Journey to funeral: Poles flocked to train and bus stations and readied cars for a long journey yesterday, as thousands of Pope John Paul's countrymen looked for ways to get to his funeral in Rome on Friday.
Queues quickly grew and tempers frayed at Warsaw's main railway station after the Vatican announced details of the ceremony at St Peter's Square, and dashed the hopes of many Poles that the Pontiff's body - or perhaps just his heart - would be returned to his homeland.
One Warsaw pensioner was soon locked in a Kafkaesque struggle for passage to Rome with a flustered retainer at the international ticket office.
"They say on television that there will be special trains to Rome," he ventured through the small hole in the plastic window that divided them.
"Yes, there will."
"When will they go?"
"I don't know."
"When will you know?"
"When head office send a telegram to start selling tickets."
"When will that be?"
"When we know what time the trains will leave."
The man abandoned his quest with a heavy sigh. When she had calmed down, the official said she had already fielded dozens of requests for tickets to Rome and expected to have details of special, direct trains later in the day.
But it was unclear whether the PKP state railway company would be able to cope with the demand.
"Within 15 minutes of our announcement of extra trains to Rome, one million people clicked on our website, which just collapsed," said Jacek Przesluga, head of the company's Intercity department.
He said PKP could offer only 4,000 seats on direct trains to Rome from major Polish cities, while tens of thousands of Poles are hoping to travel.
Polish national airline LOT said all flights to Rome had been sold out until the weekend, and would fly bigger-than-usual aircraft on the route this week. The firm is also in discussions with Roman airport operators to offer more flights."We have a waiting list even in business class," said a LOT spokesman.
Eryk Klopotowski, a spokesman for regional budget airline Sky Europe, said his company had also been swamped by demand.
"There is huge interest. Virtually within a few hours after the tragic news broke on Saturday night we sold out all tickets on our planes to Rome," he said.
Some Poles moved fast enough, however.
"We could get no concrete information on the special buses and trains, so we tried for a plane ticket and were lucky," said Michal Szmanowski (24), a business student in Warsaw who was trying to buy a train ticket to get back with his fiancee from Rome.
"I won't be able to stay there for the funeral but I want to see the Holy Man before he is buried. I have never seen him on his visits to Poland and it will be too late soon."
He said his €150 one-way flight ticket was beyond the reach of most Poles, and feared that even the train tickets could stretch the budget of many people here, where unemployment is high and poverty, especially in the provinces, still widespread.
"Friends of mine are getting the train to Vienna and then on to Rome from there. It takes a full day and costs about €150 return," Michal said.
Two nuns, Sr Teresa and Sr Damiana, waited for their train back to the town of Otwock, about 40km outside Warsaw, after seeing their reverend mother off on a flight to Rome to represent the Benedictine order there.
"For me he was like my own father," said Sr Teresa. "Today I know he has moved on and I hope he prays for me. I saw him in Poland in Warsaw, Krakow, Czestochowa, Gdansk and it was incredible. It made me cry. But somehow now I feel he is even closer to me."
Private bus companies responded as quickly as they could to the wave of requests for tickets and accommodation in the Italian capital.
One was offering a return bus journey for the equivalent of €165, and travel with two nights accommodation for €210. "The hotel is one star and is one hour outside Rome," the company representative added. Lukasz Ornowski (24) and his two fellow students turned down the offer. "It's too expensive. Maybe there will be cheaper state buses or trains to Rome," Lukasz said.
"I will try my best to be there on Friday. The Pope was the most important person in my life, perhaps the best we have ever had." And if there are no tickets that he can afford? "We can always hitchhike," Lukasz smiled. His friends nodded eagerly in agreement.