Stargard Szczecinski - Krakow

We make it to the station at 06:05. I start bitching about the fact that the waiting hall has been repainted in grey.

"That way it won´t look dirty," is gramps´ explanation.

I get on the train at 06:17. The snow that melted yesterday is now forming ice on the platform.

It´s pretty empty. A young guy joins me in the compartment. He was going to study Computer Science, procrastinated and got drafted into the army. It´s his first day today and he´s going to be late. He´s been assigned to the base near Wroclaw, half way across the whole country. 3 months of training. No chance of getting time off to go home. Cold climate. Understandably, he´s pissed off.

Leszno. Paint peeling off the station walls. Security on the platform. The post office has been repainted in pink and yellow. The snow´s melted and the landscape is rather bleak. Some students get into the compartment. Two are wearing suits and studying for a maths test.

Skonce. Small town. Population of maybe 1000 here. An African woman lives opposite the station. Her whole house is covered in colourful clothes for sale.

Poznan. It could almost become a nice city with some effort. There are interesting old houses, but the greying plaster gives them a wholly derelict appearance. An old man in a fur hat with a bad leg gets into the carriage. He is short and hunched up, but his hands are twice the size of mine. He´s returning from his sister´s funeral. His son is working as a carpenter in Athens.

Oborniki Slaskie (Silesian Natural Ferteliser). What a name for a town! Does seem rather provincial. However, there´s graffiti of Bob Marley and the Dalai Lama saying, "Free Tibet."

Train stops in Wroclaw. Seems like eternity since I was last here. Seems unattractive in this weather. Grey.

Katowice is a disappointment. I was expecting stacks of chimneys, pipes, high rise flats. After all, in the mid 80s, a body of Japanese scientists declared that human life should not be able to survive in this area. Well, the heavy industry and flats are all here, but it´s spread out over a wide area. With snow covering this part of the country, it´s not as horrible as I´d hoped.

We pass some coal loading bays. Graffiti says: "Shoot a cop to kil!" Great political engagement. The rest of the graffiti in the area seems to involve soccer: "Jebac Wisle!" ("Kick the fuck out of Wisla [Warsaw soccer team]"). Truly pertinent sentiment, with unemployment at 20% and youth unemployment even higher than that.

Myslowice. What a hole! Half the people at the station are wearing tracksuits and drinking (I´d rather not know what). Everything is bolted up with wooden planks. On the outskirts half the houses have had windows "bolted up" with brick walls. Some guy walks down the carriage asking for money to cure his sick orphan brother.

Finally roll into Krakow. Had my ticket checked 4 times during the trip. Sat in a t-shirt and sweated for 8 hours as the compartment was overheated. The one good thing about the trip was the clean toilet, with running water, soap and toilet paper. Unfortunately the schematic diagram on the toilet wall had been ripped off. These are a gem... a detailed engineering diagram of the water supply system in the train toilet, present in most toilets on every train in Poland. Why? Surely, passengers can´t be expected to fix the plumbing themselves in the very likely event of the facilities not working...

Krakow is sludgey. I walk for half an hour trying to find the hostel I found on the net. I ask some people for directions. The hostel is full. I know another place though. I take a tram to the south of town, the Jewish district of Kazimiez. I ring the bell, nobody´s home. There´s a phone number. Nobody answers. I go back to the station, some people are handing out leaflets of youth hostels. I choose one.

On the way out of the station, an Irish guy walks up to me and recommends the place he stayed in last night. I help him buy the ticket to Budapest, as the woman in the ticket office speaks little English. Translating takes some time. At the end of it, she´s almost smiling (being a public servant working for state railways in an ex-eastern bloc country means that she can´t actually smile).

Ben and I go to have Chinese together. Turns out that Ben is a journalist. He´s been to Iraq recently and has some very interesting, original opinions about recent events.

I finally check into a hostel at 9pm, talk to a dude from Arizona and go to bed.