There is so much to process after this week in Krakow, and I am sure I will write about it a few more times after this. However, I will start at the beginning, with my first day of Steemfest.
The third star is missing, but at least I have two! Lisbon...check, Krakow..check
The arrival
I arrived a day earlier, on Tuesday the 6th of November, together with my best friend from Holland and three of my four kids. My friend was going to mind the kids, while I was going to attend Steemfest.
Since we had to come from Belfast, and she from Eindhoven in the Netherlands, we had to wait a couple of hours. This was not a problem as we were quite hungry, so we got something to eat at the airport restaurant before we went back to wait for my friend's arrival. As we were waiting, we (my kids mainly) started talking to a nice guy from Denmark, with blue hair!, who was also waiting for a friend. He seemed Steemit material, but just as I wanted to tell him all about it, I spotted @ezzy and his girlfriend @rea exiting the arrival doors. Knowing them from last year's event, of course I had to say hi.
When I came back, the blue haired Danish guy just got up and left with his friend. Shame. But then again, he might make it to the Steem block chain on his own account.
However, I mentioned that my Steemfest had just begun, with meeting Ezzy and Rea, and this woman on the bench beside us said: Yes, mine too! One look at her and recognizing the Steem gear she had, and I knew it was a fellow Steemian.
In fact it was @katrina-ariel, who's name I'd seen a few times before.
She was waiting for @soyrosa, who works with me for the open-source translation projects for DaVinci/Utopian. She would be on the same flight as my friend, I already knew that, so I had a chance to meet her too..
Not long after, they both arrived. I got to say a short hello to @soyrosa, and then we left the airport to find our apartment for the first night.
I had to book an extra night, because the flight I had in mind would have arrived late in the evening on Wednesday, and I didn't want to miss any of the fun.
But because of that, we had this apartment only for one night and then had to move to another for the rest of our stay. I wished that we could have stayed at the first one, as it was right across from the Qubus hotel, and much more comfortable than the last apartment. Next time I will be planning everything better and maybe stick around longer, wherever @roelandp and Steemfest4 will take us.
view from our first apartment, so close to the Qubus hotel
After we met our host at the apartment and we received our key, we freshened up a bit and went for a stroll and in search for a nice place to eat. We found it after a good hour of walking, in the form of a lovely Italian restaurant. I will write a review about this in another post.
The DaVinci/ Utopian flyers
A few weeks before Steemfest, I was contacted by @aboutcoolscience of @davinci.witness to ask if I would promote DaVinci a bit and the work we do. Of course I was up for it. The idea was to get a few T-shirts printed, but then I came with the idea to also print some flyers to put in the goodie bags for all Steemians attending Steemfest.
However, because it was all a bit short notice and we didn't get the OK for the flyers until the Friday before I left Ireland, I didn't get them printed in time. I decided to email a printer in Krakow, as I knew this would be the only way to get it done on time. However, because I had some issues with the data on my phone and because I was travelling, my contact at that company and I kept missing each other. I only got back in touch with him Tuesday afternoon.
When he told me he could have the flyers done by 4 pm the next day. This would be too late, so I told him this and offered to pay more for the trouble if he could get it done faster. He replied: 'Well, I will get the printer to work at 8 a.m., you can collect the flyers at 11 a.m! Kudos to ulotki.pl for getting this done so quickly, deliver amazing quality for a price of a cheap dinner for two. Definitely a company to think about if you ever need anything printed. He never even charged anything extra either for the speedy delivery. Awesome!
So, at 10.30 a.m I was on my way in an Uber to get to the printer. I had an interesting conversation with the driver, who was quite a young man from Ukraine. He told me he was only in Krakow since two weeks, and that he left Kiev because there was no future for him and because he didn't want to join the mandatory army. He had quite a few stories to tell. I asked him to wait, as I had to head back to the apartment right after this. He drove me back and I handed him my card after I told him a little bit about Steemit. I think he has a story to tell that people might find interesting.
Either way, I enjoyed the trip and talk with him.
The black eye and more...
Right next to our apartment building was a little side road that most people drove into to get to the other side of our street as it was a one way street. I walked out onto the street when this car came flying around the corner. I wasn't quite sure what to do, but because he slowed down (what later turned out to be to make the turn) I figured he had seen me but I still picked up my pace to get to the other side. To my horror, he kept going until he was right in front of me.
What I didn't realize then, was that he was also driving on the wrong side of the road. Living in Ireland, where people drive on the left hand side, it didn't hit me at the moment that in Poland they are supposed to drive on the right.
When I think back on it, I think he was driving more to the left because he was using only one hand to steer. So what was he doing with the other? Well, I would soon find out.
I was right in front of him and I thought that now he would see me right? He didn't. He kept going.
This was the moment where I thought:
This is it... The end!
He hit me, pretty much swooped me up into the air and finally: he stopped (ironically, my DaVinci T-shirt said: Fly into the future with DaVinci). I fell onto the ground, on my knees. I gasped for air and for a moment I thought I had broken a few ribs. The feeling was familiar. For a brief moment I thought that this would be the end of my Steemfest trip, but I quickly pushed that thought out of the way. Weirdly enough the first thought that came to mind after that was: FUCK!! My JEANS!!!
I had only brought two pairs of jeans, and the thought of one being ripped just before Steemfest was the only thing I could think about. You know this thing that people say, about seeing your life flash before your eyes...Well, it didn't happen that way, but it was definitely my mother's voice of disapproval that still haunted me right that moment when I thought my jeans were ripped. ("Don't go out in those jeans..." "No worries mom, nothing will happen." And then come home with two gaping holes in them and two busted knees... My most frequent childhood memory)
Lucky for me, there was a woman right there, I believe she's seen the whole thing happen. She was on the phone right away, to call an ambulance and police. She asked me to get up, but when I tried to, my left wrist hurt so much I couldn't put any pressure on it. Then, suddenly, there were two men who asked me if they could help me up. Later, they turned out to be fellow Steemians @for91days and @guchtere. I had a chat with both of them later on during the event, and even though it was misfortune to meet them the way I did, I was glad I did, because I might have not even met them otherwise. Strange how things can go. I felt some pain just above my eye and when I felt it with my hand, I could feel a bump. I asked them if there was a bump and @guchtere confirmed: it was a nasty bump. Just great!
I even managed to yell at @sjennon as I saw her cross the road, on her way to the Qubus hotel. I believe she must have told @roelandp about my accident, because he also came to check on me later. Thanks guys!
I knew I had to call my friend who had taken my kids to the mall. She is the friend who recently lost her son after he got hit by a car and the last thing I wanted was for her to show up finding me there like this.
The ambulance came in no time and so did the police.
The men in the ambulance were very nice and did their jobs, they checked me for serious injuries. Lucky enough, there were none. Besides a sore left wrist, a sore right shoulder and busted right knee, sore right ankle and a seriously huge bump just above the eye, what later turned into a black eye that would make Conor McGregor proud, I got off unharmed!
A police officer came into the ambulance briefly, to ask me some questions and take a Breathalyzer test.
This got me worried a bit, because I did have some wine the night before. But the test came back with 0.00 so all was good. I had heard horror stories before where pedestrians were blamed for getting hit by a car so I didn't want to add that to the list.
Just before they let me go, one of the ambulance guys asked me if I felt 'nervous'. I said no, while I was shaking like a leaf. He handed me a pink pill. Usually I would be the last person to take such a thing, but this time it seemed like a pretty good idea.
When I left the ambulance, the man who hit me with his car, and was texting as he got out of the car, was in handcuffs with his head down, staring at the ground. Well, at least he wasn't able to text now. Later I realized that he must have been texting while he was driving around that corner. Where I fell, I could touch the side-walk, on the left hand side of the road. Pretty much an indicator that he was driving on that side, not the right side...
I went to the hotel to do what I had set out to do: hand in the flyers for DaVinci and Utopian.
We had to move on to our next apartment after that, and even though I had planned to get to Qubus by 3 p.m so I wouldn't miss anyone, I didn't feel much for it once we got to the other place. I decided to take it easy for a bit and finally arrived at the Qubus for the welcome drinks at around 10 p.m.
It was a crazy day, shit happened, but I am still here and I had a damn good conversation starter!
The only two photos I took that night happen to be of two of the coolest Steemians. I know them since last year's Steemfest: @scan0017 and @nanzo-scoop!
Thank you for reading!
This was such a crazy start into Steemfest, @mrprofessor was putting his bike together at the Qubus, @guchtere and I were talking and then we heard that THUD! The guy came out of the car (with a phone in his hand) looking over his door not doing anything. We thought it was maybe a dog he hit because we saw a stray walking around earlier. Then we saw that woman you mentioned and saw her reaction. So we walked over to see what was going on. I couldn't believe how the driver was not reacting at all and that nobody was trying to help you up. So happy that there weren't any serious injuries and I wish though we would have met under other circumstances!!
How is the bruise?
Yeah, it was crazy. And I wasn't the only one with a crazy story either! The things that can bring people together are unpredictable I guess. I will definitely never forget the two people that did help me :) The bruise is gone, still a bit sore but other than that I am fine.
No!!! That's not the way to start your Steemfest Vacation.
So sorry to hear of that vehicle hitting you, but SO GLAD that you were okay!
Are we going to see a picture of that black eye?
Yes, it was a huge shock, to say the least, but I'm still here and it showed me a thing or two. I have only 3-4 pictures with me in it, and the black eye isn't really visible in it. Not sure if others have photos, I don't like to have my picture taken too much, especially in these circumstances. Something to work on...get out of my comfort zone.
I am happy that you are ok, I just wanted to say that we are so lucky to have you in the team! With such a short notice you did so much for our community and I am very grateful for that! Maybe next time we will be more careful about what we write on our t-shirts: "Fly into the future with DaVinci" I wasn't expecting it to happen that way, you flew and then you went into the future if you went to Steemfest..anyway you are awesome, thank you for everything!
Haha, yes that was ironic. And I love that text! Either way, it happened, it's in the past and I am still here. I am one lucky woman to get through that, still make it to Steemfest and be on a great team like DaVinci. Thank you!
It was so weird, @things and me were on our way to the hotel to assemble the goodie bags when I saw you. As we were late for it, immediately let the crew know what was going on. I only found it appropriate to stick with you after to make sure you were okay. And I am glad you were! It was a shitty start of SteemFest but it turned out to be great nonetheless!
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It sure was! And I appreciate you sticking around. Everyone was so nice and genuinely concerned after, but I'd rather get attention a different way the next time :)
You poor thing! At least you weren't seriously injured which is the main thing. Very sorry to hear this is how you started your Steemfest. :(
Yeah, it was a bit crazy, but I survived reasonably unharmed and still made it to Steemfest! I would have been crushed if it would have been worse and I couldn't have made it. So I am very lucky. I count my blessings, that's for sure!
I'm so glad you were okay, overall, and able to attend the rest of the event. It was really great to meet you. Hope you're recovering well.
Great to meet you too! Yes, I am fine. Still a bit sore, but I cherish the pain as a reminder of the great week we had. Always trying to turn a negative event into something positive :) I hope to meet you again at least next year!
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The story of your accident is still crazy... It will be a tale you'll tell for years, I'm sure of it. It was so amazing to finally meet you after all those hours working together :D
I KNOW! But now, if anything, I see it more as a spiritual experience rather than anything else.
It's weird, I know, but that's how I feel.
Yes, it was great meeting you finally too. We should have more meetups :)