The Prague to Gdansk journey wasn't so bad.
Sometimes there'd have be a compromise made on the Polish trains, however - open the window to avoid being poached in your own sweat, or close it and be able to hear yourself think. I don't think Polish trains are the most up to date in the world, but then, they are incredibly cheap. They have the charm of a knackered old shed on wheels.
Onto Gdansk then..
Well, being brutally honest, I'm unsure if it was worth the 15 hour journey, but the Old Town was good to go around. After that, though, there was little else. I took a look at some of the places in The Tin Drum and that definitely added to the experience. I had a hearty meal of pork neck, boiled potatoes, and a salad for something approaching 4€ (with beer) in the covered market and just leisurely walked around without stress, taking a picture or two.
The 'Lucky-Hostel' I stayed in was ok. I'm never overly keen on these places where you're staying in the cellar of a real, family home, but it wasn't as bad as it could've been. It was quite funny being shown to your bed by the owner's son, who can't have been much more than 15.
Also, the hostel was located miles away from anywhere, so unless you wanted more kebab as an evening meal, there was only the petrol station nearby. If, like me, you forget to buy food from the supermarket when it's actually open, sometimes you have to make do with a large bag of crisps until morning.
So, after a bit of thinking, I'd settled on heading to Kiev in the Ukraine. The general plan was to get an overnight train from Gdansk to Warsaw, then get a second night train direct to Kiev. In reality two night-trains in a row would've been too much, so I reconsidered and decided to spend a night in Warsaw.
That was until I bumped into a cool character called Graham on the platform to Warsaw. I was glad of the company on the train. It turned out to be one of the most uncomfortable train rides so far - 5 hours... stood up, with barely enough room to turn around, let alone swing some felines.
Hanging around with Graham, I've been in Warsaw since Friday, and I'm really glad I did. Because the 1655 to Kiev was full by the time I wanted to buy a ticket, I got to know a small portion of the 'real' Warsaw. Now my opinion of this city is much greater, it has many hidden gems that you'd never get a sniff of if you didn't have the local, insider knowledge. This, Graham had, because he knew a few people around the city.
We met up with some of his friends in the centre on the Friday, who all turned out to be really cool too. But, the really cool places were discovered when the group dwindled down. It's a shame they couldn't all come along, but some had to attend a wedding the next day.
We went round a few corners, which, unless you're really paying attention (or have some kind of GPS) you'd take forever to be able to retrace, and ended up at this surreal set of bars. It's difficult to describe how cool these tiny rooms were, but basically there were rows of seemingly lifeless doors and barred up windows. The place had no signs, and there were no names to any of the bars, but after opening one of said doors, it all started to become clear.
Behind each of the doors was a dark room (most had a downstairs aswell) decorated in its own unique style. One had a room full of vintage chairs, some leopard print, some leather, some wicker, some you'd maybe find in a skip. There was one with walls overloaded with mirrors, another with varieties of 1950's wallpaper, complete with some wireless radios and classic lamps, like a living room straight from that era. Another one had dildoes for door handles and a giant paper mache penis on the ceiling.
I couldn't have guessed there'd be somewhere like this, but I'm so glad it was shown to me. A good part of it was that there was pretty much no other tourists in this place, as with Warsaw itself (most apparently flock to Krakov). Here you won't find the massive tour groups, bus trips around the sights, or swarms photographing the same square inch. It's as if it's a city undiscovered or overlooked.
So anyway, after plenty of interesting little finds, including a tiny vegetarian restaurant, and free music bars in the Palace of Culture (apparently nothing at all to do with Lenin, as said in my previous post on Warsaw) and coming to understand how great Warsaw is when you look past the surface, I have my ticket to Kiev.
It's at 16:55 later on, so I'm going to kill a few hours and prepare for a very bumpy ride. I'll make a new post before too long, including a mention of the things you have to endure on the border of Poland / Ukraine.
