Blog Meet 2010

As was widely advertised, the first blog meet of 2010 was held this past weekend in the beautiful city of Krakow. Recent high-profile burials in the city meant that the Krakow security forces were already on alert for incoming celebrities and the whole thing went off without a hitch.

I should warn you that this was the only time the whole weekend that the sun actually shone on something worth photographing. We have made a note to avoid majówka weekends in future as they are always rainy!

People came from far and they came from wide but mostly the good thing was that they came. Winner, by a mile, in the “most mental journey” category was Michael Dembinski who rather than do something silly like catch a train from Warsaw decided to turn it into a kind of Iron Man triathlon. This involved getting up in the middle of the night, walking into Warsaw, swimming across the Wisła naked and then cycling 100km to a place with no name before boarding a goods wagon that took 2 hours to cover 20km. He eventually turned up at the venue 18 hours after leaving home, soaking wet, exhausted and ready for a pint. Other attendees had less exotic journeys, some involving gentle strolls of at least 300m.

These guests, all members of the “Order of The Sisters of Blog”, were so worried about being late they broke into a march as they passed Wawel!

Some, who shall remain nameless (unless I’m asked for names), didn’t make it. I’m sure they have good excuses but it would be nice to think they spent most of the weekend whipping themselves all the same.

Perhaps inspired by natural habitat, Jamie had selected a venue that was round the corner, down the back, up some stairs and in the attic. Some say he gets nervous if he strays too far from pigeons, others say the pyramid shape of roof space is the only thing that keeps him sane. I don’t believe any of it, it was just a coincidence. The restaurant “Nostalgia” did a grand job providing lashings of beer with very acceptable speed. The food wasn’t bad either.

Polandian blog meets are the bloggers equivalent of Davos. Matters of vital importance are discussed, sometimes more than once but rarely is anything concluded or decided upon. We agreed that Google Analytics was probably a fine thing if we could only get it to work and then bother looking at it. We had deep thoughts about what Polandian is, was & should be. We debated for hours the ins and outs of a good post and then decided just to slap them up anyway. New members, Derek and Brad were welcomed to the Polandian fold by undergoing the ancient initiation ceremony. I can’t tell you what this involves because if I did we wouldn’t be a secret society but I can tell you that they have been walking strangely and using a lot of cream ever since.

Anyway, enough rambling, here’s the gang – the first shot with my better half and a hiding child, the second with me and a child playing with someone’s phone. Special mentions to Jamie and Derek for managing to hold the same expression the longest! Actually, I don’t think they changed all evening. I’m not mentioning names just in case some are still hiding from the men in white coats.

We’ll keep you posted about future meetings.