Diary Travelogues | Eastern Europe | 1994 | September 05 to 08 | Part 3 – Poland

Hi Friends,

This is the third part of my 1994 travels through Eastern Europe: Poland - Belarus - Russia - Estonia - Latvia - Lithuania - Poland.

If you are just coming on board, below is a link to earlier parts in this series:
Eastern Europe 1994: Part 1 – Poland | Part 2 - Poland

If you'd like to switch to a different series of travel writings:
The Levant | 1996 | May 05 to May 08 | Part 1 – Egypt

If you have been following along from the beginning, welcome back 🔆

Thanks for reading
🚣

^{An overview of my travels between 28 August - 27 September, 1994. The red line is my route.}

Monday, 5 September 1994 | 15.30 | Lake Łuknajno, near Mikołajki (Poland)

Really nice here, near a large 'Reservat' – a swan colony.

Last night I got very drunk and stoned. Wrote a letter and sat by the lake with the water lapping away rhythmically, looking up at three bright stars above me. I felt the wet grass and the consciousness of the present was strong. I slept by 22.15, alone in my hotel.

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Decided not to stay on despite having a room ideally situated and beautiful surroundings. Thought I'd move on a bit. Hitched the 35 km to Mikołajki and found a waterside pension for 70,000 złoty. Walked a couple of kilometres to a big hotel to rent a bike. Persevered through their initial refusal on grounds that I wasn't a guest and that they only had two bikes. But I got it!

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I have now cycled about halfway round the lake. Can't get any closer than 150 metres because of the reeds and marshy bogs – I'd need stilts! It's very pleasant, I've just had a joint and there are some ruins. A German bird-watcher has just parked his car nearby and we exchanged a few words when he emerged from the bushes. The ruins he said, were German from before WWII – store places apparently! There are some modern-looking ruins but the walls are definitely older, with large stone slabs. Reminds me somehow of Tughlakabad. These seem to be ruins of a house and there is puh-lenty of water. Shall head off.

...later | 17.30 | Mikołajki (Poland)

Am back now, with a slightly sore left knee. Found I had cycled quite far out and was away for 3 hours (she charged me for 2.5). In spite of the knee, cycling back was alright. I found myself on the road I came down this morning for around 6 km and I had a mock race with a friendly tractor driver. People are all so friendly and all the more so when they see you making an effort.

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I'm sitting by the waterside, just ate something and I'm having a second coffee. Got talking to a young couple with two young daughters who are about to leave. The man helped me choose something to eat and said they were up for a couple of days from Warsaw to sail. I'd say 25-28 years old, cheerful, laid back, not bothered about appearances. An open-minded family! Anyhow, as I was waiting for my first coffee, a German came to collect four coffees for his group. It was a group of men in their 50s - no malice or even conscious superciliousness, but so obviously distanced and isolated in their cocoon of pre-conceived notions, habits, attitudes etc, that I was made glad of my own attitude! It's so much more gratifying to build up a rapport with people – it has increased my enjoyment and made me conscious of being open and more tolerant towards people. Why? Maybe because despite having potential, they haven't as yet taken the step towards Identity loss, and have acute insularity and suspicious natures. True, hitching in Poland has brought me lifts with almost no expensive cars, a good indication of this insularity and increased selfishness.

Well, when I went for my second coffe and asked to pay, she charged me only half price for the second coffee – I wouldn't have known had I not calculated.......Hang on! I just calculated it again and realised that this was not the case, so it doesn't count. But I still feel that this attitude was appreciated and in a way earned me preferential treatment – ie not being treated with that ounce or so of contempt reserved for ostentatious tourists!

Wednesday, 7 September 1994 | time ?? | Łomża (Poland)

How the whole fucking thing came about – fuck fuck fuck, and it built up so imperceptibly, little bits of bad luck ganging up together!

Long and windy, deviating, tarrying route from Mikołajki, which by dusk brought me to a dump hole called Grajewo, from which I got bad vibes and a dread of not being able to get out of. Hitching on this miserable road is fucked up; the Lithuanian – Kaliningrad¹ - Warsaw stretch, full of shady characters, so no bastard of an anyone would give me a lift. I've also got a week's growth of beard which probably puts people off!

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Anyway, managed a bus to Łomża. I could have waited 4 hours for a Warsaw train that would've got me in at 4.15am, but I wanted to quit the dump – although I should have taken it after all! In Łomża I was going to get a hotel and an early Warsaw bus but chance and fate intervened and good and bad (rather positive and negative) balanced out.

So last night when I asked a Pole, his wife and 3 young kids if they knew of a cheap hotel in Łomża, they, upon learning that I was from India, staying only one night and on my own, took me home. He drove drunk! Nouveau riche, a materialistic but nice family. Had some difficulty communicating, but his boss – who was also present, took to me once he had verified my authenticity by checking my passport, and I ended up feeling at home amongst the vodka, food and jokes. They kept switching channels on the television and getting me to identify the languages and we all got very drunk.

I'm really pissed of just now. Didn't sleep more than 3 hours and had wanted to be back in Warsaw to pick up my Russian visa. The man took me to the wrong road against my inclination where I wasted an hour, and then wasted another trying to hitch from a different road. I was filled with so much resentment and I cursed aplenty! Anyway, it means an extra day in Poland for I'm getting the 10.35 bus which takes 2 hours and 45 minutes. I'll get over it. Haven't slept much or showered in a few days.

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Night before last I met a couple of Germans with whom I got on extremely well. Both early 30s. What was so nice was that we hardly had any of the introductory small talk and didn't get to know much of each other's physical existence – jobs etc. Had lots of beers, they had hash too and an enormous old camper van which had just been burgled the previous day. I really liked them and think the feeling was mutual. Sat till late smoking. Peter played the guitar and sang. Both he and Waldemar are the kind of German I find open-minded and in sympathy with each other's thinking. Peter is a mystic!
_{1. A Russian enclave on the Baltic Sea, bordering Lithuania and Poland, and only 70-80 km from Grajewo.}

Thursday, 8 September 1994 | 12.35 | Train: Warsaw to Brest (Belarus)

I finally made Warsaw by bus – 100,000 złoty but quite comfy. I was so tired. Was sitting next to a tall, fairly taciturn (youngish 30 or so) Pole, who told me that he had been in Canada for 8 years and had spent a year in an American prison (didn't say why and I didnt' ask). He was on his way to Frankfurt with a friend to do some business. I quite liked him – very self assured.

Made the youth hostel in Warsaw and washed lots of clothes. Wrote some postcards, ate and talked to some of the others in the room. Met two English lads (both 18) inter-railing for the first time and rather inexperienced, straight out of Public School etc. This morning we set of for the station together. I needed to change some money before collecting my Russian visa and they were to get the 9am train to Krakow. Despite my warning them, they decided not to get a ticket for their bags. The usual spiel – the tourist leeching controllers asked for tickets and they had to cough up $23 USD, which I lent them. Then, due to a misunderstanding, one of them had to return to the youth hostel and I found myself waiting for another 2 hours until he returned!

Happy to get my Russian visa and I spent 11DM on a ticket to Brest, just inside Belarus. The train left Warsaw at 12.32. I'm not sure what I'll be doing after we get there.

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Anyway, whilst waiting at the station, I met an elderly lady of 50 or so. She had asked me how to work the lockers and it was an excellent encounter. A great traveller – been lots of places, very open-minded. It's a pity we didn't exchange addresses or have more time – spoke in English at first and then in German (she's from Austria). She had spent 6 months in India 30 years ago and loved it! She kissed me on the cheek when we said goodbye.

...later

We are approaching Belarus now – 45 minutes or so to go. Some rough-looking characters appeared earlier but the train (at least my compartment) seems full of peasants and general working-class people. I'll need to be eased into it all. There were three Ukranian girls on holiday (they have just got off) with whom I fell into conversation (20, 21 and 22 but looked older). I said I'd visit them in Ukraine if I made it there.

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If you would like to carry on reading click here for Part 4

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