The Vaulted Halls of Malbork Castle

The white and red of the flag is supposed to represent a dying eagle. The white is the feathers and the red it its blood. The whole country is like a "depressing fact of the day" tear-sheet calendar.

Really living like a Edna St. Vincent Millay poem the past few days, and I'm starting to fade out. Gave myself permission to move a meeting to later and slept in an extra hour. Also made a mad dash to Malbork Castle. It was just a speed-train station away.

The trains here are so so choice. I wish we had them in the States. Free mineral water with ticket! Boarding was a little chaotic, though. At that hour, there were a lot of women with bags of artichokes. They had to place them just so before they could clear the aisle.

A little boy was yelling about yogurt and his mother asked him, I assume, to remember where he was and to use his "train voice." He spoke in a kind of hilarious stage whisper the rest of the way. I was thoroughly charmed and wished him a life of chocolate.

There was barely time to read about how Napoleon's Polish mistress had a ring made out of shrapnel, when we were in Tczew. I made any number of Ah, Tczew sneeze jokes until I heard the conductor pronounce it as "Chev."

We took the Tczewy to the levy and moved on to Malbork, It's enormous, this place. A magnificent, sprawling complex straight out of a YA novel about the sheep boy and the bread girl. It was great fun to wander through it's endless halls and imagine servants hurrying along and priests sweeping the floor with their robes. Boiling oil, arrow slits, the bread girl and the sheep boy lingering near a spiral staircase.

I wondered for a while if, like, Disney has ruined the real thing for me. Like, they sure do a good job of making restaurants look like old castles. But I was enjoying myself in any case. Maybe I just felt... prepared by the fakes.

I got marvelously lost. Disney doesn't let that happen. Chamber after chamber opened up. Doors that seemed sealed would suddenly open to reveal another lost person looking for the way out.

Eventually found the ausgang and hurried back to the taxi area to make it back to the train to make it to my meeting. The driver high-fived the air three times to let me know I would have to pay him 15 zloty.

The train was delayed, and the air was thin and cold. I read more about the ring. The shrapnel was from the exploding shell that killed Napoleon's horse.

On the train, a man kept raising and lowering his tray. It made a terrible creaking sound. He was like a demented bandleader.

There was time in Gdansk for a kebab before work. I used that time for just that purpose. Gypsy children, the first I've seen this trip wore colorful hats and begged. I gave them a zloty each and I think the counter people saw and delayed preparing my food in revenge.

At the office, The main conference room has an enormous window that looks out on a field and a track. During meetings, I position myself to watch the runners as they circle. It's very peaceful. I like the office culture here. Lots of fruit, frequent walks, some people change into sweats and run after meetings. It's nice.

Did my part for the home office. Long phone conference. Turned down some invitations to get wasted with the locals (way out in Gdynia for heaven's sake!) and limped home.

Tomorrow I go with the "better to ask forgiveness than permission" principle and sneak off to Krakow. I wish myself a life of chocolate.