Hello from Busko Zdroj, Poland.
I have had so many comments about my lack of postings that you have guilted me into writing something more. I have no idea what it will be but it's air conditioned in here so be ready for a long one.
My last post was on July 1st and so it has been over a month. I am still in Poland and will be for at least another week or so. Many of you have been asking why Poland and do I have relatives over here? Some have also been asking what happened to the Scandinavian countries I was talking about visiting? And others of you just want to know what's up. I think I'll just start from the beginning and take it from there as many of your questions will be answered that way.
Copenhagen was great. I think I told you a bit about my visit there in my last posting. Just to put things in order, I arrived on a Friday night and slept in on Saturday morning. I then had breakfast, got my bearings at the local tourist information office and then went shopping. Yes, I know that's hard for many of you to believe since you know I hate shopping, but I did head off to the shopping district. Copenhagen has a great pedestrian shopping area and it seems to go for ever. I was looking for a specific store recommended by the tourist people and of course it was way at the other end and several hours later. They did not have what I needed but sent me to another location "not far" from their shop. Another hour or so later I found the spot and finally made my purchase. You see I had to go shopping first because I didn't have a chance to buy a camera before I left Canada so I had to get one before I could do any sightseeing. With my shopping done, all I managed in the rest of the day was eating some dinner and checking out Tivoli and going home to read about my camera.
Wrong! Despite the fact that they assured me there would be English instructions, and indeed the list of what was in the box was itself in English, there was no English operating manual. So Sunday I got up and had breakfast and walked back to the shop where I bought the camera - and yes, I found my own way back there. Well, there isn't much open in Copenhagen so that was a wasted trip except for the fact that the Round Tower (Rundetaarn?) was only a short distance away so I went there to cross that off my list of places to see. It didn't open until noon so I was about an hour too early.
It was an incredibly hot day but I decided to be patient and wait. As it turned out I found a very comfortable park bench in the shade of several large trees beside the Round Tower and a local church. There was a lovely breeze blowing through and an old man was sitting in the shade of one of the buildings playing his accordion. It was quite enjoyable just sitting and watching all the people go by - many of whom were coming to see the Round Tower and also had to wait. There were a lot of ice cream cones been devoured in that hour.
Eventually we all made it into the tower and climbed the circular route to the top to have a wonderful view of the city. I tried a couple of photos but I certainly wouldn't say they did the city justice. Oh well, you have to start somewhere.
From the tower it appeared that there was a castle not too far away so I decided I'd head in that direction when I descended. I went through a beautiful park and then toured Rosenberg castle. The castle was fantastic and the treasury was very interesting with incredible jewelry and crowns for the past hundreds of years. From there I headed home via a route past the botanical gardens and then Tivoli yet again.
Now it's Monday and guess what I did today. I went back to the shopping area again to see the guys in the store about an English brochure. They made a few phone calls and promised me they would get the English version in on Tuesday or Wednesday. Of course I would have to go back and pick it up.
It was a very cloudy and rainy day but I decided to keep walking. The rain kept falling but it was so hot that you never really got wet so I headed toward the water. I reached Hojbro Plads and the stork fountain and the statue of Bishop Absolom, and then toured around Christiansborg. Christiansborg is the current government building and also the chambers for the Queen. It's built on the ruins of about four other castles so I toured the ruins of Absolom's 1167 castle and Copenhagen Castle (1400's) which are under the current building, and then toured the Queen's Reception rooms which were quite lavish. And guess what I finished the day with food and Tivoli Gardens again.
Tuesday was to be a long busy day. I was going to ignore the camera store (after having been there for the last three days in a row) and hopefully get a lot of touring done since I still had to see the Little Mermaid and the Opera House and Amalienborg and the Kastelet, to name a few things. I didn't actually see much but that's a whole other matter that I'll save for later. In the end I just phoned the camera store and they sent the stuff to the hotel by mail so I did get it. It wasn't a complete book but by any means but it did give me at least the basics.
And the moral of this whole story is do not try to buy your camera in Copenhagen. It will take up too much of your touring time, your manual won't be in the right language, and the camera will cost you about twice what it would in Canada. Oh well, that was simply the first lesson of my long holiday.
Lesson two came the next day and I'll give you the lesson first and the details second. The moral of this little story is simply beware of the bike lanes in Copenhagen.
Bikes are very popular in Copenhagen and they even have them available for tourists for free. And they have biking lanes for all the cyclists so you don't have to compete with pedestrians or with motorized vehicles - although on many occasions it is hard to see where one group ends and the next begins. In some cases the bike path is level with the sidewalk and in other cases it's level with the road. And in other cases, it has its own level. After several days of walking around the city, the idea of biking for a while sounded like a great idea. However, I didn't get a bike and fall off it or get hit by another bike or a car or anything like that so don't panic. No, I wouldn't do anything that complicated.
On Tuesday morning as I left the hotel I simply went about two blocks and then fell down. It just doesn't get any simpler than that. I know I stepped from the sidewalk down to the bike lane because I had to wait for a cyclist to go by before I stepped down. I guess I just missed the fact that there was another step down to the street because, although I went down, I didn't quite do it in the normal manner.
I knew it was bad immediately because I thought I was going to pass out and/or throw up and I broke out in a total sweat. I managed to get up off the street and hobble back to my hotel where I stayed in bed for the next few hours with ice on my feet. When the pain and swelling didn't go down I decided I had to go to the hospital. It took many phone calls to get insurance issues sorted out but finally I was off to the hospital and got there around 3 p.m. by taxi. They said it would be a long wait but I was prepared for that. However, within 30 minutes they took me to another room and shortly thereafter the doctor arrived to look at my feet and then ordered x-rays. I had those, saw the doctor again, he did his thing and I was out by 7:30. I thought that was pretty fast by BC standards and, since I wasn't staying in overnight, they didn't charge me a dime. Who knew that Copenhagen hospitals were the only thing that wasn't expensive!?!?
Anyway, I fractured a bone on the outside ankle on my right foot. My left foot, which both the doctor and I thought was broken, didn't appear to have any fractures but it was the one that was totally swollen up and it's the one that was really painful and did not want to be stood on at all. The doctor didn't know what to do with me since it involved both feet and I still had to move on. He wanted to put a boot cast on the right foot for 4-6 weeks but decided that wouldn't work because he might not get his boot back after I left. After talking to his colleagues they decided tape would do as long as I agreed to keep my feet up and stay off them for a couple weeks. They then gave me a pair of crutches and sent me on my way.
Generally speaking things were okay and with the crutches I could get up and down to the bathroom and the dining facility and in and out of cabs when I had to. However, it was very inconvenient and it was obvious that I wasn't going to be doing a lot of sight seeing. As a result, I decided Copenhagen or anywhere in Denmark or Scandinavia was not the place to be. Instead, I had to find the perfect place (cheap, comfortable and a great view) in Poland or somewhere to hang out for a while. And that is how I ended up in Swinoujscie, Poland, since the ferry goes directly from Copenhagen to Swinoujscie.
The only bad part about Swinoujscie is that I spent two weeks there at the top of their tourist season and had fabulous hot weather and I didn't make it to the beach even once. I just couldn't navigate down there on my crutches. Argh!!! They had a library and it had English books so I would take a taxi to the library to got some books, and then spent most of my time reading. And of course I sometimes also hit the little internet cafe about two blocks from the library. After about 10 days I started walking a bit more and eventually saw another doctor in Swinoujscie since the left foot was still swelling. He suggested more slow walking to exercise the left foot so that's what I started doing.
After the couple days of doing nothing in Copenhagen and then two weeks of almost nothing in Swinoujscie, I decided it was time to move on to Warsaw and Krakow. I knew I wouldn't be able to see a lot but I would be able to see some things so I decided to take the chance. In retrospect I now think it was the wrong decision but there you go. Maybe that was lesson three. Who knows. Anyway, I didn't see nearly as much as I wanted in either city and I spent a fair amount of time in hot non airconditioned hotel rooms with no view at all. Swinoujscie for another couple weeks might have been just as good and I might have made it to the beach eventually.
Anyway, my left foot was still swollen as of last week. The right foot has always been fine so I'm not too sure what that means. I went to another doctor in Krakow and he, in his limited English, told me to "walk less" and "keep leg up" so that's what I'm doing for the next two weeks in Busko Zdroj. I doubt that many of you have heard of this place but it is a health resort in southern Poland. They have everything available for me here. In fact they have a lot of things that I don't really want to try at all like cryotherapy to reduce swelling where they simulate temperatures of minus 130 degrees C while you stand around in your socks and gloves and head band. I think I'll avoid that one, even if it is just for a couple minutes. However, they do have massage and jacuzzi and exercise rooms and all kinds of other treatments that I'm sure will be most welcome.
I must say that I had to meet with a doctor first and before he'd even taken my blood pressure or listened to my heart or anything else he told me I had to go on a diet and lose significant weight because that was why my feet were swelling. Yeah, yeah, like I haven't heard that before. I promised him I'd do that as soon as I got back to Canada but right now I was on the meal plan at the resort so I had to eat what they put in front of me (and that is another whole blog on its own!). Anyway, he has me in 35 sessions over the next week and a half so I will be working hard in the gym or relaxing in the jetted tub or having mud packs on my feet regularly for a while.
Hopefully once this two weeks is up, my feet will be back to normal. And once everything is back to normal and I can start touring around again, maybe I'll have something more exciting to write about. And sometime while I'm here I'll post another blog about Warsaw and Krakow so you'll know what I did manage to see in those two places.
That's all for this time. All really is well over here, despite fractures and swelling and .... so don't worry. I just consider this as a time for me to catch up on some much needed rest after some hectic years.
And for anyone who is interested, accommodation and three meals a day for two weeks cost 1054 PLN and all 35 treatments totalled 302 PLN. In Canadian terms that's about $350 and $100 so it's not a bad deal if you can handle all this healthy stuff.
Cheers!
Jayne
PS - The internet here costs 3 PLN per hour or about $1.00 Canadian - definitely cheaper than Copenhagen!!!
I have had so many comments about my lack of postings that you have guilted me into writing something more. I have no idea what it will be but it's air conditioned in here so be ready for a long one.
My last post was on July 1st and so it has been over a month. I am still in Poland and will be for at least another week or so. Many of you have been asking why Poland and do I have relatives over here? Some have also been asking what happened to the Scandinavian countries I was talking about visiting? And others of you just want to know what's up. I think I'll just start from the beginning and take it from there as many of your questions will be answered that way.
Copenhagen was great. I think I told you a bit about my visit there in my last posting. Just to put things in order, I arrived on a Friday night and slept in on Saturday morning. I then had breakfast, got my bearings at the local tourist information office and then went shopping. Yes, I know that's hard for many of you to believe since you know I hate shopping, but I did head off to the shopping district. Copenhagen has a great pedestrian shopping area and it seems to go for ever. I was looking for a specific store recommended by the tourist people and of course it was way at the other end and several hours later. They did not have what I needed but sent me to another location "not far" from their shop. Another hour or so later I found the spot and finally made my purchase. You see I had to go shopping first because I didn't have a chance to buy a camera before I left Canada so I had to get one before I could do any sightseeing. With my shopping done, all I managed in the rest of the day was eating some dinner and checking out Tivoli and going home to read about my camera.
Wrong! Despite the fact that they assured me there would be English instructions, and indeed the list of what was in the box was itself in English, there was no English operating manual. So Sunday I got up and had breakfast and walked back to the shop where I bought the camera - and yes, I found my own way back there. Well, there isn't much open in Copenhagen so that was a wasted trip except for the fact that the Round Tower (Rundetaarn?) was only a short distance away so I went there to cross that off my list of places to see. It didn't open until noon so I was about an hour too early.
It was an incredibly hot day but I decided to be patient and wait. As it turned out I found a very comfortable park bench in the shade of several large trees beside the Round Tower and a local church. There was a lovely breeze blowing through and an old man was sitting in the shade of one of the buildings playing his accordion. It was quite enjoyable just sitting and watching all the people go by - many of whom were coming to see the Round Tower and also had to wait. There were a lot of ice cream cones been devoured in that hour.
Eventually we all made it into the tower and climbed the circular route to the top to have a wonderful view of the city. I tried a couple of photos but I certainly wouldn't say they did the city justice. Oh well, you have to start somewhere.
From the tower it appeared that there was a castle not too far away so I decided I'd head in that direction when I descended. I went through a beautiful park and then toured Rosenberg castle. The castle was fantastic and the treasury was very interesting with incredible jewelry and crowns for the past hundreds of years. From there I headed home via a route past the botanical gardens and then Tivoli yet again.
Now it's Monday and guess what I did today. I went back to the shopping area again to see the guys in the store about an English brochure. They made a few phone calls and promised me they would get the English version in on Tuesday or Wednesday. Of course I would have to go back and pick it up.
It was a very cloudy and rainy day but I decided to keep walking. The rain kept falling but it was so hot that you never really got wet so I headed toward the water. I reached Hojbro Plads and the stork fountain and the statue of Bishop Absolom, and then toured around Christiansborg. Christiansborg is the current government building and also the chambers for the Queen. It's built on the ruins of about four other castles so I toured the ruins of Absolom's 1167 castle and Copenhagen Castle (1400's) which are under the current building, and then toured the Queen's Reception rooms which were quite lavish. And guess what I finished the day with food and Tivoli Gardens again.
Tuesday was to be a long busy day. I was going to ignore the camera store (after having been there for the last three days in a row) and hopefully get a lot of touring done since I still had to see the Little Mermaid and the Opera House and Amalienborg and the Kastelet, to name a few things. I didn't actually see much but that's a whole other matter that I'll save for later. In the end I just phoned the camera store and they sent the stuff to the hotel by mail so I did get it. It wasn't a complete book but by any means but it did give me at least the basics.
And the moral of this whole story is do not try to buy your camera in Copenhagen. It will take up too much of your touring time, your manual won't be in the right language, and the camera will cost you about twice what it would in Canada. Oh well, that was simply the first lesson of my long holiday.
Lesson two came the next day and I'll give you the lesson first and the details second. The moral of this little story is simply beware of the bike lanes in Copenhagen.
Bikes are very popular in Copenhagen and they even have them available for tourists for free. And they have biking lanes for all the cyclists so you don't have to compete with pedestrians or with motorized vehicles - although on many occasions it is hard to see where one group ends and the next begins. In some cases the bike path is level with the sidewalk and in other cases it's level with the road. And in other cases, it has its own level. After several days of walking around the city, the idea of biking for a while sounded like a great idea. However, I didn't get a bike and fall off it or get hit by another bike or a car or anything like that so don't panic. No, I wouldn't do anything that complicated.
On Tuesday morning as I left the hotel I simply went about two blocks and then fell down. It just doesn't get any simpler than that. I know I stepped from the sidewalk down to the bike lane because I had to wait for a cyclist to go by before I stepped down. I guess I just missed the fact that there was another step down to the street because, although I went down, I didn't quite do it in the normal manner.
I knew it was bad immediately because I thought I was going to pass out and/or throw up and I broke out in a total sweat. I managed to get up off the street and hobble back to my hotel where I stayed in bed for the next few hours with ice on my feet. When the pain and swelling didn't go down I decided I had to go to the hospital. It took many phone calls to get insurance issues sorted out but finally I was off to the hospital and got there around 3 p.m. by taxi. They said it would be a long wait but I was prepared for that. However, within 30 minutes they took me to another room and shortly thereafter the doctor arrived to look at my feet and then ordered x-rays. I had those, saw the doctor again, he did his thing and I was out by 7:30. I thought that was pretty fast by BC standards and, since I wasn't staying in overnight, they didn't charge me a dime. Who knew that Copenhagen hospitals were the only thing that wasn't expensive!?!?
Anyway, I fractured a bone on the outside ankle on my right foot. My left foot, which both the doctor and I thought was broken, didn't appear to have any fractures but it was the one that was totally swollen up and it's the one that was really painful and did not want to be stood on at all. The doctor didn't know what to do with me since it involved both feet and I still had to move on. He wanted to put a boot cast on the right foot for 4-6 weeks but decided that wouldn't work because he might not get his boot back after I left. After talking to his colleagues they decided tape would do as long as I agreed to keep my feet up and stay off them for a couple weeks. They then gave me a pair of crutches and sent me on my way.
Generally speaking things were okay and with the crutches I could get up and down to the bathroom and the dining facility and in and out of cabs when I had to. However, it was very inconvenient and it was obvious that I wasn't going to be doing a lot of sight seeing. As a result, I decided Copenhagen or anywhere in Denmark or Scandinavia was not the place to be. Instead, I had to find the perfect place (cheap, comfortable and a great view) in Poland or somewhere to hang out for a while. And that is how I ended up in Swinoujscie, Poland, since the ferry goes directly from Copenhagen to Swinoujscie.
The only bad part about Swinoujscie is that I spent two weeks there at the top of their tourist season and had fabulous hot weather and I didn't make it to the beach even once. I just couldn't navigate down there on my crutches. Argh!!! They had a library and it had English books so I would take a taxi to the library to got some books, and then spent most of my time reading. And of course I sometimes also hit the little internet cafe about two blocks from the library. After about 10 days I started walking a bit more and eventually saw another doctor in Swinoujscie since the left foot was still swelling. He suggested more slow walking to exercise the left foot so that's what I started doing.
After the couple days of doing nothing in Copenhagen and then two weeks of almost nothing in Swinoujscie, I decided it was time to move on to Warsaw and Krakow. I knew I wouldn't be able to see a lot but I would be able to see some things so I decided to take the chance. In retrospect I now think it was the wrong decision but there you go. Maybe that was lesson three. Who knows. Anyway, I didn't see nearly as much as I wanted in either city and I spent a fair amount of time in hot non airconditioned hotel rooms with no view at all. Swinoujscie for another couple weeks might have been just as good and I might have made it to the beach eventually.
Anyway, my left foot was still swollen as of last week. The right foot has always been fine so I'm not too sure what that means. I went to another doctor in Krakow and he, in his limited English, told me to "walk less" and "keep leg up" so that's what I'm doing for the next two weeks in Busko Zdroj. I doubt that many of you have heard of this place but it is a health resort in southern Poland. They have everything available for me here. In fact they have a lot of things that I don't really want to try at all like cryotherapy to reduce swelling where they simulate temperatures of minus 130 degrees C while you stand around in your socks and gloves and head band. I think I'll avoid that one, even if it is just for a couple minutes. However, they do have massage and jacuzzi and exercise rooms and all kinds of other treatments that I'm sure will be most welcome.
I must say that I had to meet with a doctor first and before he'd even taken my blood pressure or listened to my heart or anything else he told me I had to go on a diet and lose significant weight because that was why my feet were swelling. Yeah, yeah, like I haven't heard that before. I promised him I'd do that as soon as I got back to Canada but right now I was on the meal plan at the resort so I had to eat what they put in front of me (and that is another whole blog on its own!). Anyway, he has me in 35 sessions over the next week and a half so I will be working hard in the gym or relaxing in the jetted tub or having mud packs on my feet regularly for a while.
Hopefully once this two weeks is up, my feet will be back to normal. And once everything is back to normal and I can start touring around again, maybe I'll have something more exciting to write about. And sometime while I'm here I'll post another blog about Warsaw and Krakow so you'll know what I did manage to see in those two places.
That's all for this time. All really is well over here, despite fractures and swelling and .... so don't worry. I just consider this as a time for me to catch up on some much needed rest after some hectic years.
And for anyone who is interested, accommodation and three meals a day for two weeks cost 1054 PLN and all 35 treatments totalled 302 PLN. In Canadian terms that's about $350 and $100 so it's not a bad deal if you can handle all this healthy stuff.
Cheers!
Jayne
PS - The internet here costs 3 PLN per hour or about $1.00 Canadian - definitely cheaper than Copenhagen!!!
posted by Jayne Brooks @ 6:51 AM
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