We left the house at 5:45am on Monday morning to catch our early morning flight to Chicago. As we landed in Chicago the flight attendants requested that all those who had time to catch their flights should stay in their seats and let those that had little time - some less than 10 minutes to catch their connecting flights get out of the plane first. And miracle of miracles - everyone did it. I stepped out of my aisle seat to let my two seatmates go first and then sat back down. I think the trick was the flight attendant making the announcement didn't just let everyone decide if they qualified - he specified the flight numbers and destinations of each flight deemed problematic - and had all those people raise their hands so everyone knew who they were. It was quite amazing!
The layover in Chicago felt really long - 5 hours felt like 10 as we were already tired. The flight was smooth and we arrived in Warsaw on time. I was dreading the new European requirement that everyone set up photo id and fingerprints for identification, but there were only 5 people ahead of me. So while it was slow - there were not the long lines that Alexis had reported she encountered at the Copenhagen airport just a week or so ago.
The problems started at baggage claim. We waited and waited for our 3 bags as everyone else around us grabbed their luggage and headed out. Finally, belt 2 was deserted accept for us and one other women. The belt stopped. Started again for a bit stopped - and repeated. Finally stopped and the sign said last bags for Chicago. How could Polish Airlines lose all three of our bags! Maybe they went to the oversize luggage areas - nope! Maybe someone had taken them off the belt and they were waiting somewhere else - that has happened before. I walked all around the belt twice - nope no suitcases sitting anywhere. There were no luggage attendants any where. There had to be a Lost Luggage office so I set off to find it - and did - but I didn't have the luggage receipts. I call Michael on WhatsApp to bring them to the office which is to just past belt 6.
Per Michael's airline App - all 3 pieces were loaded onto the plane in Chicago. The help desk personnale tell me that it looks like 2 pieces should be on belt 2, but 1 was left in Chicago. Go back to the belt and wait 15-20 minutes. He will have them run the belt again - they might have gotten stuck in transit. Off we go back to belt 2. Now it is crowded with people - people from the next flight on the schedule. The belt is running - but no new pieces of luggage are coming out. The belt shuts off and we wait some more.
I tell Michael I will take one more lap around belt 2 to see if anyone has taken our suitcases off and set them somewhere. The luggage for the next flight starts coming out of the shute. When I come around the corner heading back to Michael I can see one of our pink suitcases on the luggage cart. All 3 pieces had finally arrived. I can see the airline losing 1 piece of my luggage or random pieces of many people's luggage - but how can they lose track of all three pieces of luggage under the same ticket! Can anyone explain how that can happen?
We head for the exit and try to find a place to sit down so Michael can contact our Airbnb host. Can't find any place to sit. So we find a quiet place and Michael tries to call our host. The host's number is out of service. He tries to text him on the Airbnb app. We do not hear back.
We will have to wait to hear from the host - we can't get into the apartment building without him. Again we search for a place to sit - finally i spot 3 seats outside. There is a bit of cold wind out there. I get out my winter jacket. Now I am cold even with the coat on - I see the three seats across from us, but inside the terminal are empty. So we head inside to wait. At long last Michal hears from the host who gives him two new phone numbers. We are seated right by the Uber waiting zone - so we are able to catch one quickly.
We arrive at the apartment where we are to leave our luggage. The cleaners have just started to clean the apartment after the previous guests left at 11:30 today. We head off to explore Old Town which is only a couple of blocks away. After a short perusal of the area, Michael says his shoulders hurt from his heavy backpack and he would like to go back and sit on the park benches we had passed. So that's what we did for several hours waiting for the cleaners to be finished.
We get the call - head back to the apartment - get a quick tour and explanation of how things work and the host takes off. Michael and I start talking about how we are going to arrange ourselves in the apartment. I start turning on some lights - just to be sure they are working in one of the bedrooms. There is a loud pop, a cracking sound and sparks fly out of the 2 lights on the left wall. Damme! Now none of the lights in the room and the next bedroom or the bathroom work. We search for the fuse box and can't find it.
Michael calls the host again - at least now we have a working number for him. He heads back to the apartment. So we wait again.
When the host returns - he shows us the fuse box in the front closet which we had searched. It is hidden behind the wall. You have to know where to push lightly on the paneled wall to make the door pop open. After trying to reset a couple of the fuses and changing some light bulbs - everything is right again.
We finish unpacking - then Michael takes a nap - on the bed under the lights in question. He wakes up and informs me that he had been sleeping on a bunch of glass shards from the broken lights! Is the day finally done with us?
Michael has a business call at 6pm. After that we go out to eat. We decide to get pizza as the restaurant is very close to us and has a 4.8 rating, instead of going to a Polish restaurant as we had planned - we will do that when we are not quite so brain tied and it is easier to make decisions on what of all the heavy Polish food we will eat.
And so ends the first day that we have ever been in Poland.
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