{"id":3721,"date":"2015-09-09T15:12:53","date_gmt":"2015-09-09T20:12:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/?p=3721"},"modified":"2015-09-09T15:12:53","modified_gmt":"2015-09-09T20:12:53","slug":"european-vacation-day-13-visit-to-motorola-krakow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/?p=3721","title":{"rendered":"European Vacation: Day 13 Visit to Motorola Krakow"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was a big day today.\u00a0 I could hardly sleep last night.\u00a0 We were being picked up at 8:30 and taken to the Motorola Krakow office.\u00a0 Since I was going to be in town, I really wanted to stop in the office and try to meet some people that I\u2019ve been working with for a while.<\/p>\n

Aneta helped me arrange a conference room where I could meet with people.\u00a0 I sent out emails last week to let them know I would be in the office today.\u00a0 I had gotten a few responses.\u00a0 There were a lot of people I should have told, but I couldn\u2019t think of everyone.<\/p>\n

Our driver picked us up at the hotel and drove us out to the office.\u00a0 He was giving us all kinds of facts about the city and the population here.\u00a0 It was amazing to see some of the things he was telling us about.\u00a0 The drive is only about 15 minutes or so out there.\u00a0 Marcin had taken us by there the night before we were buzzing around town.<\/p>\n

I had trouble with my badge getting into the building.\u00a0 The young lady at the front desk fixed the issues for me.\u00a0 We went upstairs, but couldn\u2019t get into the office area.\u00a0 A very nice young man let us in.\u00a0 We found our conference room and then realized it was the wrong one!\u00a0 Oops!\u00a0 We went down the hall a couple of more rooms and found Mississippi.<\/p>\n

After Rich got his computer up and running, we sent out emails to let people know where were in.\u00a0 Rich had a meeting scheduled with a couple of developers working on a tool that could interface with his tool set.\u00a0 I figured I would meet with some of the developers I work with and go down to the meeting with them.<\/p>\n

Pawel and Mikolaj from one of the teams showed up.\u00a0 I was glad to see them.\u00a0 Pawel has worked with us for a while now.\u00a0 Jacek with whom we have met a few times came by as well.\u00a0 After talking for a bit, Pawel (No, Rich\u2019s Pawel) came by to pick him.\u00a0 We packed up and walked down to another building for their meeting.<\/p>\n

I got my email running and answered people and made comments back to my team.\u00a0 I had a meeting with another team at 12:30 for a few minute.\u00a0 I gathered up my stuff and walked back to the original conference room.\u00a0 I was running late, but caught them before they left.\u00a0 We grabbed a small breakout room and talked for a bit.\u00a0 I realized we were having a shared experience and offered them some additional information help.\u00a0 In the end, this should help my team as well.\u00a0 It was good meeting.<\/p>\n

I walked down to Building A to try and catch up with Rich and his development contacts.\u00a0 I met them along with Marcin and Aneta.\u00a0 That was great.\u00a0 We all went to lunch in the cafeteria.\u00a0 This was an experience.\u00a0 The plates are weighed and you pay by weight.\u00a0 The food was really good compared to other cafeterias I\u2019ve been in.<\/p>\n

After lunch, Marcin gave us a tour of the labs in the development building.\u00a0 It was pretty and clean.\u00a0 The older side of the lab was a little more of a tangle, but still pretty nice.\u00a0 We walked through the SIT testing lab and looked at their environment.\u00a0 It is similar to what we have in Schaumburg.<\/p>\n

We made arrangements with Marcin to meet at the hotel and go up to the Kosciuszko\u2019s Mound before heading to dinner.\u00a0 It was a plan.\u00a0 We met our driver back at Building C and headed back to the hotel.<\/p>\n

We arrived at the hotel to find our room being cleaned.\u00a0 We dropped our stuff and went down to get coffee and go sit in the Planty or park just outside the old wall.\u00a0 We watched the students walking by.\u00a0 A lot of business people seemed to be out for a stroll or getting somewhere quick.\u00a0 A bicycle came zooming by and almost took out Rich\u2019s foot.\u00a0 Good thing he was quick.<\/p>\n

We went back to our room and gathered our laundry.\u00a0 Time to do one more load that would get us through the rest of trip.\u00a0 I unloaded my suitcase and we placed all of the laundry in it with the detergent I had bought in Germany.\u00a0 Outside the hotel, we headed out the Florian Gate and into the Planty.\u00a0 Rich had mapped out a way to the Laundromat that the front desk had marked for us.\u00a0 It was only a couple of blocks away.<\/p>\n

We got in the vicinity of where we thought it should be.\u00a0 No Laundromat though.\u00a0 I went into a shop to ask about the Laundromat, but the lady didn\u2019t speak English.\u00a0 I went over to the next shop where a nice older gentleman spoke great English and came out into the street to show where it was.<\/p>\n

In the Laundromat, we now had to figure out the machines and how to pay for it.\u00a0 I separated the load and got it into the machine.\u00a0 Rich had some money to feed the washers, but needed more for the dryers.\u00a0 You put money into a cashpoint on the wall and selected the machine you wanted.\u00a0 Pretty cool.<\/p>\n

We got the washers going and Rich went out in search of change.\u00a0 Pretty soon, he was back with no luck for getting the 50 zloty bill changed.\u00a0 He set off in the other directions.\u00a0 I looked up and Rich was back with bottles of water and orange candied pacnzkis.\u00a0 He had successfully gotten change for the 50 and something good to show for it!<\/p>\n

We ate the delicious doughtnuts and found orange filling inside.\u00a0 This was a good day.\u00a0 The washers completed and I moved everything over to the dryers.\u00a0 It took a couple of cycles to get things most of the way dry so we could pack them up.<\/p>\n

While we were waiting for the dryers, young man came in with two rather large IKEA bags full of laundry.\u00a0 It was apparent very quickly that he had never done laundry before.\u00a0 From his speech, I believe he was French.\u00a0 I assumed he was a student in the area.<\/p>\n

Rich walked him through getting the washers to run by putting money into the cashpoint.\u00a0 Unfortunately, he stuffed everything into the washer today.\u00a0 Then he didn\u2019t even add soap!\u00a0 He left the washer to run without waiting around for it.\u00a0 His clothes might be somewhat clean, but not really.<\/p>\n

A couple of British young ladies came in and started a machine.\u00a0 It seemed that they had done this before.\u00a0 Of course, they didn\u2019t stay around either.\u00a0 From what they said, they already knew about the bakery down the street and were determined to go and find something sweet.\u00a0 I don\u2019t blame them.<\/p>\n

Our dryers finished and we folded up the clothes.\u00a0 After loading them back into the suitcase in an orderly manner, we were back on the street and heading for the hotel.\u00a0 We just backtracked exactly as we came in and were in our room in no time.<\/p>\n

Then at 6:00, we were downstairs to meet Marcin and Aneta for a tour of the Kosciuszko\u2019s Mound.\u00a0 Traffic was absolutely horrible. It took a good while to get around the city and find out what out to the mound.\u00a0 Marcin drove right up a hill to the fort that surrounded the mound.\u00a0 At the gate, the man said he would only take cash.\u00a0 Rich handed over the money and got the family deal since there were four of us.<\/p>\n

We climbed the stairs to the roof and walked out on the first level of the mound.\u00a0 There was a paved path that wound all around the mound.\u00a0 This path used switchbacks to get us to the top.\u00a0 From up there, the entire city and surrounding countryside was laid out before us.\u00a0 Aneta pointed out the Tatra Mountains to the southwest.\u00a0 This is where we are headed on Friday to Zakopane.<\/p>\n

We could see the St Mary\u2019s Basilica which indicated where the main square was.\u00a0 We could see the entire town on the eastern side of the mound.\u00a0 Aneta had explained about a monastery on the mountain opposite of the mound where friars lived in silence tending their gardens.\u00a0 The sunset was showing off in that direction so I took a picture with the monastery displayed on the mountain.<\/p>\n

We walked back down the mound and wandered over to the fort.\u00a0 Most of this area was undergoing renovations.\u00a0 It was must since the area was deteriorating.\u00a0 We checked out a cannon on the roof, which looked pretty decorative and not for real use.<\/p>\n

Inside the building where we entered, there were maps showing the battlefields that contributed dirt, including those in the U.S.\u00a0 Containers for ceremonial use were displayed in a case.\u00a0 There was a chapel for the general in there also.<\/p>\n

We decided to head off for dinner.\u00a0 Marcin decided to show us how American grill food was done in Poland.\u00a0 We went to the mall and Jeff\u2019s Grill.\u00a0 You would have thought you had entered a Tex Mex place.\u00a0 We ordered drinks and found out after the fact that it was Happy Hour with 2 for 1.\u00a0 I really only needed one beer.\u00a0 Aneta got two Tequila Sunrises.<\/p>\n

We ordered up burgers, which was a little bit different than normal.\u00a0 The waitress wasn\u2019t really fluent in English, but Marcin helped out.\u00a0 We got our burgers, which were huge.\u00a0 They were good considering where we were at and not in the States.<\/p>\n

We ate and pretty soon were talking about working and how things happened to developers.\u00a0 We laughed and exchanged stories.\u00a0 It was so much fun.\u00a0 We really do have some common experiences no matter where we live.\u00a0 It nice to know it\u2019s in Krakow as much as in Schaumburg.<\/p>\n

We tried to pay the bill with a credit card, but the machine would stay connected.\u00a0 We scrambled for the cash, which meant we needed to find an ATM soon.\u00a0 On the way to the car, we found an ATM and got enough cash to help us for a few more days.<\/p>\n

Marcin drove back to the hotel and dropped us off for the evening.\u00a0 Thanks again to Marcin and Aneta for making our stay so nice.\u00a0 We love spending time with you.<\/p>\n

\"Coffee<\/a>
Coffee with a view in the Planty<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Kosciuszko's<\/a>
Kosciuszko’s Mound from the fort below.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Rich,<\/a>
Rich, Aneta, and Marcin at the top of the mound.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Rich<\/a>
Rich and Joy at Kosciuszko’s Mound.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"View<\/a>
View looking out toward St Mary’s Basilica and the square in the old town.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Those<\/a>
Those are the Tatra Mountains way off in the distance. There’s snow up there.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Sunset<\/a>
Sunset and the monastery on the mountain next door.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Looking<\/a>
Looking down on the fort below the mound.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Cannon<\/a>
Cannon down on the fort.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was a big day today.\u00a0 I could hardly sleep last night.\u00a0 We were being picked up at 8:30 and taken to the Motorola Krakow office.\u00a0 Since I was going to be in town, I really wanted to stop in the office and try to meet some people that I\u2019ve been working with for a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3721"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3721"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3721\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3732,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3721\/revisions\/3732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}