I did manage to get up on time this morning! We left Gdansk at 7:15 to head back to Warsaw. We made one short stop along the way, and then one more when we were actually in Warsaw. Some regulations state that the bus driver has to stop for 45 minutes when driving for 5 hours, so I guess the two breaks added up equaled his 45 minutes. So the morning was spent on the bus.
We went back to the cafeteria type place for lunch. The soup today, I’m not sure what it was called, was pepto bismol pink. I did not try it.
We got checked into the hotel, we’re staying at the Novotel again, and then went right back out to the Warsaw Uprising Museum. It’s the Warsaw Uprising that occurred in 1944, beginning August 1st. This is a very interesting, if overwhelming museum. There are a ton of exhibits, many of them interactive. You do a self guided tour, you get a little contraption that speaks to you. There are over 40 exhibits. I did get confused as to where to go, they didn’t seem to be in any order, I’m sure they were, but I just didn’t get it. There are film clips, letters, audio stations, reproductions of rooms. It’s a lot to take in. There’s also a lot to read at each exhibit, which is difficult to do with the radio talking to you about each exhibit. I’m going to have to find a book about the uprising, because it was too much information to take in at once, too many things to see, and we only had 2 hours. I needed much more time than that.
We went back to the hotel after that, got any luggage we left from the room where they stored it, and were on our own. 7 of us decided to meet to go to dinner in Old Town. I didn’t make the decision, I didn’t even know it had been made, but we tried out another Mexican restaurant. It was actually warm and sunny today, so we sat outside. The food was good, I tried quesadillas this time, and we were just sitting around talking when Devin felt water. We thought someone was watering the plants on the building beside us. No. It started to pour down rain. Still sunny, but pouring. We crowd under the umbrella, which only covered one side of the table. The waitress came out to us with “a proposal” to go downstairs in the restaurant. So we did. It was a neat little room, small, with couches along the walls, a couple of ottomans and coffee tables. We’re just sitting around talking when there’s a commotion outside the door, around the corner near the bar. We don’t pay too much attention. No one has come in to tell us to get out or anything. Gaia gets up to go to the bathroom and comes right back saying the toilet is stopped up so she can’t use it, and the commotion was they were scrambling around trying to find a mop or something.
Oh but it gets better. We’re still sitting around talking because it’s still raining outside. Then we see water start to come around the corner towards the room. It’s moving very quickly. It comes into the room, fills the entire room, and withing a minute or two is already at least an inch deep. We have to get out. In order to get out, we have to walk through this inch deep toilet water. I had on shoes and walked on my tip toes. 4 of the group had on flip flops. Ugh I felt nasty. Then we had to make it back to the hotel in the pouring down rain.
Soooo after a very long very hot shower where I scrubbed my feet in water as hot as I could stand, I feel a little better. And I’ve put my shoes right next to the bag with my laundry, and I hope the lady will throw them in with my clothes. I’ll ask Ola tomorrow.
I’m going to work on posting some pictures, and try to get to bed early. It’s been a long day cooped up on the bus, and then the wading through toilet water to escape the flooding Mexican restaurant. It’s a little alarming at the number of off the wall adventures we’ve had, and we’re only in the very beginning of our second week here. I hope the next 3 weeks are a little calmer. Or at least don’t involve anymore toilet water.
