http://www.ecb.int/stats/exchange/eurofxref/html/eurofxref-graph-pln.en.html

Polska policja

Há uns tempos quase que apanhava uma multa por atravessar a rua fora da passadeira.

Estava a voltar a casa após o trabalho. Lá fora estavam uns -10 C e eu tiritava de frio por todos os lados. O autocarro que apanho para voltar a casa deixa-me a uns 10 minutos a pé, logo após uma rotunda que eu tenho que atravessar, só que para o fazer tenho que andar para trás, o que não é nada eficiente. Como qualquer bom português faria, eu atravesso 4 faxas a correr para poupar uns valentes 2 minutos de andar para trás e perder tempo.

Acontece que no dia em questão estava um carro da polícia estrategicamente colocado atrás de uns arbustos, e assim que eu atravessei eles saíram do carro ao meu encontro. Apercebi-me logo do que estava a acontecer já tinha ouvido dizer que atravessar fora da passadeira dava direito a multa (100zl. oouch!!!), mas decidi jogar a carta do desentendido.

Os polícias tentaram falar comigo em Polaco mas eu nao entendi – Nierozumiem po polsku – pensei que me iam deixar ir, mas aí o segundo polícia começou a falar um inglês quase perfeito! Merda… quando preciso de alguém que fale inglês para me ajudar nao encontro e agora que me querem dar uma multa já falam inglês.
O que me valeu foi que os polícias estavam bem dispostos. Perguntaram-me se eu era estudante e acho que ficaram bem impressionados quando lhes disse que trabalhava na Polónia há uns 3 meses, no entanto não deixaram desviar muito a conversa e pediram-me a minha identificação. Dei-lhes a minha carta de condução portuguesa (morada portuguesa, registo de Portugal, assim não levo multa na Polónia).
O agente tirou todos os dados que queria sem esboçar um único sorrizo ou mostrar o minímo de empatia, até que virou a carta ao contrário e viu que eu tinha licensa de mota.

Polícia: Hey, tu tens licensa de mota, porque é que não andas de mota aqui?
Eu:  Ah a neve e tal, não estou habituado e é perigoso.
Polícia: (risos e umas frases em polaco entre eles) Daqui a dois meses pára a neve, devias trazer a tua mota de Portugal para cá.
Eu:  Estou a pensar nisso! Já tenho saudades de andar de mota!
Polícia:  Daqui a uns meses vou comprar uma Ducati Monster!

(conversa sobre motas)

Polícia: Bom, desta então é só um aviso, mas para a próxima vou ter que te dar uma multa!

Uffff… O que vale é há polícias que gostam de motas

I woke up quite early to make sure I’d be on time for my flight at 10h AM. I arrived in the airport around 8h and there was not many people there. At 8h30 I was already at the gate, one hour in advance. I was quite sleepy so I sat down and eventually I fell asleep. I woke up suddenly 20 minutes after, at 8h50, and relaxed when I saw the giant digital clock just in front of me; I still had at least 45 minutes to wait. I fell again asleep and I woke up at 9h15 but relaxed when I saw I had time. The next time I woke up was with the loudspeakers saying “Last Warning for Mr. Costa”.
I still got into the flight, but they had to call the bus driver to come back to get me (he was not far yet).

London, Stansted – Porto

I arrived in Stansted at 11h30 (local time) and my next flight to Porto was only at 18h30. I had plenty of time to do absolutely nothing. I noticed a lot of blue and yellow machines in front of the Ryanair check-in desks. I went there so see closer and I found out that I would have to do my check in using those machines, using the confirmation code I got when I bought the tickets, and only after I’d deliver my luggage. I tried my code but the machine said it was still too early to check-in for my flight. So I waited. Really long waiting. God I hate waiting, if only I had something to do. Time goes by and 16h00 comes. Two and half hours before my flight I went again to the machines and entered my code. Panic: there’s a red warning under my name saying that I must speak to the Ryanair guys. I was going around asking and finally one of them tells me
- “Ohh yes sir, do you see this special character in your name?”
- “You mean the tilde in João?”
- “Yeap, that’s it. These characters are not supported. You will have to go to that desk over there and get that changed before you can check-in”.

It was really hard to see the desk he was pointing to because there was a freaking huge queue in front of it. Now, I am not sure who was responsible for those automatic check-in machines but I could see that the hardware is from IBM. Anyway, how can you plan a software to deal with hundreds of thousands of users, many of which are foreigner, and forget about the detail of international characters? It really bothers me…

Porto – London, Stansted

There were no problems with check-in or with the flight but when I got to London I was waiting 1hour for my luggage.

London, Stansted – Krakow

This time I knew I had to change my name in that stupid desk. I put my alarm to 3h30 AM (flight was at 6AM) and went straight there when it rang. I did my check-in without further problems.
After boarding I was waiting really long time for departure, because some passenger did check-in and didn’t board the plane so they had to take is luggage out.