I once again passed by the ugly, squalid buildings and half-drunk gentlemen stinking of sweat and cigarettes. The stench reminded me of the elevator in my blok. And The Stain visible from my balcony. My face twisted in disgust. As if seeing it, they gave me uneasy, stern looks while I strode by. One spat on the ground, but this might just as well have been from the cigarette as me.
When I entered the dworzec, I still had a few minutes left. I felt rather content with the little sightseeing trip I had just returned from. But my mood took a nosedive when I saw that my train was delayed. By a whole two hours…
Feeling helpless, I tried to find some at least half-comfortable place to sit out the wait. But I couldn’t find one. All the benches, both outside and inside, were occupied by sleeping drunk hobos or some shady men giving me even more shady looks. I didn’t want to draw attention, since I surely wasn’t welcome with my luggage. I decided it would be best to just wander around the neighborhood for the next couple hours…
I was really glad when my train finally arrived. I boarded it, leaving the ugly, reeking dworzec behind. I was also glad that I would be travelling on an InterCity train this time, instead of a regular Regio one. The thing about InterCity trains was that they didn’t stop at every station, so they usually reached their destination faster. Also, every passenger would be assigned a seat, so there was no chance of overcrowding, which was an essential part of traveling with the Regio trains.
Overall, the InterCity trains were just better and a little more reliable. Albeit also much more expensive. And reliability was not guaranteed, since they travelled much longer distances, so they had many more opportunities to be delayed somewhere in the middle, as I had just seen.
They were also equipped with some conveniences: air conditioners that worked only half the time and a WARS car. That was an abbreviation for WAgony Restauracyjne i Sypialniane. It meant they provided eating and sleeping space for travelers. Essentially, the dining cars were super expensive restaurants on wheels with rather bad dishes. So if anyone ever decided to buy anything there, it was either a bottle of water or cup of coffee or tea.
But they also sold all kinds of sweets, chocolate bars and other similar stuff. There was no way to forget about that fact, because once in a while someone from the WARS staff had to go through the whole train with a trolley filled with snacks, shouting out what they sold. Since it was rare for anyone to ever buy anything from them, I liked to think that these trolleys existed only to piss off the passengers, because they could barely squeeze in between the seats. If anyone’s arm or knee stuck out just a tiny bit into the passageway, they could be sure that the trolley would hit them. If anyone was unlucky enough to get up from their seat to go to the toilet while the trolley was in motion, they had to either squeeze into a nearby seat – occupied or not – or get rammed by the WARS worker, since they rarely stopped.
The car I had bought myself a seat in was rather empty, so at last I could zone out and let time flow by. And before I knew it, I had fallen asleep and only woke up to the sound of the train braking at my final destination. I hurriedly grabbed my belongings and stepped onto the platform, feeling a cool fresh sea breeze I hadn’t felt in a long time.
Transadaptation Volume 6 – Meaning? – Uncertainty, Instability and Extremes Transadapted
January: A Regular Train Trip – Mateusz Tymoszewski (Poland)
February: Growing Up – Adriana Uribe (Columbia)
March: Mess – Veronika Groke (Austria)
April: The Roads We Take – Svetlana Molchanova (Russia)
May: Need – Nadia Silva Castro (Brazil)
June: “Next Sunshine” – Jonay Quintero Hernandez (Spain)
July: Pandemic Love – Xiakun Li (China)
August: Planet Kyiv – Anastasiia Leonova (Ukraine)
September: Feeling like a Fool – Ulrike Bergmeister (Germany)
October: Stories of Outcast Souls – Armine Asryan (Armenia)
November: Ronaldinha – Alejandra Baccino (Uruguay)
December: Aimlessly – Krisztina Janosi (Hungary)
Background – Context
Transadaptation Volume 5: Of Flowing Vicissitudes – Change Transadapted (forthcoming: January), (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2024)
Transadaptation Volume 4: Material Dissent – Adulthood Transadapted, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2023)
Transadaptation Volume 3: Evanescent – Young Adulthood Transadapted, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2022)
Transadaptation Volume 2: Conceived – Childhood Transadapted, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2021)
Transadaptation Volume 1: In the Middle – Prelude to a Contemporary Transadaptation, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2020)
Peripatetic Alterity: A Philosophical Treatise on the Spectrum of Being – Romantics and Pragmatists by Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2019)
La Syncrétion of Polarization and Extremes Transposée, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2019)
The Codex of Uncertainty Transposed, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2018)
L’anthologie of Global Instability Transpuesta, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2017)
From Wahnsinnig to the Loony Bin: German and Russian Stories Transposed to Modern-day America, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2013)
Emblems and stories on the international community
Perception by country – Transposing emblems, articles, short stories and reports from around the world
Credits
Left column (top to bottom): 1. Gdansk, Poland – Main train station – Victoria Antre (Shutterstock); 2. Wroclaw, Poland – The main train station – Longfin Media (Shutterstock); 3. Warsaw, Poland – The platform – Martyn Jandula (Shutterstock)
Middle column (top to bottom): 1. Krakow, Poland – The station at night – Karol Smoczynski (Unsplash); 2. Wroclaw, Poland – Up and down – Tadeusz Zachwieja (Unsplash)
Right column (top to bottom): 1. Gdynia, Poland – Barring wars – Aleksandra Budnik (Shutterstock); 2. Wladyslawowo, Poland – Waiting – Alexmak (Shutterstock)
Source: The Codex of Uncertainty Transposed