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Wow. The best way I can explain my Saturday and adventure to Poland is to do a timeline, so here goes:

9:58 am - had just finished a leisurely last walk around outside and breakfast, back at my hostel and leisurely checking email before checking out of my hostel and leisurely making my way to the airport for my 1:30 pm flight.
9:59 am - thinking hmm, maybe I should just check the airport website to make sure my flight isn't delayed.
10:00 am - discovering my flight time has been changed from 1:30 pm to 11:05 am!!!! Panic sets in.
10:01 am - running up the 4 flights of stairs to my room, grabbing my luggage, running back down with all luggage in tow (already packed - phew!), throwing the key on the hostel desk and shouting "Check out! Gracias! Adios!"
10:03 am - running down the street to first taxi I see, jumping in and yelling "Aeroport pronto! Rapido!" and whatever other Spanish words I could think of for get me there NOW!
10:10 am - whizzing through the streets of Barcelona to the airport (my cab driver rules!)
10:25 am - arriving at the airport, running inside to the last minute check-in counter. The lady at the front counter was yelling "Varsovia?!" and I shouted back "Varsovia!!! (Spanish for Warsaw)" and ran to the front of the line. She checked me in and said the flight boards at 10:35 am.
10:29 am - waiting in the LONG line-up to go through security (luckily EU security is so lax and it didn't take that long)
10:35 am - running all the way down the departures hall to my gate
10:45 am - boarding the plane, listening to them apologizing for the later boarding time
10:46 am - catching my breath in my seat
11:05 am - flight takes off

WOW. In my nearly 60 flights I've taken in my life, this was a first! I honestly still cannot believe I made it. The flight was only half-full so I wonder how many other people had no idea the flight time had changed and missed it completely! I had checked a few days before to make sure the time hadn't changed (and it hadn't) but from now on I'll be checking the day before and day of too!

Once on the plane, the flight was actually great. Only 2 hours and 45 min. Sat next to a very nice Spanish lady who only spoke Spanish and Polish. So between my limited Spanish and 5 words of Polish we were able to have a fairly decent conversation. Great views out of the airplane over the Mediterranean and European countryside.

Then, around 2:30 pm we arrived in Warsaw. (Who knew Poland and Barcelona were in the same time zone? Seems weird to me I guess since only 30 kms from Luseland, Alberta is in a different time zone and here I'm hundreds of kms away from Barcelona!) AND, even my luggage made the flight! So happy to see my lime green suitcase coming down the conveyor belt. Another weird thing: the Warsaw airport was so dead - it was really eerie.

My step-mother, Wanda, who is from Poland, had told me to take the Polski Express bus from the airport, change buses in downtown Warsaw, and head out to Plock (pronounced Pwotsk). This is the city where Luiza, my step-sister, and Bartek, her son, live - about 120 kms NW of Warsaw. But, after asking around in the airport, turns out there is no more Polski Express bus. They went bankrupt! So, Plan B - doing it my own way. Went to airport tourist information, they told me to go to another tourist information, went there, they told me to take a taxi to the west station where a bus was leaving for Plock. A "taxi driver" heard me speaking English and pounced on the opportunity to tell me he had a taxi and would drive me to the station for "good price". OK, whatever. Just like in Thailand, anyone with a car and driver's licence calls themselves a taxi if they can make a little extra cash. So, I demanded to see his licence, OK, fine, got in (took a photo of him just in case I was murdered there was photographic evidence of the prime suspect - I figured I could take him though haha). He drove me straight to the airport and complained about how the EU was so terrible for taxi drivers because gas is so much more expensive now and how good the traffic was "special for you". I was just happy he spoke English fairly well!
Arrived at the bus station without incident in "record time".

3:15 pm - getting my ticket, asking the bus driver if he spoke English (no) and saying "Plock" and him nodding, so I hopped on, hoping this was the right bus!
3:30 pm - bus leaving for Plock (I hope!). Having no idea how long it will take to get there or even if I'm on the right bus! Staring out the window of the bus (which is really quite comfy - ala Greyhound but better), looking at the Communist-style apartment blocks and wondering how on earth did I get here!
5:30 pm - arriving in Plock (I happened to see a few signs along the way so knew I was getting there). Sooo hungry because I haven't eaten since my leisurely bocadillo for breakfast at 9:30 am. Catching another cab to Luiza's apartment. Handing the taxi driver her address written out on a piece of paper.
5:45 pm - arriving at Luiza's apartment block. Big warm welcome. I made it!

(Oh, and a special thank you to the older man, Luiza's neighbour) who helped me with my luggage up the 5 flights of stairs to her apartment! It was so nice of him and much appreciated!)

PHEW. What a day.

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