Diary - James G (ESP) In Poland 2007

Day 1. 14th Feb. A flight to Zurich, another to Berlin and a 2 hour car drive with my host DJ Tiddey across the border and I finally arrive in Poland. My first port of call is Sceczin (pronounced che-chin as far as I can tell). It feels like a city of industry with a massive ship building dock greeting you as you enter the centre. I'm probably going to say this a lot, but it's cold here. Damn cold. All this African could manage to bring for warmth was a flimsy rain jacket I picked up hours before I was due to fly! We book into our hotel and catch up the sleep we lost along the way. Upon waking I hear from Tiddey that he is under the weather with a bug thats going around Poland. Our night is cut short and it's Pizza Hut in my hotel for me and a short walk around the beautiful old city centre. There's nothing more satisfying and butterfly inducing than seeing your name on banners all around the centre. 'I'm big in Europe :) '.

Day 2. 15 Feb. Waking up to enjoy the late riser breakfast in the hotel which comprised a jam doughnut, a yoghurt and a tiny orange juice, I patiently waited for Tiddey to rise from his sick room. When the pale Pole eventually made it out of bed somewhere past 1pm, we took a walk to find some lunch, ending up at a big mall in the city. We enjoyed a steak and chips as well as some ice cream which was particularly fitting today due to some religious celebration called 'fat Thursday'. . . Or so I'm told. Back at the hotel Tiddey and I chatted for a while and went back to bed to rest up for the evening's proceedings. After waking up from a deep slumber (a very easy thing to do with the weather here) we got some famous Polish food with a colonel's secret recipe called KFC and headed off to Club Trezor for 11.30pm. It was quiet upon our arrival and the dance floor was empty. A little concerned by this we headed for the back room to partake in some serious vodka consumption. Let me say this now- Polish vodka is a silent killer. So well made that you can hardly taste it with a mixer but at the same time consisting of 40 % alcohol volume! An hour later and accidentally fairly inebriated, I was up on the decks. The dance floor was in a much healthier state with maybe 200 people scattered around it. I played a housier set to start and worked my way up - Getting great shows of hands and screams from the crowd. An hour and a half blew by and Tiddey took over. I got down to more drinking with some new friends/fans I'd made during my set, luckily having a translator called Claudia to help me understand the hand signals people were trying to give me. I think I brought the ESKOM virus with me because half way through Tiddey's set the power went out, forcing an early retirement to the evening. Not a bad start to the tour none the less. 

Day 3. Fri 16 Feb. Waking up with a mean vodka hangover, I lay in my hotel room for hours watching the only English channel in my hotel room- BBC travel. The previous night's intro to polish clubbing had taken its toll on both myself and my host Tiddey, whom only arose from his room in the afternoon. We set off for our next port of call - Zielona Gora, which translated means “Green Mountain”. This made no sense to me seeing as the place turned out to be as flat as the Freestate! The drive there was harrowing to say the least. There is very little highway infrastructure in Poland so most places are linked by single laned country roads. This means your 10 ton super trucks also use this road and over-taking is a well rehearsed skill for most drivers. Numerous times we joined other cars on a triple overtake… just plain nuts. 3 hours and a couple and swear words later we pulled into our fantastic English country hotel facsimile. Lovely rooms but unfortunately no smoking allowed. My bathroom ventilator helped overcome this problem (hey man its 0 degrees outside and I got a bad habit baby!) A short rest later we had some dinner at the hotels Polish restaurant, which was interlinked with a Chinese place oddly enough.

Onto Club Studio we proceeded. Tiddey filled me in on the history of the club - owned by a single family for 15 years - tragedy struck it several years ago when the family’s father and owner of the club fell while adjusting a light fixture and tragically died. The club is now run by the mother and her 2 sons. Very warm people with a welcoming atmosphere, the club was already busy and looking set for some serious business. I went first this evening and played a well received set with all the hits. Again, great feedback from the crowd and an ego boosting horde of scantily dressed polish girls awaited my exit from the DJ box afterwards for pictures. Definitely the most fun I've had at a club this year outside of ESP. I hope I made an impression on the folks and get an invite back soon.

Day 4. Sat 17th Feb. The next morning, as much as I tried, I simply couldn't sleep in to catch up the rest. I'd only gotten to bed at 6am but suddenly woke up at 9.45am. This was quite a shock to me but I managed to catch some great programming on BBC news (again the only English channel available). Sometime later I made it out of the room and headed down stairs to the Polish restaurant at the hotel for my comp breakfast. A lovely selection of cheeses and meats as well as scrambled eggs and toast was prepared for me. Next came the now regular routine of waiting for Tiddey to wake up. I seriously considered taking a walk around the town but stopped at the gates as a lack of signage up and down the road made me think twice. It was the first time I'd seen the sun break the clouds this entire trip and it was so refreshing to soak some warm beams on my face amongst the cold wind outside. Tiddey, after multiple phone calls to his room and bangs on the door, got up at 2pm and we left straight away for his home town Poznan.

A few hours and what seemed like an eternity of intense overtaking later we arrived at his house. This was to be my residence for the remainder of the tour and his family were very welcoming to me. His brother Jack and I got on straight away as his English was as good as Tiddey's and he was in the process of studying to become a pilot in the USA. The lack of sleep from the previous night whacked me soon after our arrival and I dropped like a fly for the rest of the evening until it was time for us to go play at club Gold Angeles.

Pulling up at Gold Angeles, I could see this was to be the prettiest club of the tour. The club was only opened recently and it was full of bling. In some ways, reminding me of Monsoon Lagoon in both style and unfortunately music. Tiddey and I played fairly simple no brainer sets and went on our merry way to the real jol - the after party! First stop was some underground spot in the city where Tiddey was treated like a king and instantly given a set on the decks, I in the meantime got down to some dancing with his friends. About an hour later the club got quiet and we headed to the next spot called Tapas.

This proved quite a mission to get into and I swear I heard them giving a password for our entry. A real secret party this place was filled with some interesting characters. The club itself is owned by an ex-prostitute who'd made enough money doing her 'business', that she opened it some years ago. Again, with Tiddey on the decks, we partied till 7am, barely making it home before falling into mild comas for most of Sunday. This brought to an end my Polish club tour. The rest of my trip was consumed by sight seeing and broken English with Tiddey's family. It was a wonderful experience and the people of Poland are open and genuinely caring. Thanks to Poland’s number 1 Dj for taking care of me and of course Dave from ESP for making it all possible (I am indebted to the man!). I hope to return to Poland soon.