Around the World in 365 days: Wloclawek, Poland 13.07

We arrived back in Wloclawek after our long trip around Northen Europe. Everyone was quite exhausted after our fast pace of sightseeing, but we had a great time. We spent our first day in Wloclawek just relaxing and preparing for the next phase of our trip. We were struggling to keep our stay in the Schengen region below 90 days, as the visa restriction dictates for Australians. We didn't have much time left before we had to evacuate ourselves out of this area, so that we would have enough days left for our last section of European sightseeing. Complicated, but we basically had to go and spend as much time as possible in the few countries in Europe that had not yet joined the Schengen region.

We were planning on doing a bit of camping on our next phase of Europe, so we started collecting all the things that we would need. We bought ourselves a big inflatable mattress, a pump, and an esky that plugs into the lighter in the car for extra power. We got a great 3 person tent from Artur's brother, some foldable chairs and a table, and lots of cooking supplies from Artur's mother. Artur's dad gave us one of his compact digital cameras to replace the one that we'd lost, and he also bought us a Tom Tom GPS! We were absolutely thrilled, and now were completely ready for our camping trip!
We entertained ourselves by setting up the tent in the backyard, and checking to see if the mattress fit inside the tent. We set up our chairs and table and filled the esky with beer, to make it feel authentic. We even considered sleeping outside for the night like little kids.

Crazy Night
We had other plans though for that evening. We were meeting up with some of Artur's high school friends for some drinks. We met them at the infamous 'Tradycja on Impresja' Bar, where they had often met up for drinks in the past. The 'infamous' part of it being how drunk they all got when they got together those other times.
'Beny', who is a judge, and 'Zebrol', who is an interpreter, were already there waiting for us. Soon after, 'Grzala', who is a vet, also joined us. It was one of the greatest moments of the trip for Artur to catch up with his old true friends.
Loren felt a bit out of place at first, as she was the only girl there, and the only one who didn't know anyone else. However, after a few drinks, we were all like old friends. We chatted about doping in sport, the Beijing Olympics, Polish roads, and about our travels.

We started off with a few beers, but then things progressed to 'kamikaze' drinks. 'Kamikaze', is five shots of Chopin blue coloured vodka. Apparently its not as strong as normal vodka, which is why you can have five at a time. We didn't stop at five, and rounds of kamikaze kept being purchased. Loren suggested that we have some food to offset the amount of alchohol that we were drinking, but everyone was too busy drinking to worry about stuff like that.
Soon the alchohol took its toll, and the bar was closing. Loren was already feeling pretty seedy, and had been seeking refuge in the bathroom. She was doing pretty well by the time we left though. Unfortunately the trouble started for Artur as we were driving back to Grzala's house. Poor Zebrol had bravely offered us a ride in his new car, but Artur needed to keep stopping about every hundred metres, for obvious reasons. Eventually we were getting pretty close to the suburb where Grzala lived, so we decided it would be better to walk from there.
Grzala bought a bottle of vodka from a local shop on the way to his place, but on one was left on the drinking battlefield by that point. Artur was a little better while we were walking, but not immensely. It was a long walk, but it was good for sobering up.

We woke up on the sofa the next day in Grzala's living room. Artur's parent's had deduced from a text message that he had sent the night before, that we probably wouldn't make it home that night. It was a very incoherent message, but that in itself spoke volumes.

We met his wife and his daughter, Michaelina, who was very talkative and active. She didn't pick up on the fact that Loren didn't speak Polish, so she chatted away to her for a long time, telling her the names of her toys and other things. Loren could understand a little bit, and found it very amusing.

Grzala had to go to work, but he was fine to go in late, so he dropped us off at the main bridge across the Vistula. We had a refreshing walk back to the house from there, not too long, just right for a hangover. We were impressed at his drinking stamina, and that he was able to go to work after such a big night.

Artur was still feeling sick, so he went to bed to recover. He felt about as sick as he did in India when we had food poisoning, and that's saying something. Although this time, it was of his own actions. Loren recovered quickly and felt fine after a quick nap. Lucky!