Day 13 - On the road again!

Renting a car in Poland can sometimes be an interesting experience.  It seems each time, something goes wrong.  Last year, instead of an automatic transmission, they. Gave me a semi-automatic transmission, which is something I had never heard of.  Then, just before we were going to return to Warsaw, the GPS died.  So we had to figure out how to drive in Warsaw the old- fashioned way, with a map we bought in a gas station. 

This year, the car we rented in Krakow and the GPS both worked fine.  I decided to take trains between Krakow and Poznan, and on to Wroclaw, just to eliminate the hassle of renting a car and driving in Poland.  However, I needed a car to get from Poznan to the archives in Konin and our family in Turek.  Which meant that we would also have to drive to Warsaw.  The car we were given was fine, except for the fact that the tank was only one-quarter full.  Yes, I understand that we only had to return the car in the same state, but I wouldn't drive in Chicago with less than a quarter of a tank of gas, let alone drive around Poland with one.  So we lost time stopping to fill the tank. 

Then, less than a mile from the hotel, the GPS stopped working.  This meant that although we managed to figure out how to get to Konin, I couldn't find the way to the archive.  I was able to find the road to Turek, so at least we were headed to someplace we knew.  The company later said that the GPS wasn't broken, it just wasn't charged.  What kind of rental company gives a customer a car with a quarter tank of gas and an uncharged GPS?  This is still the problem with Poland.  As long as you're in Warsaw or Krakow, they know how to conduct business.  In other smaller cities, it's hit or miss. 

Our family hosted a wonderful family dinner for us with homemade golabki and pierogi, chicken, cakes, and a round of citrus flavored vodka. It's nice to know we're welcome here and we can get help talking in Polish to the car rental companies!