The McDonald Family Adventures: The Move

We arrived in Krakow on June 3. We had decided to pack up our things in Dublin earlier so they could arrive here at the same time as us. Since Mike has a European passport our things wouldn't have to go through customs so the moving company told us it would only take a week for everything to get to Poland (the truck driver would take the ferry to England and then drive it to Poland from there). I was very happy to hear this since I remember our things took forever to get to Dublin - I think about 10 weeks. So the movers were in to pack up the house in Dublin on Friday May 25. They were there all day Friday, a good part of Saturday and then on Monday it took them most of the day and then they were off. We had packed a few suitcases and moved into the Corporate housing that Mike had lived in when he first moved to Dublin. It was a very basic apartment on Leeson Street, two bedrooms and two bathrooms, a kitchen, and washer/dryer. It wasn't anything fancy but it was in a good location, after a week we had had about enough of it though.

The kids' last day of school was that Friday June 1 and it was very sad saying goodbye to everyone. We really loved the school and the kids made lots of friends there. One of Jack's friends, a little boy named George, gave Jack a nice homemade card and then 4 stick-on picture frames with pictures of him, Jack, his sister (who was in Jack's class last year), and one of their other buddies Joshua. George hugged Jack and said he would miss him and I got a little tear in my eye!

We decided not to take the early morning flight from Dublin, it was one of two direct flights (the other is Ryan Air which I hate) because we didn't want to get the kids up at 4:30 am and be really stressed etc. so we got a connection through Frankfurt on Lufthansa. It was a rainy morning (shocker!) when we said goodbye to Dublin and got on our way. For reasons unknown our flight was delayed, we only had an hour between our 2 flights so we had to book it through the airport to make our connection. Of course after we ran all the way to the gate the next flight was delayed - what a pain. It was a short flight to Krakow and we arrived safe and sound that evening. We were meeting the movers at the house the following morning so checked into the Sheraton Hotel and had dinner there and then went to bed. We took a taxi to the house the next morning and got a call from the driver of the truck - because our street has weight limits on it, and I guess there were a lot of trees and low hanging power cords around, they weren't able to get the truck near our house so they were driving around looking for a place to park it and then would have to shuttle our things to the house via a small van. They arrived about 45 minutes later and began to unload. Unfortunately Mike found out right before we left Dublin that he had to been in Warsaw for a meeting the following morning, so he left for the airport around 3pm. Since I had the kids with me I told the movers I would have to leave around 5 to get back to the hotel to feed them and put them to bed. I think the movers wanted to stay late because it was going to take a lot longer than they had planned because of the truck situation, so I decided to leave them the house keys so they could stay as late as they wanted and come back first thing in the morning. During the course of the afternoon Jack started complaining of a stomach ache. He and Ava had been digging out back before lunch and Mike forgot to make them wash their hands before they ate lunch, so of course I started to worry. After an hour or so he said he was cold so he climbed into Ava's bed and fell asleep - which is very unlike him. When I woke him to take him back to the hotel he felt warm. Just what I needed! We got a taxi back to the hotel and as my luck goes, we arrived at exactly the same time that the Dutch soccer team was arriving (there is a big soccer tournament going on in Poland at the moment, none of the games are in Krakow but the Dutch, English and Italian teams are staying here). There were police and security guards (and fans) every where and the entrance to the hotel was blocked off. Of course at this point it was cold and had started to rain and Jack was shivering in my arms. The taxi driver (who worked for the Sheraton) tried asking the police to let us through but they told us we had to wait. Fortunately we only had to wait 10 minutes to get in and I rushed the kids upstairs. Jack actually perked up a bit so we ordered room service and then I put the kids to bed. Around 10pm Jack woke up crying saying he thought we was going to throw up and sure enough he did - thankfully the garbage can was right next to us so he didn't get it all over the place. After he got sick I took his temp and it was 104!! I started to panic....fortunately I had a paracetamol (tylenol) suppository with me so I gave him that (in case he threw up again) and tried not to freak out. I told myself I would call the hotel doctor if his fever didn't come down, but after an hour or so it was down to 101 so I calmed down a bit and tried to get some sleep (which I didn't). The next day I was on my own (Mike wasn't due back to Krakow until about 4pm) so I decided not to drag Jack back to the house. We weren't planning on sleeping there that night so I didn't want to keep bringing him back and forth. I knew this would screw up the movers because no one would be there telling them where to put things. Mike asked one of his colleagues Fergus who was arriving to Krakow late in the morning to go out to the house to check on things. When he got there he called to tell me I really should be the one at the house since he didn't know where anything went, so he offered to sit with the kids at the hotel while I went over. By the time he got to the hotel Jack was napping so I decided to make a run for it since I knew he would freak out when he woke up and saw that Mommy was gone and some strange man was sitting in his room. Ava wanted to come with me so we jumped back into a cab and went to the house. It was lunchtime at this point and we were both starving so I asked the taxi driver to stop at a place where I could buy sandwiches. He pulled into a place in our neighborhood, it was more of a sit-down Polish restaurant and of course they didn't sell sandwiches, so I had no choice but to order a plate of pierogies (that I knew Ava would never eat) so I ordered her some pancakes (that she didn't like). Oh well, the pierogies were delicious so I enjoyed them! I stayed at the house for an hour or two when Fergus called and I could hear Jack screaming in the background. Poor guy! I told him Fergus was one of Daddy's good friends who was there to play with him and I would be right home, he calmed down a bit but I felt terrible. I told the movers I had to go but at least we got a bit done while I was there.

I got back to the hotel and Mike arrived shortly afterwards, we decided to stay at the hotel and just head back to the house first thing in the morning. I was wiped out anyway. The Sheraton is a great hotel, and we enjoyed seeing the Dutch players in the elevators and wandering around the halls. Of course we didn't know who any of them were, but we started googling and then figured it all out.

Here are some pictures:

The truck arrives to pack us up in Dublin - this is when it finally hit me that we were leaving

Empty living room

Empty bedroom

Corporate housing

Ava feeling like she's on vacation

All snuggled up in his temporary bed

Last day of school - last walk down Donnybrook Road : (

The weather was amazing the week I was stuck in the house organizing/clearing out for the movers - 75 and not a cloud in the sky, and it lasted a full week. I think it was the best weather I had seen in 4 years there