“Dr. West,” Jane reluctantly answered her phone.

“Wha cha doin, Dr. West?” Tamsin drew out her name in a fun but mocking way.

“Grading papers, Tam, what are you up to? “Don’t you have spring break coming up?” “I do, why?”

“Do you remember that map you showed me that you found in that store a few months back?

“I do, why?”

“Don’t you have a bunch of vacation to burn?” “I do….WHY?”

“Do you remember how, in college, we always talked about backpacking through Europe with Sam and Gwendolyn?”

“Tamsin…”

“Well, I figured since Sam and Gwen have quit their firms to go into practice together, and you have spring break coming up, and I am my own boss, that we could finally do it.”

Jane paused briefly. She needed a vacation, these students were going to be her end if she didn't. Glancing down at the paper she was grading, covered in red ink, much like the majority of them, "Why the heck not?" she muttered to herself

“Ok” She answered Tamsin

“Ok?” Tamsin thought she would have a little kickback, this was unexpected.

“Ok. Have you spoken to Sam and Gwendolyn?” “Not yet, I wanted you in first. ”

“Well, get on it and let me know.” “Sweeeeeeeeeeeeet. Ok, ok, I’ll call ya back.”

Jane placed the phone back on her desk, paused, shook her head, smiled, and went back to grading her papers.

Tamsin sat her phone down and turned to her laptop. She was excited and immediately started looking for flights. “Sam and Gwen will insist on first class.” She muttered to herself as she typed.

"Hey, what cha doin'?" Tamsin had just purchased the tickets when her phone rang.

"Gwendolyn and I just left our fencing class! I kicked that butt!" Sam laughed

"Ha! You wish it was that easy." Gwendolyn commented from the back ground

"Y'all are crazy, but that's why we love you!" Tamsin was laughing at their banter. "Y'all free tomorrow night? Want to meet us for dinner?"

"Hey, Gwen, tomorrow night good for dinner with Tam and J?" Sam turned to double check, "She said yeah, so we will be there!"

"Awesome, see y'all there!" Tamsin was suddenly more excited, if that was possible.

“Gwendolyn, Sam, over here!” Tamsin waved from a table across the veranda.

“Hey guys!” Sam waved back as she and Gwendolyn made their way through the tables. “It’s about time we met up for dinner.”

“Yeah, it’s been, what? Two weeks?” Sam joked as she sat.

Gwendolyn slid into a seat and grabbed the menu, “I’m starving, let’s get an appetizer.”

Tamsin jokingly rolled her eyes, “Your little blonde butt is always starving. If only I could figure out how you stay so skinny!”

“It’s all in the genes.”

“But, you're wearing slacks.” Sam looked at her with a stone-cold, straight face. She got a friendly smack on the arm from Gwendolyn.

The four friends ordered and caught up on current events. “So, when are y’all planning on officially opening your firm?” Jane was too excited to small talk before finding out if the trip would be a go.

“Right now, we are looking at a month, maybe a month and a half,” Sam answered

“Yeah, we have everything ready, we are just enjoying off time before we never vacation again.” Gwendolyn laughed.

“Well, speaking of vacation.” Tamsin leaned in, “What if we finally did that backpacking through Europe thing that we always talked about in college?”

Sam and Gwendolyn looked at each other and smiled. “It’s funny you ask that. We were just discussing that the other night.”

Gwendolyn was excited “Seriously?” Jane asked

“Seriously!” Sam answered, “I don’t know why, I just started thinking about it a week or so ago and Gwen said we should ask y’all. I was planning on asking at dinner tonight. Why?”

“That is some Freaky Friday stuff right there!” Tamsin laughed “I called Jane yesterday and asked her if she could swing it, and we were going to ask y’all at dinner tonight.”

About that time a figure in Tamsin's perifrial vision caught her attention. By the time she turned to look straight on, it was gone.

"What's wrong?" Jane leaned in and whispered.

"Nothing, I just thought I saw something, but I guess I didn't." Tamsin replied, but Jane could tell something had bothered her.

“That solves it then! To Europe we go!” Sam exclaimed

“This is finally happening! Wow! We sure have talked about it long enough. So, where were you thinking of starting?” Their dinner had just arrived and Gwendolyn was subtly doing her “happy dinner dance”.

“You and your love for food!” Tamsin joked, “I was thinking Poland? Maybe?”

“Cool, why Poland?” Sam was curious.

Tamsin’s grandfather always told us these awesome stories when we were at his house. About waterfalls and a beautiful green valley tucked away in the mountains. He never said exactly where they were supposed to be, but I always imagined Poland or Germany or Russia for some reason.”

“Me too!” Tamsin beamed, “And your map, the one you found in the antique store…”

“Oh yeah, we did decide it was somewhere in Poland!” Now Jane was getting super excited. "The mountain ranges depicted on it seem to line up with two ranges close to Krakow."

“This is so cool! I can hardly wait!” Gwendolyn was trying to wave down the waitress for dessert. “I guess we need to start looking for plane tickets.”

“Um,” Tamsin sheepishly grinned

“You’ve already done that, haven’t you?” Jane asked

“Maybe… maybe we have first class tickets leaving next Wednesday!” Tamsin admitted.

A short silence fell over the table then Sam broke the tension, “Heck yeah! I gotta get to packing!”

"First class?" Gwendolyn looked up from the desert menu. "You rock, Tamsin!"

"I knew you two would require first class, and I figured, 'why not?' We will only go to Poland once. Probably." They all laughed and continued planning their trip.

Sam and Gwendolyn were waving as they left in Sam's 1967 Mustang Fastback.

"That was fun." Tamsin said as she and Jane began walking to their cars.

"It was. I always enjoy our dinners." Jane responded. "I can't wait for Wednesday to get here, this trip has been a long time coming."

"Remember that dream I told you about a month or so ago?" Tamsin stopped at her F150

"The one with the lady's voice that you know but don't know?"Jane asked

"Yeah. Well, I have had it twice more. Night before last I wasn't standing in the dark anymore though. I was at this huge, gorgeous waterfall." She paused for a second, "I was standing there with an older man and the three of you. All I could hear was the waterfall even though y'all were all talking to each other. Then, the voice came again, from behind the waterfall. 'Tamsin, it's time.' That's all she said, then I woke up.When I rolled over, my laptop was lit up even though I ALWAYS turn it off before bed. I got up to turn it off and the browser was open to a page talking about those mountains that you were talking about the other day."

"That's weird. Had you been reading about them?" Jane asked.

"No. I hadn't used the browser at all that day. I had only gotten on to check some security stuff through the app. It was weird."

"Maybe it is just your subconscious screaming at you to take this trip."

"Maybe so. Anywho, I just needed to tell someone so I didn't go crazy alone." Tamsin laughed

"Love, you aren't going crazy. You have been crazy for many, many years!" Jane joked and dodged a smack on the arm.

Wednesday morning came both too fast and not fast enough. The four women met at the international terminal, each sporting oversized backpacks and varying degrees of preparedness. Sam looked like she’d stepped out of a North Face catalog. Gwendolyn had somehow managed to fit what looked like her entire closet into her pack. Jane carried a worn leather satchel alongside her backpack, stuffed with books she might want to read.Tamsin bounced on her heels, unable to contain her excitement.

“Last chance to back out,” Jane said, though her smile suggested she didn’t mean it.

“Not a chance,” Sam grinned. “First class to Krakow, here we come.”

Take off was smooth and the “free to move around the cabin” signal was given quickly.

“Man, Tamsin, you lucked up finding a direct flight that wasn’t jam packed with people!” Jane was enjoying her first class experience with hardly any other passengers.

“I know, and the weirdest part was I didn’t have to look long. I searched flights to Poland and, boom!, there this one sat, at a dang good price too!”

“Now I know who to use as a travel agent for all my future trips.” Sam kicked her seat back and stretched out.

“So, what are the plans when we land?” Gwendolyn joined the conversation, “I can’t wait to try some authentic Polish cuisine!”

“Well,” Jane pulled out the map she had found in the antique book store a few years back, “Here is what we have, not a lot. There are few markings telling us where this is, but I THINK I have narrowed it down to two mountain ranges outside of Krakow.”

“They look like they are in opposite directions.” Tamsin pointed out.

“Yeah, I was going to get a vote on which to try first. These,” Jane pointed to a mountain range that had a cross on them, “are the Holy Cross mountains, if I have calculated correctly.”

“Oh!” Gwendolyn bounced up from her reclined position, “I have heard of those! They are some of the oldest mountains in Europe.”

“How have you heard about them?” Jane asked, "You slept through every history or geography class we took.”

“In college, yeah. However, if you will recall, not too long ago I sat in the last few minutes of one of your lectures, waiting on you to wrap it up so we could go to lunch!” Gwendolyn laughed

“You actually paid attention?”

“Well, you made it interesting!”

“Awwwww.” Sam cut in, “No kidding, though, she wouldn’t shut up for days about how good a professor you are. She may have retained a little learnin' if you had been doing the teaching!”

“I retained a little, thank you." Gwendolyn jested back. "A little."

So, if those are the Holy Cross, what are the others?” Tamsin asked.

“That would make the others, I think, the Tatra Mountains. A much younger mountain range with glacial lakes. I thought that the younger mountains may stand a better chance of having a waterfall.” Jane explained

“That settles it then,”Tamsin declared, “To the Tatras we go!”

“Are we gonna walk from Krakow to the mountains? That looks like a way long way?”

“Do do do do way long way…yeah that’s a way long way” Gwendolyn was singing fairly loudly and super happy about it, eyes closed, swaying. When she opened her eyes she was met with three blank stares and silence. “What? It is a way long way. To walk, anyways.”

“That song…” Jane started

“Wave.On.Wave. Gwen.” Sam said matter of factly. “Wave on wave.”

“Pat Green?” The stewardess caught the end of Sam’s statement

Jane looked up, ”Yeah. Nutzo here thought it was way long way.” The stewardess, with a blank stare, slowly turned to Gwendolyn, then looked up, sang it to herself, and laughed, “Oh! Yeah, I hear it.” Then she held up a finger and rushed off, calling back to the girls, “Hold on.”

A minute later, “Way Long Way” began playing over the intercom. Everyone burst out laughing. When the stewardess came back she smiled at Gwendolyn, “I had to!”

Gwendolyn was laughing with the rest “You're good. I’d have had to too! This is the best flight ever!”

Hours later the plane landed in Krakow. The girls said goodbye to the stewardess and headed out of the airport.

"That was an awesome flight." Sam mentioned "I think we made a friend, too."

"Yeah, I'm glad she hung around and chatted with us!" Gwendolyn was still humming the tune to Wave On Wave. "Who knew you could learn so much as a stewardess."

"We HAVE to go see St. Mary's Basilica before we go home!" Tamsin loved old architecture.

"Totally." Jane agreed, "But first we have to catch the train going into town!"

"Did we ever decide if we are staying in Krakow tonight or going straight to Zakopane?" Jane wondered

"I think getting to Zakopane tonight would be best. The way the stewardess spoke about the city, I think we might find ourselves having a hard time leaving." Tamsin was torn about waiting until last to see Krakow.

"No kidding!" Jane knew the four of them would be in tourist heaven when they saw Krakow. "Why don't we plan on saving a day or two for Krakow after our backpacking trip?"

"I agree." Sam added, "I know I don't want to be rushed there."

"I wonder if we can get a train straight to Zakopane from here?" Jane was looking for a train schedule

As the girls approached the ticket window, the lady behind the counter greeted them in Polish, then English.

"Oh, thank goodness." Tamsin started laughing and the lady smiled a friendly smile. "Can we get four tickets to Zakopane, please?"