Warsaw this about then?
Trip Start
Sep 25, 2008
1
3
29
Trip End
Apr 01, 2009
Warsaw,
Central Poland,
Poland
Saturday, September 27, 2008
We both found it suprisingly easy to sleep on the train, but you tend to wake up quite frequently and get that strange feeling when you wake up and can't quite figure out where you are.
We woke up at about 7:30am, and Sarah pointed out that we were in Frankfurt. Frankfurt? Now my geography isn't fantastic, but with my vague knowledge of Germany I knew you didn't need to catch a sleeper train from Cologne to Frankfurt, what had we been doing all night???
But then I remembered a story a colleague told me just last week, about following road signs to Frankfurt Oder, which he thought was the scenic 'other' route
What does Wsch. mean?
. Actually it's the 'Other' Frankfurt, border town with Poland. And sure enough, we rolled out of the station, over a river and the next sign was unmistakably Polish.The carriage attendent bought us a coffee, and a note he'd written out to say we were running 90 minutes 'later'. But this was fine, the sun was shining into our carriage, it was lovely just watching the Polish farmlands and Forest roll by. That's about all there is to see from the train, Farms, Forests and empty station platforms.
Apart from one, non-empty station platform. Which we pulled into just as Sarah decided to get changed, with the blinds up! I think she got away with it.
So we rolled into Warsaw around midday, followed the directions to the hostel and checked in. It was then that it dawned on us that we had no idea what there was to see in Warsaw, we were only really there to break the journey to Moscow. We hadn't spoken to a single person before leaving that had a good thing to say about the city, and at least one of those people was Polish.
But, as it turned out, this was slightly unfair
Our train
. I'm sure that when we look back on this trip it won't rank amongst the most memorable cities, but we were there so what could we do?The hostel gave us a map and circled the city centre and the Old Town. We headed off to the Old Town. So named because it is old, or at least was old, before Hitler levelled the entire city in 1944 having seized control.
But it was rebuilt in the old style, including the massive castle and palace, and they did a pretty good job, it only occasionally feels like you're in Disney Land!
Having walked round the Old Town we headed back to the hostel and stopped off for a quick drink at 'Roosters', which turned out to be a bit of a Polish take on Hooters where the girls wore hot-pants and frowns.
Back in the hostel we got talking to two Irish guys, Joe and Dermot. Dermot had been promoting Ireland at a tourism fair in the city, Joe had flown over from Luxembourg to join him, but he was 4 days in to a 6 day stay and was suffering from Warsaw Cabin Fever.
Good morning Poland!
Having taken advantage of the 2 beers for 7 Zloties happy hour we all returned to Roosters, as the lads had claimed they hadn't found anywhere decent to drink. So we drank the evening away on Polish beer, got back to the hostel via a Jazz club and set down for the night.
I woke up with a sore head.
In fairness, I should have been worse, but somehow got away with it. We checked out of the hostel and had 4 hours or so before our train so wondered off into town. Warsaw shopping centre could be Bluewater or Lakeside. British shops with the occasional Polish one weaved in-between. I had half a big-mac to cure the hangover, and a lie-down in the park while Sarah read.
Sarah suggested we go back to the hostel to write this entry. 'But something interesting might happen before we leave' I replied. She laughed.
I was right.
Having picked up our bags and hiked across to Warsaw Centralna station
Bunks
. Sarah checked the tickets to see the exact time the train departed and looked up at me with that 'something's really wrong' look. The train left from Warsaw Wschodnia.Suddenly we felt very alone, no-one spoke English, we didn't speak Polish, all we had was a piece of paper with the name of a station on it!
Having failed to get any useful information from the ticket lady as to whether there was a train between the two stations we withdrew some money (having spent carefully to make sure we weren't left with any excess Zloties!). We found a willing taxi driver, pointed to our bit of paper, and set off, hopefully to Warsaw Wschodnia.
We had no idea how far away this place was, or how long the journey was likely to take, but as it turned out 20 minutes later, and 30 Zloties lighter (including a 50% tip as the guy had very little change) we were there, with at least 45 minutes to spare!
So we sat on the platform and hoped we were in the right place. I went to check if there was a plan of the carriages, there was a similar thing at Cologne. There was no plan, but there was a timetable, and on this timetable was the information that we really should have checked in those few panicked minutes at Centralna.
The train stops at BOTH stations!
Que sera, we thought. Actually this station was a bit nicer, we could sit out in the sun. Actually it has been sunny ever since leaving England, wonder when that'll change!
And that was that, the train turned up on time, we found our little room again, this time a 3 berth. We waited to see if anyone would join us but as night set in it was looking hopeful-no other companions............
