We’re on the road, on our way from Wroclaw to Warsaw.

We had gotten up at 5:30AM, said goodbye to Una, Linn, Tara, Tom and Sonia (they were staying behind in Europe), packed, and boarded the bus.

We’re making good time – there’s light traffic and good weather.  We’re at a rest stop for breakfast:

View at Picasa On the road to Warsaw30-Jun-2009 03:46, FUJIFILM FinePix A345, 2.81, 5.8mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 82

View at Picasa 30-Jun-2009 03:47, FUJIFILM FinePix A345, 2.81, 5.8mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 93

View at Picasa It was a curiously impressive rest stop.30-Jun-2009 03:54, FUJIFILM FinePix A345, 4.71, 5.8mm, 0.003 sec, ISO 64

View at Picasa 30-Jun-2009 03:54, FUJIFILM FinePix A345, 4.71, 5.8mm, 0.001 sec, ISO 64

3:07PM (Poland Time)

We arrived at the airport in Warsaw around 1PM.

View at Picasa Chopin Airport30-Jun-2009 08:44, FUJIFILM FinePix A345, 2.81, 5.8mm, 0.026 sec, ISO 64

View at Picasa 30-Jun-2009 08:44, FUJIFILM FinePix A345, 2.81, 5.8mm, 0.026 sec, ISO 64

View at Picasa 30-Jun-2009 08:49, FUJIFILM FinePix A345, 2.81, 5.8mm, 0.014 sec, ISO 64

View at Picasa Mullets are popular in Poland.30-Jun-2009 09:42, FUJIFILM FinePix A345, 4.7, 17.4mm, 0.048 sec, ISO 100

We hung around, got our bags checked, and eventually said goodbye to Tamara.  She’d be traveling home sometime later.  Thanks so much for the great trip, Tamara!

View at Picasa Bye Tamara! Thank you for everything! You're amazing!30-Jun-2009 09:48, FUJIFILM FinePix A345, 2.8, 5.8mm, 0.01 sec, ISO 64

Security was no fuss.  We killed time in the duty free waiting for our flight.  I bought a chocolate bar with my last 10z.  We board at 4PM.

View at Picasa Jiv prowls the duty free30-Jun-2009 09:56, FUJIFILM FinePix A345, 2.8, 5.8mm, 0.008 sec, ISO 64

We’re all really anxious to get home.  I think we’re all pretty sick of traveling now – and we have an 8+ hour flight ahead of us.  Just look at these faces.

View at Picasa We just want to get out of here30-Jun-2009 10:33, FUJIFILM FinePix A345, 2.8, 5.8mm, 0.005 sec, ISO 64

View at Picasa 30-Jun-2009 10:33, FUJIFILM FinePix A345, 2.8, 5.8mm, 0.004 sec, ISO 64

View at Picasa 30-Jun-2009 10:33, FUJIFILM FinePix A345, 2.8, 5.8mm, 0.017 sec, ISO 64

We just want to get home.

Eventually we boarded the plane:

View at Picasa 8 hour plane ride! Woo!30-Jun-2009 12:17, FUJIFILM FinePix A345, 3.77, 10.4mm, 0.013 sec, ISO 64

7:05PM (Poland Time)

We’re already an hour into the flight.  Somehow, this plane isn’t giving me too much confidence.

The safety video (on a single screen at the front of the plane) kept flickering in and out, and I think I missed a lot of important information.

There were several instances where music would start to play for a few seconds in the cabin, and then abruptly stop.

Ryan and Jiv just noticed that there’s water dripping on them from above the overhead compartment.

My headphones don’t seem to work unless I hold them in.

And there’s masking tape holding part of the wall together.

A Lapse in Writing Cohesion

At this point in my journal, my writing really started to deteriorate.  The timestamps have less and less meaning as I travel across time zones.  I think my pen was starting to run out of ink, I was exhausted, and the boredom of the flight was starting to drive me nuts.  I’ll do my best to translate the scrawl that ended my journal.

8:50PM (Poland Time)

No idea where we are, so no real clue on what the actual time is.  Still, it’s pretty bright out.  Looks like mid-afternoon outside.  This is going to be the longest day of my life.

I’m trying to read Guns, Germs and Steel, but I just can’t concentrate.  I can’t wait to be home.

10:20PM (Poland Time)

Hannah Montana is the inflight film.  SHOOT ME.

View at Picasa GET. ME. OFF. THIS. PLANE.30-Jun-2009 15:01, FUJIFILM FinePix A345, 2.8, 5.8mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 100

View at Picasa 30-Jun-2009 15:01, FUJIFILM FinePix A345, 2.8, 5.8mm, 0.5 sec, ISO 250

View at Picasa 30-Jun-2009 15:02, FUJIFILM FinePix A345, 2.8, 5.8mm, 0.5 sec, ISO 250

View at Picasa GET US OUT OF HERE30-Jun-2009 15:02, FUJIFILM FinePix A345, 2.8, 5.8mm, 0.476 sec, ISO 100

The minutes are crawling by.  3 or 4 more hours.  Pen is starting to fail me.

11:45PM (Poland Time)

Still bright out.  Spooky.  About to get our second meal!  Surprise:  it’s a sandwich.  And the Nutcracker Suite just came on in my headphones again.  That’s 6 times in total now.

12:55AM (Poland Time)

Just filled out declaration card for Canada Customs.  There are lots of confused people who don’t speak English on the plane.  Lots of passengers standing up, and gesturing to one another frantically.  Wish I could help, but I don’t speak Polish.

1 hour remaining.  Can’t wait.  Flying over Québec.

Final Entry

Got off the plane.  Buzzed through customs.  Luggage was late getting onto the carousel, but it eventually showed up.  Said lots of goodbyes to people.  Jiv’s family offered to drive me home, and I gratefully accepted.

Noticed plenty of garbage on the streets on the drive in – though I had imagined more.

Eventually showed up at my apartment in Toronto.  Said goodbye to Jiv and his family.

Went inside.  Fingers barely worked.  Made contact with Em, the guys, and my family to let them know I was alive.

And then collapsed into bed.  It was good to be home.

Click here to go back to My Poland Journal: Index

Click here to go pack to Part 16: Last Full Day in Poland, and THE TEMPTATION OF QUIET VERONICA

Stand by for a deluge of blog updates and photo uploads.  I have plenty of stories to tell.  Just give me a few days.

June 15 – 2:45PM EST

I’ve been to Pearson Airport in Toronto a few times before, but only ever to pick up some passenger after they’ve come back from a trip.

I’ve never been one of those “departure” people.

Well, today was my day.  And man, it was confusing.

It started off smoothly enough.  My Dad, girlfriend Emily, and her sister Cassie, had brought me to Pearson to see me off.  I was able to get my boarding pass from a machine (which was nice and easy), after finding fellow passengers Reid, Anj, and Olya.  What a relief to see those three, because I honestly had no idea where I was in the airport, and had no idea what was going on.  Pearson is huge, and I was only in Terminal 1.

After our goodbyes, I stood in a line to get my carry-on bags scanned.

That was my first mistake.  Wasted 20 minutes getting to the front of that line, only to find out that I had to go to another line somewhere else in the airport to check my stowed luggage.  So there was some momentary panic while I raced around the airport, trying to find the right place.

So, lesson one:  it’s always OK to ask when you’re way out of your element, and it usually makes things go faster.  I knew this already, but this was a clear-cut example.

3:20PM EST

After some more running around, and a trip along a few moving sidewalks, I made it to our departure gate, where Olya, Reid, and Anj were already waiting.

View at Picasa Waiting in Pearson to take off15-Jun-2009 16:15, FUJIFILM FinePix A345, 2.8, 5.8mm, 0.026 sec, ISO 64

View at Picasa 15-Jun-2009 16:16, FUJIFILM FinePix A345, 4.7, 5.8mm, 0.003 sec, ISO 64

View at Picasa Not our plane, but it was my first time seeing a double decker, so I thought I'd take a picture.15-Jun-2009 16:37, FUJIFILM FinePix A345, 7.67, 16.0mm, 0.005 sec, ISO 64

View at Picasa 15-Jun-2009 16:38, FUJIFILM FinePix A345, 4.7, 17.4mm, 0.002 sec, ISO 64

View at Picasa 15-Jun-2009 16:39, FUJIFILM FinePix A345, 4.71, 5.8mm, 0.005 sec, ISO 64

Eventually, the rest of our comrads showed up.  And now, for your edification, here’s a list of the UCDP people who were flying with me that day:

• Anj Mulligan
• Reid Linforth
• Olya Ryabets
• Jiv Parasram
• Ryan Cooley
• Chantelle Hedden
• Alexi Marchel
• Yev Falkovich
• Peter Freund
• Alex Rubin

After a lot of sitting around and waiting, we board our flight.  After even more waiting, the plane begins to move.

Take-off:  6:00PM EST

Our plane took off at exactly 6PM EST.  We were half an hour behind schedule.  Already, my companions were taking bets on whether or not we’d miss our connecting flight from Frankfurt (not Brussels, sorry!) to Warsaw.  We only had 50 minutes once we had landed in Frankfurt, so it was going to be tight.

Anyhow, we’re in the air.  And I’m excited, of course.  I haven’t been in a plane since a flight to Toronto from Miami in 2004, and I sure as hell haven’t flown outside North America.  This was going to be a new experience for me.

View at Picasa 15-Jun-2009 19:06, FUJIFILM FinePix A345, 4.7, 5.8mm, 0.002 sec, ISO 64

View at Picasa My inflight entertainment console15-Jun-2009 18:35, FUJIFILM FinePix A345, 2.8, 5.8mm, 0.385 sec, ISO 100

It didn’t take long for three minor disasters to happen:

1. I had packed a bag of mixed nuts/cashews in my carry-on.  To my dismay, when I opened my backpack, I found that the bag had exploded and that my carry-on was filled with loose nuts.  A bunch spilled on the floor, and immediately I began worrying about other passengers who might have nut allergies…all it takes is a whiff, and bam – out like a light.

   View at Picasa Trailmix disaster15-Jun-2009 19:30, FUJIFILM FinePix A345, 2.81, 5.8mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 100

   Anyhow, Ryan Cooley helped me clean/conceal the mess as much as possible, and I did my best to clean up the mess inside my bag.  Reminded me a bit of this story I had written earlier in the year…

2. The pen I’ve been keeping my notes with started leaking.  Ink all over my hand, and some on my shirt.  Yech.  Luckily, I brought spares…
3. The instructional safety video, which was supposed to be broadcast to the screens in front of each of us, did not work in my row.  It looked like scrambled cable.  Had to crane my neck to see it on someone else’s screen.  Not too bad, but it’s a bit discouraging when the mandatory safety video doesn’t work.

The flight was mostly eventless.  Besides some minor turbulence (which freaked out one of our more sensitive flyers), there wasn’t much to do.  My Dad had let me borrow his noise-cancelling headphones, which were awesome.  I listened to classical music on XM radio while I wrote my notes.

6:37PM EST

Food started making its way down the aisles, and it smelled pretty good…

But then we hit a patch of turbulence.  One of my companions is really not into flying, and so we consoled them while the plane shook around us.  The calming thing was that the flight attendants looked calm as ever, and kept handing out food.

I chose the pasta.  And a Canada Dry ginger ale.

View at Picasa Dinner! Tasty.15-Jun-2009 19:44, FUJIFILM FinePix A345, 2.81, 5.8mm, 0.5 sec, ISO 141

I hear a few of my comrads are already taking advantage of the free beer/wine/spirits on board.  Hilarity ensues.

6:52PM EST

Great meal.  Pasta in tomato sauce, a bun, some veggies in dressing, and chocolate mousse for dessert!  Felt very pampered and content.  Was reminded again of this Louis CK video.

And it’s even better knowing I haven’t paid a cent for it!  Free always tastes better…

7:00PM EST

Around this time, I figured out that the in-flight mapping system wasn’t working, and I had no idea where we were.

I trusted our pilot knew where he was going.

Also around this time, Yev started saying that the shadows were getting longer…the sun was going down…the shortest night of my life was coming.

I’m reminded of a scene from 2001: A Space Odyssey – the scene near the beginning (after the ape fights), where a character is flying to a space station.  Our flight feels futuristic.  Maybe it’s the lighting.  Maybe it’s all of the video screens winking at me.  Maybe I’m just over dramatizing it.

View at Picasa Night-time on the plane15-Jun-2009 21:38, FUJIFILM FinePix A345, 2.8, 5.8mm, 0.5 sec, ISO 250

Or maybe it was that Phillip Glass music I was listening to…

At this point, I’ve decided that I’m bored, and that I’m going to watch an in-flight movie.  After some deliberation, I choose The Watchmen, which I had already seen, but didn’t mind watching again.

8:10PM EST

It was pretty dark outside our windows at this point.  Yev seemed to think that we were over Greenland, but how she could tell that through all the cloud cover, I have no idea.

I kept watching the movie.

9:15PM EST

At this point, I decided to get up and walk around a bit.  I stretched.  Our trip to Frankfurt is about half over.  So is The Watchmen, for that matter, but I decided to try to sleep instead of finishing it.

11:00PM EST

I had no luck sleeping at all, despite amazing noise-cancelling headphone technology.  I rolled about.  I chatted with my travel mates.  I listened to music.

It was starting to get light out outside.  The sun was coming up.

I don’t think anyone slept that much during the flight.  I saw a few people dosing, but that was it.

View at Picasa Rubin clocks out. Jiv is not amused.15-Jun-2009 22:51, FUJIFILM FinePix A345, 2.8, 5.8mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 100

I knew that I’d have to stay awake for as much of the following day as possible, so it was a bit discouraging to be unable to sleep.  I pretty much figured I’d spend most of the next day in a daze.

11:20PM EST

Breakfast arrived, and according to Yev, we were flying over land again!

View at Picasa It's getting late, and we're over land again. Greenland?15-Jun-2009 21:15, FUJIFILM FinePix A345, 2.81, 5.8mm, 0.417 sec, ISO 100

Breakfast is a muffin, yogurt, and orange juice.  Nice.

View at Picasa Breakfast – muffin, orange juice, and yogurt16-Jun-2009 00:26, FUJIFILM FinePix A345, 2.8, 5.8mm, 0.5 sec, ISO 250

Muffin was good, but non-descript.  No idea what flavour it was, but I liked it.

When they brought the food, I asked the flight attendant what land we were flying over.  He said he had no idea, but that we would be landing in about an hour.

Maybe if I knew how fast we were going, I could figure out where we might be.

I found it strange that the captain never really addressed the passengers.  Never told us the route, altitude, speed, etc.  Things are changing, I guess.

11:45PM EST

It was almost midnight back home, and the sun was rising where we were.

View at Picasa 16-Jun-2009 00:40, FUJIFILM FinePix A345, 2.81, 5.8mm, 0.085 sec, ISO 100

I had no idea what time it was.  My body felt very confused and disoriented.  I felt like I’d been up all night, and I guess I had been…all 3 hours of it.

June 16 – 12:25AM EST

We began our descent around here.  Phase 1 of our journey was about to end.

Why do all pilots sound the same?  Always with that croaky voice… or maybe it’s the microphones that they use.

Lots of turbulence going down, but it was a smooth landing.

June 16 – 3:15AM EST, 9:15AM Local

I still hadn’t adjusted my watch yet, and that was starting to freak me out.

So, the main event was that we missed our connecting flight from Frankfurt to Warsaw.  We were about 20 minutes too late.  50 minutes is not even close to enough time to get processed at the Frankfurt airport.

Alex explains:

View at Picasa Missed our connecting flight? You bet!16-Jun-2009 03:02, FUJIFILM FinePix A345, 2.8, 5.8mm, 0.182 sec, ISO 100

View at Picasa Yev is so meta16-Jun-2009 03:02, FUJIFILM FinePix A345, 2.8, 5.8mm, 0.094 sec, ISO 100

So Frankfurt airport was my first taste of Europe.  My impressions?  Honestly?  Not that different.  I didn’t feel like I was in a foreign place, really – except I couldn’t read any of the advertisements.  Everything else had English attached, so that was nice.

After some chit-chatting with Air Canada, we were booked on a later flight.  There was a lot of running around, lots of in-between-destinations stress, and we almost missed that flight too.  But we made it.

View at Picasa Getting our new flight16-Jun-2009 03:34, FUJIFILM FinePix A345, 2.8, 5.8mm, 0.11 sec, ISO 100

A couple of casualties though:

1. Ryan Cooley left his windbreaker on the plane that brought us from Toronto
2. Reid Linforth lost his watch during the security check in Frankfurt.  That really sucked for him.

At this point, I could really feel how tired I am.  My body was buzzing.  I had been awake since 9:30AM EST, and it was 3:22AM EST at that point.

The plane we took from Frankfurt was much, much smaller than the one from Toronto.  It was only going to be flying for an hour, and it looked like a lot of the passengers took this trip every day.  I tried to nap on the plane, but no luck.

4:08AM EST, 10:08AM Local

We were on route to Warsaw.

We were served some kind of cheese sandwich for our in-flight meal, which was good.  Really wasn’t sure what was in it, and sure didn’t take a picture.  Why?  I was starving.  Scarfed the thing right down.  Hadn’t slept, hungry, grumpy.

There was lots of turbulence in the smaller airplane.  Pretty shaky.  Kinda scary.

I wiped my face with a lemon scented wet-nap to wake myself up, and had a cup of tea.

Eventually, I got into a conversation with the lady sitting next to me about theatre.  She was a Bulgarian business-woman going to some sort of seminar.  We talked about Poland, sight-seeing, and Bulgarian theatre.

And then we landed.

And we were in Poland.

Click here to go to Part 2: Dazed in Warsaw

Click here to go back to the Prologue

So that’s phase one.  Within a few weeks, they’ll be in possession of a killer downtown Toronto property, and eventually they’ll begin renovations.

Blueprints and specs have already been meticulously examined, and plans for a dramatic renovation of the house are already being made.

By September, I (along with 3 other friends) will have moved into the renovated house.  The apartment we’ve had near College and Spadina has served us well for 4 years, but it’s too small, and we desperately want the new space.

And man, did we get space.

Deck #1. There'll be more.

More photos soon.

A massive thanks to Julian Rabideau and Joel Beck for making this thing a reality.  It takes guts to buy your first house, and you guys hit a home run for us, first time at bat.  Big congrats!  I’m looking forward to moving in!

But I’ve decided something – I’m not going to post anything else about OLM on this blog.  That stuff will go on the official OLM blog, that all of us developers have access to.

You can view that blog, and my latest post on it, here.

So, I guess that more or less finishes my “summer work” posts.  I’ll use this blog to post about other stuff going on with me.

Stuff like Operation: Party Mansion.

Remember Operation: Party Mansion?  I mentioned it a while back, but I’ll recap for those of you who don’t know.

I’ve got two friends:  Julian Rabideau, and Joel Beck.  These two friends of mine are looking to buy a house in downtown Toronto.  They’re going to renovate, and improve the house, and I (with a few other friends) will rent under them while it’s going on.

Sounds ambitious, doesn’t it?

I know what you’re thinking – “Big talk!  Good luck!”  But hold your horses:  there’s been a flurry of progress over the last week.  Joel and Julian have already managed to secure a sizable mortgage from the bank, and already have their eyes set on a property that meets/exceeds their requirements.

In terms of renovation, Julian is a certified Red Seal carpenter, and he’d been flipping houses for years in St. Catharines before coming to Toronto.  Renovation-wise, he knows what he’s doing.

Both have solid jobs, and already have tenants waiting to rent under them.

Did you pull a stunt like that when you were only 23?  I can’t think of anyone else I know our age who’s even remotely close to trying it.  Kudos to these two – it’s a big project, with big numbers, but so far it seems to be working their way.

Anyhow, the open house on the property was this weekend.  Photos were taken, and schematics were photocopied. All interested parties seem to be digging the proposed house.

Bids go in later this week.  Will they land the house?

I’ll let you know.