TRAINS BACK TO SANITY

The waterfront in Gdansk

The two days in Torun were plenty for me. Hopes that this small, normally pleasant, town would be a place to relax were of course dashed by the presence of the so called football supporters. I tried an evening wander around the town but that was not a good move as it coincided with the end of whatever game they'd been watching on mega LCD screens, sending me straight back to the hostel. The Irish contingent who returned in the early hours seemed bent on having a fight amongst themselves before they could settle down into an alcohol induced coma. 
When I returned here in Plzen yesterday evening I thought I'd take a look at the news, and not a pretty sight. Poznan was one of my stops on the way to Wroclaw and there on the internet I saw the nasty scenes taking place in the historic centre. Hundreds of Croation fans were attacking a small group of police while they were trying to arrest one of the fans. It struck me as funny to see a lone green clad Irish supporter escaping from the turmoil and holding his arms up in surrender, implying that all that aggression was not of his making. 

The Irish off to Poznan from Torun station

Wroclaw was showing all the signs of being in the grip of this insanity so it was just as well that I managed to cancel the second night there. And so it was that yesterday morning I was on my way back to the comparative peace of the Czech Republic. 

Wroclaw station has been having a revamp. When I was there a year ago it was almost impossible to find the temporary booking hall at the back of the station.

The orange reflective clad students, wearing Union Jack badges are there to help the passengers.

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So thats the end of a rather ill timed trip which makes me think I should take more notice of what is going on in the world of football. There were 5 trains in all from Wroclaw to Plzen. It went amazingly smoothly with waits of no longer than 15 minutes between trains. Home in 8 hours. 

Heading to the Czech border

How about Warsaw tonight? No? Dont blame you.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-18409776

Cheers D

POLAND IN JUNE 2012

A rural train in Poland

The internet has, to say the least, revolutionized travelling. There are many sites for booking accommodation but I usually stick to Hostelbookers. Maybe, if you are of a certain age, you might have memories of people ploughing through newspaper ads or colouful holiday brochures trying to find the dream holiday. That is a thing of the past for most of us, nothing is further away than the click of a mouse. 

I often trawl the sites for cheap air tickets using eDreams mostly but in this case the railway timetable sites are useful. Almost all of them from Indian Railways to the Polish network http://rozklad-pkp.pl are easily translated and pretty straight forward to negotiate. The train fares are considerably lower than anywhere in Western Europe. For example, the 600km ride from Krakow to Gdansk is about EUR 32. 

So that's it. Have a full list of trains and times organized for this trip into Poland, and hostels booked. It is advisable to book because these hostels are becoming increasingly popular and finding a place on the spur of the moment can be difficult. The prices below seem to be a little higher than last year but all the same its not such an expensive way to explore a country. The prices below are per night.

Atlantis Hostel.  ul. Dietla 58,...............Krakow ....EUR 8.51....2 nights

Kogut czy Kura Hostel. Piastowska 135, Gdansk .....EUR 9.20....3 nights

Hostel Orange. Prosta 19 Street,...........Torun ......EUR 9.20....3 nights

Dizzy Daisy Hostel. Plac Grunwaldzki 65,Wroclaw,...EUR 13.80...2 nights

Tram passing the Altlantis Hostel in Krakow

The great thing about trains is that my return date is not fixed as it would be with an air ticket so this trip might be a little longer than planned. In Gdansk, the hostel is out on the road, near the Baltic Sea, and not so far from that Russian enclave, Kaliningrad. 

So that's it for now and I'll start blogging the trip after 2nd June using the WiFi provided free in almost every hostel, anywhere in the world.

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