Posted on 04/04/2005 11:38:42 AM PDT by lizol
Poles Head for Rome to Bid Farewell to 'Their' Pope Mon Apr 4, 2005 1:57 PM BST
By Pawel Kozlowski
WARSAW (Reuters) - Thousands of grieving Poles struggled Monday to find spare seats in trains, planes and buses headed for Rome to take part in the funeral of their country's greatest son, Pope John Paul.
"Within 15 minutes after our announcement of extra trains to Rome one million people clicked on our Web site, which just collapsed," Jacek Przesluga, head of state railway PKP Intercity told a news conference.
PKP said it can offer no more than 4,000 seats on direct trains to Rome from major Polish cities -- a fraction of the demand conservatively estimated by local media to be in the tens of thousands.
National air carrier LOT said Monday all flights to Rome had been sold out through Friday, when the Pope's funeral will be held. The carrier plans to fly bigger aircraft this week and is in talks with Rome airport operators to offer more flights.
"We have a waiting list even in our business class," said a LOT spokesman. Private transport firms, including coach operators and budget airlines, also said they decided to offer extra buses or redirect planes to Italy from other destinations over the next few days.
"There is huge interest. Virtually within a few hours after the tragic news broke Saturday night we sold out all tickets on our planes to Rome," said Eryk Klopotowski, spokesman for Sky Europe, a Bratislava-based low-budget carrier.
The drudgery of a near 30-hour journey by road, a prospect of spending several nights on a coach, or the burden of a costly ticket worth at least 150 euros ($193.3) -- more than half the minimum wage -- appeared to be no obstacle for many Poles.
"I was a small boy when He was elected the Pope. He paid us so many visits and now it's time for me to go on a trip and say goodbye to him," wrote Piotr, who put an advert on the local Onet.pl Web portal to find a seat in a private car to Rome.
The most popular portal in Poland launched an advisory page on "How to get to Rome quickly," offering tips on the possible connections and seats in private cars while local TV channels started giving detailed weather forecasts for Italy.
"We already have 400 pilgrims who want to fly," said Mariola Peknicka from the Krakow diocese, where Karol Wojtyla was archbishop from 1964 until he became Pope in 1978.
"We have to wait to see how many charter flights we can get. With every minute there are more and more people coming asking how we can help them to get to Rome," she added.
The Pontiff is revered in Poland for playing a role in helping to overthrow communism and help it rejoin the European mainstream after half a century of domination from Moscow.
John Paul's first visit as Pope to the then communist Poland in 1979 drew millions of people on to the streets.
Polska Pingski.
If he hadn't been Pope, the idea of so many Poles freely traveling to Rome might not ever have been a reality.
If he hadn't been Pope, the idea of so many Poles freely traveling to Rome might not ever have been a reality.
***
Amen.
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