Jindobre Polska!

To be completely honest, I never thought I would visit Poland when I first landed in Germany. Little did I know then, that it was to be one of my best trips in Europe!
Well, my dear friend Pappu (who is Polish and used to work with me in Germany) made this trip possible. We (myself, Bhaski, Yeda) had to get a Polish visa since our Schengen visa was not valid in Poland. Pappu helped us with all the necessary documentation and we were all set to usher in the new year 2006 in Poland!
But an emergency at work resulted in me having to stay back in Hildesheim. Bhaski and Yeda left for Pappuland on thursday night. And I left on friday night. I reached the Hannover ZOB (Central Bus stand) and waited for the bus, which Pappu had told me would have "EST" written on it. When I did get into the bus, I felt like I was on display in a museum. Everyone was staring at me, obviously because of my brown skin and it is probably very rare for brown-skinned people to travel by bus from Germany to Poland. The conductor hardly spoke English or German, so a couple of youngsters sitting near me in the bus had to turn into "interpreters" for my sake.
I noticed that Sandra Bullock's "Miss Congeniality" was playing on the TV inside our bus, but in a weird way. The normal English dialogues were faintly heard in the background and a guy with a gruff voice was giving a running commentary in Polish, simultaneously. I assumed that Polish people must be big-time sports lovers since they like to watch even movies with a commentary!??
Anyways, Pappu had warned me about a million things and to be frank, I didn't follow many of them (I hope Pappu never reads this blog). I befriended a cute Polish girl traveling with me and she taught me a few Polish words. Though I was tempted to try out the dirty Polish with her, which Pappu had taught me, I decided not tarnish my country's image..;-)
I reached the Northern Polish city of Gdynia in the morning and I fell in love with Poland the moment I stepped out of the bus. I had to call up Pappu who would pick me up. Hardly anyone spoke English or German, so I had to resort to sign language. I had only 10 zlottys with me and I had to eat something and buy a calling card with that. I looked around and saw a cute girl in one of the shops. Bingo! This was a critical time for my charms to work. I went to the shop and asked her if she spoke English or German. Unfortunately, she did not. I used sign language to tell her what I want and I asked for a loaf of bread, a cup of coffee and a calling card. She gave me all that and asked me to pay 10 zlottys. I was relieved 'coz that's all I had. The rest of my money was in euros.
Anyways, I called up Pappu and he said he would be there at the bus stand in half an hour since he had drive from a neighbouring city called Sopot, where he lived. As I waited, I noticed that the it had snowed beautifully. It was really charming. Pappu came with his mom (Chocha, which means aunt in Polish) in their car and we drove to Sopot. I told Pappu that I paid 10 zlottys for all the stuff and he was surprised since the entire thing costs atleast 15 zlottys. I realized that my charms had really worked on the girl..;-)
We reached Pappu's home and Bhaski and Yeda were still asleep. Pappu told me about their exploits the previous night and I cursed the emergency at work for having made me miss out on the fun.
Chocha, who speaks only Polish by the way, made me a nice breakfast and lemon tea, asked me to take a bath and go to sleep. The cold weather and the cosy bed made me go to sleep very fast. It was around 12 in the noon when I woke up and Bhaski and Yeda were already upto something. They were preparing to cook some Indian food and I joined in. Chocha gave me the exemption though, since I had traveled the previous night. Food was ready and we ate nicely. We watched some Polish TV, played some games on Junior Pappu's (Pappu's brother, who was away on a new year weekend party) computer. It was evening and we got dressed for the new year party. I wore the Polska T-shirt that Pappu had gifted me and a white shirt above that, like an apron, to look like a doctor, since the theme for the party was "Emergency Room". Pappu dressed himself like a patient with a severe cold (though he looked more like a buffoon) and Bhaski wore a dressing band around his head, to look like an accident patient. Yeda decided to be the plane jane, violating the party theme. We had to carry the food with us, since they served only drinks at the party.
We reached the party venue and it was a small pub but the crowd looked great! It was a pub where most of the people could speak English. There was a girl whose dress was entirely made up of the cloth used to dress wounds! Quite creative, I thought. The bartenders were dressed like doctors/nurses and the music was good too. Our skin colour was again distinct but that made us popular.
I was smiling at a lot of good-looking girls. I had short chats with a few of them and I had some Polish vodka too. We started dancing and I met Madame M. I thought she was cute and we started talking (she spoke good English) and dancing. She took me to the beach, which was very near to the party place, when the clock struck 12, and we saw fireworks. As we returned, I saw Bhaski was in a bad shape and Pappu and Yeda took him home. Only Pappu came back and I was with Madam M all the time. I don't remember what all I blabbered to her but she gave me her mail ID..;-) We danced till 3 AM and then I said goodbye to her and walked back home with Pappu. We had a long chat during the walk, with the food that we had got from home still intact..;-)
Next morning, amid teasing from everyone (including Chocha) about my so-called 'love affair' with Madam M, I woke up and had breakfast. Chocha took us to Gdansk, the largest of the three cities in the tri-city area (Gdynia and Sopot being the other two). We walked around the city, had some nice coffee at a coffee shop and paid a visit to a beautiful church. The church had some carvings in German, indicating the German occupation of Gdansk in the past.
We had lunch at KFC where we watched a veggie Bhaski eating only salad and French fries.
We returned to Sopot in the evening, packed our bags and went to Gdynia to catch our bus to Hannover. After saying our goodbyes to Chocha, we were on our way to Hannover.
Jenkuye Pappu and Polska, for the great trip!!