Monasteries, Train Stations and Umbrellas.

The Maturas, like the riders of the Apocalypse, strike fear into the hearts of the students of the final year of high school in Poland. They cause a sudden desire to visit the Jasna Góra (Bright Mount) Monastery, the spiritual capital and greatest shrine of the worship of Virgin Mary in the country.

Magda, Robert and I jumped on the "anything helps" bandwagon and decided to go.

Yesterday was the meeting-at-Warsaw-Central-station-and-getting-tickets-day (or the pushing-through-crowds-and-trying-to-buy-the-right-tickets day). I was lucky to find a stray 50zł bill in my old piggy bank and - adding grandma's visit - I was able to just barely afford the cheapest train. Magda and Robert were nice enough not to comment on the anticipated "comforts" of our ride.

The platform was unusually full of young people. Most of them were our age, no doubt about it, all trying to help their Matura scores in any way possible, and once we got on the train, we had to hurry to find ourselves some free seats before they all filled up with passengers.

We managed to sneak into an empty compartment and were quickly joined by two others. The other three seats remained empty, leaving room for Awkward Silence, Tendency to Yawn and Not Knowing What To Say.

The three-hour journey passed mostly in odd silence, stifled laughter and quiet conversation, as our two co-travelers weren't too keen on talking and didn't have earphones in their heads. We were more than happy to finally leave the train (having gone through the sleepy phase, the hyper phase, the time-to-eat phase, the go-to-the-bathroom phase, the cold phase, the warm phase, the are-we-there-yet phase... All of them.

Anyways, we spent the next five hours in the monastery (one and a half of a mass, my friend feeling as if she was going to faint, confession, another Communion, writing out eight prayer intention cards, taking a general look around the place...) and - feeling much better about the approaching exams - decided it's time to head back, since the train back home was leaving at six thirty.

The walk back to the station was a fun thing, but when our stomachs were talking louder than we were, we remembered that we had completely forgotten about dinner (talk about food for the soul, right?) and decided that some pizza place was the safest (and cheapest) option, but the line of people waiting for a free table scared us off. Did I mention that the queue didn't end at the door?

We decided to go to a fast food place instead.

Now if you knew me, you'd know my general attitude towards places like McDonald's, KFC, Burger King... I really don't think I'm even able to name any more. I just don't eat there. "It's poison in the shape of a chicken" is what I say about all those 'wonderfully tasty' food-mimicking things. They're filling and cheap, though, so my money- and food-less self tried not to complain too much.

Once we finished eating, we still had more than half an hour left, so we went and fed the pigeons (with the crusty bread Magda brought from home for whatever reason) and took our time getting to the station, taking quite a few pictures along the way and posing ridiculously for them in the middle of the busiest street (well, in the middle of the sidewalk). We were quite tired once we finally got to the platform...

...but that wasn't the end of the day! Why? Well, when the train came, all seats were taken. Yes, you heard me right: there was NO empty seat in the second class carriages.

Le sigh.

After half an hour of standing in the hall, we decided we're too tired and we found an empty first-class compartment. As soon as we did so, a ticket controller appeared out of nowhere and made us pay for another train ticket. We decided the comfort was worth it.

The seats were extendable. They could be made into a bed. They were fully extendable.

It's needless to say that all six seats in the compartment were in the "fully extended" position before five minutes passed, making the additional 25zł worth spending! Well, more like 35zł - when we were getting off the train, Magda realized that she had lost her umbrella...


Last Google search: Teen pop star
Now on the radio: "Waka Waka Africa" - Shakira