* * * Short(er) version of this available here. * * *

It started as a plan to go to Italy with my best friend in Germany, Momo. We had a friend who was driving, and another friend who's place we could stay in. But then that second friend went someplace else, and we had no place to stay in Italy. A second plan was then formed, of going to Poland, where a different friend's family lives. And only a couple days before going, the person with a car opted out. So we were welcome in Poland, but we had no way of getting there. So, Momo found what he could and settled for Ride Sharing with someone found on the internet. -And then changed his mind to a different one.
  One way or another, on Tuesday evening, I was in a car driving away from Dresden, and into Poland.

So, the players in this tale, are:
Myself, (and If you don't know who I am... then this website has plenty of material for you to inform yourself with.
Momo; My best friend, and sometimes flatmate in Germany. He's a Interior Design student.
David; An architect student, and good friend of Momo's. His family comes from Poland.
David's parents; who live in Germany, but still have the old house in Poland.
David's Brother; Who's a unique person, that I'll tell about later.
Cast of neighbours, tourists, Poles, salespeople, and Gypsies.

Act I. scene ii.
small town in Southern Poland. in the old centre, but around 2 am. streets mostly deserted. a German car rolls slowly along, with faces peering out, looking for directions.
enter two young, blond girls, carrying paper bags from MacDonnalds.
Driver of the German Car rolls down the Window.

Driver: Shlozk mushtvie novk.
1st girl: Slozk mushtvie.
Driver: klougtvork snivtrownik numbriye bussevski stroubska. ktrowka stromti trewiov?
...
-and so on, with a 4 minute discussion in Polish, which I didn't understand at all.
We were getting directions to the Bus station, which is where David came to pick us up. So, we went back to his place, had some food, and went to sleep. -NO. After eating, we went for a walk. And that was my first... odd, impression of David's brother.

Even this late at night, it was over 30 degrees, so I could understand this 18 year old having no shirt on. It's just that combined with the army camouflage pants, worn low enough for the underwear to be visible, and the head shaved to a quarter inch in length, he gave a... particular impression: Potentially dangerous. Potential gang member. And when he slipped a six inch knife into his waste band to go out for our walk, I really went to All Systems Maximum Alert. -Not panic, but Stay Alert, and be Ready to Panic, should the necessity arise.

The confusing part of this, is the nice smile, the friendly manner, and the kindness that he projected. I soon thought of him more as... particularely street wise, in a sometimes dangerous environment. The other thing about him, is that he's got a photographer's eye. He sees what would make a good picture. He and I interupted our walks through Poland Hundreds of times to look at some scene, and think about how best to photograph it.

So, it was one day that we spent just at their home, and seeing their little town. -And cutting the overgrown garden with a scythe. That was something I took to, and had a great time doing. Physical work can be so dang Rewarding. It felt just great to be out there, bare chested, in the incandescent sunlight, with rivers of sweat on my back, and the steady Swish, Swish of the scythe, as I mowed the grass, thistles, and stinging nettles.

The next day, we visited a larger town, (or a small city) near by, called Ribnik. (Which reminded me of the Russian word for Fish. When I then saw the coat of arms for this city, with a fish in the middle of it, I laughed myself silly. -It turned out to be because the lake by the city was used to breed fish to stock lakes for miles and miles around.

The day after, the four of us, (Momo, David, his brother, and I,) went to Krakau, the old capital city. And behaved like a bunch of tourists; staring around us at the buildings, taking pictures, and walking here and there, speaking German and English. -And then meeting up with Sylvie. I forgot to introduce her in the beginning of this play. She's from Germany, and is now starting her 8 months of work experience in Krakau, which she needs to complete her degree... in bookbinding. Her entrance should have been at the very beginning, because she was in the car with us; she was also getting a ride with this man to Poland. Anyhow, in that journey, phone numbers had been exchanged, and it had been suggested that we could meet with her, if we came over to Krakau. And that's what we did.

When we did, (meet with her,) we were feeling a bit hungry, so we went down by the river which runs through the city, and had a pick-nick lunch. -Under a tree, because it was so brutally hot out. After eating, we went up into the fortified castle on the hill, (under whose walls we had been eating.) Just after we'd come through the main gate, it started to drizzle, and we went to stand under a tree. Then it started to rain, and David and his brother scuttled back to the main gate, to stay dry there. Then it started to Pour, and the three of us still under the tree lamented that we hadn't gone with David. Then the heavens simply opened up, and dumped half an ocean on us, so we scampered through the deluge to one side of the gate. -Which was more or less full with other tourists hiding there. And we scampered to the other side of the gate. -Which was also more or less full. Then David and his brother ran up some stairs, to see if we could get into the castle it's self, and stay dry there. They waved down to us after a minute, and we ran up the stairs after them...

And then the rain stopped.

At least, it became a minimal drizzle again. So we went about, soaked to the skin, taking pictures of the violently wet castle. (Momo wasn't soaked, because he was the only one who'd thought to bring a rain jacket. All I had was a towel with me, -which the rest of us were greatfull for.) Despite the dampness... (Dampness to the very underclothes,) I think we all felt cheery, and were having a nice time, once the rain stopped. The pictures we took are quite promissing. Particularly the ones of us standing in an alcove, just the right size for a statue, but completely empty. Also the ones we took in the centre square of the castle, of the rain water gushing from a dragon's mouth.

Just then, a choir of 30 women dressed in assorted rain jackets came in, and started singing a four part baroque song in Polish. The acoustics were grand. It was utterly magical. That afternoon was the high point of my week in Poland.

Sylvie, spontaneously, tells us then that we can stay the night in her little room, if two of us don't mind sleeping on the floor: She's living a student home, so she has one little rented room, with three couches it's possible to sleep on. (And one cup, one bowl, perhaps two knives and a spoon.) So we leave all our things at her place, and then go to the centre for a bit to eat, and something to drink. It's the drink that I remember, (As I don't like beer, or coffee, or the wines they offered at the... place we went to, it was going to be an interesting cocktail.) I can't recall it's name... Bhu...r...to...l? The whole menu was odd, because the Theme of the bar was "Bhuda." It's all Eastern decor, and herbal things, and spiritually centred cocktails. So, whatever it was called, what I drank was Creme de Minthe, Creme de Cacao, Orange Juice, and Milk. But it actually tasted fine, and not like a freak mixture of disparate ingredients.

We woke the next morning somewhat late, (but with no hang over, you may be interested to know! :-) But I haven't told of the sleeping arrangement! Instead of two of us being on the floor, we pushed the two couchy things together, and slept all four of us on them! It was a matter of four sleeping bags, and then foot to head to foot to head. It's not the most luxurious, or most restfull way, but we all got to sleep anyhow, and woke without bruises too!

For breakfast... (at one in the afternoon, is it still breakfast?) we eventually found a small Polish restaurant, which had traditional food, and wasn't too expensive. We all stuffed ourselves merrily, and I ordered an extra plate of Perogies to top the meal off. I decided on cheese filled ones. And half choked myself by laughing with food in my mouth with the first bite I took! (I had been expecting... Cheddar, or Gouda, or some typical cheese taste.) -What I got, was Sweet Cheese. Think of Cheese cake: Think of lemon Cheese cake filling in Ravioli. And then put a white vanilla sauce over top. When you're expecting orange Cheddar, that's quite a surprise.

We walked around town afterwards, and saw some of a... festival of Latin American music, dance, and culture. Then we had to go though, because it was a three hour drive back to David's town, and we were getting our ride back to Germany from there in the evening. On the way back, we stopped at two places. And the first was Auswiz. We didn't go in, but we stopped beside it, and looked over the walls. And that was enough for me anyhow. I found the whole place, and he thoughts that it brought to me, disturbing enough. I wouldn't have cared to go in. And don't care to go into my thoughts of it right now. Let's just say that as we drove off, I was... somber.

And was still somber when we stopped somewhere else twenty minutes later. I thought it was a gigantic ruined factory, or the concrete skeleton which was left of it. But on looking closer, we noticed that it was never completed. It was the Unfinished gigantic concrete skeleton of a factory. A little bit crumbling, and somewhat overgrown. And in the middle of no where, Poland. With no fence around it. So we just HAD to go and explore, and take pictures. -Well, the others just had to. I was still somber, remember?

So while the others were climbing up the equivilant of 6 stories of stairs, onto this unfinished building, I stayed by the car, to make sure that no one would notice it, and steal it in this secluded place. I did take some photos though. And Sylvie stayed down at ground level, because she has a fear of heights. I'd say it's probably a good thing that it was this way too: because when a police car drove by, (And our hearts hammered in our chests,) they saw two people standing by their car, with a camera, looking about, but not going any place they shouldn't. And so the police car passed on. And all five of us were soon gone from there as well.

Hmmm... have you noticed that though four of us were in the car going to Krakau, there were five of us now? I forgot to say: That the minute that we were leaving, Sylvie got a phone call, informing her that the party she'd planned on going to was cancelled. So she didn't have anything to do that weekend. (And having been in the city for only one week, nothing to do meant NOTHING to do.) So she decided to come with us, and stay with David's family for the weekend. I'm amazed at how spontaneous she is. Quite impressed.

But that's about all that there is to say about Poland. We had only ten minutes at David's place, before we had to go and get the ride back to Germany. -Who turned was delayed in traffic, so waiting for him, we sat and had a coffee and some icecream. Then away we went. Driving all night to Germany.

By this point though, all I could think about was by true, wonderful love, Pamela. So I was trying to find the best way to get to her, as soon as possible. I was trying to figure out which stop along our driver's way would let me catch the most direct train to Berlin, which is where Pamela was. Then our perfectly great driver offered to make the two hour detour and take me directly to Berlin, if I'd pay for the fuel. I felt very bad about imposing on him like that, but he insisted. So we took the long rout.

Then, when we were near Berlin, I was trying to find the way to get to Strausburg, (which is where Pamela REALLY was. It's just a 20 or 30 minutes tram ride outside of Berlin.) It ended up as being another hour out of our driver's way, but he took me all the way there, and I was speechlessly thankfull to him.

Speechless to him, that is. I had been trying to convince Momo to stay in Strausberg with us for the last hour or so.And I succeeded, if only just barely. So he got out there to, right at Pamela's Family's house. And we both went to sleep. (It was then nearly 6 in the morning.)

And I was the happiest person in the world; I was with Pamela again. And I can't tell how much that meant to me. I was half mad with desperation to see her again. If our driver hadn't gone to Berlin, I was ready to wait around, alone, in the middle of the night in Dresden for four hours, and then catch a five hour train ride, so that I could see Pamela at 10 in the morning, rather than wait until 10 in the evening, when she'd get to Detmold. All I could think about the whole car ride back to Germany, was how much I... I needed to see her again. How much I needed to hold her in my arms. How incredibly much relief I had, knowing that I'd be with her again before the sun reached the middle of the sky.

And thinking of her, and the fact that we'd be together again soon, The fields we passed smiled back at me. The forests all promised that we'd be happy together. The sun it's self, came up slowly for the sole purpose of witnessing our reuniting.

I admit that I was deprived of sleep, so these images were half dreamt. But they were also the truth of my feelings. If the sun didn't rise only to see us coming together, then I can say that to me, that was the only Relevance that the sun had. I don't know.

What I do know, is that it was driven home for me; I was made vividly aware of the fact that Pamela is the most important of all things to me. And when I at last could hold her in my arms, I would have proposed to her then and there. -if I'd had a ring, and decent clothing on, and a shave, and didn't smell and look like I'd been travelling for the last 12 hours. And if Pamela hadn't been drowsy and half asleep herself.

I don't know if it was right or wrong of me to write that here. But it's what I thought. And what I'm still thinking about. (After all, that's not the kind of thing that a person can think, and then forget about the next day.) So I'll go on thinking about it.

About my future.
about OUR future.

:-)