I just got back from my whirlwind trip to Poland. It was a lot of fun, after an inauspicious beginning.

Last Tuesday, I got up to get on the Metro to Porte Maillot, where I was to take a bus to the Beauvais Airport to catch my flight from Paris to Katowice, followed by a bus from Katowice to Krakow. Well, I got on the Metro and there were huge backups on line 1, so I was almost late for my bus. But I made the bus and arrived at Beauvais in plenty of time to check in with Wizzair (cheapie airline based in Poland) and have a snack before going through security. Once you get through security, the Beauvais airport feels like purgatory. Everyone is waiting, and since a flight to Rome had been delayed, a lot of people had been waiting for a very long time. There is one waiting room, and they only load one plane at a time, so it is very frustrating to wait there.

After I had waited until after my flight was supposed to have taken off, there was an announcement that Wizzair’s flight was cancelled. I eventually learned that this was because of excessive fog in Poland. They told us to wait in line to have tickets reassigned or to get reimbursed. I was near the end of the line, behind a lot of angry Poles. One of the workers came out and said that if we just wanted to be reimbursed, she could take our tickets and start that process. I knew that there wasn’t another flight until Thursday, so I asked how long the train would take. She said, “At least seven or eight hours.” And I figured I had already been trying to get to Poland for five hours, so the train was the way to go. And I handed her my ticket.

I then attempted to pick up my bag, but it turned out the airport was in lockdown because someone had left a bag unattended and it had to be imploded. Security guards told us it would only be another twenty minutes, but they kept telling us that for three hours. So clearly they were lying. I tried to find a public telephone and learned that there was one “800 meters” away, across a field. So I went over there, but I didn’t have a phone card. I tried to use my French bank card, but it was rejected. I walked back to the airport and waited some more, then decided to walk past the cabine téléphonique to the town of Tillé. I was hoping to find a Tabac and buy a phone card. (In France, you go to the tobacconist to buy stamps, phone cards, lottery tickets, and all sorts of other things, in addition to tobacco products.) As I walked through the town, I noticed a butcher shop that was closed for lunch. Then I went by a Pharmacy that was closed for lunch. So when I got to the Tabac it was not surprising to find that they were closed for lunch.

So basically I was stranded in Beauvais with no way of communicating to anyone that I was not going to make it to Krakow that day. Eventually they did reopen the baggage claim, and I got on a bus back to Porte Maillot. When we got to Porte Maillot, the American woman sitting next to me said, “Parlez-vous anglais?” to which I responded, “Yep. I sure do.” And she asked me where the Metro was. We walked over to the Metro together. I had the brilliant idea of switching from the 1 to the 6 to the 4, rather than taking the 1 to Chatelet and switching to the 4 there. The 6 is above-ground and usually less crowded than the 1.

I got home, and Laura was surprised to see me. I tried to call Meghann and couldn’t get her, so I sent an email to tell her I wasn’t coming, but that I was going to try to catch a train. I did some online research and discovered that the fastest train to Krakow would get me there in 19 hours, but didn’t leave until 3:30 on Wednesday. But then I figured out that I could take an overnight train to Berlin and then transfer to Krakow, and it would take 22 hours. (In a way I’m glad the Wizzair lady stretched the truth to get me out of her line. I think if she had said “20 hours,” I still would have done the train, but the decision wouldn’t have been quite so instantaneous.)

So I drank three beers and had a quick bite to eat, and I headed up to the Gare du Nord to buy a train ticket. This was perhaps the best customer-service interaction I have had thus far in Paris. I said, “Je voudrais un aller pour Krakovie” (I would like a one-way ticket to Krakow). The response was, “C’est en Pologne?!!?” (That’s in Poland?!?!) He sounded a little suspicious. I said, “Oui, c’est en Pologne,” confirming his geographical knowledge and indicating that I actually wanted to go to Poland. He couldn’t find anything direct, so he said, “via Berlin, peut-être,” and I said that sounded like a good idea. He got me on a train that was leaving at 8:46 PM, which meant I only had to wait about twenty minutes. He also gave me great seats, which may or may not have been intentional.

On the way to Berlin, I read Le Diable s’habille en Prada (The Devil Wears Prada), which I had borrowed from Dominique. He was right, the book was a lot better than the movie. I got to Berlin at 8:15 and had an hour there before my train to Krakow. I was hungry, so I got some apple cake and a large coffee, which was exactly what I needed. I found an internet kiosk and emailed Meghann to tell her I was arriving at 7:15 PM. I bought a salami sandwich, which I meant to save for lunch. But I ended up eating it shortly after I got on the train to Krakow. After that, I slept most of the way there.

When I arrived in Krakow, ten people greeted me with “Are you looking for a place to stay?” and I kind of freaked out, so I left the train platform and went to the station. Then I realized that Meghann was probably waiting for me on the platform, so I went back. I couldn’t remember which platform had been mine, so I just picked one at random and walked up. And I saw Meghann and Jenn on a different platform and started waving at them. Jenn saw me first, and then we all ran downstairs and had a joyful reunion. Meghann’s reaction to my tale of traveling woe was something along the lines of, “Well, if getting to Poland isn’t an adventure, it really isn’t worth it.”

So that is the beginning of the trip to Poland. The rest of it went much better, but I think I will have to write about that later.