Woke up to mysteriously disappearing hot water and a typecast Polish Intellectual in the breakfast room (he called himself a Poet-Teacher, and was holding the collected Ginsberg).
Took a bus overfilled with Polish holiday-making students through the stunningly bucolic countryside to the Slovakian border, and walked across. We would’ve had to wait hours for the bus on the other side, so we hitched instead. I figured it was OK because
1. It was Slovakia, where I bet lots of people hitch (actually, the guide, which discusses hitching for every other of the 18 countries included, said nothing),
2. Because it was mid-morning, and
3. Because there were two of us.
And of course it was OK. We got a ride with a young Polish couple on their way to Zagreb for the long weekend. We communicated in a mixture of French and English, and I think it was an auspiciously multilingual start to our trip.
We were deposited in Prešov, Slovakia, whence we took a bus to Košice, Slovakia. We deposited our bag and went into town for lunch. I wish we’d had more time—it was beautifully cheap and very cosmopolitan.
Took a bus overfilled with Polish holiday-making students through the stunningly bucolic countryside to the Slovakian border, and walked across. We would’ve had to wait hours for the bus on the other side, so we hitched instead. I figured it was OK because
1. It was Slovakia, where I bet lots of people hitch (actually, the guide, which discusses hitching for every other of the 18 countries included, said nothing),
2. Because it was mid-morning, and
3. Because there were two of us.
And of course it was OK. We got a ride with a young Polish couple on their way to Zagreb for the long weekend. We communicated in a mixture of French and English, and I think it was an auspiciously multilingual start to our trip.
We were deposited in Prešov, Slovakia, whence we took a bus to Košice, Slovakia. We deposited our bag and went into town for lunch. I wish we’d had more time—it was beautifully cheap and very cosmopolitan.
After lunch we collected the bag and dashed for the train which took us across the Hungarian border to Miscolc. I have no clear memory of how we got to our next goal—Nyíregyhaza—but Emma has drawn a little train next to this trip in her tabulation, so I will assume it was by train.
Luxurious seats in our Hungarian train
At any rate, we hated the look of Nyíregyhaza—provincial and mean—and had come to the depressing decision that we should abandon the chase and go to Budapest instead, so we took a train to Debrecen, in order that we could be better situated to take the train to B. in the morning.
We checked in at a flop-house near the train station, which coincidentally contained an internet café. Where I coincidentally checked my e-mail. And coincidentally read an e-mail from someone (you might know who you are) who mentioned that we didn’t need a visa to go to Ukraine. This changed everything—it meant that we could still make it to TransD in time to take an overnight bus back to Poland, and therefore make it back for my class/Emma’s plane. A night of plotting and furious plan-making followed. I should also mention that the hotel was creepy enough for us to lock one another in the room when we went to the bathroom.
We checked in at a flop-house near the train station, which coincidentally contained an internet café. Where I coincidentally checked my e-mail. And coincidentally read an e-mail from someone (you might know who you are) who mentioned that we didn’t need a visa to go to Ukraine. This changed everything—it meant that we could still make it to TransD in time to take an overnight bus back to Poland, and therefore make it back for my class/Emma’s plane. A night of plotting and furious plan-making followed. I should also mention that the hotel was creepy enough for us to lock one another in the room when we went to the bathroom.
The ingenious faucet/shower contraption
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