Travel /
Donkey visits Poland [76]
Idę w krzaki
Thanks. I knew it was wrong, but it's often better to get it wrong and raise a smile rather than say nothing and appear uninteresting. If you're really lucky, somebody tells you what you're supposed to have said.
I once had a holiday in Amsterdam. It was a trip with the art department from school when I was in my last year. I drank loads and loads of cheap whisky that did me no good whatsoever. We weren't supposed to stop in Belgium, but there was an emergency stop for me to visit the public conveniences. I fell out of the bus and staggered to the toilets.
"Whatever you do, don't lock the door."
Click!
Zzzzzzzzzzzzz!
Part 9When travelling by coach, you just have to accept it will be uncomfortable. There's never enough legroom, you're bag usually spends most of the jounrey on your lap because someone else has already filled the overhead storage. You're either wedged in by the window or your legs are stuck out into the aisle with other people's bags in the way and people trying to step over you.
I continued up the aisle, knowing I wouldn't find a window seat. It was over half full of passengers and the rest seemed to be full of their bags. 'How many sandwiches are these people going to need for the journey?' I thought. As I approached the back of the bus, I was running out of choices where to sit.
A girl was curled up by the window with her bag at her feet. For a moment it looked like two seats were vacant. So I sat down. I peered out of the window and could see Darek outside, talking to some random people as per usual. More people boarded. Some of them had to awkwardly step over my legs as I awkwardly tried to move them out of the way.
I dozed off quite soon. It had been a big night from which to recover. I woke up as we entered another town. Quite soon we had stopped to pick up a few more passengers. The girl was still curled up looking out of the window. I was envious of every person I could see outside having a cigarette. After some time, the door closed and we started to move.
I sat awake, thinking about all the things that had happened - the food, the drink, the people, the bear attack, about the disappearing Grzegorz, about what Darek had said about having to change coach somewhere.
The next town was bigger and it took longer to get to the bus station. The girl was still staring out of the window. I looked out of the window, up at what I assumed to be the bus station building. She was looking down at what was going on below.
Suddenly, she turned round to me and in a small, broken voice, started speaking. I could see tears in her eyes. She looked young, probably only about eighteen or so. I apologised for my lack of Polish. 'Jestem z Anglii. Gdzie idziesz?' I tried asking her. She told me she was going to London. It was her first time leaving Poland on her own. 'Don't worry.' I told her and smiled The tears seemed to have stopped.
Then she pointed out of the window and said something else I didn't understand. I looked down to see not only a large pile of bags accumulating on the pavement, but something that looked like my bag there as well. My heart began to race. 'If I don't come back, good luck.' I chased after my bag. There it was with the others piled up by the side of the coach. I rescued it.
I rolled and lit a cigarette and looked around. Other people were standing around with cigarettes looking cold-faced. There were a few emotional farewells over by another coach. I looked up at the coach I had just been on. I couldn't see through the windows, I couldn't see the girl. I had the feeling of life throwing people around - they don't know where they're going, or sometimes why.
Two cigarettes later I had the second coach to board. It was the second of four coaches in a thirty two hour journey. I suppose all the ups and downs broke the monotony, but I still wished we had Grzegorz, his car and a supply of vodka to keep us going.
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