British Corfiot visits the dentist in Poland

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Vol. 1, No. 3; March 15, 2005

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A British Corfiot Visits The Dentist...In Poland

by Gilly Beckett

Editors Note: Acharavi resident Gilly Beckett knew she needed dental treatment, and she also knew the treatment would involve several visits to the dentist; but having lived only two years on Corfu, she had no trustworthy reference to a dental surgeon. What's more, she'd heard horror stories about the quality of care and about antiquated equipment. Finally she made an appointment with one of Corfu's most highly recommended dental surgeons, and did she ever get a big surprise. The office was hardly antiquated; in fact she saw modern equipment there that she'd never seen in Great Britain! The surgeon spoke excellent English, and his education and credentials were also quite impressive. Gilly felt immediately relieved if not totally comfortable, so she underwent an initial examination to determine the course of her treatment. But that was when the biggest surprise of all came: the cost! To say the least, she was flabbergasted, and what's more she knew she would not be able to pay the amount asked by the surgeon for the entire treatment plan. So Gilly began to look elsewhere, not willing to compromise quality, but finding it necessary to find a more reasonable price. Her search was conducted on the Internet, and what she found was a third surprise -- this one the biggest of all. In less than a month after visiting the Corfu dental surgeon, Gilly was on a plane to Krakow, Poland where she intended to stay a full month while undergoing extensive dental treatment. This is Gilly's account of those days spent in Krakow and at the Polish dental clinic where her treatment took place.

Krakow 16 November 2005 10:54

My first morning in Krakow. It was very reassuring to be greeted yesterday at Krakow Airport, which is even smaller than Corfu Airport, by Mr Kaminsky the marketing manager for the Clinic, who drove me in his impressive Chrysler, to my apartment and gave me a map and other necessary info, like where the clinic is!

16 November 2005 16:52

I met Dr Artur, pleasant in appearance and manner, mid thirties, speaks pretty good English, and discussed what has to be done, actually he did the discussing and I nodded obediently. Then the most intensive dental 'clean-up' I've ever endured...8.30 tomorrow night two extractions. They work very late at the clinic, six days a week.

Well, I am for a quiet night watching tele... ‘watching’ being the operative word - it’s all Polish to me, so more likely I’ll read my book.

17 November 2005 15:00

Today, après clinic, I decided to go walkabouts. The immediate area is dominated by grim blocks of flats and offices. But it’s only a walk - seven minutes, I’m told - to the historical Centre of Krakow. I discovered breathlessly that the ‘seven minutes’ could only be achieved by fast car, Mr Kaminsky’s probably. Found the old Market Place – the largest market place in Europe, dominated by the imposing Cloth Hall. I can best describe the area as 'gloomily interesting' but I am sure it's better when the sun shines or by floodlight. Tourists wandering around looked more interested than I felt but perhaps I'm missing the plot. I got spectacularly lost on the way back. My sense of direction, always bad…no surprises there … completely deserted me and I had to ask two people, the first a disinterested man in a hurry who brushed me aside, the second a girl who tried hard to help with very limited English, until I got back on track finding the all important ul Dluga (interpretation - Long street, a Polish understatement!) It was snowing, that hard tiny stuff that stings your face. I was fairly traumatised at being lost and by the intense cold. Stalls everywhere are bedecked with thick socks and scarves and it’s obvious why.

The office downstairs in the apartment building, is concerned with allocating apartments for the clinic ‘victims’ or short-term stays for business or holidaying people. The other apartments are occupied by locals, occasionally seen scuttling mysteriously up the gloomy stone stairs. There are two girls in the office, on the computers, or chatting and making hot drinks. The computer equipment is ancient. The one I’m using today is built like a fortress and so heavy I can't release the squashed mouse flex caught underneath. But it's good to be able to come in here and type.

November 2005 12:41

Very groggy this morning from heavy local anas. So an enforced quiet day for me. Clinic this afternoon. To check that my mouth is still there. I wouldn’t know. It’s very cold. I'm wearing a coat here in the office but the girl is wandering around with a bare midriff. That’s Polish girls for you.

Impressions of Krakow. It obviously has not received an EU magic injection yet. (I'm a bit obsessed with injections. But you and I, Mike, have seen the difference it makes in places like Hallstatt in Austria and of course in Ireland). I still retain this impression of grey dreariness, although the little nurse I talked with last night said that the Market Square is wonderful at night - And probably when it's covered up with snow too. I asked her is it safe for a woman to go out on her own at night and she said yes very positively. I walked round to the clinic at 8.30 last night, and back to apartment about an hour later, people about, although the streets are not magnificently lit. But the clinic is always open to the world, late into the evening, so that says something. There is no indication that anyone wants to understand anything in English (except Deutsche Bank in the Market Square of course). The people at the clinic know various useful phrases like ‘Are you all right?'… Dr Artur is more fluent. I am trying to pick up words; Prosze 'proshay' (phonetic) seems to mean excuse me or please or sorry. Tak (yes); Nie (no). Dziekuje (thanks); Dobranoc – good night.

I am allowed only cold things today on orders, not very suitable for wintry Krakow. Dobrze!

18 November 2005 17:25

I intend to do some more searching for the Essential Krakow. I believe that I am staying next to a telephone exchange and there is a post office round the corner or I think that’s what it is. As I said positively no clues in English. The name of this street is ul Lubelska.

19 November 2005 12:14

Mike, yes, in answer to your question, the care and equipment etc at the clinic seems certainly equal to our friend in Corfu.

I'll look at my emails tonight before I 'retire' into my bedroom under the eaves. It was a strange sensation this morning waking and watching huge snowflakes fluttering and settling onto the window above me.

19 November 2005 12:24

Have met the owner of this building. George (his name sounds unrecognisable in Polish), endlessly juggling his computer with his mobile phone and sometimes his long-suffering baby as well. (Never see his wife but his mother is often about. She’s as dynamic as her son, and greets me with a recitation of her entire English phrases – ‘hello, good morning, good afternoon, it’s cold/sunny; have a nice day) George has competent English and is always efficiently busy despite the handicaps of the mobile phone that is never silent, and the baby encased rigidly in his shiny padded garment looking like a little fat star-fish. Regarding Broadband which it must be, to be available all day -. On the two-little-monitors Icon that you see when you're on line - 'odebrano' which sounds like broadband doesn't it - is 1287 pakietow - but it changes every time I look at it. It's 1315 now. Also in that icon - szybkosc 100.0 mbps. and wystano 1452 pakietow. You'll be as good at Polish as me soon.

19 November 2005 13:50

Out in the snow to find Polish Panorama with pazzaz...??? but the cold beat me so now I'm back. Small supermarkets abound. The one I chose actually has the word ‘Market’ in neon outside. The girl brutally demanded something presumably the right money - my bill came to 15 z-whatevertheyare and I handed her 20. You'd have thought I had broken the rule of law by the expression on her face. There is a big fruit market quite near. On almost every street corner there are little kiosks selling shampoos, sweets, newspapers, cigarettes. People buy bread rings from small stands. It’s de rigour to walk along munching bread rings. Not me at the moment, of course, with MY mouth.

So that's Saturday 19 of Listopada (November to the uninitiated) done with.

Tomorrow I will go and find the Senecke hotel where the BBC folk will be staying. (And take more notice of where I'm going or more importantly how to return.) Praps I should walk backwards, might raise a smile from Polish passersby. I doubt it.

20 November 2005 17:05

I've found it! The Essential Krakow! I have arrived! By the way I realised the intensity of the cold when I sat down in the hotel lounge, ordered a coffee and turned on my mobile. It was so sluggish I couldn't understand why at first but then it was obvious, the phone was practically frozen. I don't think I've experienced such cold weather. Wow it suddenly hits, even though I walked briskly. I think this is the first real snow because dads and kids were aiming snowballs at each other. There are many wonderful churches, the façade of one lined with saints outside. I went inside St Mary's just off the Square. The magnificent surroundings are carved with coloured woods. Very different from the Venice churches we are used to, but nonetheless amazing.

In the Market Square a man was playing the Bach Cantata - on an accordion! - talk about tugging the heart strings. And a woman violinist further along was performing Hungarian melodies. By the Cloth Hall a rakish group played that nostalgic 60's song ‘The House of the Rising Sun’. And a Group of jolly Polish musicians in strange (Polish) garb that included red stripy trousers produced gusty Polish tunes. I wandered happily about feeling almost ‘at home’ with the lively ambiance. Even the vast Cloth Hall revealed an architectural quality that I hadn’t earlier appreciated. And there is a tall bell tower that dominates the Square. I was really tempted to tag along with a great crowd of British tourists and a guide.

Found smart clothes shops, but no M & S! I stopped at a stall selling woollen hats - I needed one! I saw a pretty pink hat with silver woollen swirls on it and the man indicated generously that the pink woollen scarf was included for 55 zlotties. Expensive I thought, but when I remembered that all I've changed over so far is 50 euro for which I got 197 and a bit - zlotties, so I thought OK. 'Tak' I said in my best Polish - not that he was fooled.

I can't really transform the currency into euros easily though. Goes with my sense of direction.

It turns even colder here, in early afternoon, So I wandered back, not too wanderingly though, because you need to get a move on not to feel too cold.

Incidentally I didn't tell you about the solution to car parking in Krakow. Fortunately the pavements are very wide. You become accustomed to cars taking up a lot of space whilst dodging round other pedestrians, and baby buggies clashing with walking sticks. But a car bonnet and glaring headlights suddenly maneuvering towards you are a bit disconcerting. The motorists are very neat about parking diagonally across the pavements, you get more in that way. Some zebra crossings have pedestrian lights. Others, like the four lane ring road with trams etc hurtling past, has no such luxury, we pedestrians gang up and when there are enough of us – that’s more than two, march across defiantly. If you are actually on a crossing they generally slow down.

A very nervous looking woman has just arrived in office complete with husband. Brits. Mr Kaminsky called a bright Hello to me, more patients for the clinic he said smiling broadly. But they hardly smiled, actually she looked terrified not just nervous.

21 November 2005 15:36

Just been involved in the most hilarious, intensive two hours filming with the BBC television crew.

I took the precaution of ‘warning’ my landlord (George) of the impending visit and he got quite excited that his establishment was being filmed. They turned up late (their prerogative) in heavy snow, and I was introduced to Dominic (smiley chap, who I have seen so often on tele in England, who does all the sorts of TV programmes where people are interviewed on whatever topic the programme is about. (Crime, holidays, new homes...) He's brilliant to work with - darling!

George showed them a posh room he was obviously keen that they used for the filming but, sorry George, they chose mine because the skylights make it really bright and they didn’t have lighting equipment amongst their BBC paraphernalia, They took forever filming Dominic walking and talking in pouring snow to the front door of the apartments, over and over again. Then they set everything up in my room and filming commenced. Dominic interviewed me on why I chose Krakow for dental treatment. They said I did really well but I expect they say that to everyone. They said they liked my giggle! I'm on a Hi! I’m a star.

Then we all climbed into the enormous people carrier hired for them and drove in style to the clinic but the people carrier was too bulky to park on the pavement outside. Shame. Dr Artur seemed in a bit of a state, quite nervous I thought, not like him, and the little nurse was all nerves too.

Dom is having his teeth whitened for the show. But I only stayed so that Dr Artur could check that my mouth is surviving. I go back tomorrow for the sutures to be removed and then on Wednesday the root canals filings begin. Jolly good!?!

22 November 2005 21:41

My treatment starts tomorrow at 9 a.m. Don't ask!...

23 November 2005 15:47

Been in clinic since 9 a.m. Don't know what day it is… but the amalgam fillings all gone. A really delightful female dentist. Back again tomorrow at 11.

I don't think I'll be doing any mooching about for a couple of days. Exhausted.

24 November 2005 16:14

Well my first impressions of a grey Krakow have been changed. I definitely don't find the place 'grey' now that I'm getting to know it. I have just visited the market. I decided that I should get some fruit and stop eating or rather sipping instant soup. Have only had one meal out (‘blinies’, in a café called Nikita) since I got here, mainly because I never feel hungry. Anyway, swollen lips and numb gums aren’t terribly conducive to eating! In the market I got 2 kilos of tangerines for 5 zlotties and 4 bananas for about 3 zlotties- and I had change from the coins I blankly offered the kindly lady. It's known as the Fruit Market. But what you can't get in there isn't worth mentioning, and it's open all week.

Talked to the English woman. She and husband were waiting when I got to the clinic this morning. I felt more sorry for her husband. Just sitting there whispering to her, and holding her hand. We all exchanged watery smiles. I came out from my treatment (three hours later) and she was coming out from hers - her dentist wears a sexy green uniform!

I have been with the female dentist for the last two days - she is very pretty from behind her mask, and very caring – I hate that word but she is.

The woman patient and I talked (or rather mumbled) while we waited to know our next appointments. Husband had gone off somewhere. I have what feels like a mouthful of temporary fillings - ugh. Clinic 9.30 tomorrow morning. Will it never end...

It's really really cold now. The English woman said she's cold all the time. And she is from ‘up North’ and so should be used to it - but she is very thin.

25 November 2005 15:18

Went into the Centre this morning as I have a 'day off' - except for a short consultation with Sir. Waiting for root canal treatment to heal.

I know the couple better now. They are a bit fed up because she will have to come back again. They are here until 3 December. George asked them did they meet the BBC crew? They said no they were too nervous! George and I exchanged knowing grins because they had missed out on a lot of fun. Later this morning the woman, you can’t catch names from mumbles, and I left the clinic together and she said she was going back to bed! Waiting for a phone call from clinic to tell me what time in the morning, I enjoyed a glass of wine, a very good Valpolichelli (?) in my favourite wine bar (well actually the only one I’ve dared go into). In the Market Square they are erecting Christmassy stalls.

26 November 2005 14:12

Bad news. On a miserable rainy day. I have just had a consultation with Dr Artur. He explained to me that the work they wanted to achieve on the top teeth isn't in fact possible because I have two dodgy back teeth that he has tried hard with, but he says if he let it go then in under three years I would have problems and I would be unhappy and his clinic would be too because they have to achieve the very best. I understood all he said, basically it means another extraction and they won't do the work they had in mind. But I will have lovely white filled teeth. He will work on my bottom jaw and he can do the work he originally wanted to do which at the initial consultation I rejected as too expensive. So the end price will be the same. I appreciated his concern and explanations, recalling the UK dentist I saw before we moved to Greece, who was quite happy to ignore the fact that a back tooth would quickly deteriorate. That was three years ago. And the Corfu dentist had to recently extract it.

But now it seems I will be here longer than planned. Braving the pouring rain, I emerged down-hearted from the clinic and went to a cosmetics shop where the lady owner watches one's every move for shop lifting and I treated myself some really nice nail varnish (as she cunningly examined my zlottie note for forgery) so I will spend time this afternoon making my hands and toes pretty. I’ll get over it. It's the extension of time really that is hard to handle. But hopefully it might still mean only one more weekend after this...

26 November 2005 15:06

Wow talk about dismal here. Grey - yes seriously grey – and still pouring with rain.

26 November 2005 19:23

I'm really ‘down’ tonight. It’s Saturday and I should be out dancing...

An unusual influx of visitors up on my (top) level. About five young adults

(including mother I think). I asked George about them; he told me they are staying four nights sightseeing around Krakow, so hopefully there will be a bit of people noise. Surprisingly, I don't mind, because it is very quiet at the top of the house!

Oh when I was climbing the (many) stairs earlier, a clutch of small dogs (maybe half a dozen) gasping and straining on leads hurtled passed me being driven down the stairs by a little Polish lady!

27 November 2005 14:41

I just couldn't be bothered to walk to the Centre. I really haven't got the in-Centre-ive. I bought a bottle of wine in a little ‘supermarket’. It's kept behind the counter and it was about 13 zlotties. What's that? 4 euro-ish? Not as cheap as Greece. Not a local wine either - French actually. I can’t imagine somehow that Poland is conducive to grape production. In fact I wonder how many days annually the sun appears. Today at least it's not raining just mild and yes...grey.

28 November 2005

Heavy snow overnight.

29 November 2005 14:13

I went out for three hours this morning. Walked and walked – no I don’t ‘do’ taxis, one nearly ran me down on a pedestrian crossing in the dark recently.

I stopped at my favourite coffee shop right in the Square. Coffee is very good here. The pretty Christmas stalls are flourishing. The heavy snow that fell the other night has also contributed to the seasonal look of everything, only you have to be careful because great chunks of the stuff fall without warning from the tops of buildings. No concern about it, you just walk in the road, and no preventative measures like grit on the roads. One slithers over dangerous frozen slush or ice. Everyone (-else but me) charges along (so much for David's romantic comment that 'people walk slower in Poland". Do they heck as like! That's Polish for - 'Oh no they don't'.) The ultimate rushing experience was a girl who hurtled past me and then stopped so abruptly in front of a shop window that I nearly somersaulted over her. What was all that about? In London everyone speeds along with a sense of purpose but also a sense of what other people are doing; here it's pretty haphazard, people suddenly stop or head straight for you. Like Corfu Town only worse.

Wendy sent me an email saying she saw me on TV and I 'looked great'. All this praise will go to my head, but only until I see the frozen jaw and lumpy lips in the shower room mirror and come back to earth with a bang.

A young man dentist, also clad in the impressive green uniform, gave an incisor a 'new look' last night as well as poking around inside it, he was so sweet, he told me everything he was doing as he did it. He also had a neat expression for the effect of the aesthetic injection on the tooth - 'it will lie down' he said and it did.

30 November 2005 17:41

Feeling very uncomfortable all night. The ‘dodgy’ back tooth had a ‘cyst’ under it, Dr Artur informed me triumphantly(?) It hadn't shown up on the X-ray and obviously was the reason why that tooth had been uncomfortable for months!

Anyway I asked Dr Artur the open question - how is it all looking? He said fine and healing a lot quicker than he thought it would. He also said that end of next week should see the completion of everything, as now it’s the 'cosmetic' work to do. Maybe no more numb mouths. I am feeling a lot more cheerful and brighter and suddenly I feel hungry but I cannot eat! Typical.

Have to hold an ice pack to my face for another 20 minutes. Have to do it once an hour. And nothing hot must pass my lips for another couple of days. Oh it’s fun here!

01 December 2005 13:12

A lovely morning, sun shining, blue sky and no fresh snow. Cold but pleasant.

I feel absolutely fine this morning, another check up proved that everything healing well. Have to report in again tomorrow at 16.00. The woman doctor who will be doing the work for the prosthetic or whatever it's called, is the only one I felt a little uncomfortable about. Unsmiling, no eye contact, seems negative when talking to people. (of course not understanding what is being said is frustrating) But - I decided that if she's going to be working for me, I'd better do something about it. So this morning I caught her eyes and gave her a grin. And she smiled back (wow!) and she actually said 'see you tomorrow"!

The lady who is here with her husband (the Cindy look-alike) (the wife not the husband) was at the clinic this morning looking terrible. She had been at the clinic yesterday all afternoon and evening until 11 p.m. Cannot imagine what the lady is having done! She has to come back in about four weeks, after they go home Saturday. Oh, coincidence, her husband just came into the office. He told me she is in bed sleeping. He said - they really put you through it here, don't they. I replied that such concentrated (time wise) treatment is going to be heavy. But it is amazing how quickly one recovers from feeling lousy to feeling – pretty good.

TV talk - again - Kelly's workmates who saw the show couldn't believe that I am her grandmother! Woo!

Well, yoghurt again. Goody goody. My legs are wobbly from too much yoghurt and aching from a recent long walk. Sometimes I realise I’ve been walking for three hours but I really enjoy it.

George explained, when I mentioned that my apartment lacked a bottle or can opener, that it is impossible to buy kitchen equipment like openers anywhere in Krakow. But luckily, he added gleefully, IKEA is only 7 minutes by car. So how did the good citizens of Krakow open tins and bottles before the advent of IKEA? Did it really take a Scandinavian entrepreneur to solve the problem of their unopened tins?

02 December 2005 20:30

Did another marathon walk. Cold – and grey…

Tomorrow I am being moved to another apartment. On the ground floor - hurrah.

16.00 hours clinic. Monday they start the caps for my lower teeth.

03 December 2005 13:20

The girl in the office handed over the keys to my new apartment; large bed/sitting room with cosy armchair and even a standard lamp, large bathroom, enormous kitchen (?). And I am right by the front door of the building. But don't worry I have an inner and an outer door with a button pad to press my number and locks.

Marathon walk. It's not just the walk to the Centre. 7 minutes! You'd have to run like the wind and have all the traffic in your favour and then I think you'd be hard pushed. Today there were small groups of children everywhere holding scarlet ribbons and asking for money. I said to some little girls who accosted me ‘ I don’t understand’. The spokesperson told me in careful English ‘it is for all the children in hospital’. Who could resist that! I proudly wound my scarlet ribbon tied around my arm. Coffee in a little cafe tucked away in a courtyard (there are many little courtyards waiting to be discovered). Coffee was 5 zlotties, cheapest yet and delicious) Then the walk back. The centre is surrounded by a sort of park area called 'Planta' and the dreaded ring road. Negotiating the traffic lanes with trams clanging back and forth and then the real slog along ul Dluga, when I see the Fruit Market I know I'm nearly home and dry.

No more snow. And the sun is consenting to shine, which it doesn't often. Yesterday the air was so cold it made me feel dizzy. Dr Artur says it is the best weather for healing the mouth and told me to go for a walk in the freezing air after the extraction!

04 December 2005 18:23

Minibus trip from the Wawal Hotel. About 12 Brits (it was a large minibus and I didn't count them, but the tour guide did!...) As we left Krakow we were pointed out a huge grim building which is now the University for Metallurgy, apparently an important industry here. The building was originally the Gestapo Headquarters. A sinister revelation, setting the scene for the day. 70 kilometre drive through the Polish snow covered countryside. Saw some very classy chalet-like residences amongst the humbler rural dwellings. We also passed through a vast industrial area. On and on and then we were there, at Auschwitz.

The experience was more terrible than I had expected. We were shown a harrowing film made by the Russians when they first went into Auschwitz. Then the tour started. We were described the countless numbers of prisoners, the cruel ruses that took them to their deaths. The conditions and treatment so severe that most working prisoners died within three months. I could go on but I won't. Sombre is not a serious enough word for the place. It was silent, bitterly cold, no birds to be heard despite the sunny day. Snow lay treacherously hard and frozen.

In true grit fashion because the Poles don't lay grit, we nervously walked and slithered around to the various buildings that are now a vast terrible museum. At one particularly dreadful area, the wall of death, and it was just that, we were escorted through a dungeon-like corridor flanked by tiny cells where indescribable misery was inflicted. Claustrophobia is not something that bothers me but I experienced panic so extreme it took a lot of self-control not to rush past everyone to get outside. After what seemed like hours, we were allowed a brief rest and refreshments. We were told when to meet up again and, I thought I had understood where.

A woman alone on a tour is a strange animal. Nobody gives eye contact. Nobody attracted my attention before they melted conspiratorially away. To cut a long story short, I was busy texting to Mike, and then thought, oh I had better find everyone. They had vanished without trace. The starkness and grimness of the surroundings forced me to return to the entry building. Only I could get lost in Auschwitz!

Eventually a ‘lady in charge’ approached me and said that everyone had gone in the minibus to Birkenau about 5 kilometres away. So a cab conveyed me there to rejoin the group. The cabbie has an English friend in Manchester he told me proudly. He actually spoke reasonable English making a point of explaining that he was in America during the holocaust. The group were all looking very prim and righteous, well They hadn't got lost! I was prepared to make light of it. I wasn't given the chance. Women on their own, you can't trust them! The tour guide asked 'Where were you?' On my own planet I guess... Back in Krakow that evening, as I walked past the Market Square, it was thronged with happy people and children, the buildings alive with coloured lights and a TV Christmas show in full musical swing. And when I got back to the apartment and turned the TV on, there was the programme live from the Market Square. Later still on Polish TV, ‘Robbie Williams in Berlin’, What a show. What a performer! A lighter finish to a sombre day.

05 December 2005 17:14

I was at the clinic from 10 to 14.30 today. Wow. Exhausted. I'm not at clinic until Thursday now. But two days are necessary to get over today!

06 December 2005 14:05

Woke to terrific noise of workmen, using every tool known to workmen. George rang me, apologising profusely for waking me up (?) and for the inconvenience that would continue for three days. He would have me moved to another building –near the Market Square! Woo! Good as his word I was conveyed by taxi to an apartment that would have matched one in Venice. In ul Florianska. Antique furniture, open plan kitchen with carved divider shelves. George called to check the apartment of which he is obviously proud. He insisted on giving me a sample of genuine Polish bread that was an interesting grey shade, purchased from a genuine Polish bread shop. I later tentatively dipped it in my soup. It still resembled a fossil. No wonder they need good dentists!

07 December 2005

ul Florianska is a bustling street of cafes and shops, leading to the beautiful church of St Mary’s. Weather is not beautiful, windy, cold, sleety.

08 December 2005

Clinic 12.30 to 15.15. Doesn’t get any better! My last night at ul Florianska. Lovely apartment. Shame about the booming bass ‘til the early hours from a disco far below.

09 December 2005 14:05

My possessions and me moved by cab back to ul Lubelska. I am absolutely dreading tonight's appointment...No…apart from feeling like a walking zombie, I am OK. It's like I told the husband at the clinic - so much concentrated treatment in such a short time pulls you down a bit. I can't believe that I will actually be coming home next week.

Clinic 19.30 ‘til gone 22.00. Last session…And then they all presented me with Mike’s birthday card he sent to the clinic. What a truly lovely surprise.

10 December 2005

Bitterly cold. Walked around the Wawal standing frostily, high above the wide river that winds around Krakow. An immense castle; built for a Polish Giant I should think.

11 December 2005

10 a.m. start from the Wawal Hotel, for the Zakopane tour. No minicab this time; just the driver who is a hotel receptionist in his own car, a couple from Malta here for a few days holiday, and me. The lady and I sat in the back and she chatted and chatted. Very pleasant people to spend a day with too. A long fascinating drive through undulating countryside; passing churches with villagers clustered outside in the snow. About 80% of Polish are Roman Catholic – Pope John Paul is still very much alive here. The temperature when we eventually reached Zakopane was ten degrees below freezing and you knew it. We went on a funicular railway to the top of a mountain and sat on benches outside a café in glorious sunshine, stunned by the spectacular panorama of the Tetra Mountain range. Down in town a delightful market runs through the wide cobbled centre delineated by wooden galleried alpine buildings. Seriously absorbed in the many stalls selling candles, bells, happy carved peasant figures, cheeses, a tap on my pink woollen hat really made me jump. Two young male ‘bears’ wearing realistic skins, grinned from their grotesque shaggy heads. ‘We are hungry’ said the students, so it was impossible to resist handing over some coins and I received a picture of Pope John Paul in return – told you! I saw one of my bears later, buying a wedge of smoked cheese that’s a delicious delicacy here. So they were hungry!

The Maltese couple told me about the desperate refugee problem that’s besetting Malta. We all wonder where it will end.

But such a lovely day. Really glad that you persuaded me to go. The trip was certainly the enjoyable highlight of this very mixed month and my first experience at a holiday snow sports centre too. It could have been in Austria. Our driver/guide was very enlightening about times in Poland under the Russians. The Poles certainly had a rough deal, the war and its terrible persecutions, followed by the relentless communist regime. ‘Bread’ is the name the Polish still use for every meal – because not so long ago that was all they had to eat! They were allowed one pair of boots a year. And not surprisingly when the Communist regime ended, the Polish people immediately removed all trace of Russian statuary and symbols.

As the sun set on our journey back, a dramatically red sky glowed on the snowy landscape that was enchantingly studded with twinkling village lights.

12 December 2005 11:42

I am seriously concerned that George’s building is falling apart. Drilling and hammering from morning into the early evening.

13 December 2005

Went to Nikita’s for breakfast. Waitress friendly - now I’m leaving. It’s trying to snow.

14 December 2005 18:21

Lucky no-one can see me, they removed the temporary caps on the teeth that are being permanently capped tonight. Real Witchy Gilly job!

Not long now.

14 December 2005 23:09

Just had another marathon session when I thought it was all over, the lady doctor, Lucyna, who is such a perfectionist, insisted on minute lengthening of an incisor tooth with porcelain because she was concerned about the ‘aesthetics’!

15 December 2005

Final clinic check. Nice chat with Dr Artur this morning. And goodbye to the lovely clinic staff. Courtesy car to Krakow airport. ‘Do Widzenia’ – Goodbye - Krakow.

Vienna – so windy that I nearly blew away, crossing the wide road to the Hotel Vienna. (Thank you Dave for arranging that). Lovely room. Went to bed at 8 p.m.!

16 December 2005

The morning flight to Athens, take off through grey windy clouds. One more flight, back to Corfu and sunshine and Mike …at last!