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The Wanderer

I was having a conversation recently about what it means to be “worldly.” I still don’t really know; I think it’s all relative. But I guess compared to, say, the average resident of my hometown, I have become kind of worldly. I know how to travel and I have seen a few sights in my time. But compared to Polish people I am not actually that much of a traveller: they really know how to do it. They go mountaineering, they go on tours of Egypt and Morocco, they know the ins and outs of train travel and getting great bargains, they are practical about things like preparing food for your journey. On the other hand, the Poles are not so keen on exploring the cities of Poland, and that is what I have done more than any of the other adventurous travel. Well, maybe I’ve adventured a little bit.

Though I like travelling and exploring, I hardly ever take pictures, hardly ever buy souvenirs or anything, hardly ever have exciting travel stories to tell. I wasn’t sure what stories or pictures to present, so I came up with this; it’ll look snazzy even if it isn’t too informative. Scroll over the ticket stubs, etc., for information about them and here in the text section I’ll ramble on about travelling in Poland and nearby places.

One of the coolest things about travelling in Poland is the difference between trains here and in America. I am one of the few people I know who has taken Amtrak numerous times, and as a reasonably experienced Amtrak customer I must say that riding Amtrak is mind-numbingly dull. Amtrak is safe and sanitized and boring; aside from the odd commuter tapping on her laptop, everybody wishes they were driving a car instead. I’m not a train person, but American trains lack the romance of train travel. Those Acela trains just aren’t welcoming to hoboes and box-car kids and old bluesmen.

Riding PKP (the Polish state railway) is quite a contrast. It’s a bit like taking the Millennium Falcon instead of the Enterprise. Polish trains are dirty, slow, run-down, and way more interesting than the American ones. (They’re also about a thousand times more punctual than Amtrak trains.)

On Polish trains, you can smoke in the hallways, the bathrooms are disgusting, you have to watch your back, and if it is a night train you have to worry about getting mugged (though I’ve never had any problems). When the trains stop for a few minutes, beer guys hop on and do a quick run-through with a backpack full of cheap beers to sell — I’ve indulged a couple of times. All kinds of people take the train, and I’ve sat with priests and nuns, yuppie types, young kids, grungy old men downing numerous beers, American Mormon missionaries, attractive Polish women, and others. Sometimes the trains get really boisterous with young people singing and heading out on vacations or to youth group events. If the trains are too crowded, you can still get onboard, standing in the corridor and constantly moving your baggage out of the way of the people passing by. There are hardly any safety features and they just trust you to use common sense and not stick your head out the window or open a door and jump out while the train is still moving.

But they take you almost everywhere and they get you there on time.

Unfortunately, one place the trains do not go is Łomża, so I have also become used to travelling by bus. Now, I also have a bit of experience with Greyhound in America, and the Polish buses are nearly always a major step up from Greyhound. Riding a bus for hours and hours is never gonna be a great experience, but the buses in Poland are not bad. In fact, I find them pretty interesting — not the buses themselves but the system of buses and the network of routes. You can take a bus to practically any little hole-in-the-wall anywhere in the country, without much trouble and via a rather direct route. From Łomża there are buses going directly to dozens of cities, but the one I mainly take is to Warsaw. The longest bus ride I’ve done was something like five or six hours, and I don’t think I’d do it again. Still, I think it is a cool thing to have available.

One fun thing about riding the buses is that once in a while somebody will get dropped off (or even picked up) in the absolute middle of nowhere, with nothing to see in any direction but empty fields. I am often curious about these people — maybe I should investigate.

Another nice thing is that all the buses are decorated with a logo from their home base — PKS is the name of the national bus system so the local buses say “PKS Łomża” on the side in huge letters. This is nice for figuring out my geography a little bit and I can be like “Ah so this one came all the way from Suwałki, must be comfortable.”

Enough generalities! You want specifics? You want lists? Well, okay. I hate to sound like I’m bragging about these things but here you go:

Sometimes I’m not sure what the point of travelling is. There’s no place like home, right? But occasionally it is really worth it, like this last New Year’s trip. It really is possible to meet interesting people, experience unusual events, see amazing sights. It is worth it. I have been travelling less my second year here, but I am not done.

As I figure out what to do with my summer, my future, my life, I will keep on exploring and — who knows? — maybe I’ll find something important out there. That is my upbeat, fortune-cookie ending to these travel notes. Nice, eh?

Next time: some daily life jazz.