I boarded the train from Budapest's Keleti Palyaudvar at around 7 at night, with loads of beer, chicken schnitzel sandwiches, and a few other treats. I was settling in for the long haul, which involved a layovers in Bratislava, then across the border to Breclav, Bohumin, and finally to Warsaw. Can you believe that the train to Warsaw from BP was 10 euros cheaper than the train from BP to Krakow?
Once I arrived in Warsaw I was dismayed to learn that the train I thought I was going to be taking did not run on Fridays, and here this was a Friday. This meant I needed to wait several hours until I could get onto a train headed East at around 3pm. It was 7am, so I had 7 hours in which to make Warsaw mine. I was pretty tired, so this actually took a lot more effort than I would have liked.
The train station is a real beauty located smask dab in the centre of the city, so when I emerged I could see a whole lot of Warsaw all around me and decided the first thing I needed, besides gazing longingly at the Palace of Culture, was some perogies. As it was still early, I had to wander around the city for a considerable time before I was able to do this. I was able to view the centre of Warsaw, eat some Polish pierogies, drink a lot of coffee at Cafe Kafka, and I bought a scarf because it was SO COLD. I don't know if you have ever been to Warsaw at any time of the year, but it's literally freezing all the time and you can't go there without a scarf from H&M, or at least go to H&M and buy a scarf.
On the train I shared the cabin with a Russian couple on their way back to Moscow. The guy was some sort of water polo coach, and when he found out I had just impulse purchased a ticket to Kyrgyzstan for October*, he imploded with giddiness and told me that he had been born in Kyrgyzia, and was technically a Kyrgyz. We all enjoyed this ride immensely, and my favourite part was when we were held up at the Belrusian border to allow them to search every single bag. and every single nook and cranny of the train. When it was our turn to get searched, the border babe--who was a regulation hottie--asked me to empty out my bag and then explained to me the procedure for getting registered in an incredibly patient and pleasant way. Everything about Belarus was coming up Rory. They made me feel good about my unwavering submission to a totalitarian regime, and if you ask me I wouldn't have it any other way.
*Spoiler alert!
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