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We’re sitting in the kitchen on Piaskowa Góra at poet Anita Jagodzińska’s in Wałbrzych, a Greek salad for breakfast, pickled ginger, peaches, and cherries. Coffee, of course, already brewed in a glass coffee mokka pot. And we’ve been chatting away from the morning about poetry. Haiku is landing on a soy pâté sandwich. And Wałbrzych, the scariest city in the world – as the local taxi driver told us – carries us with its leisurely yet magical rhythm.

It was a completely spontaneous idea to meet my friend, also poet Justyna Paluch on the way to Jedlina Zdrój. From Wrocław, we’re taking a Lower Silesian Railway train. It’s supposed to be a very scenic route, but we’re so chatty…

Right before the final station, we see streams, green mountains, and wooden bridges. And at the station in Jedlina Zdrój Center, the sun is shining brightly. We feel freewheelingly. Crickets chirp in the grass, mountains all around, wild herbs, hippie headscarves – the perfect mood for adventure in beggining of August.

Anita, who’s joining us from Wałbrzych, is also amazed by Jedlina’s secret charm. A sign just outside the station leads directly to Magic Mountain (Czarodziejska Góra). And after a forest walk, we emerge directly at the Apple Pie Bus stop (Autobus Szarlotka). It turns out this is a free electric bus that runs between Jedlina’s districts.

However, we have the impression that the Apple Pie Trail is trying to lead us. Along the way, we’re also drawn to Café Charlottka. Then we pass another place with an apple pie sign in the window, opposite a second-hand called “Dzwoneczka” (A Little Bell) which also seems like something out of a fairy tale.

We walk through the forest again, up the hill, and reach a small station with a single platform, where we sit on a bench, thinking a train to Wałbrzych will soon arrive. Meanwhile, the platform is quiet, with only a single carriage and locomotive parked. It looks a bit like something from another era, but we hope it will take us to Wałbrzych Miasto.

To our surprise, it turns out to be the Görlitz77 sleeper car of the Wrocław Railway Enthusiasts’ Club, preparing for a technical test.

“Hey girls, would you like some homemade cake?” -ask one of the club members, passing us a baking form filled with apple pie and blueberry cake through the train window.

But there’s nothing like sitting in the kitchen. The clatter of plates and cutlery, the scent of herbs and rose petals. The lentil soup is delicious. The bowls are in our favorite colors. Green tea from a teapot and porcelain cups purchased at the local flea market.

Piaskowa Góra is the oldest housing estatewith blocks in Wałbrzych, and from there it’s not that far to the meadows, and you can still, or maybe not quite, but almost, walk to Szczawno-Zdrój via a dirt road. The azimuth leads to Mount Chełmiec.

In the park next to the theater, we settle down for waffles and fries. And then, among the flowers, we visit the Theater Tea Room – Herbaciarnia Teatralna recommended by Anita. There, we pull out our volumes: “nothing happened” “A Fraction of Eternity” and “A Thousand Brilliant Galaxies” and record a film about the meeting of three poets.

We read in turn: Justyna reads her poem, then me read Anita’s poem, and then Anita reads my two poems.

We talk about poems for a long time, and haiku suddenly descends upon us again, like rain after a heatwave.

The next day, we buy mini blueberry buns and redcurrant pastries at the local Świerczyńscy bakery. We drive to the center of Wałbrzych, wander the empty streets, drink in another theater, and wonder what Wałbrzych is really like.

A Meeting of Three Poets

We pass the Apollo Cinema
But our meeting is like a movie
in which we sit in the kitchen
and eat Greek salad for breakfast
seasoned with haiku

-I can't do it
-That's good
-Break away from who I am
-Is it spining?

Silence, laughter, apple pie,
a train carriage 
like a wordless poem
Slag heaps of banality 
transformed into magical mountains
in the scariest city in the world

the poem by Małgorzata Kozłowska-Doczyk

And on Justyna Paluch’s YouTube profile, another completely spontaneous video. Ahoy, a poetic adventure!