Yesterday I went from Krakow to Warsaw. Like most places I have been, I don't know what is in Warsaw, but Warsaw in the capital and biggest city in Poland (I know that much), so I decided to to travel here.
I had a bus ticket, which I purchased online. The 4 hour journey was a little bit under $6.00. So I arrived at the bus station early. In Krakow, the bus station is next to the train station, which in turn is next to the big shopping mall where I spent much of the previous day.
The bus was scheduled to leave at 12:20, but the bus was late. I waited at the gate for about 20 minutes, with the sign above saying "Warsaw". I also went to the information desk inside the terminal to verify which gate the bus would arrive at. The guy at the information guest told me gate G3. I went to G3 twice-the bus wasn't there. Additionally, the sign over the next gate, G1, said the bus would arrive there. The guy also said there would be an announcement over the loudspeaker announcing when the bus arrived-unfortunately for me-I didn't realize until too late that the announcement was in rapid-fire Polish. Anyway, after checking with the guy for the third time, I went to a snack bar to get a big Polish round doughy food that tastes like a pretzel and an ice tea, and I went out again to gate G3. This time, In disbelief, I saw the bus with the sign "Warsaw" Unfortunately, the bus was pulling out of the spot. For a moment I thought the bus was just going to pull back in-but no, the bus backed up and out and continued on it's way. I don't know how I missed the bus-an inter city bus at a big station doesn't just stop for a moment-it has to board a lot of passengers and their baggage. I went to the ticket window to see if i could buy another ticket, and the response I was given was that I would have to talk to the driver of the next bus and see if there we're any empty seats, and I could buy a ticket from him.
Well, I was fed up with the bus-and as mentioned the train station was right next door-so I bought a rail ticket to Warsaw. Rather then being $5.00, this ticket was closer to $45.00-but the train ride was only 2 1/2 hours. I had 2 hours to kill before the train came-so I went to the mall to find a place with wifi, so i could figure out putting a sim card in my phone, and use the computer. Mcdonalds was full, Starbucks had room to sit but their wifi wasn't working too well, so I settled on Costa Coffee, which is a British chain like Starbucks. I put in the new sim card, but discovered that even with an app i still couldn't call the US.
Anyway, after a few hours I went back to the train station, and got on the train to Warsaw. It was a nice modern train, with free coffee. After alternatively napping and reading, the train arrived. I took a bus to the hostel, and checked in.
Getting to my room, I started speaking with an olive skinned guy from Turkey. He was friendly, but started going on and on about how Americans have hurt his country with our capitalistic and imperialistic ways, with allowing Syrians in. Being that it was already after 7 pm, I mentioned that I was going to go out to see if there was a restaurant to eat at. He suggested I go to a street at the top of the hill with plenty of restaurants. He also mentioned that if I wait a few minutes he would join me. I pretended that I didn't hear this last part, and thanked him and set off to eat. It isn't that I disagree with what he was saying about America-it's just that I don't know enough about politics that I couldn't speak intelligently about it-and it was apparent that he would go on and on.
I found a restaurant with baked potatoes and herring, which sounded good, and was their specialty. I then walked around the town, and arrived back around midnight.
