The Music of the Road

I was on my train back from Wroclaw to Brno. My thoughts were still recollecting what was an interesting and warm experience: the traditional catholic polish Christmas. It was my first Christmas not just spent away from home, but also in a different country, different religion and different language. However, the whole experience was now turning into a pleasant memory, as I was on the train, with a bag full of Christmas goodies from my adopted Polish family, admiring the landscapes of a moving Poland.

Reaching Miedzylesie, the last city before the border, I had to wait for the connection back to Brno. But the sight was not welcoming at all: I felt like in the middle of nowhere, disconnected from the world and no one with whom to practice my less-than-basic-polish.

After 2 hours of waiting, my train to Czech Republic finally arrived. There was no announcement so I wasn’t really sure if it really was my train or not. My confusion started to grow when all the people going off the train were heading outside the train station in a big group, while no one was going on.

Somehow I approached one older guy with a badge and some papers in his hands, through a half-language-sign half-broken-polish and tried to utter some words, hoping it would convey my message: ‘train do Usti nad orlici?’ His face assured me that he understood my question, however his words made me a bit uncomfortable about the outcome of the situation: ‘Tak, tak! Kaput! Avarie! Bus, bus!’ , while he was also making some signs suggesting that I should follow him. For one moment, I imagined all sorts of scenarios and in each one of them I was not reaching home. But the perspective of spending some more time in Miedzylesie was not that appealing, so I just followed the guy.

Finally, I saw that indeed there was a small bus which was supposed to take us to the next train station so that we could all arrive to our destination. And even though no one was able to give me some more details in English, by following the crowd, in the end I managed to get safe and sound to Brno.