Mr. Big Food was an invited lecturer at the School of Ideas in Neuroscience–a week long summer school of sorts. Most of the participants were grad students and post-docs. The organizers had arranged for the group to walk to a joint on the river for beer and supper on the evening of the first day. Cowboy boots are not walking two miles, so a taxi was arranged. A licensed taxi, everyone assumed.

The three of us chatted it up as we made our way through a crowded business district. I swear I thought the driver ran a red light, and sure enough in a few blocks a siren and red lights. Driver pulled over. Standard procedure except for the back talk the driver gave the cop and the smack the cop gave the driver. Of course, all of this is just a guess as none of us speak Polish.

Driver gets out and cop takes him back to a paddy wagon. By now the three of us no longer think the issue is a red light. Driver comes back, cop opens trunk. Cop takes driver to a second (!) paddy wagon that has shown up. Cop gets in behind the wheel of the taxi and says, “Ride over.”

Okay then.

And here are Mr. Big Food and a guy whose name I cannot remember on a street somewhere in Warsaw. (Note the paddy wagon.)

Fortunately, both the guy and I had phone contact information for two different organizers. Between them they did whatever they did to get a taxi to pick us up and take us to the river venue.

Lots of speculation among the Polish folk about what might have been going on. Unlicensed driver in a taxi with a plate that signified a licensed driver? Drugs? Kidnapping? (It’s okay. I had my knife.) Who knows?

This is the venue. Lovely joint. We had classic Polish beer & pizza.

I stepped away for about 15 minutes to talk to Kat–which was part of a whole ‘nother adventure. Or two, now that I think about it.