Hitch-hiking Back to Balkans. Day Two. Krakow.

Familiar places with Familiar Faces in Krakow: Agnieszka and Tomas!

Krakow's pride: Medieval Wawel Castle

It’s 7:15 AM and feels a bit weird to be such an early guest, and I am a bit disappointed that I found the house with number 70 so fast and easy. That means I’ll have to wake her up and the whole house too! I sit on a pedestrian sidewalk in front of the house and pay a long observing stare to the house. It's a relatively huge two-storey building that has been build in pre-Soviet era and has survived till this day. It looks pretty unique in this urbanized blockhouse paradise (i.e. neighborhood) built already in Soviet times. Meanwhile I text Agnieszka without a hope that she'll reply immediately, since she's a night-bird like me and this part of the day doesn't really exist for her. To my amazement, she comes out of this beautiful two-storey pre-Soviet building in less that 5 minutes. 

Agnieszka torturing her cat. :)

I feel a bit weird and happy to see her. Weird just because it feels we never separated - we never went away back to our countries of origin after EVS and this meeting is actually held somewhere between mutations of space and time. It's like we've been all this time in the same place and another morning has come to enjoy a frivolous chat about everything and nothing on our shared balcony with a cup of coffee. Even the coffee tastes kind of the same like in Macedonia, meaning a coffee drink which consists of a few spoons of instant coffee, sugar and milk. Yeah, that's the first thing we do after hugging each other and entering the house, as we for sure know the beauty of 'Coffee and Cigarettes' that was so skillfully presented by Jarmush in the movie with the same title. It really feels like I never left and she never left. We talk like we used to. I tell her my latest excitements from last night's hitch-hiking experience and my future plans, she tells me about finalization of her thesis and getting the Master's degree, beside the skillful cursing on Polish education system. Now Agnieszka is waiting for the answer from Comenius exchange program for language teachers. If she's lucky she'll get a year placement in Zagreb, Croatia.

The morning is sunny, we drink another coffee and then another one. It’s a pity I don’t meet Agnieszka’s mum, as she went to see relatives in Radom. And after receiving a call from her, Agnieszka states that her mum is feeling the same pity. Agnieszka asks me whether we should have a touristy tour around Krakow. I tell her not to worry, as this time I came to see her, and maybe bits of Krakow if we manage. After a short session on social networks, i.e. Twitter and Facebook, where I state my location and latest travel adventures, I get to know that a Lithuanian bastard (he rather prefers to call himself a wanker) Tomas, which also was a part of EVS team in Macedonia, is also in Krakow right now. This coincidence sounds fantastic and a bit unbelievable. We arrange a meeting in the city center today.

Me and Agnieszka are having a short walking tour around the city. It's Friday and the city center is very live and full of people. There's also a sort of medieval festival held on the other side of the river Vistula nearby the Wawel Castle. Agnieszka shows her excellence in describing historic features of Krakow. Like a real patriot of her own city she knows historic details about most of the meaningful buildings in Krakow, including the information when they were built and which important national or international events were held in them.

Me and Tomas in  his pink socks :)

We meet Tomas, who at the first glance doesn’t recognize me (yeah, I’ve changed my Punk-ish Red hair color to the more decent dark Brown) and charms me with his pink socks. He’s on his way to the Netherlands, while taking a 'shortcut' through Macedonia. He’s about to leave today already, and tries to convince me to participate in a competition on who’ll get to Macedonia first, since we both are heading there. I refuse the offer, since I have other plans before Macedonia. While we hear Tomas’ exciting drinking adventures from last night at some Polish lesbian couple's place where was Couchsurfing, we agree on a possibility to hitch-hike from Macedonia to Belgrade together. 

Later on, me and Agnieszka go to the train station to get more information about the trains going to Ostrava, or any city close to Czech border. After standing in a large cue and waiting for our turn, I see confusion and bits of anger in Agnieszka's face. It seems that you need to have proper analytic skills to find out the truth, since different ladies sitting at different help desks provide a contradicting information on the possibilities for getting from point A to point B. We give up on train services and decide to check out the buses. Well, Agnieszka does. With the buses everything is much easier as it turns out. I decide to go to Katowice by bus as from there goes a direct highway to Ostrava. We buy the ticket and continue our walk in Krakow. Soon we come back home, and while checking the options, we realize that it is much closer to go to another city - Polish-Czech border city Cieszyn. The bus is going at 8 AM, a pretty good time. Agnieszka suggests to sell the ticket to Katowice tomorrow on the bus before it leaves. Today's issue is finally resolved. We continue philosophical discussions about the nearest and farthest future and where will we meet next time. Soon the sleep kicks in and this amazing day comes an end.