Before I start on any discussion of Krakow and Warsaw, I have to make a correction from my last posting. At the end I was telling you about prices here in Poland and I noted that two weeks of accommodation and three meals a day cost 1054 PLN or $350 Cdn. I transposed some numbers there and the cost was actually 1540 PLN or about $510 Cdn. Even though the correction increases the cost by over 50%, which is a significant amount, you have to admit it's still pretty cheap overall.
I have now completed three days of treatments and I have to tell you that these people are tiring me out. I am getting lots of exercise though, and I guess that's a good thing. It takes me about half an hour just to walk between my hotel and the treatment centre. And then another half hour if I want to hit the library. Luckily all meals are at the hotel or that would be another hike. And then when I get into the treatments most of them are very relaxing but the "gimnastyka indywiduaina" is a real workout. By the time I get out of there I'm totally exhausted. I think I biked 10 km yesterday and did a thousand different point and flex exercises for my feet - some sitting with my feet on the floor, some lying down with my feet in raised slings, some just free let exercises. I never would have guessed that pointing and flexing in various positions could be so tiring. It's also pretty painful at times but the range of motion is definitely getting better so I guess it's worth it.
By the time I'd been through their routine once I decided it really wasn't much different than going to a physiotherapist except on a more intense level. I know when I've needed physiotherapy in Kelowna (usually for some baseball injury!) they add either heat or ice depending on the injury, then they might do some ultrasound, then hook you up to some electric gizmo for stimulation, then massage and then some exercises. In Kelowna one person looks after all of that but here in Busko Zdroj those are all separate therapies and as the patient you simply move from one area to another to get the treatment. The specialist in that area does just the one thing all day long with hundreds of people coming through so its like mass factory production with timers ringing everywhere you go. Anyway, that system explains why I'm having 35 treatments in 10 days. It's really just like 7 treatments each with 5 parts, and the exercise portion is long and strenuous. Of course it doesn't help that there is no air conditioning so when exercising you really tend to tire out quickly. Ah, but it will all be worth it in the end so I'm not complaining - especially when I get to finish most days with some sort of massage.
Okay, that took longer than I expected. I think I may just have to leave Krakow and Warsaw for another blog altogether - perhaps tomorrow when I have a day off from treatments. Now however, I have to get ready to head back to the hotel for lunch and then I have to come back here for more treatments this afternoon. Oh what a busy life I lead!
Perhaps I just have time to talk about foot. When I made my reservation for this place, my major concern was the three meals a day. What if I didn't like them???? I arrived on a Saturday afternoon. I had eaten my breakfast in Krakow and then took a two hour bus ride to Busko Zdroj - and that was an experience on its own. An old rickety bus with no suspension and no air conditioning on a hot muggy day. I was exhausted when I arrived and luckily they had a water machine in the lobby so at least I had something to drink. Dinner wasn't until 6 p.m. so I had to wait until then for anything further to eat. I went down promptly at 6 and there were about 8 settings already prepared. At each was a plate with 2 pieces of ham and 2 pieces of bologna (or something similar) - each about 60% the size of one of our slices, and some tomato slices. People were getting bread from a basket at a centre table and seemed quite content. I assumed this was kind of the appetizer / salad but I was wrong. This was the entire meal. Oh that's not true. There was also tea. Anyway, I ate it and survived quite well. Even decided it wouldn't be bad if I wanted to lose some weight.
Breakfast was the typical buffet I had been used to with cold meats, cheeses, breads, some different fruit, tomatoes and cucumber slices, hot scrambled eggs and sausages, some granola and other cold cereal, yogurt, juice, tea, coffee. I did just fine at breakfast so had no problems there.
At lunch time I went in and the places were set again. This time there was a bowl with a cold pasta in it and a plate with cucumber slices with sour cream on them. No one else was there yet so I started my pasta and it wasn't bad but seemed rather strange. A few minutes later the waitress came over and set a tureen on the table. What I actually had in the bowl was the noodles for my noodle soup. Once I added the liquid and its spices, the soup was actually quite good and I decided soup and bread and cucumbers wasn't too bad for lunch. And I think we had a glass of juice that day so that was better than tea. As I'm about ready to leave the waitress comes up again and takes my soup bowl and replaces it with a huge plate of potatoes and meat and gravy. It was delicious! So suddenly the light bulb came on and I realized that they had breakfast, dinner and tea. The dinner at noon has continued to be soup and meat and potatoes every day and always very filling. Somedays the meat is in a cabbage roll or sometimes it's in a dumpling but you still get potatoes. And several of the days the soup has been potato as well. Being a potato lover, that's fine with me but it does seem like a heavy emphasis on potatoes and I know some people who don't even eat potatoes so they might go hungry. Oh, and you get dessert with your noon meal as well so you're really full when you leave. The evening meal has continued to be cold meats and tea. The bread is always there and sometimes jams and other spreads. It never seems like much but after the huge noon meal I can't say that I've ever been hungry.
Oh I should say that they changed the evening menu last night and we had perogies. And of course it had to be last night because yesterday I couldn't make it to the noon meal because of an overlapping treatment so I went to a local grill near the treatment centre and I decided to have perogies. So yesterday was my perogie day and I must say that both batches were good. They were Russkie perogies so both batches had cheese and potato stuffing and that was fine with me. I've had others over here that were stuffed with meat and mushrooms and other things and I much prefer the standard potatoes and cheese.
I have now completed three days of treatments and I have to tell you that these people are tiring me out. I am getting lots of exercise though, and I guess that's a good thing. It takes me about half an hour just to walk between my hotel and the treatment centre. And then another half hour if I want to hit the library. Luckily all meals are at the hotel or that would be another hike. And then when I get into the treatments most of them are very relaxing but the "gimnastyka indywiduaina" is a real workout. By the time I get out of there I'm totally exhausted. I think I biked 10 km yesterday and did a thousand different point and flex exercises for my feet - some sitting with my feet on the floor, some lying down with my feet in raised slings, some just free let exercises. I never would have guessed that pointing and flexing in various positions could be so tiring. It's also pretty painful at times but the range of motion is definitely getting better so I guess it's worth it.
By the time I'd been through their routine once I decided it really wasn't much different than going to a physiotherapist except on a more intense level. I know when I've needed physiotherapy in Kelowna (usually for some baseball injury!) they add either heat or ice depending on the injury, then they might do some ultrasound, then hook you up to some electric gizmo for stimulation, then massage and then some exercises. In Kelowna one person looks after all of that but here in Busko Zdroj those are all separate therapies and as the patient you simply move from one area to another to get the treatment. The specialist in that area does just the one thing all day long with hundreds of people coming through so its like mass factory production with timers ringing everywhere you go. Anyway, that system explains why I'm having 35 treatments in 10 days. It's really just like 7 treatments each with 5 parts, and the exercise portion is long and strenuous. Of course it doesn't help that there is no air conditioning so when exercising you really tend to tire out quickly. Ah, but it will all be worth it in the end so I'm not complaining - especially when I get to finish most days with some sort of massage.
Okay, that took longer than I expected. I think I may just have to leave Krakow and Warsaw for another blog altogether - perhaps tomorrow when I have a day off from treatments. Now however, I have to get ready to head back to the hotel for lunch and then I have to come back here for more treatments this afternoon. Oh what a busy life I lead!
Perhaps I just have time to talk about foot. When I made my reservation for this place, my major concern was the three meals a day. What if I didn't like them???? I arrived on a Saturday afternoon. I had eaten my breakfast in Krakow and then took a two hour bus ride to Busko Zdroj - and that was an experience on its own. An old rickety bus with no suspension and no air conditioning on a hot muggy day. I was exhausted when I arrived and luckily they had a water machine in the lobby so at least I had something to drink. Dinner wasn't until 6 p.m. so I had to wait until then for anything further to eat. I went down promptly at 6 and there were about 8 settings already prepared. At each was a plate with 2 pieces of ham and 2 pieces of bologna (or something similar) - each about 60% the size of one of our slices, and some tomato slices. People were getting bread from a basket at a centre table and seemed quite content. I assumed this was kind of the appetizer / salad but I was wrong. This was the entire meal. Oh that's not true. There was also tea. Anyway, I ate it and survived quite well. Even decided it wouldn't be bad if I wanted to lose some weight.
Breakfast was the typical buffet I had been used to with cold meats, cheeses, breads, some different fruit, tomatoes and cucumber slices, hot scrambled eggs and sausages, some granola and other cold cereal, yogurt, juice, tea, coffee. I did just fine at breakfast so had no problems there.
At lunch time I went in and the places were set again. This time there was a bowl with a cold pasta in it and a plate with cucumber slices with sour cream on them. No one else was there yet so I started my pasta and it wasn't bad but seemed rather strange. A few minutes later the waitress came over and set a tureen on the table. What I actually had in the bowl was the noodles for my noodle soup. Once I added the liquid and its spices, the soup was actually quite good and I decided soup and bread and cucumbers wasn't too bad for lunch. And I think we had a glass of juice that day so that was better than tea. As I'm about ready to leave the waitress comes up again and takes my soup bowl and replaces it with a huge plate of potatoes and meat and gravy. It was delicious! So suddenly the light bulb came on and I realized that they had breakfast, dinner and tea. The dinner at noon has continued to be soup and meat and potatoes every day and always very filling. Somedays the meat is in a cabbage roll or sometimes it's in a dumpling but you still get potatoes. And several of the days the soup has been potato as well. Being a potato lover, that's fine with me but it does seem like a heavy emphasis on potatoes and I know some people who don't even eat potatoes so they might go hungry. Oh, and you get dessert with your noon meal as well so you're really full when you leave. The evening meal has continued to be cold meats and tea. The bread is always there and sometimes jams and other spreads. It never seems like much but after the huge noon meal I can't say that I've ever been hungry.
Oh I should say that they changed the evening menu last night and we had perogies. And of course it had to be last night because yesterday I couldn't make it to the noon meal because of an overlapping treatment so I went to a local grill near the treatment centre and I decided to have perogies. So yesterday was my perogie day and I must say that both batches were good. They were Russkie perogies so both batches had cheese and potato stuffing and that was fine with me. I've had others over here that were stuffed with meat and mushrooms and other things and I much prefer the standard potatoes and cheese.
Okay, that's enough for now. I must hobble back to the hotel for my tiny little noon meal. The weather today is cool and cloudy and it looks like it could rain. Hopefully it will wait until I'm back to my hotel to do so. After so much hot, humid weather the clouds are very welcome so I'm not going to complain.
Next time I promise you Warsaw and Krakow!
Jayne
posted by Jayne Brooks @ 2:03 AM
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