Tourist: a person who travels for pleasure.
That word, tourist, repulses me.
It's one thing to visit a country, but one another to know it.
To visit : go to see and spend some time with (someone) socially or as a guest, go to see and spend time in (a place) as a tourist or guest.
The first definition was referring to visiting a person, the second to a place. I am thinking if you combine them both and extend the time, you can start talking about knowing the place.
If it wasn't for couchsurfing, my stay in Poland would have been completely different. IAESTE, the international association that arranged my training had local committees in the main cities of the country, and they arrange trips during the weekends, including fridays. But it was group trips, not that attractive for me. Yet i went once with them, for the sake of trying. All my other trips i planned alone, with couchsurfing.
Friday, July 24th, at 3am i leave the dorm, i think it's enough time to catch the 4:40 train for Wroclaw. I was wrong.
I took the N4 night bus in the wrong direction, i was sure of that after 10 minutes spent in the bus, the landscape was changing, we were getting out of the city and entering countryside ! so no possibility to leave, i thought i'll remain in the bus until last station and then return with it. But it was taking such a long time to reach the terminal, and we were so far from the city by then, catching the train was being under review, i wasn't panicking, but i was deeply considering the situation, why is this happening ?
That went along with my tendency to always try to understand the wisdom in the different noteworthy stories happening around me, i do believe everything has a reason and a purpose to happen, and understanding it helps building confidence, sagacity, patience and faith.
I thought i'm quite advanced in that subject, and it did allow me to keep my calm and refrain anxiety during this troublesome situation. Troublesome because that day meant a lot to me, it was going to be my first trip alone, and first time to surf (couchsurfing dialect), and yet it was starting in an unconvinient way.
So those were the reasons making me reconsider myself and the situation.
Terminal station !
The few people still there left, and the driver turns off the lights inside the bus, turns to me and says something in polish, i understood he was asking me to leave, so i showed him my transportation card to say that i can stay in the bus to return back, but he didn't seem to agree and persisted in asking me out. I was very confused, and at last he managed to explain me that this bus had its last lap and won't return !
I freezed for a while... I was in the middle of nowhere, in the countryside, at the suburbs of Lodz, with no one around but a bus driver who doesn't speak english, and whose bus won't return to the city, and in 20 minutes my train was leaving.
But i fastly pulled round, i got my train ticket off my wallet, showed it to the driver and named him the train station, Lodz Kaliska.
I think he understood my situation, but he kept blabbering in polish and trying to understand him didn't succeed me, as he saw i'm completely confused he asked me to follow him, we went to a nearby bus station and he told me to take a bus that was there, but the bus didn't seem to be about departing. I felt bizarre but pleased at the same time, i was trusting a person that i didn't know, in doing something that i wasn't sure of, while i wasn't even sure he understood where i want to go ! I was enjoying it because it was such a great exercise of faith in the future and of trust in people's kindness.
In my way i saw a van nearby with two men putting boxes inside, i had a sudden crazy hope that they would be going to the city and i could ask them to take me along ! Not surprisingly they didn't speak english, so once again i get my train ticket out, and they take me to the driver whose bus i was supposed to take earlier. They talk together, and i try to talk with them (it felt like being a child trying to insert himself into an adult conversation), and at the end i got asked to sit down in the bus and wait. Minutes later the bus left, and i kept looking up the time and imaging the train leaving...
I ended up believing that what was happening is a test to my attitute and faith.
I gladly realised we're getting back to the city, we arrived to Fabryczna bus station, and the driver very kindly quits his chair and takes me to out to show me the bus timetables and tell which bus i take next, when it arrives, and how many stops to wait before getting out, all of that in polish, and i understood ! (his body language though). So i turned to be enjoying the situation.
At 6am i finally reached Lodz Kaliska train station, there i gladly found out my ticket was available for the whole day. And then, after such adventures, so many confusing thoughts and feelings, there happened the absolute, the pinnacle discovery : my 4:40 train was delayed by 90 minutes, and was still at the quay !!!
Dear reader, take some time to enjoy that as i did...
That word, tourist, repulses me.
It's one thing to visit a country, but one another to know it.
To visit : go to see and spend some time with (someone) socially or as a guest, go to see and spend time in (a place) as a tourist or guest.
The first definition was referring to visiting a person, the second to a place. I am thinking if you combine them both and extend the time, you can start talking about knowing the place.
If it wasn't for couchsurfing, my stay in Poland would have been completely different. IAESTE, the international association that arranged my training had local committees in the main cities of the country, and they arrange trips during the weekends, including fridays. But it was group trips, not that attractive for me. Yet i went once with them, for the sake of trying. All my other trips i planned alone, with couchsurfing.
Friday, July 24th, at 3am i leave the dorm, i think it's enough time to catch the 4:40 train for Wroclaw. I was wrong.
I took the N4 night bus in the wrong direction, i was sure of that after 10 minutes spent in the bus, the landscape was changing, we were getting out of the city and entering countryside ! so no possibility to leave, i thought i'll remain in the bus until last station and then return with it. But it was taking such a long time to reach the terminal, and we were so far from the city by then, catching the train was being under review, i wasn't panicking, but i was deeply considering the situation, why is this happening ?
That went along with my tendency to always try to understand the wisdom in the different noteworthy stories happening around me, i do believe everything has a reason and a purpose to happen, and understanding it helps building confidence, sagacity, patience and faith.
I thought i'm quite advanced in that subject, and it did allow me to keep my calm and refrain anxiety during this troublesome situation. Troublesome because that day meant a lot to me, it was going to be my first trip alone, and first time to surf (couchsurfing dialect), and yet it was starting in an unconvinient way.
So those were the reasons making me reconsider myself and the situation.
Terminal station !
The few people still there left, and the driver turns off the lights inside the bus, turns to me and says something in polish, i understood he was asking me to leave, so i showed him my transportation card to say that i can stay in the bus to return back, but he didn't seem to agree and persisted in asking me out. I was very confused, and at last he managed to explain me that this bus had its last lap and won't return !
I freezed for a while... I was in the middle of nowhere, in the countryside, at the suburbs of Lodz, with no one around but a bus driver who doesn't speak english, and whose bus won't return to the city, and in 20 minutes my train was leaving.
But i fastly pulled round, i got my train ticket off my wallet, showed it to the driver and named him the train station, Lodz Kaliska.
I think he understood my situation, but he kept blabbering in polish and trying to understand him didn't succeed me, as he saw i'm completely confused he asked me to follow him, we went to a nearby bus station and he told me to take a bus that was there, but the bus didn't seem to be about departing. I felt bizarre but pleased at the same time, i was trusting a person that i didn't know, in doing something that i wasn't sure of, while i wasn't even sure he understood where i want to go ! I was enjoying it because it was such a great exercise of faith in the future and of trust in people's kindness.
In my way i saw a van nearby with two men putting boxes inside, i had a sudden crazy hope that they would be going to the city and i could ask them to take me along ! Not surprisingly they didn't speak english, so once again i get my train ticket out, and they take me to the driver whose bus i was supposed to take earlier. They talk together, and i try to talk with them (it felt like being a child trying to insert himself into an adult conversation), and at the end i got asked to sit down in the bus and wait. Minutes later the bus left, and i kept looking up the time and imaging the train leaving...
I ended up believing that what was happening is a test to my attitute and faith.
I gladly realised we're getting back to the city, we arrived to Fabryczna bus station, and the driver very kindly quits his chair and takes me to out to show me the bus timetables and tell which bus i take next, when it arrives, and how many stops to wait before getting out, all of that in polish, and i understood ! (his body language though). So i turned to be enjoying the situation.
At 6am i finally reached Lodz Kaliska train station, there i gladly found out my ticket was available for the whole day. And then, after such adventures, so many confusing thoughts and feelings, there happened the absolute, the pinnacle discovery : my 4:40 train was delayed by 90 minutes, and was still at the quay !!!
Dear reader, take some time to enjoy that as i did...
