We (Mel, Cat, and I) were invited to the Wieliczka Conress and were due to fly out from Coventry on the Friday afternoon to Katowice. Mel had to get her hair done first, which meant we were cutting it a bit fine, but should get to Coventry with plenty of time to spare. Cat and I packed everything while Mel was getting her hair done, then headed to her hairdressers to pick her up, then straight to Coventry… easy!!!
Got to junction one of the M5, traffic was at a standstill heading north, so we decided to get on the A34 and jump on the M6 further down. Ended up stuck at roadworks-from-hell for about 25 minutes – and no-one was working on them!!!!
Anyway, got past that, onto the M6 and I put my foot down in an effort to get us to the airport in about 15 minutes.
We got there, parked, and got to the check-in desk about 5 minutes after it had closed. Thought we could blag it, but boy were we wrong!!!! The evil !@*%& behind the desk was not interested and seemed to take great pleasure in our misfortune. She wouldn’t help us with any alternatives or suggestions, so home we went, but we weren’t to be beaten!!
Got on the internet, and Cat was on the phone for about 30 minutes trying to find an alternative flight to Poland, or the nearest country possible. We found one from Liverpool airport at 10pm, so booked that, and decided to get the train to Liverpool, and use our flight back to Coventry. Drove to Birmingham, got the train to Liverpool, bus to the airport, checked in, and the flight was delayed by an hour and a half!!!! Typical!!!!!
Mel and Cat amused themselves for a couple of hours by playing the baby grand piano that’s in the departure lounge, much to the amusement of the other passengers!!
We arrived at Katowice airport at 2-30am, participated in the scrum for baggages, then went to collect our hire car. It should all have been straightforward from here, but the car hire place was closed – despite our reservation confirmation confirming everything!! We called the phone number and woke someone up at 3am, and after a debate, agreed that he would come and sort the car for us. So, 4am and we were hiring our car – it turned out that no booking had been made, so the guy was none too pleased but helped us out nonetheless.
So, off we went on the A4 to Krakow ☺ Surely we’d be at the hotel and in bed in just over an hour.
A missed turn and we ended up on a side road in the middle of some woods on the way to the Slovakian border!!!!
We got back on the main road, obtained directions from a service station, and headed down the 44 road to Krakow – not quite the same as the motorway from Katowice to Krakow, this was a slightly potholed windy road, blanketed in fog. We eventually got to the Motel Gorska at 7am, had breakfast, then went to bed!!!!!
We all got up at about 12-30am, met up with Sizzla and Ricardo, then went to workshops. Mel and Cat went to Neeraj Maskara’s Cha Cha class, and I went to Mambomikes mens styling workshop.
Later we drove into Krakow centre for dinner, and Mel managed to find a salon to get her nails done. We waited, hungry!!! Went to the restaurant recommended by the salon staff, and ate a hearty meal (enough for ten!!)
Spent 25minutes trying to get on the road back out of Krakow, showered and changed at the hotel, then headed to the Wieliczka Salt Mine for the party.
It was a great party in a fantastic location 150 metres underground. We stayed until 3am, slept, got up at 7.30am, quick breakfast, then our brief stay in Wieliczka was over. It was time to try and get home!
This was a fantastic event and we were honoured to have been able to attend the very first one. Will we be going next year? Definitely!!! Will we be better prepared for travel? Absolutely!!!!
