Memories of travels in Eastern Europe, where it was always 1948
The previous post saw us beginning our exploration of Polish Railways in the town of Nysa....
Day 5 Monday 23rd April 1984 Easter Monday (Continued)
Approaching the rather grim and foreboding town of Nysa, Mark made his best joke of the holiday. Looking out of the bus window I said "This must be Nysa" to which he replied: "Yes, it definitely could be nicer!" (Yes, they really didn't get any better than that!).
Eating out wasn't easy in the non-touristy bits of Poland (and they didn't come much less touristy than Nysa). It was a case of grab it while you can.
Eating out wasn't easy in the non-touristy bits of Poland (and they didn't come much less touristy than Nysa). It was a case of grab it while you can.
The station buffet appeared to be serving food, so we went to see what it could offer for lunch. The best bet seemed to be a dish called "Bigos", described in my Polish phrase book as a stew of sauerkraut and smoked sausage. It turned out to be about 98% sauerkraut with just a couple of lumps of fat. We washed it down with orangeade. (I did say eating out wasn't easy, but we both got fed for a total of 20p).
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| The 11.55 from Nysa to Katowice |
The 11.55 train to Katowice was hauled by a Ty-2 steam loco with double-deck coaches. Progress was very slow over the 11km to Nowa Swiekow, for which we paid 3p (between us). In the event we stayed on the train a few more stops to Szybowice. This was a very rural area and we saw passengers being brought to the station by horse and cart.
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| Transport to the station in Szybowice in 1984 |
As in the DDR our route was determined by where we expected to be able to see and ride behind steam locomotives. Having come south from Brzeg and south east from Nysa we were now intending to travel north-west. The 11.55 to Kaminiec Zabkowicki should have been a steam train. It wasn't, but I photogtaphed it anyway - and got told off by the driver for doing so.
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| The photo that got me shouted at. |
On arrival at Kaminiec Zabkowicki we stayed on the station and saw no fewer than four steam-hauled trains pass through in half-an-hour. Despite the Polish authorities sometimes taking a dim view of railway photography we managed to get a shot of each of them without getting into bother.
It might have been here, or it might have been at Klodzko that we went into the station buffet in search of refreshment. There was no beer, but a consignment of Pepsi-Cola had just been delivered (in wooden crates). We had two bottles each - before we realised that western soft drinks were a great luxury in Poland and probably hugely expensive to local people, which made us feel guilty.
There was plenty of steam in action at Klodzko with Pkt 48 tank engines and the much larger Pt47s strongly in evidence. We tried taking photos at the station but were warned not to do so by an armed militiaman. I was tempted to take a photo of him admonishing Mark, but didn't dare!
We were lucky to find a hotel with a room that overlooked the railway line, a perfect overnight stop for us with a great view out of the window
After checking in we went for a lineside walk and, naturally, took photos of the passing trains. After a while we were approached by a man pushing a baby in a pushchair. He produced some ID and said he was a policeman and that we were not allowed to take photos. Even worse, he said we had to remove the film from our cameras and expose it! We weren't sure whether he really had the authority to do this or whether he was just trying it on. We also, briefly, considered just running away as he could hardly have chased after us with the baby! However, discretion was the better part of valour, especially as we realised that in a small town with very few hotels it wouldn't exactly be difficult for the police to track us down. Mark lost a lot of his best shots and although I had only just put a new film in my camera, so that I didn't lose very many, it was the last film I had with me.
That wasn't the end of our difficulties. On asking the hotel receptionist whether we could get anthing to eat in the hotel he said no. On then asking him if there was anywhere in the town where we could eat, he gave the same answer! Nor was he wrong. Eventually we managed to find an ice cream stall and joined the queue, buying two each. They turned out to be very good ices, so after finishing them we rejoined the queue and bought two more!
Beer was equally hard to come by. We found a bar open somewhere in the town but were denied entry on the grounds that it was full. In Poland, beer tended to be sold either in low dives or high-class hotels and our chosen establishment fell somewhere in the middle. Instead we made do with a combination of wine and brandy in the hotel's "night club" which was open until 21.30!
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| One of the four steam locomotives we saw in half-an-hour at Kaminiec Zabkowicki |
There was plenty of steam in action at Klodzko with Pkt 48 tank engines and the much larger Pt47s strongly in evidence. We tried taking photos at the station but were warned not to do so by an armed militiaman. I was tempted to take a photo of him admonishing Mark, but didn't dare!
We were lucky to find a hotel with a room that overlooked the railway line, a perfect overnight stop for us with a great view out of the window
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| The view from our Klodzko hotel. |
That wasn't the end of our difficulties. On asking the hotel receptionist whether we could get anthing to eat in the hotel he said no. On then asking him if there was anywhere in the town where we could eat, he gave the same answer! Nor was he wrong. Eventually we managed to find an ice cream stall and joined the queue, buying two each. They turned out to be very good ices, so after finishing them we rejoined the queue and bought two more!
Beer was equally hard to come by. We found a bar open somewhere in the town but were denied entry on the grounds that it was full. In Poland, beer tended to be sold either in low dives or high-class hotels and our chosen establishment fell somewhere in the middle. Instead we made do with a combination of wine and brandy in the hotel's "night club" which was open until 21.30!
2 comments:
I'm really loving this series Jim. I was in Russia just a couple of years before you made your trip, but was sadly far too young (at seventeen) to appreciate the one train we travelled on, from Moscow to Leningrad. I do recall a samovar at the end of the sleeping car though. I do recall being impressed by the Moscow Metro though.
Glad to hear that Sarah. This was the first of four similar trips. I used to think it was the nearest thing to time travel and/or the concept of a parallel universe and was looking forward to a lifetime of visits. But within five years that whole world had come crashing down and had gone for ever. Two more posts to follow though!
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