Encounter in Warsaw

The girl at Orbis, the state tourist agency, in Cracow, apologized that she had to charge me 150 zlotys for telephoning to Warsaw for my hotel reservation. She handed me several typewritten sheets, duplicates of her telephone conversation, and assured me that I should find a room waiting for me at the Grand Hotel. But she had forgotten about the Congress against War and Fascism.

When I arrived in Warsaw at the end of a rainy afternoon, there were no rooms at the Grand. I could not even get into the lobby. A minatory porter told me, as he hustled me out of the door, that the whole building was reserved for Congress delegates. In front of the hotel the parked rows of Zims and Chaikas—insolent chariots, large, black and spotless—looked like 1940 Buicks and Packards at an antique car rally. Here in the Grand the delegates were the higherups, gold teeth flashing as they talked, comfortably aware of their importance as they strolled into the lobby barred to me.

FR

About the Author

Francis Russell

Featured Tags

The girl at Orbis, the state tourist agency, in Cracow, apologized that she had to charge me 150 zlotys for telephoning to Warsaw for my hotel reservation. She handed me several typewritten sheets, duplicates of her telephone conversation, and assured me that I should find a room waiting for me at the Grand Hotel. But she had forgotten about the Congress against War and Fascism.

When I arrived in Warsaw at the end of a rainy afternoon, there were no rooms at the Grand. I could not even get into the lobby. A minatory porter told me, as he hustled me out of the door, that the whole building was reserved for Congress delegates. In front of the hotel the parked rows of Zims and Chaikas—insolent chariots, large, black and spotless—looked like 1940 Buicks and Packards at an antique car rally. Here in the Grand the delegates were the higherups, gold teeth flashing as they talked, comfortably aware of their importance as they strolled into the lobby barred to me.