Warsaw to Kiev (3)
Since my Pannini in Berlin, I had only had a Mars bar. Luckily my second-class Ukrainian sleeper had 'catering'. One chocolate croissant and a bottle of water. Saved. OMG. It is 23.00.
Note to travelers: ALWAYS carry local currency for the country you are going to. And dollars. And if you have dollars, attempt to use them! And carry food. And drink. And a hip-flask. Former is most important as with it you can buy all the latter. Failing that, the latter will render the former slightly less important.
I went to bed hoping that tomorrow the buffet car would see me right for breakfast - we were not due to get to Kiev for 18 hours (and two minutes). 16.26. If the buffet car doesn't take dollars (or a card HA HA HA HA) I'm fucked.
I woke at 8.45am after a troubled night full of people in uniform. Local time, I realise later, is 10.45 which has important consequences regarding when it's OK to have a beer. It was sunny and stunning outside. Crucially though, my carriage is isolated from the rest of the train. There is no connection, unless I want to jump 'the void'. So, no buffet / breakfast car. Yikes.
Lots of goods trains rolling past carrying wood.
First passport inspection last night was at 2am. Leaving Poland I presume. Second visit was at 3am. Ukraine. Ukrainians took my passport away and I had to fill in an immigration form. Passport returned with an orange stamp, at gone 4am. In the meantime, the train was pushed into a shed and raised off the wheels so that different ones could be fitted that matched the change of line guage. This took so long and was so noisy that I got dressed and took some illicit pics out of the window.
The carriages are each heated by their own coal stove. Each carriage has its own coal store. In the pics in the shed you can see the coal smoke. Smell is always lovely.
Arrive at Pibhe station. Stations are open plan and open onto the rest of the town. Platforms are much lower. You have to climb up to the train. This means that crossing the tracks is easy and it seems to be the legal way of getting from one side to the other. Saves on building bridges.
Talked to a fellow passenger who had a coffee! He had communed with the guard and ascertained that we would be here for a while and that getting off for food and stuff was OK. I'll know next time.
Dogs on the platform. I leant out of the window and one just sat there looking at me.
As I was leaning out of the window, I attracted the attention of the women selling stuff out of laundry bags. Obviously I had no real idea what they had, other than that they were brandishing beer and water. Also, I had to declare to them that I had only dollars. At this point they got very animated and excited. Phew!!
Food was hauled out and passed up to me. The lack of choice working on my favour - I just took what they had. Greedily. I handed down the odd dollar note or two and they just handed more stuff up. It seems that they were handing me what they thought was worth the money I was handing down. In the end, I ended up with two beers (500ml, Ukrainian, 3.7%), 1.5l of fizzy water and a plate of home-made food on a paper plate wrapped in cling-film. Looked like flat dumplings. Smelt of onion. All this for $5. An astonishing bargain as far as I was concerned. Probably dumb-tourist-sucker as far as they were concerned. Everyone happy!
[Note: carry $1 notes. Nobody will have change / want to give you no change.]
Food was hot. Reminded me a bit of a cross between potato ravioli and gnochi, but cooked in oil with onions. Anyway, it was fabulous and I ate all of it and it went very well with the beer. It was breakfast.
Whenever the train stopped, a great pile of hot ash and clinker was lobbed out of each carriage. Housekeeping.
There is something fantastically romantic and unknown and helpless about leaning out of the window of stationary train in the middle of a massive landscape, especially a snow-covered one.
Arrived in Kiev at half four. Beautiful station and beautifully designed. A joy to be there.
Note to travelers: ALWAYS carry local currency for the country you are going to. And dollars. And if you have dollars, attempt to use them! And carry food. And drink. And a hip-flask. Former is most important as with it you can buy all the latter. Failing that, the latter will render the former slightly less important.
I went to bed hoping that tomorrow the buffet car would see me right for breakfast - we were not due to get to Kiev for 18 hours (and two minutes). 16.26. If the buffet car doesn't take dollars (or a card HA HA HA HA) I'm fucked.
I woke at 8.45am after a troubled night full of people in uniform. Local time, I realise later, is 10.45 which has important consequences regarding when it's OK to have a beer. It was sunny and stunning outside. Crucially though, my carriage is isolated from the rest of the train. There is no connection, unless I want to jump 'the void'. So, no buffet / breakfast car. Yikes.
Lots of goods trains rolling past carrying wood.
First passport inspection last night was at 2am. Leaving Poland I presume. Second visit was at 3am. Ukraine. Ukrainians took my passport away and I had to fill in an immigration form. Passport returned with an orange stamp, at gone 4am. In the meantime, the train was pushed into a shed and raised off the wheels so that different ones could be fitted that matched the change of line guage. This took so long and was so noisy that I got dressed and took some illicit pics out of the window.
The carriages are each heated by their own coal stove. Each carriage has its own coal store. In the pics in the shed you can see the coal smoke. Smell is always lovely.
Arrive at Pibhe station. Stations are open plan and open onto the rest of the town. Platforms are much lower. You have to climb up to the train. This means that crossing the tracks is easy and it seems to be the legal way of getting from one side to the other. Saves on building bridges.
Talked to a fellow passenger who had a coffee! He had communed with the guard and ascertained that we would be here for a while and that getting off for food and stuff was OK. I'll know next time.
Dogs on the platform. I leant out of the window and one just sat there looking at me.
As I was leaning out of the window, I attracted the attention of the women selling stuff out of laundry bags. Obviously I had no real idea what they had, other than that they were brandishing beer and water. Also, I had to declare to them that I had only dollars. At this point they got very animated and excited. Phew!!
Food was hauled out and passed up to me. The lack of choice working on my favour - I just took what they had. Greedily. I handed down the odd dollar note or two and they just handed more stuff up. It seems that they were handing me what they thought was worth the money I was handing down. In the end, I ended up with two beers (500ml, Ukrainian, 3.7%), 1.5l of fizzy water and a plate of home-made food on a paper plate wrapped in cling-film. Looked like flat dumplings. Smelt of onion. All this for $5. An astonishing bargain as far as I was concerned. Probably dumb-tourist-sucker as far as they were concerned. Everyone happy!
[Note: carry $1 notes. Nobody will have change / want to give you no change.]
Food was hot. Reminded me a bit of a cross between potato ravioli and gnochi, but cooked in oil with onions. Anyway, it was fabulous and I ate all of it and it went very well with the beer. It was breakfast.
Whenever the train stopped, a great pile of hot ash and clinker was lobbed out of each carriage. Housekeeping.
There is something fantastically romantic and unknown and helpless about leaning out of the window of stationary train in the middle of a massive landscape, especially a snow-covered one.
Arrived in Kiev at half four. Beautiful station and beautifully designed. A joy to be there.
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Fantastic pics - just how I imagined it would look somehow! Quite stark and very cold! I wish I could be as brave and do something like this, but I need to know where my next meal +/or bed is. The blog is great and I can really get the feel of what you went through, if you know what I mean. Keep going, I'm looking forward to the next instalment.