Sunday, May 04, 2003

Taxi!





The guidebook warned against hiring a taxi driver who solicited me in the Warsaw airport. No problem. Well, except for the fact that as soon as I left the terminal, I had taxi drivers swarming around me asking if I needed a taxi. I said "no", which wasn't all that convincing, since I kept standing there.

I like to look around and get my bearings on a situation before taking action. I was hoping there was something else around I could feign interest in, but there wasn't much to the area in the front of the airport. An attempt to examine the exchange rates to see how I did at the exchange near passport control led to offers of help with that. I finally just walked up to the taxi desk (as advised by the guidebook and various signs around the airport) and said "Sofitel Victoria?"

The woman behind the counter confirmed that I in fact wanted a taxi there and led me to a waiting one from one of the more reputable companies (according to the guidebook). I asked how much it would be -- she told me around 35 zloty. It ended up being 26 zloty (about 7 bucks). Plus, I got to hear One Night in Bangkok on the radio on the way.

Later, when I went out to get the GPS coordinates of the hotel (52o 14.396' N, 21o 00.757' E), a taxi driver stopped and asked if I needed a ride. (OK, he asked me something. I make assumptions.) I guess they have pretty agressive taxi drivers here for some reason.

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