The Wild East

"Weird couple have a row at this point..."

Train en-route to Poland
After about 30mins Miss Romania returns, to our surprise, and sits in the next compartment along. She must have come to some 'agreement' with the border guards. I consider whether attempting to strike up a conversation with her would be worthwhile. Probably not. I don't think she can speak much English.
Also, she looks extremely untrustworthy. We pass through fields, and there are labourers scything the grass by hand- which looks hard work!

We arrive in a little village in Poland, and the train stops for over 2 hours. A border guard, or policeman comes onto the train and escorts Miss Romania off. He leaves her mother well alone. After a good 25 mins she returns alone.
I am convinced that she had to return the favour (being allowed into Poland without a visa-usually people are kicked off immediately) by pleasing the border guards somehow...(Mark thinks I have a corrupt mind!).

As there is no possibility of buying anything on the train, Mark decides to get us something to eat from the station. People are coming back with bottles of orange. An old man comes round and starts cleaning the train.
I feel a little embarrassed as we've spilt some 'Nobbi'-a terrible Slovak fizzy drink- on the floor when the train was lurching around.
Mark returns 15mins later empty-handed. The girl behind the counter doesn't understand a word of English, so he arms himself with my phrasebook, and attempts again.
After another 25mins he returns empty-handed again! She has made some cheese sandwiches but...Problem- she won't accept US dollars. Luckily I changed some of my Slovak Kruna into Polish Zlòty.
The sandwiches have disappeared when I get there. I attempt "zdrawon"-sandwich? and the sandwiches reappear. I only have a 50zl note, and they cost 2zl so she doesn't have enough change....I only just make it back onto the train before it leaves.

Somewhere along the line some English people board the train (a couple). We don't speak to them throughout the journey: they seem rather odd. They also seem to be getting on quite well with the Romanians.
The sallow-faced (and extremely ugly) English girl seems to keep wandering up and down the coach for no reason.
Miss Romania is also very active, walking past our compartment, attempting to look inside about every 20mins. She also disappears into the next carriage further along.
It crosses my mind that she may be reporting to a group what possessions we have, and could be collaborating with the English to impose an unpleasant surprise on us, although this was me being paranoid. We make sure that no one sees what is in our packs (this was also probably me being paranoid again). (I was thinking about Sam Garforth's experiences in Poland.)

As the station approaches Krakow, MR approaches Mark and snatches his wrist (nearly breaking it!) to look at the time, although she may have been more interested in his watch (I only had a digital). She discards it after a few seconds with not even a murmur of apology or thanks.
Its gone 7.30pm, and is starting to get dark. Weird couple have a row at this point- the outskirts of Krakow are home to the Nowy Sanz steelworks, and it looks grim. I don't think his girlfriend wants to stay there and starts sobbing (or it could be something else entirely!). Miss Romania reappears in a completely different outfit- stolen from someone on the train?!

The train pulls into the station an hour late, and everyone gets off- except me and Taylor- who smile smugly when they suddenly realise this is Krakow Glowny, not Krakow Centralny. The train is pulling away by this time with about 10 people running after it shouting for it to stop.
It is very hot, and there are also mosquitoes buzzing round. We've come at the worst time for accommodation (9pm) to the most visited town in Poland, on a Saturday night. It doesn't look promising...

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