[Chapter 3- The first walk]

The walk was nice. I managed to find a map. And I decided to walk around.. take in the awesome weather with the cool air and a touch of sunlight. It was a pretty curious place. There were these quaint 19th century buildings. and there were these little “potti kadais” (roadside shop) tucked inside. Sometimes there were even supermarkets hiding inside those buildings. And there were these occasional teenagers who would hand you a flyer and say something in Polish. You would stare amused at the letters on the paper, play a short game of “find the vowels”, give up and throw it into the nearest dustbin.

After I while, I was hungry. I walked into one of those shops in the quaint buildings and picked up some yogurt. I handed the lady a 50 Zloty note.

“Don’t you have smaller change?”
Sideways shake of the head to signify “no”
“Ok then. 10, 20, 30, 40, 45, 47, 47.5”
“Thank you”

All in Polish ofcourse (even the sideways shaking)

The yoghurt was good. But I hadn’t found my converter – so I walked.. till I got lost. Then I took my map, found the place and realized I had no clue where the hotel was on the map. I headed toward the nearest main road and tried retracing my path.

And lo and behold, after a while I end in this awesome place with a large mall, Hard Rock Café and what not. I walked in, went into 4 floors of “Empic” – a stationery chain which didn’t have what I want and finally found a hypermarket. It was Challengers I think. Anyways, I managed to find my converter picked up 2, though it would cost 10 zoltys, ended up paying 40 odd Zlotys, came back to the hotel.

Just outside the hotel, I saw this wall – which reminded me of the country horrific past:



I had dinner at the hotel (Microsoft sponsored) and put my aching limbs to rest.