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.