It all started with a short break in Krakow. It wasn't quite an extreme day trip, since we spent more than 24 hours there, but it wasn't a kick on the arse off it. I took that trip three days after an allergic reaction that made me look like The Elephant Man, my lips still crimson and swollen, my face threatening to break out in hives again and my heart racing every time I looked at a menu. At that point, we had no idea what had caused the reaction. And so, my anxiety increased steadily...
I've been back and forth in my mind about starting this blog for quite some time now. I told myself that all I had to do was sit down and write the damn posts. Everything else that came, the aesthetics, the polishing, the promo, would all come later. First, I need a blog to actually work on. So today, after a complete meltdown at work, I decided to sit down and just start writing.
Not that I believe this will be anything more than a travel diary, but it's nice to believe that at some point, somebody will look to me as a resource for disability travel advice.
Back to Krakow though.
13th December to 15th December 2005. Two newlyweds ditching work for a midweek Tuesday to Thursday break. At least, I thought I had cleared my holidays from work but the senior staff member who was in charge of holiday planning, who couldn't stand me, "forgot" to write my time off in the diary. So, it transpired later that I was actually AWOL from work, having neither had my time off approved or phoned in sick. I wish I had known that at the time. The thrill!
Let's start with the flights. They cost less than £30 each for the return flights then, a bargain even in those days. We booked a room in a very nice, budget friendly hotel - The Hotel Alexander, which was a nod to my husband's name, had a 3 star rating and was less than £100 for the two nights.
This was one of the first trips we took without any involvement from a travel agent. Doing so was unheard of back in 2005. If you wanted a city break, you went to Thomas Cook or somewhere similar and organised it. It felt rebellious and chaotic, touching down on a very grey Polish runway, with sleet slicing into our skin, with no onward transport booked and only a vague idea of what the hotel looked like. If it went wrong, nobody was available to call to help us fix it. The next flight back to Prestwick wasn't until Thursday when we were meant to leave anyway, so we had to suck it up. Luckily, taxis were cheap and plentiful, and the driver spoke excellent English, even if he chose not to. The taxi ride cost us around £20, but in zlotys and felt reasonable, even if I now believe we were being ripped off.
A short time later, after being forced to listen to Madonna's Hung Up on a loop in the taxi, we arrived at the hotel. Everything about the hotel felt dark. Even fully illuminated, it felt like the shades had been pulled. But it was clean and comfortable and we immediately Christened the bed before heading out to explore Krakow in what little daylight we had left.
Let's touch on the barriers for a moment. This was at the start of my anxiety/allergy journey. We didn't yet have the autism challenges to deal with as it was just the two of us. I packed a bunch of cereal bars and Pot Noodles with me so although we ate out and food was cheap and tasty, I still wanted a back-up plan in case I had more allergic reactions and couldn't figure anything out. I knew for sure that Pot Noodles were not an issue and served as my backup plan.
I forgot, however, to pack a fork and ended up eating them with a couple of biros used as chopsticks.
The food we ate ranged from salads and pizzas in restaurants, to bog standard breakfast foods in the hotel each morning. There was nothing too wild on any of the menus and all menus were available in a range of languages, so although English is our native tongue, had we spoken German or Russian for exmaple, we would still have managed. My husband is a little more adventurous than me and tried some Polish stews, which he decided were delicious. We both tried some street food, specifically some kind of dumplings made from cheese. Cheese is always good? Well, they were made from sheep's milk, a flavour I really don't appreciate, so it was a no from me, but my husband lapped it up and still thinks of it fondly.
Other memories of Krakow. The beer. Back when I still drank beer, I liked to indulge in a half-pint or two on holidays. I don't know what they do with Polish beer though because I was f L y I n G on a couple of drinks and managed to fall up the stairs going back to the hotel. My better half was giggly but not quite at the point of no return like me and had to help me up to our room.
Maybe I was just tired.
We visited the Dragon de Wawel, which breathes actual fire intermittently and the Wawel Royal Castle. The fact it was so close to the city centre was a bonus as we could go there on foot and walk around. With snowflakes dusting our coats and the low natural light of December, it felt moody and atmospheric. The sky remained grey for the entire trip and although there wasn't enough snowy weather to make it look like a winter wonderland, and not enough festivities to make it feel like Christmas, it did have a dark fairy-tale, gloomy Gothic vibe.
We had an early morning flight back to Scotland and had the misfortune of sitting next to a woman who refused to fasten her seat belt or switch her phone off (no flight mode allowed then), so a bit of bickering ensued and a panicked flight attendant pleaded with her to please put on her seat belt and switch her phone off.
When I returned, I had to deal with the fall out of accidentally going AWOL from work and that Friday night, I remember being too pissed off to write emails to everyone who had said they wanted to hear all about my trip. So, I wrote a blog on MSN Spaces instead and sent everyone the link. And so, my first blog, Millarvilla (my last name was still Millar at that time) was born. My stats told me only one person from those who received the link actually read my blog, but many more who found it organically actually spent time reading and commenting. I moved my platform from MSN Spaces to MySpace the following year and within the first year, I had 2 million hits.
And that's how my Broken Heels story began.
Tomorrow, my first real extreme day trip to London in January 2006.
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