I was awake early on Tuesday 1st September, totting up the August budget against spending. It wasn’t good news. In the last 3 days I’d gone through £305.75, compared to just £19.99 for the whole week prior to being on holiday. For August, I’d set the budget at £25 per day but had gone way over at £1,197 spent in the whole month (£38.61 per day). This did included mine and Captain Caveman’s flights for Türkiye next month. Without splashing out on those, though, it would still have been over at £27.22! When I mentioned it to Captain Caveman he thought it wasn’t too bad and I decided to up the budget for September. I wanted to double it to £50 per day but I knew I didn’t have that available. I decided to keep it at £30 per day and hope for the best. By 8am I had checked my emails, walked to the bakery and bought salami and cheese sandwiches for breakfast at £6.16 for 2, then gone back to my laptop to try to squeeze some work in. Captain Caveman had got agreement to attend the Bridge event (the main reason we were in Katowice) so he’d set off early too, taking his sandwich with him.
Around midday Louisa and I met up to go to the Museum of History of Katowice. It was free to go in on a Tuesday and we even got a private tour for just the two of us. Our expectations were exceeded and I really enjoyed this museum, and not just because it was free. While walking, we spotted that a road/bridge had collapsed and it was being rebuilt. On the way back we stopped at Opal cafe for a drink, it took a while to get served and I decided to have a hot chocolate and see if the lactase pills worked on it – hot chocolate is usually a no go for me but I do like it and this time I wasn’t too ill. Louisa hadn’t had any breakfast so she ordered some chips for lunch but I still had half of my breakfast sandwich in the hotel room fridge, along with that neverending pork rope. Louisa treated us and it was a nice spot to get a drink and a snack, just next to the statue of the bull. The Charging Bull statue represents financial optimism, economic resilience, and the unstoppable energy of a bull market, according to Google.
Back at the hotel I had a busy time at my temporary desk. Captain Caveman returned back from the Bridge event with a gout flare up which I was convinced was down to the beer but he said it wasn’t. Louisa had gone to her room to read or watch a film. We arranged to all meet at 5pm to go to a craft beer place which Captain Caveman had on his list. I’d been too busy to take note of the location so Captain Caveman was a bit cheesed off that Browariat was closed due to the maintainance of the road/bridge we had been past earlier. I suggested the nearby pork cutlet restaurant for dinner but it wasn’t open yet and the others preferred to try Statca Bejrut, a Lebanese kebab place. I was less up for it, given that I had a Lebanese kebab shop on my list for Brussels at the weekend, but I was outnumbered and peckish – so when in Rome (or Katowice). Louisa, like me, is not a fan of yoghurt so she managed to order hers without the garlic sauce, Captain Caveman got one that was extra spicy and I just went for a regular chicken shish which had the sauce on. It was messy, greasy and gave me a bad stomach but it tasted quite good. It was also a cheap dinner at £18 for 2 kebabs, 1 ayran, 1 tea and 2 free pieces of baklava.
Next, we went to a bar called Biata Matpa which also sold Mexican food. Captain Caveman and I had a beer each at a reasonable £8 and we only stayed for 1 drink as everyone was full and tired. Despite me taking my pills and checking there were no chillies in my kebab I made full use of the facilities and then we walked back to the hotel before 8.30pm.
Gratitude List
1. The Museum of History of Katowice
2. Captain Caveman being allowed in to the Bridge event
3. Spending just £32.16 for both of us today, so being under budget.
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