Yesterday I came back from Scotland, and a day earlier I was in Poland, Krakow to be exact. I always think it is incredible when returned from a holiday to think only a few hours ago I was in a different country some hundreds of miles away. It was real. I did it, have the photographs, drank the beer, vodka and mushroom zupa (soup) and even made a momentary Polish friend. Who couldn't speak any English which was just as good because I couldn't speak any Polish. He happened to be a doctor as well. But even doctors sit in pubs, smoke and drink beer. Yes. In Poland you can smoke in the pub provided it is in the designated area where smoking is allowed. Which was OK for the people I went with as they were all fumigators. In a bar on two separate occasions we met Americans.
On the first occasion it was a woman. She was from Chicago, was suffering from job burn out and had decided to see Europe. Sparkling saw her looked at me and through her glazed sparkling eyes, because she'd drank a few vodkas at this stage said "you love her," I didn't know I loved her, Sparkling said I did. It was just an American girl. The truth being I hardly spoke to her at all, it was L & B man and the woman from the Revenues did. Although the American girl seemed a lonely figure, at first she did not engage in conversation and sat quietly to one side. My response to Sparkling she was the only one I loved, through dazed dizzy sparkly eyes her reply was "awe," followed by a flicked pointed finger. Sparkling was happily merry, she lazily closed her eyes and had a hiccough under her breath. These were to continue to plague Sparkles when she took the raspberry vodka. Almost like clockwork. Revenues woman was engrossed in conversation with the American girl. After about an hour it seemed Revenues had enough of the American and left her with L & B man. Revenues said the American girl was nuts. She didn't seem to know where her heritage was and disagreed with Revenues woman over Schindler being a hero or not. Her view was he was an opportunist capitalist. She had read some literature on him and she also had a grand parent or mother who was either Jewish or German but knew more about it. I can't say for sure because the conversation seemed oblique. As some discussions are when you are sitting in the pub and suffering from a dodgy belly. Krakow belly in my case. About another half hour passed and we left with L & B man shortly leaving his conversation with the American Girl who may or may not of been nuts but clearly Revenues didn't quite like.
On a separate night we met the second American, a man. The conversation barely lasted five to ten minutes and then he went off, but he left an impression. He appeared confident and loud in my mind. Immediately I saw him I took a dislike and thought he was a tosser. He was asked by L & B man what it was which bought him to Poland. The American man said "the girls." This was followed by another comment which pissed me off even more, "why be a poor American in American when I can be a rich man in Poland?" I thought he was abusing his relative wealth. It's true, Polish people did not seem to me to have much of a mixture of the classes. They appeared generally poorer. But they also gave the impression of being very honest people. They didn't like to be over tipped I found. Although there was the one or two who would accept large tips at the bar or possibly over charge. Generally speaking they seemed like very respectable people. Of course I'd be careful about their Police, because I've heard stories. I won't go into them. I liked the Polish people and even leaned to say Thank-you in Polish. The American didn't give the impression he respected them or anything else, the impression he gave was he would take advantage of them, and probably frequented prostitutes because relatively speaking they were probably a lot cheaper by his standard of prostitute. It was no surprise after this very short time Sparkling through her dizzy haze said to me "you see him, he is all I hate about Americans," this was followed by "when he comes back I'm going to knock him out." She might of been inebriated but I certainly wouldn't of put it past Sparkling to have tried to of landed a punch on the American. She repeated this a couple of times. The American man didn't come back. He probably had a sense. If he had though and even faintly responded to Sparkling had responded back, both I and L & B man would of waded in for a full bar brawl. Regardless of having Krakow belly or not. The girl and the man were two very different people.
We may be going again to Krakow in December, our taxi driver told us it could get as cold as minus 25 degrees at this time. The prospect of this doesn't excite me, however I'm sure a chilled vodka would go down even better. Then I can purchase a real Russian hat as well. Better get the phrase book out and learn some more words. Now, how do you say? "no raspberry vodka thanks, it gives me the hiccoughs."
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