Krakow - People I met

When you travel alone it seems that you are more likely to talk longer and do things with other travelers. But it's not just the other travelers that you meet that makes the trip - it's also the hostel workers, the ticket seller, the waitress/waiter, etc. Here is a little something about some of the people I met on my trip to Krakow. Such variety.

On the overnight train to Krakow I shared a couchette for six with 3 other people. Two were young gals, just finishing law internships - one at the Haag and the other in Geneva. They were traveling for a few weeks then heading back to Berkley. One of them has another year of school to go and the other will graduate. It was fun talking to them and hearing all of their discoveries in Europe and also that what they thought they would do with their law degrees when they started their studies, and what they think they will do now. Also in our car was a guy in his early 30's or so from Belgium who is teaching math and another subject in French at a bilingual school in Hungary. We of course compared notes about Hungarians and the schools. When he first came into the car I thought he was Hungarian because he opened his duffel bag and I saw the prerequisite beer that most Hungarians travel with!

The first night in the hostel, there was a gal from Indiana who is studying this semester in Budapest. Mary and I ended up talking for hours about her travels and mine, about Budapest, and life in general. I really enjoyed talking to her and was quite amazed by all the travel she has managed to do through University programs for the past year and a half. Just talking to her, you could see how it has completely overtaken her classroom work in providing her an education!

On one of the walking tours I took, there was a man from New Zealand, probably a bit older than I, who is teaching science at an American School in the Ukraine. He taught in Kazakhstan the year before and will teach another year in Ukraine before finding a non-Russian speaking country to teach in next. He pretty much flies out of Bucharest on any cheap flight he can find to see Europe.

When I checked into the hostel, two other people checked in at the same time: Ian from Manchester England, and Jxxx from Taiwan. I ended up going out to the jazz club with Ian and touring the castle grounds with J. We also checked in with each other every evening to see how the other's days were and what was going on.

On Sunday night I went to a jazz club with Ian to see a jazz pianist who bills himself as a Polish Ray Charles. He's over 80 and has had both legs amputated due to an infection or something. Anyway, at the table next to us was first a professional looking older guy. He kept talking to me in British English and wasn't real pleased with this guy's singing. Pretty soon, he invited another guy who was at a table by himself to join him. Before long, Ian and I had moved to that table also. Both men were Polish. The first man had lived in London for 30 years and had recently moved back to Krakow. When the traditional/patriotic songs were played and sung, he kept talking about how good it was to be back "home" and how it just felt right. He said he didn't realize how much he had missed Poland and Krakow until he returned. The other man was originally from Warsaw but had lived in Krakow for about 20 years. He had been a maths teacher, but now works as a computer programmer for Tescos. He lamented all night about how wrong it was that he was not able to do what he was born to do - teach maths -- but had to work as a programmer to make a living. (Yes, we were in a bar and he was coming close to crying in his beer.) Both men were great to us, as they translated the meaning of a number of songs, including a raunchy one about two lovers, and they kept buying us vodka! But it really added to the night to have people tell us what was going on!

Last night in the hostel, many guests were sitting around the table eating the free dinner. One was a German gal who told me she went to school in Pecs last year and started going on and on about what terrible students the Hungarians are! Actually, what she described was pretty typical, but I thought (guess I didn't think much) that it ended at high school, and that by the time the students made it to University, they were engaged and cared about what they were learning. Her big beef was that the students never studied, didn't really care about how they did and would cheat on tests and papers, would not speak up in class when asked a question by the teacher, and were pissed at her for doing the work and answering questions in class!

There was another guy waiting in the common room of the hostel for his evening train also. He was from Australia and has been working in Aberdeen Scotland as a helicopter mechanic. I had a hard time understanding him at times, as his accent was influenced by both places. He was funny talking about not being able to understand the Scots and the different colloquialisms they use. For example, when greeting someone, they say something like, "Everything all right?" and the response is "All right". But with the accent, the words are clipped and hard to understand. He said if you used another greeting, they wouldn't know how to respond!

When I bought my reserved seat ticket today for the train from Budapest to Kisvarda, the ticket agent told me there was no cost for the seat today! Didn't really get why, but I asked him about the potential strike and he said that yes it is on for 18 hours on Friday, May 8. But then he asked me where I was from and he just about came through the window when I told him Alaska, but that I was teaching in Kisvarda. He is from Zahony, a town not far from here (I have students who live there) and he went to Canada and Alaska two years ago to visit and loved it. He talked about the beautiful scenery and the nicest people.

There were more, so many more, people that I talked with and enjoyed meeting. There was only one obnoxious guy in the hostel and he was easily avoided.