Thursday got off to a slow start. I had to drag myself out of bed, wash the smell of smoke out of my hair, get ready for work, and jump on the tram. Grabbed a quick lunch with the Marcins again, and then went on a long walk with the rest of the crew. They wanted to go to the cafeteria at a local college of education. Apparently its a good place to pick up girls, as opposed to AGH, the math and technical school, where it is 80% men. There weren't many people hanging around campus due to the student celebrations going on around town this week. There is a festival during this time where the mayor gives the key to the city to the students and they pretty much party non-stop. I couldn't tell the difference. I shared more stories of my experiences in India with the guys during lunch.
I needed to get my train tickets exchanged before Friday, since my travel plans had been rescheduled. I was a bit concerned about attempting to negotiate something that tricky in English, but Marcin came to the rescue again and offered to come down to the train station with me and help get me taken care of. So after work we took the tram to the train station and got it all worked out. Now I leave next Wednesday on the overnight train to Prague. When I get to Prague I will purchase a ticket to Vienna, and so on and so on. That way I won't have my trip set in stone and I can be a bit flexible on where I go and when I come back just in case I change my mind part way through.
On the way back to the tram I was feeling hungry so I bought a morsel of the specialty smoked sheep cheese, Oscypki, that villagers from the Zakopane mountains are famous for. It was tasty. I rode the tram back to old town, made plans with Marcin for later that evening, and headed back to the hotel. I dropped off my heavy bag, grabbed a quick kebab for dinner and walked to Marcin's apartment. I hadn't realized how close Marcin lived to the office, literally across the street.
We sat and talked until Szymon showed up with some wisniowka, a kind of cherry vodka, then we sat and drank and talked. We could hear the concert from Marcin's apartment and around 21:00 we finished off the vodka and headed out. I called Wolak and he said he'd meet us at the stadium. We waited for him outside the gate and then all went in together. We got in just as the biggest name band, Hey, was starting their set. We grabbed a couple beers and watched the concert from the back for awhile. Then we braved the massive crowd. I tried to keep up with Szymon and Marcin but they lost me and Wolak about halfway in. It was thick with bodies. We found a spot and sort of hopped in place for a few songs. We both laughed at the kids surfing the crowd, they looked like rag dolls the way they were being tossed about. Wolak spotted Szymon pushing his way back out of the crowd and we caught up with him for another beer and a kielbasa to replenish our stamina. It really hit the spot. Marcin found us and he was covered in dust from dancing in the thickest part of the crowd. When the lights would come up you could see a huge cloud of dust hanging in the air as it was kicked up from the dry ground by thousands of dancing concert goers.
After the concert broke up the whole crowd migrated down to the main square and the old town clubs. We, like good little drunken sheep, followed the crowd and ended up at the Jazz Rock Club. I did my best to dance on the packed dance floor, but it was very hot and my legs were about ready to fall off from exhaustion. Around 2:30 I said goodnight to the guys and went back to the hotel to crash for a couple hours before getting up for work again. This morning it was very hard to get out of bed. Almost caught up now! Ciao.
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