My last entry ended on me getting to Vienna on the evening of the 3rd, and being really excited to see it. I am sad to announce that my plans were not realised that day, and my trip took an unexpected turn since that evening.
I was feeling pretty crappy that night, and went to my room to chill and go to sleep like the old person I am. My roommate came home soon after, a girl from Denver, Colorado who has been studying in Milan for the past 6 months. Michelle is a music major (piano), and once I looked past the fact that she actually liked Milan, I found she was an awesome girl. We had tons in common, and talked for a while before bed and decided to visit Vienna that morning together before her plane ride back to Milano.
We left the hostel around 11, and walked around downtown Vienna for a few hours. It is really beautiful there, and I could tell right away that you would need at least a week to properly visit the huge city. There were little surprises everywhere too – we were visiting the Hofburg in the downtown square, when we looked down and saw ancient ruins from the 17th century that were unearthed during some construction. It’s safe to say you would never find something like that in Canada! That was a great surprise.
A more unpleasant surprise began once we moved on from downtown. Michelle and I were feeling a little tired, so we decided to try to some world-famous delicious Viennese coffee. We had a huge fancy cup, with lots of cream and were on our way. Michelle had to catch a bus at 3, so we started walking back. On the way, there was a guy playing piano for charity on the sidewalk, and Michelle started small talking with him, piano major to... piano sidewalk player guy. Next thing I knew, she was playing her heart out in front of a department store on the busiest street in Vienna – it was awesome! We walked back after that, said goodbye and I went to take a nap in my room.
The unpleasantness begins from there: I was rudely awakened by my body going through hell, and refusing to let me sleep through it. I won’t go into much detail, but I had some MAD food poisoning and was in and out of consciousness for the next 10-12 hours. Dreams became reality, I had some hallucinations (which would have been amusing in different circumstances) and had nothing left in my body after some time. I woke up the next morning, decided to skip Hungary for the time being, and crawled to the train station to book my ticket for that day to Poland. I was really, really disappointed in myself for not going on, but I also found out that being sick can be the ultimate test when you’re travelling alone. I am proud to say that I didn’t call for mommy or cry for help from anyone, so I am pretty sure I passed it. As for coming to Poland, I was looking forward to seeing family one day sooner than expected.
Poland, in a word, is comforting. On the train ride over, I finally risked eating some solids and went to the dinner wagon to get some food. The smell of dill, sauerkraut and potatoes was so familiar that I felt like I was back home again. Whatever the saying is about the power of scent, it’s true – I could literally see my childhood after inhaling the air in the wagon.
Although I hadn’t spoken directly with them in days, I knew my grandparents would be at the train station, an hour early, and positioned strategically to find me at any point. I saw them right away – no change, same expressions, even some of the same clothes. In Poland, time always seems to stand still. We stayed up til 3am just talking and gossiping and it was great – my grandparents are the coolest.
The Motherland doesn’t know what hit it yet...
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