRISTMAS EVE’. IT WAS ALSO OUR LAST DINNER IN POLAND IN 2025.
PS. A HUGE THANK YOU FOR THE DELICIOUS CHRISTMAS EVE FEAST, KOCHLIWA!!!
