So, I was happy that I managed to get a ticket for the 22nd to fly to Poland for Christmas, but what a trip it was! When the train was running smoothly from Victoria station in London towards Gatwick airport the weather was improving rapidly and I was starting to feel more confident that actually I will fly out of the UK. The fog was dissolving and lifting up, for a few minutes we had even witnessed a direct sun shine: if I would be a vampire I would have not survived the trip. But, when we were approaching the airport the heavy curtain of fog came down again hiding usually very exiting to me view of the runway just before you reach the station. I started to feel uneasy. I abounded the idea of lounging at the departure hall and rushed to the check-in. Apparently the airline was not aware that the flight was fully booked and had only two people working at the desks. I think that it took them about 2 hours to check all the passengers in; they were still doing it at our scheduled departure time. Taking into account that my Heathrow flight was cancelled when the check-in had already started, it was not looking too good. Then I had to face a 40 min queue to the security check. Finally, I managed to go through to a ‘higher level’ but I did not have any spare life left… The flight was apparently delayed but at least a Centralwings’ plane was at the gate. I did an emergency shopping of three bottles of wine, read a few pages in a book I had with me and finally one and half behind the scheduled departure time boarded the plane. I was again happy that I was flying, without a view though: the row number 8 there did not have a window… Happily landed at Warsaw, rushed through passport control to the luggage collection; the luggage arrived after 45 min of waiting and I was going to miss the last train to Pulawy. Quick sprint through the terminal, getting a cab, shouted ‘as fast as you can to the train station please’. I arrived actually at the train’s departure time but learned by Dan’s example I ran down the platform where to my surprise the train was still standing. It was an international to Kiev via Pulawy. It was a very long train too, I could see only the international carriages, asked the Ukrainians for the domestic part of the train, they said something I did not understand but luckily they also used the hand language. I jumped into the first class carriage. During the pre-Christmas time the second class is usually very busy so it is better to pay a bit more for normally roomier, and cleaner, first class. Oh, I had not had time to get a ticket, it didn’t matter, I would get one later on the train. The train was very busy, even the first class, very warm and very dirty. Actually I had not seen such a dirty train for a long time but according to people traveling with me it is normal for trains sent to Ukraine… Seven people in the compartment, no conversation for one hour forty minutes – welcome back to Poland, anyway I was tired, I didn’t really mind. Perhaps all the people in Poland are tired too, and quiet.
A few minutes before the train reached Pulway I started making my way down the corridor to the exit, blocked by quite a few people for who there was no place in the compartments. The train stopped, a person in the front of me tried to open the door but nothing happened, he tried again: they appeared to be locked. The train was too packed and we had too much luggage to reach another exit before to train would leave so someone had a great idea: let’s try on the other side of the train. But there was no platform there… who cares! We didn’t want to go to the next town, it was already midnight and it would not be possible to return. So we jumped on the track, then had a short walk through bushes and we were in the front of the station. My father was waiting there: I arrived home for Christmas!
