Life / Proper dose of life in Poland... the harsh realities. [64]

I'll tell you what's harsh: I was attacked outside an ATM by one older man leading four younger men, sitting outside an ATM at ING bank waiting for victims. I managed to get away, careening through the streets in a panic. They punched me in the face and tried to block my car but I decided it was me or them so I drove through them. People are attacked at ATMS's once in a while in the states, but not in the afternoon with hundreds of people around busily ignoring it. And basically, almost never. Krakow was this curious mixture of this primitive, lawless culture with a thin veneer of "we want to be an EU member" whitewashed over it. The life of the "average" American is safe and peaceful and we have a fully functioning judicial system that for the most part if on our side. What people who do not live here see is the movies and media; which portray basically entertainment and sensationalism. I'm 67 years old.

Life / Proper dose of life in Poland... the harsh realities. [64]

I read an article in the paper the next day after the attack about this very problem. I was just saying it seemed to be more common than what I'm used to so to me it was a harsh reality of living in Krakow. Too bad about Scotland.

Beelzebub: I know. It makes me laugh now. Just yesterday I was watching a movie where the characters were doing just that: careering around in traffic trying to get away from the bad guys and I laughed and said to myself, that was me! Can you believe it? An old woman running from the bad guys. Of course at the time I was so terrified and was awake all night wondering if they were searching for my car parked on the street. And I had a big black and blue on my jaw where the guy punched me through my car window. I had my purse on the car seat but I always lock my doors when I get in; thank god because one of them was pulling on the door handle.

Travel / Driving to Poland from England - any tips? [264]

As long as we are on the subject: I drove from Landstuhl to Krakow 10 months ago and the main highway crossing the polish border shortly after Dresden was closed for construction and there is no way to find out if it is still closed when I went back so I had to assume it was. I even emailed the motel I stayed at last time; no response. No answer. but, my point is that the detour was horrible; miles and miles of terrible, holey roads through small villages in the dark. this wasn't an official detour by the way. I had a map and used my gps, which was fair on directions for more rural areas. Not always right. gps was good for cities.