the (not so) mild days – part 2

The store I went to before entering the train didn’t quite have the single use spoon I was hoping to find, but it did have a fork. So I improvised on eating the Alpro protein puddings with a fork. I also did have more food items from earlier such as the vegan snack sausage I bought before the trip specifically for eating on this day (which I did at the circuit).

The train departed some 15 minutes after the scheduled time. For the first time I could say I was lying down in a train. There was decent amount of space for putting things. A single hanger up on the closet space. More of them down IIRC. In hinsight, I really should’ve put that hanger down so it would make less noise. I put my shirt onto it however.

A blue sink which you could use when putting up the lid. When it was down it served as an additional table. Next to it a section with a mirror, with more space for putting smaller things inside. Inside they provided a water bottle, an orange juice as well as a Polish chocolate bar (with milk so not vegan unfortunately). There was also a towel there and a small soap. I was hoping for some slippers but that wasn’t provided. For a toilet I’d have to leave the cabin to the outside toilet on my left side.

Arctic!!

As I laid down I could look outside the window at the passing scenery. Under the window a foldable seat. About half of the window was openable. I found it impossible or extremely hard to put down the roller blinds while the window was half open, however. Multiple plugs which were working. Buttons for lights and some other stuff, one which looked like a button for calling a train attendant, but I can’t recall what more. There was a switch which looked like it would be for controlling the temperature but I don’t think it did anything in my case.

You could close the doors with 3 different systems. One of them required some harder pushing everytime. No way to close when leaving so I didn’t feel comfortable being out and far from the cabin for too long. As part of many firsts through this trip, it was the first time I brushed my teeth on a train. I happened to be doing it just around a train stop too lol.

The idea was roughly to stay up at least till Bratislava (should’ve been there at about 10pm) and maybe just try going to sleep already after that point? The previous night hasn’t been the longest night of sleep. I did try to go about doing that plan.

Day 3

But through the night it was hard to get a long period of uninterrupted sleep. At most I might’ve gotten two hours uninterrupted? Overall it was probably up to 4 or even 5 but it was spread out between various periods of being up. Maybe it would’ve been better if I used earplugs but in terms of the ones I used at F1, I seemed to have lost one of the earplugs and with only a single one there kinda wasn’t a point to it. I suppose all the noises and turbulences were a bit too much.

And in a way, maybe it was for the better. It was a unique experience afterall. Yes it wasn’t the ideal night of sleep I needed, but I was able to catch some moments I might’ve missed if I had an easier time sleeping.

One of the wake up moments was after midnight in Czechia. First of all this was technically a new country among my visited ones, albeit only in transit. But that was a nice feeling. What was going on was confusion however, and maybe a bit of panic too.

I can’t clearly remember at what time this was, probably after 2am so maybe after one more smaller session of sleep. But the train was stopped in Hodonin. This wasn’t one of the planned stops on the route. The closest one was Breclav. Both of these places are just around the Slovakia Czechia border.

Presumably in the cabin next to me, there was a British sounding person. I could hear them say something like “we’re gonna need to head out”? Soon I tried to search if there’s any information about delays, diversions, potential requirements to move onto a different train. I actually did find something indicating a diversion but it wasn’t fully clear if this actually meant I’d have to change onto a different train or something. And I thought, if that was gonna happen, surely someone from the train staff would be there to tell us? In any case what seemed clear is that the train was indeed having a delay. Idk if this is a wrong recollection but I believe it went from Hodonin back towards Breclav and then from Breclav again in the Hodonin direction, and then when it became clear it passed Hodonin (for the second time?), my doubts were cleared and everything felt like it was “on track” although indeed over an hour late at that point. So whatever happened there with the train in the very early hours in Czechia is still a bit of a mystery.

Oh and through the night in Czechia there was some pretty strong rain. I slept (or at least tried to) some more till around Bohumin, the station around the Polish border. What I remember from around this time is that the rain seemed to stop and at the station there was what looked like an ad for a politician so I suppose there were recent elections of some sort in Czechia, or they were happening soon. From that point I stayed up on purpose to catch a new border crossing, into Poland, another country that was new to me. In fact all border crossings from into Czechia onwards were new.

From my first impressions on that nicely overcast early morning, that first Polish stop felt like it was in a good, decent looking shape. I tried to get more sleep after that but woke up around the time of entering Krakow. With Krakow being big, there were multiple Krakow stops to go through before getting to the main one. This is where a bit of a longer stop happened. Could faintly hear Polish announcements from the train station. Could see a cleaner doing their job. Some people waiting for trains.

By this point, I gave up on the idea of trying for more sleep. I went to the seat near the window. Drank my small Alpro drink for a start, as well as that juice and more water. More or less from that point it was looking out at the views, slowly putting everything back inside my bags and getting ready for leaving. Eventually the breakfast got served (by a really nice staff member), which was a nice bagel, that I put jam into. As well as a coffee which was welcome at these times.

The lack of sleep, an activity that started the previous day and ended the next day. A night with a tiny bit of chaos to it. If I desperately make unrelated connections which is kinda often my thing, then we could sort of determine that night trains kinda give the vibes of an endurance race. And those final few morning hours through Poland are like the last few hours before the race ends. Fitting that it was the Polish driver Robert Kubica that won one such race earlier this year when I watched.

The train did arrive to Warsaw about an hour and something late. I felt like in the Polish parts it was going at a good speed. When first realizing it was delayed I wondered would it try to make up for the time by speeding up or shortening times at stops. I felt like the speed in the Polish parts was enough to make up for more time than it did in the end. But it didn’t really matter cause fortunately I didn’t have to make it anywhere at a specific time.

Heading out

It was now past 10 in Warsaw. The objective after leaving the train was to find a luggage storage, and leave the luggage there until 3pm when I’d be able to check-in to the apartment. I assumed a place like the Warsaw central station would have luggage lockers and I was right. I navigated my way around the station. Had modern vibes to it. Busy as you would imagine a central train station at a capital of a large country would be. I liked the automated train announcements. Something about them felt… Calming, also futuristic. Found those luggage lockers. The interesting thing was that there were various sections of them, some where you could pay by card, some not. There wasn’t one place with instructions in all languages, instead you needed to go around different sections to find the paper with instructions in the language you’re looking for. Once I found a free space and completed the storage process, I realized a tiny bit of the backpack strap ended up hanging outside. Ideally I would’ve wanted to redo the process to get that strap fully back in. Asked someone who was already answering someone else’s luggage storage question, would you have to pay the fee again if you wanted to reopen the storage and put the same storage in? In hinsight it was probably a dumb question seeing the way it worked, but to be fair to me, those luggage storages from Budapest did allow you to actually pick if you wanted to just temporarily access your storage, or if you wanted to take it out for good. In the end, I had to live with the strap problem, and it didn’t end up being anything bad.

So I was now in Poland. Yesterday barely sinking in, still processing it. Very different circumstances and surroundings to that. Although it rained earlier it was still hot, more than I ideally would’ve wanted it to be. I just started walking my way around, to whatever place seemed more appealing at a given moment. Which is the typical mk sightseeing more often than not. The first place I went towards was the park just around the central station. From there headed towards a direction that wouldn’t quite lead towards the center as I wanted to, even if the buildings made it seem like it would.

It does look like it would lead to a center, doesn’t it?

Observed the Polish flags, signs in Polish. I like the font on the Polish signs. The place felt like quite the blend of new buildings and old style (rebuilt) buildings. Particularly the areas around the central train and bus stations were full of the newer style buildings, often very high or in unusual shapes. I suppose these would be the image I think of when people describe Warsaw as being more of a place where one comes “for business”.

But there’s still a good amount of nice older (rebuilt) buildings to go around. Heavy to think about how much of the city was destroyed at a certain dark point. The newer buildings felt like a reflection of that, in that there was a lot of space to start from “scratch”. Not that I’m saying you couldn’t have high rise buildings without the city being destroyed first, but I suppose this was my impression given the historical context. Ofcourse the fast economic growth of Poland feels reflected in that as well.

I was taking it slow, sitting down and relaxing in a park. It was needed to minimize the sun effects as well. Passed next to buildings such as the presidental palace which was guarded. Eventually made it to the “older” parts of the city. Before entering the old center, nearby it there is a big free toilet that was well maintained. Around the Royal castle somebody was dressed up in a Stitch costume, unsure what the deal with that was. One could also get a bit of a view from that area, but mostly towards a road so that’s a bit unfortunate. And then the old center itself looked incredible, I was left quite impressed. This is the point when I headed towards a nearby Zabka store and got something to drink and snack on. In the store, someone seemed to have headphones on and weren’t being responsive after being asked multiple times if those were all the articles they wanted to buy. I got a couple of chocolate oat ball snacks which brought joy because they had a squirrel symbol and it was ofcourse a Monica Everett reference. Unfortunately they had honey in them so not quite vegan. Also got some vitamin water which was Polish and a Lipton green tea.

Sat down at a bench in the center and had my perceived Silent Witch snacks. And enjoyed the moment. Even if the fatigue was catching up with me but the snacks and drinks did help with that. Later I used an ATM to take out some money, not because I needed it but because it was a unique opportunity of being in a country with a currency I didn’t use before and don’t usually use, so I wanted to have some paper bills.

At this point it was getting close to 3pm from when I could check-in. Through the day I was anticipating a message with instructions for entering. As 3pm was approaching, no such message arrived still. Thought maybe they had an automatic system which would do it automatically at 3pm.

3pm came, I was in front of the apartment location. Nothing came. Felt it was time to call the provided number. The host picked up and he acknowledged he didn’t send anything, it felt like if I booked directly I would’ve gotten something by now, based on him asking if I booked from booking com. In any case that was solved and I got in. The apartment was really well equipped, cleaned, maintained. The fridge even had a couple of water bottles inside which I used during my time in Warsaw. The location was very central, less than 10 minutes from the central station. All for a really cheap price. If there was something that would make the stay better it would be an AC, but a fan type of thing was provided.

I was tired so the plan was to have a shower (couldn’t do that on the night train) and have a nap. The clothes I took for the pajama purposes were very… gender non-conforming to say the least. I enjoyed the opportunity and freedom to do that and it brought joy… And so I napped.

Did fall asleep but after waking up I didn’t feel great unfortunately. It was early Sunday evening so not everything was open. But I wanted to get something to eat from a store. I went to the central station Biedronka. Very crowded, congested, not easy to go around with so many people. Wasn’t an enjoyable shopping experience. Had dinner, ate a spicy chips and proceeded to watch the F1 race I missed earlier.

Day 4

The first thing I did after heading out was to look for a specific vegan cafe/bakery which was about 20 minutes or something of walking away from the apartment. I got there and had a fabulous vegan cappuccino, bagel with an amazing spread (from tofu I believe), a tiramisu and cake. It was the first time I had a vegan tiramisu so it was great to be able to have that. The ambient and staff made the place feel very welcoming, relaxing. Positive memories of being there.

After that I was ready to do my usual wandering around. Around the way came across the Polish military museum (or something similar to that). And it had a plane in front of it which I felt was unique. I went to try and get a bit closer to it even if there was a sign about no entry. Eventually someone did tell me to leave which I did.

Now bridges, stairs, paths. Around this specific bridge from which you could see the railway bridge, there were stairs, smaller bridges. Felt a bit confused on how to get onto the larger bridge. Then after some wrong turns, I made it to that bridge, took a few pictures and just headed back oops.

There didn’t seem to be anything interesting on that particular area on the other side. It was better that way because the part I continued on was really nicely maintained, with loads of places to sit, lay down, or even feel as if you’re on a beach. It was a really nice and relaxing walking experience. Eventually made it to a pedestrian bridge. I crossed that one and explored the area on the other side.

Turns out that area apparantly has a reputation (probably outdated) as being on the unsafe side. I wouldn’t call it a “fancy” district or something. But there was also a really nice church in it, a few other nice buildings too, including one with rainbow colors. And a pretty big shopping mall with Carrefour that I went to. It is however the area where I saw/heard a really heated verbal altercation. It seemed to be something between family members. Obviously not a nice thing to witness.

Once I made it back to the other side of the river I went for a lunch at one of the highly rated vegan places. Got traditional dumplings. The food was good. The place was a bit too crowded for my liking though.

After that made it to a park with a nice palace in it. And a small lake. I believe this is where I was asked a question by someone in Polish, but had to reply that I’m a tourist so no idea. This is where I entered a toilet in which someone seemed to be watching TV. Don’t know if they were workers on a break or something?

The previous day I left some parts of the city center for later, such as the city walls. Now was the time for that. Was lovely to go on the walls and observe the views of the surrounding buildings. Which probably makes it sound like its positioned higher than it actually is. Around this place is where I got an image of a pretty clock with zodiac symbols around the numbers plus one extra figure I wasn’t sure who it represented.

And going through the pictures I remembered an important detail which is that the signs which indicate (I assume) that cars are forbidden from this point onwards, have a very similar feel to a sign that would indicate that you entered a new place. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen more of them around though and there might’ve been other ones that simply indicated a different area of old town? Which would be strange because I don’t remember such signs for other parts of the city? But I suppose the Hungarian white design for signs that show the name of the place you entered gave me this feel about those signs.

Anyways. Among the possible ideas for the time in Warsaw was to see the Willanov palace and the Warsaw Uprising Museum. In the end there wasn’t quite enough time for that, and I think I wasn’t in the mood for something too heavy anyway. I thought I could at least do the former, which would happen utilising the public transport. Buying a 24 hour public transport ticket was on my mind but in the end I just walked around too much, ending up not using any public transport in Warsaw.

One thing I’ve done before going back to the apartment to end the day was buying some snacks for the next day’s plans. I saw an organic food store, thought it would be cool to explore one such store in a different country. Fine enough choice. I remember a selection of vegan cookies. Dissapointingly no can of soybeans which is what I was looking for I believe. The previous day I got a salad from that Biedronka store and I wanted some beans to put on it. I did get canned beans though but brown ones. And I got snacks that included bananas wrapped in chocolate and hazelnuts wrapped in chocolate. Ofcourse, that felt like a Silent Witch snack, and this time it was entirely vegan(!!). I also got some protein crispbread snacks. The only issue is that it felt like an expensive store, particularly seeing the prices of those chocolate bananas and hazelnuts. But I let myself splurge on it.

Day 5

The bus to Vilnius was going to depart at 12:50. Between the time I would check-out and the bus departure, I had just about enough time to have something to eat, possibly at a restaurant. My options felt limited from what I could see though, due to the opening times. I chose to just go back to that vegan cafe and have that amazing bagel once again, as well as another cake with a different choice of drink (orange espresso). I just realized that was kinda a Marco Mengoni choice of coffee, not quite but close.

I also got a foccacia which was planned to be had through the bus ride… Too bad time just passed and I didn’t eat it on time through the bus ride and it sadly had to go to waste later… Sorry about that.

The stop the bus departed from took one moment of waiting at the wrong spot to be found. But I got there eventually. And everything was ready to start heading towards the Baltics.