Berlin: The Journey to Germany

Well, after getting on the train in Krakow, we were really happy to have seen Jolin one last time. We had a nice trip to Warsaw, and slept conveniently for two hours, but we were all ready to get on the 6 hour train to Szczecin, where we would transfer to our final train to take us to Berlin. When we got off at Warsaw, we were all extremely tired. Not only because it was 11:00 PM, but also because we hadn't eaten dinner, it was quite cold outside, and we had spent all day waiting around walking around the castle and going to the salt mine (and everything in between). Luckily, it was only a 15 minute layover in Warsaw, but the station we were at was really barren. There wasn't even a stand open to buy water. We didn't want to wander too far from the station either, because with only 10 minutes to catch our next train, we wouldn't want to do any running this night either. So we sat on the platform and waited. When the train finally came, we saw that the inside was very crowded. We had noticed our tickets didn't say anything about assigned seating so I knew it was going to be a free-for-all when we boarded. We were about to get on the train, with our luggage and everything, when I noticed that the train was a little early. That meant it couldn't possibly be our trains, because trains never run early. We asked the conductor, and sure enough, it wasn't our train.

So we waited for five more minutes and our next train came. This was also crowded, with people standing in the isles outside their cabins. Great. We boarded the train and it began to move before we could even move halfway down the aisle. If you know anything about European trains, the cars have one aisle, that is very narrow so only two people can stand at a time. This means with luggage and people, it becomes a one way traffic jam trying to get from one end to another. We began looking in the cabins and noticed that almost every cabin is full, except maybe one or two seats. We managed our way all the way down the aisle and couldn't find anything. Then I realized, it's either smush in or stand—and I was not standing. I explained to the girls that it was unfortunate, but we're going to have to go back down the same aisle and find places to sleep. They're going to need to watch their stuff, and be aware of wierdos, but it's the only way to be as comfortable as possible so we weren't completely exhausted the next day.

We made our way down the aisle, and Ekta was the first to go into a cabin. There was no room in the cabin because the people in the cabin had way too much luggage and were using the leg space for baggage as well. We dropped her off and headed down some more. Many of the cabins had their curtains closed, so we were unable to see inside, and by this point, my frustration told me it doesn't matter if they don't want to be disturbed or not, we need a place to sit! The next one we got to had closed curtains, and I told Tete (who was in front) to open the door and look inside (it was the only way to see if there was room). She opened the door and of course everyone was sleeping, and by everyone I meant all four people. It was unfortunate of us to choose this cabin and wake up four very comfortably sleeping strangers, but when there are four empty spaces available to sit in, we didn't really care too much.

We woke them up and told them that four people needed to sleep in their cabin. They weren't too happy, but we were. Ekta found us and moved her stuff in with ours and then we began to sleep. Well, we tried to sleep, because the train was so uncomfortable. Ana had a window seat, me and Tete sat between Ana and a lady by the aisle. Across from us, a couple sat near the window, Ekta sat in between them and the woman next to me's husband. Basically, we tried to get as comfortable as possible, so Tete leaned on me, and I didn't lean on anyone but put my feet in between Ekta's feet. Ana was leaning on the window and poor Ekta was in the middle of two strangers, with no one to lean on. This was going to be a long night.

We were all dozing off sporadically, being woken up by the conductor three times to check tickets. The couple left sometime around 3 AM, which opened up some space, but Ekta, somehow in the middle of the night decided to take up the entire seat when the man next to her went to the bathroom. I woke up sometime around 4 AM, freezing cold because our aisle door was open, and the woman next to me was trying to convince her husband to come back in the cabin. I yelled at Ekta to wake up and stop taking up the whole seat, in which she moved, but the man, angry and tired, refused to come in. At this point, it wasn't my problem, and the train was beginning to empty, so the remaining couple found a new cabin, and we were able to be semi-comfortable for the last two hours of the ride. When we arrived in Szczecin, we got off and were greeted by the cold morning air of northern Poland. We switched tracks, found our train, and got on.

The last train was a dream. It was kind of like the Metro North of Berlin, because it was empty when we got on, but soon filled with businessmen and women heading into the city. All of us were able to completely pass out for two hours before we arrived in Berlin.

Now, it wasn't until after this journey that we realized how completely out of the way we really went to go from Krakow to Berlin. From Krakow, in Poland's southwest, to Warsaw, in Poland's northeast, to Szczecin in Poland's northwest down Berlin, in Germany's central east. In all, we made a giant circle around Poland, overshot Berlin to the north, and came back down again. What a wonderful way to go.