A Day on a Train

The trip from Prague to Krakow took all day. The train was all we expected and more. The station and attendants, the process and the boarding was all that we expected and more. We booked the day before and arrived about 9.30 with an hour to find the platform and be ready. We, along with about 80 other people waited for the board to tell us which platform to go to. We waited. More people gathered and we waited. We asked - watch the board she said - and less than five minutes before the train was due to leave the sign came up and a sea of people toted luggage and pushed and rushed the 300m along corridors and up stairs to meet the train. No idea which carriage, no idea about anything, so we just got on and waited to be yelled at (if anyone bothered).

Jozef (a lovely man in our carriage) told us the system and we wove our way to the right seats five cars up, past luggage in the corridors, around bends, swaying and bumping all the way. The train was clean and comfortable, quite different to the stations.

We entertained ourselves for a while reflecting on how unhelpful any public servant was in the Czech Republic and how unlikely it was that information could be obtained from information booths.

Katowice was the station where we changed trains for Krakow. Had no idea of the platform, no precise time for departure, and had to wait amidst smoke, urine smells, beer drinking commuters and dirt. Had no Zloty to pay for a toilet stop, was yelled at by toilet attendant, waited and waited. A nice man holding a sunflower told us the platform and we waited....and waited.

The train waiting on another platform was it. Quick, run.

A clacketty old train, rocking and rolling with questionable facilities took us to Krakow and we arrived at the end of the day, nearly an hour late. Our trip took us from the seediest parts of the country, through fields and towns, past forests and ponds, to a station that had a smelly underground tunnels of second hand book stalls, little windows selling food, and a small bankomat hidden in a dark corner.

Withdraw money, head for a taxi and a new adventure.