#trains2tatras — Public Fediverse posts

The #Eurostar was pleasingly uneventful. Just, as usual, my reintroduction to a lot of British people being very British. (I include myself, sadly.)
Plenty of earwigging opportunities. A high maintenance mum (50s?) and her daughter coming home from their first #EuropeanRail adventure. A family on the comedown from Disneyland Paris, complete with a 'bit of a madam' 3yo daughter. A lady from Idaho with all kinds of plans for her week-long holiday in London and then Scotland.
#Trains2Tatras

Warning, deep smugness approaching.
It wasn't the best service that #EuropeanSleeper have ever run. Disruptive passengers, apparently, led to long delay on departure from Berlin that couldn't be clawed back. But a 2-hour delay on a sleeper train is just a bonus lie-in, yeah?
And the smugness? Well my ability to second guess delay points and durations was on top form. I already had a ticket (bought in May at a bargain price) on what ended up as the next #Eurostar to London.
#Trains2Tatras

The #EuropeanSleeper rolls silently out of Prague. Well, I am in one of the rearmost carriages.
All the cool bicycles that I saw hanging around Praha hl.n. (main station) have been boarded too. This train is mecca for people of taste!
On that subject, I mentioned supplies. There's cheese and wine for later, and some healthy rubbish, but right now I declare it gin o'clock!
#EuropeanRail #Trains2Tatras

#Interrail happiness is a 24-minute delay, if you've allowed 2 hours to your next train departure time, have luggage with, have no particular plans or needs, and the weather is occasional utterly torrential downpours.
So colour me entirely happy to have less standing around to do at Praha hl.n.
#Trains2Tatras

Food on the #Regiojet is decent – very fair price and plenty of choice. Bizarrely and unexpectedly, I may therefore use this train to stock up for the #EuropeanSleeper where food is likely to be limited. (Already have some supplies in.)
The soup descriptions at least in English, sound very, er, traditional in outlook though. You can have that vegan rubbish if you insist, but proper soup has meat in.
#Trains2Tatras

Do videnia/goodbye #Slovakia!
Only had three days to explore Poprad and the area, but I'll gladly come back if I get a chance. Ideally with a bike.
Folk here get cycling, and it's no surprise there are 2 Slovak riders in the TdF lead 10. (Is there even a Swede in the race?)
But it's no panacea; they have #RubbishBikeLanes too.
More seriously, there's obvious rural poverty, and tension between the Roma and other communities. Here's to finding ways to resolve that.
#Trains2Tatras

When I run a train company, falling asleep in a window seat will be covered by some new Railway Bye Law.
An automated mechanism gently moves the slumberer to a place with no view, allowing a loyal #WindowStaring passenger to take their place.
#Trains2Tatras

Getting my money's worth out of my 1st class #Interrail, with luck, on today's first #Trains2Tatras journey: 7 hours direct from Poprad Tatry, #Slovakia to Prague.
'Business class' on #Regiojet seems mainly to be huge seats but less view out of the windows at the stunning scenery.
Oh, and free prosecco.
#EuropeanRail

#Trains2Tatras moves on from Slovakia's Tatra Mountains today.
Keeping the hashtag as I trundle on to Cymru via #Regiojet to Prague, overnight #EuropeanSleeper to Brussels, then #Eurostar to London – for the convenience of all who have sensibly muted. And cos I can't think of a decent alternative.
#EuropeanRail #Interrail

Given I've been tooting #Trains2Tatras, am pleased to report I not only made it up into the High Tatras today, I did so by little train.
Specifically, by the lovingly restored Kométa electric train built in 1913. It's a beautiful machine that makes all the right noises as it accelerates towards its top speed of 30km/h. Whenever it parks up, it passes that responsibility to an organ grinder (just visible to right).
#Slovakia #Poprad

Dobrý deň/hello Slovakia!
And hello too a CD veggie breakfast, cooked on board in the restaurant car and served at my seat. Three fried eggs with enough parmesan on top to spark cheese sweats.
To travel is fatter than to arrive!
#Trains2Tatras #EuropeanRail

Ahoj/hello Czechia!
Briefest of swing by this morning, after playing with overnight trains to avoid paying for a hotel in Krakow when I arrived midnight anyway.
Nearly came a cropper. My inbound train to almost-Prague built up a significant delay, cutting my 32min connection at Pardubice down to 60sec.
So I exploited the true magic ticket value of #Interrail. Looked up a local train that could get me to another connecting station and instead had a sunny 35 minute wait.
#Trains2Tatras

Bit of connection fun in Warszawa. Now I am in a race against, er, a counterfactual me. Guess I should explain this 27 hour train ride a bit more.
My half way point today is actually Krakow at midnight. I really need to make a train that leaves there at 0013.
The train I was on from Mockava is direct to Krakow but slow, due in 2352. So I paid €12 extra for an EIP fast train from Warsaw, due in 2307.
Both left Warsaw late. Here's hoping the fast train does its thing.
#Interrail
#Trains2Tatras

Busy service so the person running the WARS #diningcar, who clearly knows her stuff and her customers, is bossing the "I'm busy" slammed door between the kitchen and service counter.
The sound effects from behind that door suggest she may be taking out any accumulated stress on a large hunk of some frozen dead animal.
cc @diningcar
#Trains2Tatras

Filed under much more interesting.
The WARS catering cars on PKP are fantastic. If there is one on any train you travel, do yourself a favour and take a seat, a beer, and some affordable real food.
#EuropeanRail #Trains2Tatras

Low surprise perhaps that mobile data coverage is limited in the Suwalki Gap. Kind of feel I wouldn't be trusting a GPS there, either.
Now in Poland and 4G is back.
So for your potential #EuropeanRail travelling pleasure, a picture showing just how complicated the train connection is at Mockava. Polish PKP Intercity on the left, Lithuanian LTG Link on the right. You have half an hour to complete this manoeuvre.
#Trains2Tatras

Cześć/hello Poland.
All kinds of border fun that train spods who know all about track gauges will likely find fascinating. Me? I just saw two trains, got off one, walked 4m and got onto the other.
Kind of sensitive this border crossing of course, so best I don't describe some of the freight I saw.
It will however always amuse me that German freight wagons routinely have not just a web address and email in the safety into on the side, but also… a fax number.
#EuropeanRail #Trains2Tatras

Before I'm accused of sunshine-induced adoration for #Kaunas, it rained.
A lot.
Some US senators might call it biblical.
I'd go with Orcadian.
#Trains2Tatras

And then, just when time was getting tight for lunch, and the pedestrian bit was mainly wanky bars and coffee shops, a tiny sign points down a side alley to a vegan cafe, Žalia Pupa.
Having been an accidental carnivore twice in Riga and again in Vilnius, an entirely meat-free menu is a delight. And at €7 for 2 courses, also a bargain.
Dull pic of sign for other veggie travellers, but featuring also a cathedral for omnivore readers.
#Trains2Tatras

Let the actual #Interrail commence!
First train of today's long (27hr) and timezone extended (1hr at the LT-PL border) journey is a short hop to Kaunas.
In good news for Scots, I'm told it is pronounced more like coo than cow-nas.
And in good news for me, given the whole 27 hours thing, it's my introduction to doing #EuropeanRail in 1st class.
#Trains2Tatras

Tme to say farewell to #Vilnius and the sun comes out, in between the torrential downpours.
To keep my luggage vaguely dry, I show support for the local buses. Which in turn (all) show Lithuania's clear support for Ukraine.
#Trains2Tatras

In case photographic evidence is required, the aforementioned forest. And other observations from the TV Tower's observation floor.
#Vilnius #Trains2Tatras

By one particular measure – https://koncept.orientering.se/provapaaktiviteter/hittaut/borlange/ – I'm the 8th best orienteer in my hometown.
NB: I am not.
And to prove it, I have just had quite a bit of fun finding, ahem, Europe's 8th tallest building: the 326m high #Vilnius TV Tower.
In my defence, low cloud is obscuring the top 150m, and my approach was via a forest.
Definitely hadn't expected the final hurdle of having to persuade the welcome desk to sell me a ticket. ("Bad visibility, it's not worth it.")
#Trains2Tatras

And in "And finally" food news, the random cakes I bought from one of the few remaining tiny stores in the pedestrian underpass near the Autoosta – run by an old lady whom I guess has been there decades – are delightful.
Last time I was in #Riga, those subways were a hive of micro businesses. Now just that lady, plus two vape stores. Covid casualties, the rest?
#Trains2Tatras

In other food news, my hummus supply lasted into Lithuania but has now been consumed.
It was only out of the fridge for 29 hours.
#HummusRoulette
#Trains2Tatras

Sveiks/hello Riga.
Where Latvian and Ukrainian flags are large and abundant. Where people ride normal bikes fast (watch and learn, Sweden). And where bridges are works in progress, but with no obvious works (Rail Baltica, my guess).
#Trains2Tatras

Sveiks/hello Ventspils, where the harbour's Baltic Coal Hub now has a neighbouring Baltic Juice Terminal. Juice of what, unclear.
Meanwhile houses are pleasantly mossy but the Autoosta (bus station) takes anti homeless, anti skateboarding, anti just sitting down to extreme levels.
Next stop Riga!
Bus and #Trains2Tatras

Ferry to Latvia.
We'll be having none of that gender neutral stuff, here, thank you very much.
#Trains2Tatras

In case it needs saying, the hummus is in play. Although on this occasion, not the carrots.
#Trains2Tatras

A journey of a thousand schleps begins with a single mile.
Just walked to the station for the first of no idea how many trains or how many km over the next week.
Even by my #SwedenToWales standards, this go west #EuropeanRail adventure is a round about route.
Main target is Poprad in the Tatra Mountains of Slovakia, hence going with #Trains2Tatras (which you are welcome, even advised, to mute).
#Interrail