A Cautionary Tale

I'll be writing a little more on our departure from Gdansk but first a cautionary tale for travelers.  We packed on the Sunday to leave for Warsaw on the Monday.  In the middle of the night I realized I had packed my computer but not the connecting cable for the power source.  I got up, disconnected it and put it in the back pack.  We arrived in Warsaw around 3:00, our apartment is fantastic (more on that later) and I wanted to connect my computer.  I took the computer out, took out the power chord only to soon realize that the little jack which  fits into the two prong European socket had been left behind.  I've had that little adapter since South America and now it was gone, without it no way of connecting the computer.
Being my usual optimistic self I thought it might be easy to find a suitable replacement, Stan w(as more circumspect and much less enthusiastic, turns out he was right.  In the old city, there was nothing, nada.  We were directed to a mall where there was a huge store which dealt in electronics called Saturn.  We made it there after a short cab ride.  Again no success, lots of adapters but they are all from Europe going to somewhere else none for stupid Canadian coming to Europe.  Without the computer I didn't even know which hotel I had booked in Krakow, no way to make other reservations, no communication with family, no banking etc... We spent a long time in that store to no avail.  Went to check out another much smaller store, same result.  Finally I decided to go back to Saturn and seek out another solution.  It turns out we could buy a "universal" type cable which I could plug into my power jack instead of the north American version.  We had to return the next day with the computer so they could sell me the one which wouldn't fry my computer. 
Since I'm writing this the solution worked out well but we spent quite a few fruitless hours.  The best thing to do is to carry a few of those, they don't cost much and they don't take up any room.  And now for a few more thoughts on leaving Gdansk followed by our stay in Warsaw.