Sunday 15 April
We've been
travelling for 11 hours. We've been stopped for some time here, at
the Ukranian border.
Reg is interested
in all things technical and mechanical and has no hesitation in going
to have a look to find out what's happening. He gets involved in a
curious non-verbal conversation with the train guard, involving
exaggerated gesticular movements of the arms. Reg discovers that
they are hoisting up the train in order to change the wheels, so that
they will fit the different gauge of the Ukranian rail system. It
would seem that they have to do this every time they come into the
Ukraine from Poland and when they go back!
It's been a long
day, but we have our own private “cabin”, with 2 bunk beds on one
side, clean sheets & pillows (with starched white pillowcases) &
blankets. The top bunk is quite high, giving ample room for moving
about below & getting comfortable on the bottom bunk, which
doubles as the train seat.
The cabin is
lovely and warm and Reg reports, on returning from an earlier mission
to see how everything works, that the heating works through the guard
piling coal into a boiler at the end of the carriage. There is a
separate boiler for each carriage.
We save our
thermos flask for lunchtime. The lovely Agnes at the Flower Power
hostel in Wroclaw packed us plenty of food for the journey; 6
baguette rolls, 3 with Polish ham and and 3 with camembert, all with
salad, 4 hard boiled eggs, 4 Polish sausages (Kabanosy), and
2 bananas. Plus we have crisps, and a few Aldi Hobnobs and
gingernuts left to keep us going.
The scenery speeds by (though this isn't actually a very fast train).
Out of the window we see many contrasts; crop-planted countryside;
suburbs with quite wealthy-looking houses, interspersed with towns
containing forlorn grey tenement flats; dilapidated buildings;
expanses of brightly coloured graffitti; pockets of scattered litter;
and evidence of new building work, include a new motorway.
Reg and I take it in turns to have a nap on the lower bunk, putting
our feet on the lap of the other one, who sits by the window. At
about 2 o'clock the guard brings us a lovely cup of tea! Bliss!
After we've had the rest of our rolls at about 6 pm, Reg plucks up
courage and asks the guard to fill up our thermos flask, so that we
can have another cuppa. (Well done, Reggie).
When we boarded the train, there were 4 complimentary bottles of
water in our cabin, plus 2 croissants, 2 soaps, and 2 small towels
(not sure if we're meant to keep these or not, but we can't take the
extra weight of anything we don't need, in any case). The irony is,
although the toilet at the end of the corridor does flush (we think
to the rails below) the water tap isn't working – so the soap &
towels aren't much use! Thank goodness for antiseptic handwash. But
see note at end of blog!
We're still at the border, where we've been stopped for about an
hour and a half. 2 separate customs offficers have checked our
passports.
It
hasn't been too bad on the train for this length of time. I've had a
nap, done a bit of studying, finished Wild Swans,
and started reading The Sealed Letter by
Emma Donoghue on my kindle! Yey!!
From now on texts will be 40p as we're leaving the EU where they are
10p each. Reg has a sim-free phone and will buy a local simcard when
we get to Lvov, so that it will be cheaper to contact home.
We're still stationary and it's 8.35pm Ukranian time ( 7.35pm Polish
time).
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