Another quick update……. phew time goes so fast

Friday 17/7/15 – Okay.. Okay…. Okay…. yep…. yep… yep…. we are very slack bloggers!!!

So another “quickie update’ so you know where we are at! We are currently in Warsaw / Poland.

After almost four sensational weeks in Ireland, we headed back to see Colleen & Co in Hednesford (in the midlands north of Birmingham). Stayed with Colleen for  about a week,  (it was so great to catch up), then decided we would fly to Poland to sort out our visas for the winter stay.

We decided to fly, because we only have 29 days left in the Schengen zone and we felt it was better to utilise that time in Warsaw if needed, rather than loose days travelling across countries to get there. Also it would be cheaper to fly across, if we took into account accommodation, fuel and food etc.

So….. decision made, Colleen (master planner and executioner), went online, and booked us return flights  from Birmingham International to Warsaw, with a  stop over in Brussels. She also booked our return train tickets from Cannock station to Birmingham International. Thanks Col.

Unfortunately for us we are flying in peak season as it is school holidays for the UK, so the fares  were a bit  more than they would have been out of season. They can be as low as 30 pounds in the off season,  but ours cost around 196 pounds each return…. Them’s the breaks, and still better than Plan A of riding the bike to Warsaw.

Flight over with Brussells Airlines left a lot to be desired…. to say the least (you will have to wait for that juicy tit bit, cause I did say this was a ‘quick update), but we  did finally arrive safely at Chopin Warsaw airport at  around 12.30am …. only  two and a half hours late!

Our friends Jacko and ‘wifey’ were there to meet us, and took us to the apartment where we will be living when we return here around mid September through to April next year.

So the story on our Poland stay is that Jacko worked with Span at Holden’s Proving Ground at Lang Lang.  Jacko and Jadwiga (aka Wifey)  migrated to Australia from Poland about 27 years ago and offered the use of their apartment in Warsaw in the early part of planning this trip.

We are so very blessed to have the apartment which has allowed us to plan such a long stay in Warsaw.  NOT ONLY THAT….. if we had not had Jacko as Master interpreter, we would have had a MUCH tougher time applying for our Visas. We can not thank Jacko and Jadwiga enough for all the assistance they have given us, not only with the apartment, but with visa application/ lodgement as well as their friendship and company…. we have had lots of laughs since we arrived.

We lodged all the documents today, and must now wait until 29/7/15 to be fingerprinted….. we will know more after that. The lady and  guy at the local government office that processed our documents could not have been more helpful, pleasant and friendly.

Everyone is very friendly and understanding of our lack of Polish. We do however expect our Polish to be significantly improved after our winter  say here. Interestingly, on the trams, they have screens to assist with the learning of the English language, so maybe that will help us as well. Loved this one…..

Plan for the next twelve days is to do some sight seeing annnnd catch up with the blog (hopefully). We had the internet connected today, and it is super fast .. yeah… gotta love that!  The Internet and TV (with so many channels) is costing us the princely sum of 40 Zloty a month, which is about $14.35.. noice!!!!

So next blog will be catch up post Andorra….. ttfn…….