Memories of travels in Eastern bloc, where it was always 1948
Since writing the previous post, some more photos have emerged from the pile of slides waiting to be scanned. I've therefore partly re-written the post to include them. You can read it again here.
Yesterday had seen us on a pub crawl in Leipzig station with nowhere to stay for the night.
Day 4 Sunday, 22nd April 1984 Easter Sunday (Continued)
Every night spent in the DDR had to be accounted for and approved accommodation secured before entering the country. But we were travelling on transit visas that allowed us only two nights' stay. Fortunately, we had a plan: to travel overnight to Poland on the Leipzig to Krakow sleeping-car express. But first we had to get a ticket.
In 1984 Interrail tickets were only available to people aged 26 and under, which didn't include us. Nor was there any easy way of obtaining tickets in the UK for journeys such as we wanted to make. There was therefore no alternative but to buy tickets as we went along, which was usually easy as every station had ticket offices staffed at all times.
Because it was an international journey, the tickets we needed couldn't be bought at the main ticket counter. Instead we had to find the International Ticket Office, hidden away in a dingy corner of the station. The elderly lady that staffed it was surprised to find two westerners asking for tickets to Poland and even more surprised that we wanted to travel the same night. But despite the fact that she couldn't speak English she couldn't have been more helpful and made sure we got the correct travel documents for the journey. She then asked whether we were German or Polish citizens (although I'm sure she knew all along that were Brits). When we told her, she was most apologetic and said we would have to pay in western currency. It struck me as odd that one couldn't use the currency of the country you were actually in, but the eastern bloc states were always short of hard currency and used every means at their disposal to get it.
The 22.06 Leipzig to Krakow express eventually turned up 45 minutes after departure time. We were travelling in the seated accommodation and there didn't appear to be a buffet car, but Mark knew somehow that you could buy beer from the sleeping car attendant. The sleeping cars and staff were Polish and so the beer was Polish too. "Zywiec", which was then completely unknown to us, although now owned by Heineken it is widely available in the UK.
Day 5 Monday, 23rd April 1984 Easter Monday
We were rudely awakened at Forst at 01.33 by East German border guards. Despite both being communist countries, the border between the DDR and Poland was as strongly guarded as any other of the DDR's frontiers. We had what the diary describes as "a slight difficulty" owing to Mark not having obtained an entry stamp on his passport. The eastern bloc authorities were very fond of stamping passports. Here are some of mine acquired during the trip.
Presumably it was the entry stamp at Marienborn (top left) that was missing. This would have presented a problem to the border guard because if Mark had not officially entered the country could he be allowed to leave it? The diary merely says "but we got through" and entered Poland at 02.00 on a train hauled by a Polish Railways (PKP) Pt 47 express-pasenger steam locomotive. (No photos at the border however).
We left the train several hours later, but still early in the morning, at the small junction station of Brzeg. Our first need was for Polish currency. This was not permitted to be imported and had to be obtained at an official bureau-de-change with a valid currency exchange document (which Mark had had to return home for in London before we set off). Brzeg, however, had no such office. Even today it is still a small industrial town with no tourism facilities.
With some difficulty we found a small hotel and decided to ask there if currency could be exchanged. The young girl staffing the reception desk didn't really understand what we wanted, but once she'd established that I could speak a little German she asked me to talk to someone at the other end of a phone line. To my relief it was obvious that this person didn't have German as a first language either. She seemed to understand that we wanted to swap British pounds for Polish zloty (although she was disappointed we didn't have US dollars) and once I'd confirmed that I didn't need an official receipt we had a deal. Her husband would come to the hotel in twenty minutes.
When he arrived he asked how much Polish currency we wanted. We didn't really have any idea of prices so we told him we would need enough for two nights hotel accommodation, train fares for two days travelling and food and drink on top. He produced a wad of bank notes and peeled off what appeared to be an enormous sum. In return we held out a fistful of pound notes and invited him to take what he wanted. To this day I don't know whether he misunderstood the value of the pound or whether he was a very generous man - but he took just £3.
We were at Brzeg because it was the junction for the line to Nysa, a centre of PKP steam operation. However, by now we had missed the train so had to take a bus. The 55 kilometre journey, at our unofficial rate of exchange, cost just 7p each. The journey was enlivened at a village on the way by a group of youths standing at the roadside and throwing buckets of water at passing traffic - including our bus! We never found out whether this was some sort of Easter custom or just what they did for entertainment round there. We found the loco shed at Nysa easily enough. The diary records it was "not possible to photograph easily" but I seem to have found a way.
This was our first objective in a long and action-packed day, the details of which will be revealed in my next post...
Yesterday had seen us on a pub crawl in Leipzig station with nowhere to stay for the night.
Day 4 Sunday, 22nd April 1984 Easter Sunday (Continued)
Every night spent in the DDR had to be accounted for and approved accommodation secured before entering the country. But we were travelling on transit visas that allowed us only two nights' stay. Fortunately, we had a plan: to travel overnight to Poland on the Leipzig to Krakow sleeping-car express. But first we had to get a ticket.
In 1984 Interrail tickets were only available to people aged 26 and under, which didn't include us. Nor was there any easy way of obtaining tickets in the UK for journeys such as we wanted to make. There was therefore no alternative but to buy tickets as we went along, which was usually easy as every station had ticket offices staffed at all times.
Because it was an international journey, the tickets we needed couldn't be bought at the main ticket counter. Instead we had to find the International Ticket Office, hidden away in a dingy corner of the station. The elderly lady that staffed it was surprised to find two westerners asking for tickets to Poland and even more surprised that we wanted to travel the same night. But despite the fact that she couldn't speak English she couldn't have been more helpful and made sure we got the correct travel documents for the journey. She then asked whether we were German or Polish citizens (although I'm sure she knew all along that were Brits). When we told her, she was most apologetic and said we would have to pay in western currency. It struck me as odd that one couldn't use the currency of the country you were actually in, but the eastern bloc states were always short of hard currency and used every means at their disposal to get it.
The 22.06 Leipzig to Krakow express eventually turned up 45 minutes after departure time. We were travelling in the seated accommodation and there didn't appear to be a buffet car, but Mark knew somehow that you could buy beer from the sleeping car attendant. The sleeping cars and staff were Polish and so the beer was Polish too. "Zywiec", which was then completely unknown to us, although now owned by Heineken it is widely available in the UK.
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| Would you share a train compartment with this man? |
Leaving the DDR
Day 5 Monday, 23rd April 1984 Easter Monday
We were rudely awakened at Forst at 01.33 by East German border guards. Despite both being communist countries, the border between the DDR and Poland was as strongly guarded as any other of the DDR's frontiers. We had what the diary describes as "a slight difficulty" owing to Mark not having obtained an entry stamp on his passport. The eastern bloc authorities were very fond of stamping passports. Here are some of mine acquired during the trip.
Presumably it was the entry stamp at Marienborn (top left) that was missing. This would have presented a problem to the border guard because if Mark had not officially entered the country could he be allowed to leave it? The diary merely says "but we got through" and entered Poland at 02.00 on a train hauled by a Polish Railways (PKP) Pt 47 express-pasenger steam locomotive. (No photos at the border however).
We left the train several hours later, but still early in the morning, at the small junction station of Brzeg. Our first need was for Polish currency. This was not permitted to be imported and had to be obtained at an official bureau-de-change with a valid currency exchange document (which Mark had had to return home for in London before we set off). Brzeg, however, had no such office. Even today it is still a small industrial town with no tourism facilities.
With some difficulty we found a small hotel and decided to ask there if currency could be exchanged. The young girl staffing the reception desk didn't really understand what we wanted, but once she'd established that I could speak a little German she asked me to talk to someone at the other end of a phone line. To my relief it was obvious that this person didn't have German as a first language either. She seemed to understand that we wanted to swap British pounds for Polish zloty (although she was disappointed we didn't have US dollars) and once I'd confirmed that I didn't need an official receipt we had a deal. Her husband would come to the hotel in twenty minutes.
When he arrived he asked how much Polish currency we wanted. We didn't really have any idea of prices so we told him we would need enough for two nights hotel accommodation, train fares for two days travelling and food and drink on top. He produced a wad of bank notes and peeled off what appeared to be an enormous sum. In return we held out a fistful of pound notes and invited him to take what he wanted. To this day I don't know whether he misunderstood the value of the pound or whether he was a very generous man - but he took just £3.
We were at Brzeg because it was the junction for the line to Nysa, a centre of PKP steam operation. However, by now we had missed the train so had to take a bus. The 55 kilometre journey, at our unofficial rate of exchange, cost just 7p each. The journey was enlivened at a village on the way by a group of youths standing at the roadside and throwing buckets of water at passing traffic - including our bus! We never found out whether this was some sort of Easter custom or just what they did for entertainment round there. We found the loco shed at Nysa easily enough. The diary records it was "not possible to photograph easily" but I seem to have found a way.
 |
| PKP locomotives on shed at Nysa |
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