Re-evaluation of the Polish train system

From Augustow the plan was to catch a night train to Malbork, spend a few hours there and then continue by another 6.5 hour train to Szczecin. This journey has proved to be a little nightmare of its own.

The first leg of the trip was relatively comfortable and took me from Augustow to Bialystok in the company of Grzesiek and Dorota (kayaking group members). There we managed to sprint of the train and swap onto the Bialystok-Warsaw train quickly enough to secure seats. Having left Augustow at 6pm, I arrived in Warsaw and 10:30pm with my night train scheduled to leave at 11pm and arrive in Tczew at 6:20am. As it turns out that particular train originated all the way in Krakow and was beyond full. I had entertained the hope of finding a sleeping car to get my rest for the next day’s worth of sightseeing; however, there was not even any seating room. All the compartments were completely packed. The corridor was so full that there was barely enough room to stand. Eventually everyone managed to find a little bit of floor space and crouched/sat/squatted/lay down in any way possible. As those in the compartments got up to go to the washroom, everyone was tossed/kicked/stepped on/woken up over and over throughout the night. At 6:45 we finally arrived in Tczew where I quickly hopped onto my next train to Malbork (thankfully with empty seats) and arrived in Malbork at 7:40am to find the train station under renovation and absolutely nowhere to leave my baggage.

I started walking towards the center and poked my head into the first hotel I passed gladly paying the 5 zloty fee to leave my backpack in their care. I then spent the next few hours touring the amazing Malbork fortress and crusader castle and headed back to the train station to catch the 1:45pm train to Szczecin.

I had honestly expected it to be half empty and when I finally climbed on board and found even more people than on my night train, all I wanted to do was scream. The first 1.5 hours I spent standing in the hallway with my backpack crammed between my legs and little room to move in either direction with the sun beating down on us. Thankfully at that point we reached Gdansk/Spot/Gdynia where many of the passengers were getting off and I managed to snag a seat. The train immediately filled up again and is continuing on in this overfilled fashion. It is insane the amount of people traveling by train here. Even if you exclude all the school/kindergarten/scouting trips that are all commencing right now, the mass of people packing themselves into virtually every train heading to virtually every corner of Poland is simply amazing. Hopefully by 8:20pm I will arrive in Szczecin for a much needed shower, dinner, and R&R.

On a side note, I saw more wildlife from the train than I did during my trip out to the wild Bialowieza Forest: a couple of deer and does as well as a fox. Aside for that the fields of poppies and wildflowers that we passed were one of the few highlights on this train journey.

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Kayaking in Rospuda

My original itinerary had included a couple days in the Masurian Lake District spent either kayaking, hiking, biking or simply soaking in this world renowned area. However, given the general shortage on time at my disposal I had started considering joining up on an organized weekend kayaking excursion. The problem was that all the starting points around the Mazury Lakes were incredibly difficult to get to by public transportation. Given this I opted for the next best thing: the Lakes in the Suwalki and Augustow Region and their interconnecting network of rivers.

In recent years the most famous of these has become the Rospuda Valley given to a massive uproar that erupted amongst nature lovers and environmentalists when the government decided to construct a highway through this fragile region. The end result was that the highway construction was stopped and plans are in the works of restarting it several (or several dozen) kilometers past the Rospuda Valley. Given the supposed beauty of this region I opted for a three day camping/kayaking excursion down the Rospuda River.

This entailed two nights spent in a tent (which I had to rent and which sets itself up. Yes, you heard me right, all I have to do is unzip the case for the tent and the tent pops open on its own fully erect with nothing left to do but to pin it into the ground. It is quite the ingenious contraption, but a little inconvenient to carry around.) The trip also included 30 km worth of paddling down the river and lake, a visit to a forest sauna and a couple camp fires.

The catch was that aside for the sleeping bag and the rented tent, I had no other camping gear. This meant that the nights were spent on the very hard and often quite cold floor and food had to comprise of sandwiches since I had no pots or pans to cook anything else. But this in no way affected the enjoyment level of the trip.

Our group ended up being 12 people including the guide. Everyone was paired off into kayaks with the exception of me and was forced to paddle all the way on my own while most girls relaxed and tanned while their partners did most of the work. (Maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but a few breaks would have been nice). The first day was approximately 14 km down this little forest river with trees quite often encroaching on the river itself offering entertaining obstacles to avoid (or to plow directly into). The second day was primarily marshlands where for about 10 km the river snaked a tiny narrow path between fields of reeds. And when I say snaked, I truly mean it, as on this stretch there were exactly 100 very sharp turns. It concluded with the last few kilometers on a much wider river and then on the lake.

We had a fantastic group of people and ended up having an absolute blast, and although two days was a bit short, I truly don’t think my arms and shoulders could have taken any more.

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Augustow & Rospuda: back in Poland

The couchsurfing might be over and done with, but the hospitality is never-ending. I said bye to Dalius and Armin and got on the train back to Poland. With the school holidays having begun, the crowds were quite impressive. I don’t think that there was a single seat free in the final train across the border and into Poland.

Once in Augustow I was met by Ania, not a couchsurfing host, but in a way similar. She is the sister of some family friends back home whose contact information I had received a few days earlier and who kindly agreed to pick me up at the train station and look after me for the few hours before my kayaking tour. Again, the hospitality offered by complete strangers on this trip has absolutely amazed me. I was immediately sat down at the dinner table, where a huge selection of food was put in front of me, I was told to eat, then given towels, and told to make myself feel like at home. Thereafter I was ushered into the car and given a tour of the town and the surrounding countryside, including an exclusive stop at a private golf course. Once the tour was done it was time to head back to the house so that I could be fed some more just before being driven off to my starting point for my kayaking excursion.

The hospitality continued after my trip with a pick up at our finishing location, access to an amazing shower (after 2 days in a tent), more food as well as food packed for my night train ride to Malbork.
In instances like that there are simply no words to express the thanks and gratitude.

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Vilinus and Lithuania: my last country and most northerly stop ever

With absolutely stunning weather, skies that never really went fully dark at night, and a gorgeous blue sky by 4am, it is difficult not to have been impressed by my short stay in Lithuania. We looked it up, because I seriously could not remember such short nights in Edmonton, and in fact Vilinus is the most northerly point I have ever traveled to (by a full degree).

From Bialystok I crossed the border by train to my last new country of this journey. It seemed I was playing yo-yo with 1 hour of time, having lost it entering into Ukraine, regained it for a few days in Poland, and now again lost it upon entrance into Lithuania. Once in Vilinus I headed for the apartment of my new couchsurfing hosts, Dalius and Armin and their two high energy cats (They should reconsider using cats in place of the Energizer Bunny. These two would be prime candidates for that role.)

With it still being fully bright outside at 8pm, we headed into the Old Town wanting to make the most of the absolutely amazing weather. We strolled through the little streets, past monuments and cathedrals, churches and basilicas (I’m not sure I have ever seen more churches and church-like structures in one city) and eventually found a nice little restaurant that still had patio seating available. The food was delicious (including the cold borsch-like soup) but the service left a lot to be desired. Apparently that is a norm in Lithuania.

Round midnight we started heading home and although the sky had darkened and the buildings were all beautifully lit up, the horizon remained pale, the darkness not quite complete.

The next morning was filled with a visit to the KGB (Genocide) Museum. As much as I have had enough of museums by this point in time, this one is highly recommended. It had very unique and well thought out displays, intermixing a variety of different media, including artifacts, documents, films, videos and sounds and was incredibly informative of the struggles that the Lithuanians faced from before the World Wars, to the time period immediately following them (where hundreds of thousands got deported, faced imprisonment and execution), all the way up through the 1990s at which point they finally declared their independence from Soviet rule which was not recognized until a year later. One of the most depressing parts of the museum, aside for the statistics about all the lives lost and affected, were the KGB prisons in the basement, including the tiny cells, horrible living conditions and the execution chamber.

After the museum I was met by Armin and we meandered throughout the old town, taking in the various sights and eventually heading towards Uzupis, the Montmarte equivalent in Vilinus. This bohemian and artistic district has declared itself to be an independent republic, created its own flag, elected its own government, and formed its own constitution which includes provisions such as:

• Everyone has the right to die, but this is not an obligation.



• Everyone has the right to be undistinguished and unknown.



• Everyone has the right to look after the dog until one of them dies.



• A dog has the right to be a dog.



• Everyone has the right to cry.



• Everyone has the right to be misunderstood.



• Everyone has the right to be individual.
  

On April 1st, the bridge into Uzupis is closed down, border guards are placed at its entrance, passports are stamped and customs has to be crossed. On our visit there, no such restrictions were placed upon us, but it was nevertheless a pleasant walk through an unrecognized republic. (Am I to consider it another visited country, maybe half of one?)

On a hill above Uzupis we sat on a gorgeous little patio overlooking the entire city sipping the restaurant’s own brewed beer and nibbling on Lithuanian garlic encrusted/fried bread sticks. From there it was a hike down then up to the Hill of Three Crosses and eventually back into the Old Town where we swung by Eastern Europe’s oldest university before heading back home where Dalius prepared a fantastic dinner of potato pancakes followed by some delicious wine.

The following day it was time for a road trip to Trakai, a tiny little town about 30km south of Vilinus boasting a beautiful lake and a picturesque castle on an island. There we were befriended by two elderly Austrian ladies who noticed Armin’s Austria t-shirt and immediately asked whether he was originally from there. We chatted with them for a while, parted ways only to bump into them again and by joined by them over a delicious traditional Lithuanian lunch. I think we spent a good couple hours chatting with them. (They had driven up together from Vienna and were heading up towards Estonia and Latvia along with their 12 year old golden retriever).

And that was Lithuania in a nut-shell. The entire visit was made so much more memorable due to the amazing hospitality of my couchsurfing hosts.

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