Meeting Mark...

After spending about an hour at the Internet Café, I headed back toward the train station and checked in at the ticket counter. The lady behind the desk was not very helpful, and didn’t really seem to be attempting to try. I was just musing about whether or not this is typical behavior for people in Katowice when I ran into a young man whose name I later learned was Mark. Trying to discern the information on my train ticket, I tentatively asked him if he spoke English. He smiled, and then said, “a little”. Later on, I learned that that meant “I speak fluent English, and a couple of other languages, but didn’t want to sound presumptuous to a native speaker”, as is often the case with many of the people who live here. Anyway, Mark was waiting for his wife to return from Warsaw, and as her train was delayed, we had a fantastic conversation for the better part of an hour. During this time, I learned that he has traveled extensively (most recently to Marekash and Morocco), worked for General Motors as a welding engineer designer, and now has struck out on his own with his brother to supply to the automotive industry both domestic and abroad. He regularly listened for me to see what the loudspeakers would say, and when my train rolled in, he made sure that I got on it. I waved to him and thanked him, and thought to myself about not only how grateful I was to have met him, but how cool that God put him in my path. I realized too late that I forgot to get his picture.

Interesting note: As I’m going to visit Csjethe Castle, and as it’s the spot where Elizabeth Bathory lived and reigned, I thought it was funny that the train I boarded was called the “Bathory Line”. When I asked Mark about it, he said that it was named for the Polish King Bathory, who was a relative of Elizabeth’s and to whom she was closely tied. How weird is that to be riding to see Bathory on the Bathory line?