I Got Arrested In Kraków, Poland!.. Almost

I’m in Poland coming back from Israel and I have a 10 hour layer in Krakow. I missed my flight back to Oslo. Normally a plane ticket from Poland to Norway is about 30 American dollars. Even seven days out it only costs that much. However, when trying to buy a ticket that same day, the price is $300. During this particular trip I was going through 9 countries in 14 days so I did not have much money. Who am I kidding? I NEVER have much money! haha Also, how I managed to go to 9 countries in 14 days is another post I will have to write soon.

I’ve hung out in Poland for half a day and now I’m headed to Brno, Czechia (Czech Republic). I buy my bus ticket on the Flix Bus app. I have tried a bunch of apps for traveling around Europe and this app works all over the world including the States. The buses have wifi and everything and the prices are amazing. Ok, I have my ticket ready and everything and its gonna be a couple hours until departure.

I go to this corner store to get some stuff for my bus ride. I spent my backup money on these bus tickets because with Ryan Air if you miss your plane you can’t switch to another flight, you have to buy an entire new ticket. I had like $3 left. I’m telling y’all, I be BROKE hahaha but I make it work! In the store, I get 3 half liter bottles of beer and a 1.5 liter bottle of water. Guess how much it was?

The lady says 10. I'm thinking like 10 what? I mean, I just got here from Israel and I don't know if Poland is euros or not, but if so, 10 euro sounds like a good deal for the beer and water. However, they use “zloty” in Poland (a quick google search told me) but that can’t be right because my money conversion app tells me that 10 zloty is $2.69!

But it is right!!! I got three bottles of beer and a big-ass bottle of water for $2.69. Unbelievable. I take my items and I walk out of the store and I look for somewhere to sit down and kind of chill or whatever. I pull out one of the beers, open it up and start drinking it.

I sit on this bench and look at the sky enjoying a beautiful Polish afternoon and a guy maybe five minutes later comes up next to me, sits down looking around, he pulls out a bag of weed, and starts rolling a joint. When he’s done rolling the joint, he leaves. Then, two guys come out of the store and they had beers in their hand too! They came and sat down like maybe 10 feet or so away from me and we're sitting there chilling, drinking, and hanging out but then a cop pulls up!

The guys next to me quickly put their beers behind their backs and everything goes in slow motion as I think “should I be doing what they're doing?” but I hesitate (never hesitate ugh) and the cop looks at me and yells ”Hey you! Come here right now! Let me see your passport”. I give my passport to him and he says “Do you know drinking in public is illegal in Poland?” and I was like “Oh no, I did not know that oh my god, okay, well, you know, that's an easy fix!”

I'll just go pour the beer out or something and accept a warning right? NO! lol He demands I pay him 100 zlota or else he is going to take me to jail! I’m panicking because I don’t have it! 100 zlota is only around $27 but I don’t even have that. I tell him I don’t have the money and then he tells me to turn around as he grabs his handcuffs! What the hell? How is this happening? I try to reason with him. He tells me to make some phone calls to people to see if they will send me money so I can grab it out of the mini bank (ATM). I am straight up being shook down by the Polish police!

I call Ma Dukes first (duh) but its like 2 in the morning and she’s sleep. Then I call my homie Ben in Norway and he’s trying to Western Union me money. The officer is getting impatient and tells me I can talk to the judge about it in the morning if I don’t get him money soon. I tell him that I really don’t have any money and he says to me in a VERY judgemental “How do you travel with no money?” wtf?!? How is this man, who is robbing me because he doesn’t have enough money, talking trash to me about ME not having enough money!?

Well SORRY I don't have enough money in my “Bribe The Police” fund, okay. I wasn't expecting to be shook down by the police in freaking Poland! I had to open my bank app on my phone and literally show this cop my bank account balance because he was about to put me in the back of the car!

Oh my goodness, I can't go to jail in Poland and not for drinking a beer in public! That’s not gangster! I got a rep to protect, down at the high school lol. Imagine being in a Polish jail and theres a murderer and a drug kingpin and then you, a beer drinker. I was drinking a beer on a bench haha. It was legal in Israel to hang out and drink! Even you reading this right now, how many times have you been out drinking in public? Floating a river? Hanging at a beach? Exactly!

So be aware... When you go to Poland, everything is super cheap, which is great and you can get anything lol I mean you’re rich! When you go to Poland you're automatically rich no matter how much money you have haha. I had three dollars and I was rich! Not rich enough pay off the police (sooo dumb) but I could’ve bought ANYTHING in that corner store!

Be aware of the laws wherever you are AND wherever you are going. Especially when you traveling from country to country to country like I did. I visited nine countries in fourteen days. That's nine different set of laws and you need to be aware of all of them, as you go where something is legal in one country and it might not be legal the next country and you're in each country for like a day, you know, you need to just pay attention to be informed… Whew!

But that is the story of how I got arrested in Poland.

Almost!

#Robventures.

This is an example of flix bus prices. I looked up a ticket for tomorrow going from Krakow, Poland to Brno, Czechia and look at that! It's Norwegian money prices but it's a out 10-1 so $23 to go from one country to another!

No matter where you are or what language you speak, a bar is a bar is a bar!