A skating rink owner in Szczecin, Poland, believes that he has found a way to keep his business open, despite COVID-19 restrictions: operate as a flower shop instead.
His plan is simple — the customer has to purchase access to the flower “warehouse,” then chooses from a box of flowers in the middle of the rink.
“You can jump, crawl or go on all fours ... you don’t have to wear skates,” Tomasz Fornalski, owner of the Lodogryf Skating Rink, told broadcaster TVN, which showed skaters holding pink roses as they circled the rink.
Photo: Reuters
His plan emerged as Poland imposed a three-week lockdown closing hotels, ski slopes, skating rinks and other businesses from Monday last week to stem COVID-19.
Poland weathered the first wave of the pandemic well compared with Western Europe, but faced a new spike in October and November last year.
Officials said that the national quarantine was aimed at preventing a major third wave in the coming months, just as the country has started vaccinating people.
Szczecin city officials said that Fornalski is breaking the rules.
“A decision has been taken and communicated to the owner to stop this activity, and this decision is immediately enforceable,” Szczecin Provincial Sanitary and Epidemiological Station spokeswoman Szczecin Malgorzata told TVN.
Fornalski said that he had yet to receive a formal notification.
“Until we receive the administrative decision to halt our service, we will continue to operate,” he told the broadcaster.
Fornalski is not the only one getting creative.
A ski slope in Szczyrk is also continuing to operate its chair-lift for sledders instead of skiers in an attempt to get around the restrictions.
TVN footage showed a slope full of sleds at the Skrzyczne ski resort, with even a few skiers going down the hill.
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