10/27 – 10/28/2011
apparently i like to keep people in suspense … this story begins here.
waiting for the train, but still smiling.
there is one important fact to know about the wrocław train station. it’s not that it has been under construction for what feels like decades, nor that the tram lines are constantly being ripped up and reconstructed, so even if you think you know how to get there you suddenly find that you are wrong. no, it’s that no alcohol is served within a three to five block radius.
and those are some big blocks.
i knew this, the way you know something that you vaguely noticed but never let sink far enough into your brain that it effects your decisions.
i had one more class. my mom was supposed to wait for me at the green cock, the restaurant on the ground floor of my school building. the place is usually hopping on the ground floor, which is also known as “the smoking area.” by Polish law, restaurants and pubs are now required to have a separate “non-smoking area.” there is a reason i am using sarcasm quotes. in the green cock, you have to wade through the walls of smoke to get to the stairs that lead down to a quiet smoke-free basement where you will inevitably be forgotten by wait staff.
i warned my mom of this truth as i was getting on the tram to go to meet my last group, but i also told her that it’s nice and quiet and she could sit there for 20 minutes until i got out of class, and then we could spend most of the two hours we had before the train left trying to get someone to serve us. we could down our eventual beers and run for the probably-incorrect bus or tram. we both get overly nervous before travel, and the stakes felt higher than usual that night, so a secluded place to sit and self-medicate our jitters seemed like a necessity. the green cock would be perfect.
that was the plan anyway.
in the reality of that thursday night, this quiet smoke-free enclave was full of a dance party, which my mom was unable to discover until she had dragged the suitcase through the wall of smoke and all the way down the many winding stairs. she sat down on one of the empty chairs feeling more nervous than ever, while revelers ignored her and waitstaff failed to appear, for about two minutes before she decided, “fuck it” and lugged the suitcase back up the stairs and out of the building. that’s why i found her sitting outside my room when class let out, students streaming out of everywhere while asia at reception whispered in Polish that my mom looks just like me and i whispered “what? what? i can’t hear you” back until she switched to English.
so, plan foiled, we were left without a backup plan, which meant meandering towards the tram, which didn’t go to the train station anymore. but there was a bus, which showed up right away and took us to another bus, which left right away and deposited us at the station, two hours early. because of never-ending construction on the building, the current station is a small temporary box, with few places to wait inside. as we perused the outdoor food stalls around the building, the thing i had failed to realize started to worm its way into my consciousness, that there would be nowhere to wait, warm and peaceful, while calming our travel jitters with booze. we pushed through crowds of travelers and drunks, the latter the cause for this alcoholic black hole. undaunted, we started to walk walk walk around the neighborhood, detours around construction, getting more and more annoyed with the suitcase, which really wasn’t that heavy but did require noisy rolling over broken cobblestones.
finally, about halfway back to the point where we had started, we stumbled out of the dead zone in front of a convenience store. bars were visible down the street, but walking farther seemed like the worst idea ever and time felt short, which it wasn’t, so we stocked up on beer for the train and headed back to the station.
blurry photo, but accurate, as it's just as hard to read in real life.
because there is no room in the temporary train station building, the powers that be set up an arrivals and departures board outside, near the entrance to the three platforms that were functioning that night. there are also a few speakers for announcements, but if you want to see the board you can’t hear the announcements, and if you go over to where you can almost make out the scratchy nonsense booming out unintelligibly every so often, you can’t see the board. but we still had over an hour to kill, so we perched ourselves below the board, watching letters twist into new configurations every so often and rats running out near the crowd with slightly more regularity, only to run right back into the construction site when they realized there were suddenly surrounded by people and lights. we watched long enough to determine that platforms were not being announced until about five to seven minutes before the trains were supposed to depart. great.
so our travel jitters had become full-on shakes as the time for our train slunk closer with no announcements, no changes to the board, no information at all. we worked out a system where my mom would stand near the speakers and i would stand near the board with our bags, so we could see each other just enough to shake our heads every time something was changed or blurted and it was not about us. finally my mom asked one of the nonchalant people around us. surely they can’t be waiting for the same train, they’d be freaking out as well. but the woman smiled impatiently as she informed us, “we’re all waiting for that train. they’ll tell us.” oh, ok. didn’t make me freak out any less, but at least we could stand near each other and keep an eye on that woman instead.
finally, many minutes after it was supposed to have left, the announcement came over the horrible speakers and people started to stampede. we rushed along to keep upright in the packed crowd, up the concrete stairs, the train pulling in as we fled down the platform, unsure where the hell the sleeper cars were. just knowing we had to get on the damn train, we could figure it out from there, we jumped on the nearest car and immediately got stuck in an aisle packed with our fellow travelers who had become decidedly less nonchalant as soon as the rush had started. my mom pushed ahead and asked the conductor where the sleeping cars were just as i got stuck between the wall of the aisle and the chest of a giant man who would move for neither me nor my giant backpack.
that’s where i still was when i suddenly heard the loud and panicked shouting of my name from outside the train again. i finally pushed through, surely causing bodily harm to either the giant man or the other fellow i shoved aside on my way out of the wagon again, but refusing to realize a need to apologize until it was much too late. oops. i turned the corner to the steps off the train and saw my terrified mom’s face relax slightly as she motioned for me to run, her terror barely enough to abate my need to tell her not to shout my name onto crowded train cars.
the conductor had told her that we needed to get off the train and then on again farther down for the sleeping wagons, which i guess makes sense. you don’t want drunken plebians bothering the uppercrust, which i was apparently now part of, especially not while they are sleeping. so no access from the regular cars. dammit. the conductor had also told her that she shouldn’t worry, there was plenty of time. but i hadn’t heard that and she apparently didn’t believe him.
so jump down, run, up to the very first car, where conductors were waiting patiently for our arrival with looks of amusement at our panic, which led me to believe that when you are in a first class sleeper they really just don’t take off while you are still running to get on.
weird.
they took our tickets away as we flew onto the wagon, which immediately brought us up short as we tried to remember the number of our reserved cabin. i had had it all memorized before the panic flight had begun. oops. the conductor helped us figure it out, handed us bottled water and processed-vending-machine chocolate croissants, and left us to sit back, breathe for the first time in a half hour, and finally open a beer.
it was after midnight. we were on our way.
mom photographs our spoils.
