John's Space

We are safe and sound in Warsaw.  Warsaw is everything that you picture when you think old communist city.  Drab communist block buildings, wide streets, large squares.  Classic.  However, capitalism has clearly won in the new buildings that are going up.  We went shopping for a new duffel bag in a recently built mall.  It was like stepping into Bell Square Mall, complete with food court and everything.

Getting here was somewhat of a mini drama.  We purchased tickets in advance for the overnight train.  From talking with the ticket counter person, we thought we had booked a private sleeper.  However, when we showed up to the train, we were directed to the normal seating car.  This was not what we expected.  Then, while we were sitting there trying to make heads or tails of the situation an old woman that smells of liquor and looks drunker plops next to us, smiles a toothless grin, and starts devouring a sandwhich.  I decide to do what any good capitalist would, when stuck on an overnight train with no bed.  I track down a conductor and see if I can buy my way on to a sleeper. 

I thought that this would be simple enough.  I would give the conductor some money and he would upgrade us to a sleeper.  However, unlike in Germany, this conductor did not speak a lick of English.  After a bit of ridiculous pantomiming and pointing, I got him to understand that I wanted to upgrade to a sleeper.  So, I reached into my pocket to get some money and gave him a pantomime of how much.  He held up ten fingers and said ¨Aro!¨  I looked at him confused thinking ¨Old man, if I knew what you were saying do you think that I would be pantomiming like a silent movie star?¨  I handed him 500 Czech Crowns to see where that leads me.  He again holds up ten fingers and says ¨Aro!¨  I then just pull out some more cash and spread it out to have him pull out what he needs.  Again, he responds with the fingers and the aro.  I give him the pantomime of not understanding what he is saying with a smile and he shrugs, ten fingers, aro.  I head back to our shitty seats wondering what the hell he was saying.  Trina and I decide to move to a different compartment to at least get away from toothless old drunk, hungry woman.  I grab our trusty Lonely Planet and try to look up this ¨aro¨ to see what magical number I was going to need to pay to get a bed.  However, Aro did not appear in the Czech or Polish numbers area.  The train pulls away and we brace ourselves for a long night. 

In a few minutes, a different conductor stops by to check out tickets.  I ask him if he speaks English and he says, ¨No, but I can try to help.¨  (You may be asking yourself why he said no when clearly it seemed that the answer was yes.  I was wondering the same thing.)  I ask him if it would be possible to upgrade to a sleeper and he says that he will check and get back to us.   A few minutes later he returns and says that we can upgrade.  So he leads us down to the sleeper car and hands us off to the conductor of the sleeping car.  I peak around the corner, and there is the same old man.  He saluted me, I believe, to acknowledge that we had now come full circle.  So, we started the process again.  I reached into my pocket to get money and handed it to him.  However, this time he pointed at the money and said, ¨No, Aro.¨  Then it hit us.  He was saying Euro!  This led to the inevitable travelling experience, where both sides now repeat the word that was a breakthrough in conversation about four or five times, while smiling and laughing.  Columbus must have done that shit daily....

Anyhow, we upgraded to a really nice sleeper and slept the whole way to Warsaw.  The conductor came by later and shook my hands and gave me another salute.  This time, I believe, he meant no hard feelings.

More on Warsaw later.

John