The Wild East

"one of them talks about 'Caddick taking 4 wickets in one over'"

After spending 45 mins cowering in my room I have a little wander around the 'hotel'. The whole corridor seems to be empty, with the exception of the end room, where there is an argument between 2 or more aggressive sounding men. I wander around the town, and blend in perfectly looking miserable, and with no backpack.
I spend the next hour attempting to buy a phonecard. After being turned down about 5 times I eventually manage it. Then I have to find a phone- that works.
In Warsaw they have smart looking new phoneboxes that take cards. The few phones that exist here are the old yellow variety that only take coins, have no shelter, and don't work. Eventually I manage to find one of the newer variety, and get in contact with the outside world for the first time since Prague.

I decide it is time for a meal, and walk a few blocks, and manage to find a café. I point to the menu, but the woman says "Nie" . I point to another meal. She shakes her head. It looks like I'll have to make do with a beer for now.
I sit down at a table and look at my fellow drinkers; They are all men, most of them (including myself) sitting at a table alone. There is an old man sitting in a corner getting drunk on vodka, another group of old men having a heated debate drinking beer, and a youngish looking man in a suit also sipping beer.
One of the old men orders soup. I ask for what he's having. A few minutes later a dark red liquid comes along, with beetroot and dumplings in.
There is music playing, and for the first time in hours, I feel quite cheerful.

I have another beer, and then find a restaurant. I'm the only person in, but the service is still pretty slow. However it is reasonably priced. The bill comes to 12zl. I hand over 15, intending to give the change as a tip. No change arrives.
At 9pm I walk back towards the Hotel Polonia, and walk into a bar. It's dark and smoky, and when I walk in 10 heads turn round to stare at me. I walk straight back out. Redstar Belgrade vs Dynamo Kiev is on Polish TV in the hotel reception, so I sit and watch that, which finishes 1-1.
At 1am the next morning there is some shouting downstairs, and doors are being slammed. At 2.30 there is shouting in the street, and the sound of breaking glass. The Police come a few mins later. At 4am I am woken up again by the sound of police sirens-tomorrow I'm getting out of Katowice even if I have to climb on the roof of a train!

Thurs 24 August
I get up at 7.30, hoping check out the layout of the station, without my bag so I don't look a tourist. As I've no map it takes nearly an hour just to find the railway line. I wander into a car park to see if I can see which direction the station is.
A security guard approaches me, probably thinking I'm a potential car-thief(not unreasonable as I'm scruffily dressed, unshaven for about 5 days, and loitering around suspiciously ). It's a guarded car park, as most are in Poland. It's not recommended to leave cars on the street (especially foreign ones, which have a nasty habit of disappearing even during the day)
After a few communication problems, his friend gestures that the station is towards the left. I get there at 8.30 in the main entrance this time and look nervously for my 3 friends I met yesterday. They don't seem to be lurking around. There is a half-hour queue for tickets/reservations. I'd miss the train, so I opt to pay a 'fine' instead. I check out from the delightful Polonia.

The guard comes along, and I pay a supplement in Polish zloty. At about midday I cross into the Czech Republic. My passport is stamped this time, and a ticket collector demands another supplement only she refuses to accept Polish currency, and asks for DM/$/£/FF, she'll even take Italian Lira.
All my Polish currency is now worthless. I foolishly took about another £50 from the bank before I left. Luckily Mark gave me some dollars in small denominations. I can see what the next problem will be - I have no Hungarian currency, and only DM/$ in massive notes. At about 3 in the Afternoon we cross into Slovakia. I have a few Koruna left.
A Slovakian woman gets into my carriage- she is not typical of her nation- rich, and quite ugly. She has a mobile phone and laptop computer. She spends all her time talking on the phone. Most of the time she seems to be talking to her boyfriend in English- probably assuming that I wouldn't be able to understand her.

At 6pm we get into Budapest Keliti, a smart station for E Europe. Before I've even got of the train about 3 girls crowd round me trying to persuade me to go to one of their hostels which they are plugging.
For some reason I have another bout of paranoia, and think I'm going to get ripped-off. They speak perfect American-English, but don't understand Stockport-English very well, but I make an excuse that I know someone here. I exit the station, and go to check-out the cheap hotel that is about 300m away. However it doesn't exist. After about 30mins I give up and go back to the station to find the pretty hostel girls. But they have disappeared as well.
There are some other men trying to plug hostels, except they are not very helpful saying I'll have to find my own way there, and it's about 10 miles over there somewhere, pointing at a map. So I get onto the metro, intending to go into the city centre. But that too is a disaster, as I go in the wrong direction, since all stations are exactly symmetrical, and being underground it's easy to get disorientated. I'll take a compass next time.

I get off in a place called Neepstadiom, well outside the tourist zone. A boy of about 15 approaches me, and starts talking, an older man is standing behind. I mumble something unintelligible and hurry off, before being swindled in some way.
Eventually I find the Dom Turysimy hotel. The owner says they only have triple rooms for DM60 (20). I'm about to say I'll take it anyway, but he says that will be too expensive for me, and rings up a youth hostel, and says he's booked me a bed. He then sells me some tram tickets, gives me a free map, and points out where I have to go- a thoroughly helpful chap.
It's now dark outside. the tram comes within a few mins. As I get on I have considerable difficulty stamping my ticket. The whole carriage is watching with interest as I fumble around. At this point the tram goes round a sharp bend, and I stumble into the door. A kindly woman eventually gets up and stamps my ticket for me, putting me out of my embarrassment.
I find the Arpad hostel, and go in. The girl informs me that I do not have a booking. For one horrible moment I thought I was going to get kicked-out into the streets to fend for myself again, but they manage to find a double-room, although luckily I don't have a roommate yet.

I venture into the bar, which is very quiet, apart from 2 guys playing pool on a threadbare table. When one of them talks about "Caddick taking 4 wickets in one over" they can only be talking about cricket, and only the English could talk about cricket! I speak to them and find out that Carl is originally from Manchester, although now lives in Holland. Paul is from Bristol. They are both 26. Carl has been here for 4 days so far, and intends to go to the Ukraine next(!) Paul like me, only arrived today.
As the night progresses we all have more beers, and a few more characters come in; There are a group of loud Argentineans, who drink huge amounts of beer, and continually argue amongst themselves in Spanish.
There is a guy called Mustaq, from Kuwait, who claims to have been coming to Hungary since 1990. He likes the alcohol, and the girls, both of which are banned in Kuwait.
There's a rather butch American girl who keeps challenging everyone to a game of pool. I get roped into playing on a team with Carl, and have several games of table football.
At 2am, quite drunk and tired at this stage, I retire to bed. I nervously open the door, half-expecting to have a psychopath, or freak as a roommate, but I have the room to myself.

Back to Main Page