Packing for Poland

We are spending two days in Poland (including travel, so one day really) so naturally I have packed two books. Both are in French so they will take me longer to read than usual. I can feast on one French book for a few months, slowly digesting each syllable like some kind of book-devouring snake.

I don’t know what I was imagining really. That somewhere between exploring the city of Poznań, visiting their famous Croissant museum (home of St. Martin’s croissant!), and poking my nose into shops in their old-brewery-turned-shopping-centre, I would find the time to read not one but TWO French books. Books full of vocabulary I sort-of understand, but will inevitably have to look up.

I guess at the end of the day it’s a comfort thing. Books are my safety blanket in which I hide from the world. Add in the layer of complexity and thought process required to decipher another language and it becomes a weighted safety blanket. You’d need a crane to pull me out from underneath it.

Also, I’m a show-off. Look at me, I’m reading a book in French. Look at me. I’m English. We never do this sort of thing, yet here I am doing just that, aren’t I special? (Yes, I am.)

So if you take that all into account, it makes perfect sense I would pack two French books. Surprised I didn’t pack three, if I’m totally honest.

At least they are small books. The kind that are easily slipped into a back pocket, adding barely a whisper of weight to everything I am carrying around.

I’m not going to worry too much about it.

See you next time.

(Update added after flying back: I didn’t read either of the books and spent most of my free time watching YouTube. C’est la vie !)