When in Warsaw

Dzien Dobry. I know that this title is not the best alliteration I could have thought of, but you try coming up with an alliterating title every week (discounting the 2 months of hiatus).

Well I had one final smash group reunion in Warsaw a few days ago and it got a bit hectic, which meant about eight hours sleep over the whole weekend and a lot of Vodka. Don't get me wrong, we did meaningful stuff too, like we all went out for dinner, and stuff.

But let's start at the beginning, like the horrible horrible HORRIBLE! train ride from Poznan to Warszawa. Ugh, horrible. First of all Scott (my Poznanian Placement Partner) and I were at the station very late and the next train wasn't for many an hour, and the queues were very long, so we thought 'screw it' and decided to just get on the train and buy a ticket from the inspector...
The population of China was on that train.
I managed to find a window in the isle to stick my head out of while I was crushed on all sides by masses of equally unhappy people, so I didn't completely die of claustrophobia, and had to stand almost the entire time, although a couple of times I took advantage of the luxurious floor-space and sat down, and after three hours of my hair being battered by the wind (causing several annoying split-ends) and leg cramp, I was able to get off that hell, and could finally laugh about it all.

I ate Thai food, drank 2 cokes and sat for about 3 hours at the empik cafe in the mall by the train station, and waited for some other volunteers to come. Then I checked into the weird hostel I found online, where they're environmentally friendly, and there's a shower in every dorm and it smells like weed (I'm not kidding), but it was just a bed to sleep in, as I came back late and checked out early.

So it was great, we hung out on some abandoned train tracks for a while (I don't really know why), then met some American-Lithuanian guys, and a volunteer and I managed to convince another volunteer that one of the guys played in the NBA. I'm not naming names here, but you all know who you are. The highlight was when we told Gullible One to 'touch his face'.

Saturday night, included dinner where I ignored my money troubles for one night and got a steak. It came with a free wine if that makes me look any less irresponsible, and we had some meaningful speeches, gift giving to our Lattitude representative, then another night out.

Then we trained home on Sunday on something significantly less crowded (although we were still sitting in the corridor), and 2 days of school and hey, tomorrow's my last and I leave for Berlin on Thursday. Yes folks, my placement is over, but don't worry, I'll keep blogging about my travels over the next 2 months.

So I'm coming to the end of this post, but I want to tell you all something very important: If you haven't already read 'the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo', for God's sake people READ IT! I'm almost finished and it may be one of the best damn pieces of modern literature I've ever picked up. I haven't seen the movies yet but now I'm desperate to and I've already decided to boycott the American remakes (Damn America, just watch the Swedish version you idiots). Steig Larsson has just joined lonely Joss Whedon on my list of 'feminist idols who are men'. Tell me if there are any more who deserve to be on that list by the way. I'm sure there are many wonderful male feminists out there. I guess my dad counts...

Oh well, READ IT! THAT'S AN ORDER!
Do Widzenia, bye bye. I may or may not update some time soon.
Kate :)