Warsaw:Warszawa

So my first time to Poland, our team flew into the Warsaw airport and quickly jumped in cabs to take us to the train station. Before leaving for Poland, we hadn't figured out how we were going to get to Rzeszow. We heard we could take the train. Come to find out, the train was 6hrs long and the next one wasn't for another 4 hours. So we sat in the train station, too exhausted to do anything or go visit anything, and we ate McDonald's cheese burgers. By that time I was starving and that burger tasted so good. One thing we did explore during our wait was the bathroom situation. Under the train station, in the little tunnels, there we bathrooms with ladies manning the door and demanding money. We quickly discovered which bathrooms were the best deal. We were looking for cleanliness mixed with a good price.

After a week in Rzeszow, we returned to Warsaw for a day of tourism. We wandered around the Old Town. I had duck for lunch. Toward the end of the day, I was getting really thirsty. So I stopped in a little shop to get some "niegazowana" (regular water without gas). I said it several times and finally the lady pulls a bottle out of the fridge and I pay her and leave. When I found a nice cozy spot on the ground outside, I popped it open and took a huge gulp... I spit it back out. It was gasy. My taste buds weren't refined enough back then to appreciate a bottle of carbonated water.

That was 2004. June 2006, I was living in Rzeszow. I was getting a chance to take a short intensive course at the University of Warsaw with some other summer interns in Warsaw. So I packed my borrowed hiker bag and my roommate took me on the train to Krakow. From Krakow I took another train to Warsaw. I don't think I slept at all the night before that trip. I was freakin out because it was only my 3rd time on the train. And this time I would be by myself. What if I missed the stop. What if I got on the wrong train. What if I couldn't figure out where to go when I got to my stop in Warsaw. Thankfully some kind woman told me when it was my stop. The train went underground and she motioned that it was finally time for me to get off. Then I wandered to the upstairs main room of the train station and just stood there in the middle like I was lost. I was wearing a shirt that said, "Employee of the Month". As I was standing there, I realized that the people who were meeting me there had no idea what I looked like. I didn't have their phone numbers. I didn't even have a cell phone. So I just stood there trying to look lost. They found me. And all was well.

Now I'm excited because I'm going back to Warsaw. This time I'm going to do work. I'm going as an experienced train rider (especially after the train ride from hell from Bratislava to Krakow). And I even know a little bit of Polish. How boring is that? I mean really.

No, I'm really excited because this is my first time to get to travel for my job. I'll get to see what the boss man does weekly. Maybe I should bring pencil and paper to take notes. I also get to get some coffee with a friend. Maybe I'll stand in the middle of the train station and look like I'm lost for old time sake.