Dzien dobry pan i pani! (long one!)

I made it!
First off, British Airways and Amtrak can't compare. Trains are the way to go! Dad, you were right about the tight seats!No sleep across the Atlantic, one hour sleep London to Warsaw. But I did get to see Hellboy on the flight, pretty good until the end. Breezed through customs, so much so that I think I'm here illegally! I was out in 2 seconds, nothing was asked or checked?

I then caught a Mafia Taxi to Warszawa Centralna train station. He average 90 k/h, ran 2 red lights, nearly hit 3 pedestrians and almost side swiped 2 cars and a large truck. I hoped to learn some Polish swear words from him, but he only repeated them when yelling. Needless to say, I was the only one wearing a seatbelt! Another guy helped me with my massive TNF duffles (27 kilos each! That's 60 pounds...each) into the train station and helped me get a ticket to the right train to Krakow. I couldn't tell how legit he was but I have him 7 zloty (zwo-tee) for his efforts (peanuts).I wasn't going to give him any of my bills, and especially not pull out my small bundle of recently traded money. The money here is smaller than US dollars, and as usual, of varying colors of blue, red and green. I'll send pics if I can some day.

The baggage helper was actually correct on which platform and track the train was at. I shared the platform with a 3 generation family from Toronto, who wer originallyy from Poland. The mother in the middle didn't have many positive things to say about Warsaw. She said it's much less safe now, in fact on, their way from the airport to the station a few men tried taking their luggage from them!I stuck with them and their mass baggage as the platform began to fill up with a variety of people. The nerve wracking thing was there were 3 men on an upper balcony who had been eyeing me like vultures, just waiting for the right time to strike. It was nice to hook up with the semi-Canadians-relying on the whole safety in numbers thing.

The train showed up on time and I had to find my car #9 and somehow get my 2 TNF pigs on to the train. The woman had told me there was supposedly a weight limit of 20 kg per bag and that anything bigger/heavier would have to go elsewhere and there'd be a fee for it. But we all agreed we'd rather not part with our baggage, at least not this close to Warsaw. Getting the bags on the train sucked. The whole time I kept thinking I should have shipped more of this crap, or not taken this or that to begin with. I'm much more seasoned in the mountains then with foreign travel, especially solo!

After much grunting and complaintive looks from other Poles, I finally found my small passenger cubby where my seat was, #53. I figured once you're in your cubby, you could sit anywhere. My bags were so big and wide that I could barely fit them through the doors or hallway. Now, managing to bring two of them, into a nearly full cubby, and lift these monsters over foreigners heads, and hope my bags don't come down and crush or kill anyone, and still act cordial...chalk one up for another interesting experience to never be repeated again!

Fortunately, the folks in the train car were great. I asked in Polish if anyone spoke English and they all shook their heads. There were 6 of us in the car, 3 facing the other 3. My bags were set to either kill or break the legs of the eldest Pol, who I think was the mother of the girl across from her, and her legs would have snapped in half if she kept resting them on the opposite seat. Ouch, this was a sight I really didn't want to see! Everyone was very nice and had a lot of fun at my expense, trying to pronunciate phrases correctly out of one of my books. The rest of the group were all younger than me, and they all seemed to be heading south or east of Krakow. Apparently, none of them lived in Warsaw, though I never found out where they were coming from (Gdansk up on the coast, maybe?).

A young girl who spoke the least to me, apparently did speak English. Near the end of my part of the train ride she translated for everyone what I was doing. She said I was crazy for leaving America, crazy for leaving TNF, and had a really hard time understanding why I never worked for Microsoft! Also, they couldn't understand me moving to Poland, either...

I dozed a bit on and off on the train, keeping my wrist wrapped through my daypack just in case, though I really didn't expect any problems with my cubby mates. After about 2 hours from Warszawa, the flat terrain began to grow into more creative shapes. The whole while, Poland's landscape reminded me of the midwest. It was very fertile, well manicured farms and dense trees wherever they were growing. Every house and farm was of modest size, even in the more urban areas we went through. Nothing resembled a shack, everything was solid, usually brick and the roofs were all in good shape. Scattered about I did see some cattle, but mostly it was vegetable and wheat farms. The occasional power sub station would pop up, too. They didn't look as tightly packed as ours, plus I didn't see any security fences around them either. Local kids must get into some shocking adventures!

As the train headed south up the uplift towards the Tatra mountains, we pulled into Krakow. This station was more hospitable and way less smelly than the Warsaw one. Two of the guys in my cabin were kind enough to help me with my bags, out the train doors and onto the platform. I thanked them profusely 'Dziekuje bardzo' for their efforts. The tall skinny red head told me his name was Alex and I have no idea what town he said he was from. Nice kid.

The next wave of entertainment was provided by me. For some stupid reason, Krakow's station doesn't have carts anywhere! I hoisted one duffel on my back, put the overloaded day pack on my chest and then dragged the 2nd pig behind me. For once, I was actually wishing I had my sled from Denali (I take back all that swearing, dear sled!). The train was waiting for it's next departure. So as I hobbled and groveled with my nasty load, all the train riders got to watch me with a mixture of black humor and disbelief. As I tugged, tugged, tugged on the duffel, the handle started ripping out. I think this was the third or fourth time this trip I was really wishing I had brought a wheeled duffle...grab one if you can, Jill! Fortunately, it didn't rip completely.

I got help from a nice girl, named Irene, from the 'Strawberry Hostel'. She was trying to get me to stay with them, but I told her about my reservations and it's proximity to the school...Strawberry was in the boonies, though looked nice in the pics. She understood, but her and her cohorts still helped me with my luggage and even got a taxi for me. The taxi ride wasn't nearly as exciting, but he still almost ran over 2 pedestrians! I checked into the stylingly decrepit Hotel Zaczek and got my room on the 4th floor. It's actually a dormitory, open to the public during summer. Thankfully, they had an elevator!

My room is small and simple, with a small bed, two tables and a sink. Fortunately the window opened, as it was hot and muggy. I was in and settled by 5:15 PM Wednesday. The rain had started and was picking up momentum. With as little sleep I'd had, I figured I'd stay in and rest rather than tromp around in the gloomy rain as night approached.I think I was out by 5:30.

Today I walked to my future school, International House. I met Sarah who I'd been corresponding with about the course. It turns out she's from Oak Park, Illinois! She's out here on a 3 month internship, helping the school with admin stuff. She provided me with a tour of the school (about 4 rooms, including the cafe) and answered numerous questions for me about Krakow. She loves it here and doesn't want to go back to the states. She also studied abroad in London a few years ago, so she has the travel bug.

I don't have it yet, so I went for a walk to the Rynek market and the huge main square. The buildings, materials, colors and scale are very different from Greece and Italy (the only other 2 countryies I've been besides Canada, eh). The square has a huge, long mercantile building, kind of like a century old McCormick Place (Chicago). As huge as the structure is, the internal shopping area was pretty narrow. Scattered about the square is a massive clock tower (rotting brick and stone), St. Mary's cathedral (mostly brick, in slightly better shape) and a bizarre little basilica (moldy stone and brick, this time white not red), the size of a small house. I haven't read enough of the history yet, but it seems the Romans hadn't made a millitary camp here. Central 'Old' Krakow is on a grid, but it's on a diagonal, not the classic N, S, E, W grid that Caesar proliferated across this part of the globe. There's tourons everywhere, mostly from Europe. I think I've heard only one American accent on this trip, and that was Sarah's. I did see a girl's Canadian team. Four of them were running almost full bore through the square, a shot I'm upset I missed (I just pocketed the camera, too). They regrouped with the rest of their team, and I have no idea what sport they play.

The rain continued and then it poured, hence why you're reading this long message from me now (bring back memories from the 'stans, Pookins?). I'm at U Louisa, Krakow's oldest internet cafe, just off the square. I'm in a cellar, with huge brick and mortar vaulted ceilings, pleasing, mellow, modern music and my choice of beverage all for about $2-$3/hour.

I hope not to bore you with so much info in the future. Just wanted to let you know I made it in one piece. Not bad for a newby, eh?

Do zobaczenia
See you later!