Getting Help While Vacationing in a Foreign Country Wthout Knowing the Language - in Poland

The Galeria Shopping Plaza was close to our vacation apartment in Krakow.

We did our Krakow routine as the other days - Waking up at around 9 a.m., walking to the shopping plaza and shopping at Carrefour for some fresh crescents and a loaf of bread and enjoying my freshly squeezed vegetable juice there.

This was a nice relaxing routine for our holiday.

After we went back to the hotel, we had lunch and tried to finish all the food we bought in the past few days as this was our last day at Krakow.





The serviced apartment we were staying at was well equipped. It even came with what I thought a washer/ dryer combo unit.  However, I found that the dirty laundry I had put in the washer yesterday got washed but were dripping wet.

I reported the problem to the Management Office.  A repair man came this morning and fixed it.  Apparently, it was a minor problem as I didn't close the cover on the metal drum inside the machine properly.

After lunch, we went to the Main Square.

We bought tickets for the Underground City tour at 2:00p.m.

It was a disappointment for me.

I found that the explanations were a little too detail and not easy to read.

There was not much on displayed that interested me.

Underground City, Main Square, Krwkow, Poland

If one is interested in archaeology, one might have found it it less boring.

I wish we had visited the Schindler factory instead.

Our last full day in Krakow was a busy day for us. After the Underground City tour, we enjoyed a white glove dinner in the early evening.

We attended a Chopin Concert on a second floor music hall.

We then attended a Chopin concert also near the Main Square.





After going back to our place and getting ready to leave for the next morning,  we discovered that S. bought the wrong bus tickets to our next destination.

 J. worked hard to find an alternative solution so that we would not waste our hotel charge and bus tickets.  Thanks to his problem solving skills, J. did come up with plan B. Instead of going to our next intended city, we would go to Prague first since there were more buses leaving from there. From Prague we would take another bus to our hotel. Bingo! Problem solved! But it was stressful to make these last minute arrangements.

After we got our bus tickets right and re booked our next hotel, I found that the washing / dryer did not dry our clothes at all. How could I take all these wet clothes with us and leave Krakow in the morning?

Thanks to technology, I took a picture of the washer/ dryer and sent it to my Polish friend in Canada, asking her to translate the terms for me.

She replied to my messages right away and helped me figuring out it was only a washing machine, not a washer/ dryer combo unit as I had thought! No wonder our clothes never got dried!

With translation help from my Polish friend, I figured out the shortest washing cycle, got our dirty clothes washed and rinsed properly.  I hang the clothes out to dry. In the morning, they were dry enough so that we could take them with us to the next town.

Thank God!  We got another problem solved!

R.T.
Last night in Krakow
Poland