We All Are Strange

            My cousin and I were waiting outside a restaurant in my hometown Czestochowa, Poland. She was sipping on a coke when a middle-aged woman approached her and asked: "Could you pour some of that coke into my bottle? I am catching a train in a few minutes and I don't want to fall asleep on it." My cousin, in a very nonchalant kind of way, poured half of the contents of her bottle into the woman's and we watched her walk away in a swift step, determined not to miss her train. What we had just witnessed was probably the first incident of sharing a coca-cola, not out of a debilitating hunger or thirst, but in order to keep awake. It is not uncommon practice to share bread, water or... wine, if we want to be traditional and Christian, but sharing of a coke, now that was just something else.

            At that same place I also got to experience the opposite of the above amicable human interaction. Although Czestochowa welcomes endless pilgrimages throughout the whole summer, there are still very few restaurants offering quality food at reasonable prices. It just so happened that, aside from pilgrims, that day the entire non-working population of Czestochowa made their way to the Monastery for a mass for a special celebration of the Virgin Mary. As we waited on a table, I couldn't help but notice that we and all the other desperately hungry people stood around the place like vultures eyeing all the guests and assessing how much time they would need to free the table. After some 40 minutes of waiting we noticed that a group of young people that had just come in was trying to cut us out of the queue. With my stomach growling violently I could not ignore that and so I went up to them and said: "Sorry, guys, but we've been waiting here much longer and the first free table will be OURS." I stood there expecting a storm of words, prepared to fire back, and yet no words were spoken. The one girl that had listened to my proclamation stood there motionless grilling me with her indifferent eyes. Suddenly I became confused. My comment carried with it an obligation to repent, confess guilt and ask forgiveness and instead I was only getting indifference? What lack of tact! I traced my steps back to where my cousin was standing all the while trying and failing at concealing the fact that I suddenly found myself feeling old. This kind of indifference I did not understand. Luckily the situation resolved itself without a need for a fight because two different parties happened to get up at the same time. The girl did not even glance at me when she took her seat while I couldn't make myself disregard the whole incident and enjoy my meal. As I delved into a plateful of shawarma, it became clear to me that I posed no problem to her whatsoever and that, of course, annoyed me even more.

             Finally, on the eve of my return flight to New York, I insisted on taking the train from Czestochowa to Warsaw. Sure it would have been much more convenient to get a ride there, but there is really nothing like a train ride. First off, it is the only form of ground transportation that I can handle without getting nauseous, which brings me to my second point, namely that I am able to spend that time reading and, possibly, being productive. Thirdly, I like the thrill of meeting new people out of mere chance and it matters not whether I get to talk to them or not. My experience has been that you always come across something odd and that something is what makes the trip memorable. This time was no different. As I sat down across a middle-aged man with a few teeth left in his mouth, a strong stench of alcohol and a beer in his hand, I knew there would be a story out of that encounter. Normally I would have tried to change compartments, but I was traveling with an overloaded suitcase and, to my surprise, the man sounded quite coherent despite his level of intoxication, which made me think he was of no threat. After his few attempts at a conversation (with that I do try to be careful; a drunk man might interpret a polite chit-chat as a flirt and I was far from wanting to put myself in that situation) he stretched himself on all the four seats and began snoring in no time.

             Meanwhile, two young guys sat right outside our compartment and began watching me with overt intensity. It felt awkward to have two pairs of eyes on me while I was trying to read, but I did make sure to ignore them long enough so as to discourage whatever they planned on achieving. Some two hours into the travel, the beer man woke up, asked if he could smoke in there, when I denied him that pleasure, he left, came back, asked what day it was and then sat across from me for a few minutes. After that he opened the door and spoke to my two private observers: "Gentlemen, this lady over here is traveling to Warsaw with me. If she wants some excitement there, she will find it no problem. So please be so kind as to f*** off." He shut the door and lied back down to take another nap. This time I looked over at those guys hardly managing not to burst out laughing. They were beet red and, soon after, gone. For a moment I considered clarifying how I had nothing to do with this toothless drunk who had just proclaimed himself my bodyguard or, worse yet, a boyfriend, but then I wanted those guys to have a memorable trip as well.