Momentach Łódź

I woke up around 10am and dressed up. We arranged a meeting and we’d go out to see the city. Actually, I wasn’t really interested to see the “gray world” of Łódź. The first impression wasn’t the best, but if everything was arranged there was no reason not to go. What should not happen was me staying locked inside the hostel waiting for the time to go home. 

It was less cold that morning, around -14 ºC. I could feel even some warmth. Haha. I took a shower to take out the smell of bed of my body, dressed and waited for Priceless Girl to appear. While waiting, I decided to send my parents a message since there was free internet. 

Priceless Girl took a bit longer to appear. She was fifteen minutes late. We took one of those urban trains and went to the “city center” where she would show me some stuff. We visited place called Manufaktura (an old factory that became a mall and entertainment center), Plac Wolności, Ulica Piotrkowska (ulica = street) and some other places. 

- Why don’t you take any pictures? – Priceless Girl asked. 

As you all know, the smart guy here forgot the camera. I had to explain that I had some memory lapse and left it in Brazil, since then, I was trying to memorize the places to remember them in the future. It was really a pity, but what could I do? 

We stopped to have lunch around 14h. I was so hungry that I could eat a grilled horse. We went back to that Manufaktura mall and ate a pizza, had a beer and talked. Her mobile rang and in the middle of the conversation she said: 

- No, no. I am having lunch with a friend. 

A friend? No my dear, you had to give me the right label. Of course the conversation was translated to me later because I can’t understand Polish, but she should had said that properly, shouldn’t she? 

- I thought I wasn’t your friend, but your boyfriend. – I released the bomb. 

- Boyfriend? But you didn’t even ask me for that… 

- Was it needed? Haha. 

And that’s how the relationship started. I’m not 100% romantic, not even a Don Juan de Marco. To be clear I just released the bomb and waited for it to explode to check her reaction. I started to like the small blond girl, and if I was going to stay longer in Europe why not to have a nice relationship with someone special? Ok, ok I was really quick but I felt some nice vibration coming from that girl. She had something that attracted me and I didn’t know what. I’d never felt something like that. 

- From now on you lady present me as your boyfriend. 

And that was what happened in my first day in Łódź. I didn’t really likeed the city. It was too “underground”, sad and depressive. Of course Priceless Girl disagreed with me. She was proud of the city where she lived. Maybe it was the snow that covered everything like a duvet, or even the cold weather that didn’t let me enjoy it, I didn’t know. The only thing was that I was enjoying being by her side. 

She invited me to have dinner in her place again. She also said the meal would be better than the night before. It should be like that as we needed to celebrate our first day as girlfriend and boyfriend. Haha. We went to her house on foot. It wasn’t that far away. Twenty-five minutes of walk I guess, but in that cold weather everything seemed to be far away. We passed through some strange and creepy streets. If it would be in Salvador I would never pass in such places. 

We arrived at her place and ate some Polish food that I had no idea what was; certainly something with potato. A wine, some conversation and a night full of love. Everything was really well in Łódź. Thank God I bought tickets that were opened, if not I would go back to Prague that Sunday, but I decided to stay for two days more. I was still tired of the first trip and started liking even more the “girl from internet”. We took some photos to save that moment. 

Priceless Girl and I

Days were passing and I was starting to be out of clothes. I needed to go back to Czech Republic to take back my stuff. I was having a good time in Poland, but to stay there without things to dress was getting difficult. I promised Priceless Girl that I would be back as soon as possible. My trip to Czech had another meaning as well. While I was in Poland I read that the EU was giving some financial help for people who would like to start a company. Maybe it was the way to stay in Prague. So that was what I needed to check. 

The goodbye was a bit sad, but I wanted come back to Łódź and that was for sure. The crying face of the blonde girl didn’t stop me. I really needed to go or I would have to buy lots of clothes in Poland. On Tuesday she went with me to the train station and waited for the train to departure. I would make the other way around as the first trip. A goodbye kiss and I got inside the train… the last wave goodbye and the trip to Prague started. 

BR Na Europa! 

The Worst Trip of my Life - Part 2

You may be thinking that I’m really out of luck. Not really. After three hours stopped in the same place the train could move. I was all covered in jackets, hats, three socks… The cold weather was terrifying, but as the train started moving again, the heaters worked. It was half past twelve when we left Konin. The beer smell made the air in my cabin terrible, but what could I do? At least now I was a bit warmer.

The trip continued and the cold as well. Suddenly I saw at the cabin door a tall guy covered by the darkness looking inside. It wasn’t the old man checking the tickets nor no one known. It was the famous “Russian” that they told me to be careful, for sure.

I was shivering but I couldn’t show fear. Just like me, he was covered by the hood of his jumper and I couldn’t see his face, just his chin. I was huddled in the corner trying to protect myself from the cold, and now being afraid of that situation. He put his hand on the doorknob and was about to open it. I jumped up from the seat and grabbed an empty bottle of beer. I took out my hood and made a negative sign with my finger. Where did all that courage come from? The guy was twice my size and looked stronger. But I was courageous. Looked at him, turned on the light and continued making a negative signal. I was still shivering, but put some evil smile on my face. The man, still using hood, looked at my face and ran to the left side.

Uff! What a relief. I was about to poop myself there. I locked the cabin door and closed the curtains. I just didn’t want to pass through that again, it would be too much for my small heart. I sat and relaxed a bit thinking: “Damn this freaky coward ‘Russian’, he was afraid of the big nigga here. Haha”. But deep inside I was still shivering. I didn’t know if it was because of the cold or fear, I was still shivering. After calming down a bit I felt the heaters stopped working again.

The train was stopping slowly. We went out of electricity again, but this time in nowhere in the middle of the night. Oh! What a pity… Why did I promise I would go there? Couldn’t I go back to Prague from there? Why did I need to suffer that much? It wasn’t fair. I still had two more beers, but I was bored of drinking alone. It was depressing with all that cold, that even the beer didn’t make me warm.

The train was stopped half an hour in that place. We were surrounded by some forest. I looked through the window and just saw snow coming down. The world was white and cold. Where the heck was I? I wasn’t even out of Czech Republic. Shameful. The train started moving again after that short period. I had some sandwiches I bought in Bob’s for critical moments during the trip. That was the one.

I couldn’t handle anymore. The trip was supposed to be nine hours and I had already eight hours in that freaky train and I was still in Czech. It was unbelievable. I ate the sandwiches and just that. I had no liquid but beer to drink, I forced it because I was bored with beer and just couldn’t drink it anymore. I was just eating and praying that at least we arrive in Ostrava. The train started moving. Seemed that my prays were working. The “Russian” guy also didn’t appear. The train finally was heading for its destination.

The train arrived at Ostrava around half past five. The sky was still dark and I was still being afraid of some “strange” appearance. At least it stopped snowing. It was the sign that the rest of the trip should go well. The old guy that checked the tickets tried to get in my smelly cabin. I opened the door and he asked me to show the ticket. I showed two I had for the trip, the one for Katowice and the other one for Łódź. The man started saying a lot of things that I just couldn’t understand. I had no idea which language he was using. I just couldn’t understand and he started getting mad.

I’m not dumb. I took the ticket and asked him to show me which direction I should go. First I pointed to the name on the ticket, Katowice and then to the right and left. The damn man pointed to the left. If he did it before it would be much easier and quicker. Stupid guy and he spoke spitting. Then suddenly something came up into my mind. “Oh God, the ‘Russian’ ran to the left, I’m doomed.” It had a bad luck. Finally when everything seemed to go well this happened.

I took my stuff and went to the wagon that the old man told me to go. I found a free cabin, no one inside. It didn’t have the bad smell of beer and just because of that was good enough. I didn’t have any food with me and also couldn’t go out of the train to buy anything, it could departure at anytime and there was nothing opened there. The only thing I could do was to wait again. One hour and a half doing nothing inside the cabin. If I knew I would go to see the city and come back, I had enough time for that. But no… I needed to stay there awake afraid of the “Russian”, hungry, asleep and tired like hell.

The train started moving after this time and finally we left Ostrava. I prayed a lot for the crazy train not to break again. The next stop would be in Katowice, if nothing went wrong of course. I knew I would lose the connection, besides the train that I was supposed to get would leave Katowice at 6 am and it was already half past five. At least nothing wrong happened in this part of the trip. The train crossed the border and I was already in Poland, nothing bad happened. It stopped snowing but the cold was worse and worse. The train approached the final destination and I could see some small cities in Poland.

They were really scary. If you watched the movie “Lord of the Rings” I would make a short comparison, the small cities looked like “Mordor”. Gray, sad and depressing. Seemed like they just got out the Second World War. I felt pity of the people living there. How come they lived like that? It didn’t even seem like Europe. I was imagining my final destination. If it would be like that I didn’t know if I would handle. The train started crossing Katowice and it was even worse. The city was ugly and freaky. Looking through the window I thought straight away that I should go out of there as soon as possible. Where the hell was I?

As the train stopped at the station, I left with a huge smile on my face. Finally I was in half way or even a bit further. Priceless Girl was aware that I wouldn’t arrive at the time I told her before. I sent her a sms through the phone Mrs. Hakkinen gave me and I explained her the situation. I left the platform and went to the hall to check where and when should I get the next train.

The station was terrible. It was falling apart. So different from Prague where everything was organized and clean. My first impression of Poland was the worst ever. That for me was like purgatory. I got inside the hall and checked the time table. Everything was made in some old way that I couldn’t understand what the heck was it trying to say. A bunch of numbers and city names spread with some other numbers that might be the hour. Everything was unreadable. So I decided to go to the information desk.

The queue was a bit big but it was going fast. The cold inside the station was freaking unbelievable. There was no heating. I’d already put another pair of socks and it wasn’t enough. The skin seemed to rip. I needed to get into some coffee shop or I would die frozen there. But first I needed to know when was the train.

It was my turn to ask for information and I was ready to start speaking English. An old lady was at the desk so I asked her:

- Please, I want to know which platform I should go to get to Lodz.

The lady was looking at me with a “I don’t get it” face. Maybe if I said the name of the city correctly she would get it but “Lodz” meant nothing to her. I asked again and nothing. So I started repeating the city’s name.

- Lodz! Lodz!

Nothing worked. I tried: “Lodz, piui!” trying to make her understand the train’s noise, and nothing. The woman got mad at the desk and the queue was starting to get bigger. There was an old man that was releasing smoke from his nose because the damn queue didn’t move. So I did the same as before. I took the ticket and showed the lady. She looked at it and said:

- Ahhh! Łódź! Łódź!

- Of course it is a train, you dumb. – I answered randomly.

As I said in previous post, Łódź, should be read like Údi; and saying the name of the city in the correct way, the woman seemed to make the “piuí” sound of the train. By the end I was the dumb.

The woman started saying a lot of things in Polish. What a strange language. It managed to be worse the Czech. I didn’t understand a single world, she didn’t understand what I was saying, the guy behind me was about to hit me and I was getting tired of that situation. I asked her to show the computer screen because that was annoying already.

Finally I got what I wanted. Everything was on the computer screen. Platform, time and everything. I thanked her and went out of that damn desk. It was time to have a coffee to warm up my chest, it was -23º and I was almost dying there…

To be continue…

BR Na Europa!

P.S.: I want to say that i have no problem or discrimination with Russian people. I also have Russian friends and don't want any misunderstanding with them.

The Worst Trip of my Life - Part 1

I had to start preparing the things for the trip. First I told my German friends that I was going to Poland for the weekend and probably would come back Sunday night. They had the bad news that they were going to Ostrava (an eastern Czech city) to work and from there they would go to Germany to visit their family without date to come back. Summarizing, I couldn’t stay in the apartment by myself. Lucky me!

No problem, I called Chun Li and asked if I could stay there when back from Poland. The answer was positive and I needed to “move out”. I said goodbye to my German friends and received a advice: Beware with Russians in the train.

What kind of advice was that? I didn’t understand what they meant. I just packed up my stuff and took it to the Hakkinen’s house. I was well received from Mika’s family, as expected. I told them that I was going to Poland and was coming back on Sunday or even a bit later. I installed the Xbox (yeah, I needed to buy one, I just couldn’t stay there without playing hehe) and played a bit with Jerry before the trip. The train departure was scheduled for 9pm and I had lots of time till there. Chun Li said that she would take me to the train station, and with that I was calm.

At night I said goodbye to Mrs. Hakkinen and received another advice: Avoid sleeping in the train and beware with Russians.

Oh God! Again this Russian thing? What had they done? I imagine it was something related to the war. Maybe they still had some anger in their hearts, but why the German gave the same advice then? That I just couldn’t understand.

I took my backpack and went out to go to the train station with Chun Li. The Hakkens lived a bit far, close to Flora, and to get to our destination in the center it would take around twenty minutes. When we got out of the building it started snowing. Damn this snow. This thing is just nice in the movies.

The problem is that it wasn’t just some snow… It seemed more like a storm. The streets were completely covered and the traffic jam was horrible. The urban trains weren’t working and the only option was to get a bus to the nearest bus station to the metro, otherwise I would be doomed and lose my train to Poland.

Thank God a bus passed while we needed. I was really afraid of losing my train to Łódź. We headed to the metro station and from there Chun Li and I managed to get to the main station quickly. Chun Li already knew the platform and where should we go, so after leaving the metro we ran to the place.

When we got to the platform we saw the train waiting for departure. You in Brazil must be thinking about those nice trains that you’d seen on TV. Haha, I also had that disappointment. The Czech and Polish trains are something “amazing”. Just take a look at the photo.

Chun Li asked a man who worked there if that was the right train. He was Polish and the conversation didn’t go that nice. She almost got no information. The languages are from the same family but they are not THAT similar. But as we seemed lucky that night, there was a Czech man who was going to a city near Prague that told us that was the right train. Chun Li also asked if I could stay in the cabin with him, it was safer to travel this way in that train. He answered that I could.

I said goodbye to Chun Li with a hug and got into the train with the man. He just spoke German and Czech, so we hadn’t much to talk about. In less than two minutes the train was departing to its destiny, Katowice. You must be thinking that the train trip would be really calm and nice. But come on, if it would be something like that it wouldn’t be MY trip. This trip was the worst in my life.

The train headed to the Czech border and was supposed to get divided in Ostrava. I should stay in the right wagon at the division time, it would be crazy to ask someone if I was or not. The man who was sharing the cabin with me said that he was leaving on a station not that far away, and that I should be lucky in the moment of division. That was what I could understand in German. He also explained that he was a cook in the Police, and that made me a bit relaxed, at least he knew how to manage a knife (LOL), and told me that when he left the train I shouldn’t sleep because of the Russians.

I was getting nervous about this “Russian” thing in trains. I had nothing with me but money, but the thing is that this conversation was getting repetitive and boring. I didn’t express myself about it but I started feeling afraid. The train was going fast and making lots of noise. After three stops I felt the trip would be fine and relaxed a bit more.

It was snowing like hell when we arrived at a small city called Konin. The train was stopped for a while, some people got in, and we prepared for departure. We started moving slowly… and puff. The train stopped again. The reason? The energy cables were frozen and there was no contact with the train’s stem. The man who checked the tickets came to inform that it would take a while. A while? If it would take more than one hour I probably would lose my connection in Katowice. And guess what, it took one hour and a half for us to receive more information.

Within this period I’d lost my hope to get my connection. After the cook explained the situation I gave up and asked if he wanted to have a beer. We went to the last wagon and bought five bottles each. We came back to the cabin and tried to understand each other. People who know me also know that I speak nothing in German, I just know some words, but I tried… I really tried hard, and it was a bit funny. During the second bottle of beer, the ticket checker came back to our cabin and started talking to the cook.

There was another train for him, so he could go forward to his destination normally. Lucky bastard! I had to stay there alone trying to wait for the solution of the problem while he was going. The cook said goodbye, left his three beers for me and got out of the train

I didn’t have much to do, just wait or wait. The cold weather was invading the cabin, because since there was no electricity in the train, the heaters were off. It was my lucky night for sure. I would die drunk and frozen inside a train that headed to nowhere. I decided to walk a bit through the train and by some chocolate. On my way I heard some people speaking in some strange language. Was it Russian? I would never know, but I had other surprise. I saw two guys speaking Portuguese. Ahh, finally some beautiful language to speak. I came closer and joined the conversation. They were going to Krakow in Poland and didn’t know what was happening. They were at the sleeping wagons. That time I was a bit jealous that they have a bed but since all those advice about “Russians” I felt lucky I had normal tickets, as everyone was telling me not to sleep. I didn’t take long with them, they had such a boring conversation.

I went back to my smelly cabin after buying the chocolate. The place just smelled as beer. I went to the corner, shrank myself to warm me up and continued drinking beer. After two hours and a half we were still stuck at the same place. Certainly I would lose my connection and what was supposed to be a nice trip, with all that cold, became torment.

To be continued… 

BR Na Europa