Okay, so it’s not exactly Hollywood Seven - but we did NOT plan our exit of Kraków quite this way........
So....the plan for this morning was to go Mound Kosciuszko (not the Mountain, which they also have), on to the Salt Mines then off home.
Australia’s Mount Kosciuszko was named after the same man, Tadeusz Kosciuszko as it looked like this mound. Tadeusz is a national hero in Poland for his freedom fighting against the Austro-Hungarian occupation, Russia’s then occupation and also Prussia. Poland was not a united nation as it is now, so several nation had different areas. Poland obtained independence after World War I, which they kept until Nazi occupation. Liberated by Russia, they were folded into the Soviet Union until 1989 when the Solidarity movement finally won them their independence, which they’ve had ever since.
Okay, brief background history lesson over.....
Kosciuszko - done - check.. coming down the stairs to walk back down the roadway to our car (and I’m being super careful, as I had noted it was slippery), I get to the bottom of the steps, stand on the pathway and whupp! I’m flying. I’m trying to hold my head up as I don’t want to smack it on the path...I should be so lucky - I was not far enough away from the steps and cracked it (very loudly) on the bottom step).
Marketa heard me make a sound (nothing intelligible - just one of those noises you make when you fall) and turned to see my lying on the ground holding my head and writhing in quite a bit of pain. She immediately tells me “don’t move, Sharon, there’s blood” (so I pull my hand away from my head to look, and it’s obviously bleeding quite badly because my hand is covered)! Then she’s asking one of the gentlemen who stopped when it happened if they could call an ambulance. She was a total warrior and went straight into organisation mode.
So I hear “blood” and “ambulance” in one breath and do just as I’m told - I stay laying on the ground as I was when Marketa got to me - a little on my side (as I’d gone foetal with the pain).
The two Polish guys who stopped and stayed with us were amazing and so nice. Others walking past checked to see if we needed anything more - but didn’t hang around to gawp, which was really nice.
One passer-by actually gave me a disposable nappy to soak up the blood which they secured with my beanie, which made it a little easier as I could take my hand away.
I’m not sure how long the ambulance took to come - it wasn’t long, but it felt like it as the ground was freezing and it was still snowing. One of the original two guys went back to his car and got 2 large polythene bags to put under me to try to keep me from getting any wetter from the snow. I have to say that I found the Poles extremely friendly and very nice people. The two original guys were staying until they knew the ambos spoke English, otherwise they were going to stay to translate what happened etc. (SO nice)! I wish I’d got their names or had a way to thank them!
During my wait they were also telling Marketa to take photos as this is a public parth and they had not salted or sanded the pathways/steps when it had been snowing all morning. (I think this was about 1pm when this happened) and that I should sue the Krakow government and should get a good payout. This seems somewhat extreme to me, but they DO have a point that it should have been looked after. I hope I was the only one to get injured, but I’d be hugely surprised if I was the only one who slipped. I may just write to them and ask for reimbursement for my costs though - that added up. (Nothing like it would be in Australia, I’m sure, though).
So the ambo’s arrived and I asked the one nearest me if he spoke English, to which I got the cheerful reply, “No, I don’t speak English”, said with not that much of an accent at all!
So after we explained what had happened (that I had failed at walking), they took me off and told Marketa where I would be. Some local Military Hospital!
In the ambulance they took off my nappy and put on a real dressing then vitals and the normal stuff... It didn’t take too long to get there - but the warmth of the ambulance made my wound really start hurting. I felt a bit tired and a bit sick, so I was keeping myself awake by trying to see as much out of the window as possible. Then I was handed over to the hospital.
Marketa wasn’t impressed - but the wait was pretty short compared to what I think it would have been in Brisbane (though anyone arriving by Ambulance usually gets seen first).
The doctor spoke enough English, but had zero bedside manner (maybe he’s in the right place, if he deal with the military (but there were tonnes of civilians there too - so maybe it WAS military and has just kept its name?
He wasn’t the greatest communicator and his nurse was a bloody frightening thing. Barrelled me out of the way to get to her seat with not one word in any language and I’m thinking - I’ve already got one head injury - could we maybe not knock me over and give me another one! He shaved around the wound (the most painful part), and gave me a tonne of total and put in three stitches, then sewed a pad of gauze over it to be taken off by anyone in three days. No washing my hair for three days (lovely - it’s covered in blood and I look a fright if I can’t at least wet down my curls to unflatten them! The I was sent off for a CT scan and the radiologist was a lovely young woman.
Back to the waiting room for him to tell me if I’ve got anything serious going on.. there wasn’t. He noticed some non-injury irregularities so my special Kraków souvenir is a CD with my CT images on there so my GP at home can follow up. He claims it’s nothing urgent...
So of all the things to suck at - mine is apparently walking! I have only had one other head injury in my life and it too, involved a bottom step.... I’m not sure I can avoid steps though - but I will be taking it easy for a day or two and was given the okay to fly on Thursday. I would have been devastated if I hadn’t been able to go to Anne’s funeral because of sucking at walking!
So we got home so much later than originally planned and pretty much went straight to bed. Marketa was amazing throughout all of it and is checking up on me regularly to make sure I’m okay while home alone. She is a GREAT person to have with you in a crisis situation and sadly never got to see the famous Salt Mines :(
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