warsaw

i tried to hook up with ola and marcel, and kasia, but it seemed like they were still on their travels after rainbow. and so i decided to hit the road again. i got to the hitching point for warsaw, and was there a good hour or so before an austrian registered plate pulls up. "fahren sie nach kielce", i ask the driver. affirmative. didi turned out to speak good english which was great cos my german was very rusty. he was driving to lublin and i managed to persuade him to take me as far as radom before taking his turn for lublin. i was at this roundabout for about three hours, at the bus stop so the cars could pull in and stop safely, but none did. then i met two polish girls, hitching to lublin. one told me that they were going to take the bus to get to the 'real' hitching spot for lublin.... seemed like i was at the south end of town! so in the end, i changed place... i walked the 3 or so kms to the north side of town, and the roundabout there, with the road to warsaw. the sun was setting but the bus-stop and pull-in bay was well lit. and here, the first time i had other hitchers 'competing'. there was one guy there already and i asked him if i could hitch at the beginning of the bus-stop bay. no problem. a couple came half an hour after me, and got a lift after ten minutes or so. damn, i should have chased after that lift. and when a car stopped for the first guy after an hour or so, this time i didn't hesitate. i picked up my pack and drum and ran to the end of the bay. he was already clambering into the car and i managed to open the door at the back and ask, "warsaw?" i heard 'da' and stashed my stuff and myself into the back seats, and off we went. it was quite late now, maybe ten, and after the first hitcher got dropped off, i got into the front seat and chatted with piotr, who could speak a little english. he was playing some polish rap music and i drummed along to this as we ate up the kms to warsaw. he dropped me off some way from the centre, "sorry i can't help you more", he said. "no worries". he had helped me enough by getting me out of radom! and i looked around for a place to kip. wasn't long before i found a fenced off green patch of long grass and weeds, the gate was easy to push open, i rolled out my mat and sleeping bag and fell into a deep sleep. i was up at first light, packed quickly and asked someone how far it was to the centre. it was apparent that it was too far to walk, so i got a ticket and took the tram to the metro 'centrum'.

i had a little breakfast, the last boiled egg i had made in krakow, with some rolls i brought, and soon was looking for a place to busk. i found the exit to the normal train line not far from the metro was a good place... and in a couple of hours made about 40 zlwotys. i bought a sim card for 5 zl and tried to get in touch with a couple of friends, but both numbers seemed to be unavailable. phone switched off maybe. i had also three hc contact numbers, but again, one was out of town, and the other two numbers seemed unavailable. all day i tried and all day i got nothing.

i busked a bit more, did some shopping for some grub, and walked to the bus station at zachodnia. i looked for the bus for suwalki, but it was too late. but there were plenty of buses for ostroleka, some 125kms from warsaw on the road to augustow and suwalki and the via baltica to the baltic states. in the end, i gave up with trying to get through by phone, i left an email message for zuzka, and took the 7p.m. bus to ostroleka. which seemed like it was taking forever to get to its destination, but finally we made it and i hit the main road to see if it was feasible to try hitching at this late hour... but i was pretty tired and found another place to kip rough not far from the main road by the side of a house... and i was almost dozing off when zuzka phones me! seemed like there was some misunderstanding from the emails we exchanged in krakow, she was studying for an exam and couldn't host.... i said no worries, the fate was so and i was already on the road again... and with sorrys and best wishes exchanged, i hit the sack.