Wars (aw)

Yek she mesc! We pulled into Warsaw Central Station at about 6 a.m. this morning, arriving aboard a sleeper. Our first night to be spent aboard a train could have been a great deal worse - we found our cabin, which was designed to sleep six, with two middle-aged (I assume) Polish women already setting up camp for the night. Rightly or wrongly, they weren't best pleased about having to spend the night with the three of us, so after some sweet talking of the guard, got themselves moved into another cabin. Result. We spent some time drinking Weizen bier and eating Gouda and salami sandwiches in our now much more comfortable cabin. Sleeping, I found difficult because of the noise the train would make intermittently, so I guess I will be investing in some Uber earplugs at some point.

Having walked around part of Warsaw this morning, whilst the hostel prepared our room, first impressions mark the place out as one looking to continue develop a great deal in the near future, especially with respect to infrastructure in the run-up to Euro 2012. There are shiny new skyscrapers, expensive hotels and the amazing Soviet art-deco Muzeum Techniki. The old part of the town, with its few remaining pre-war buildings, is quite beautiful. We've come back to the hostel for a nap but we'll be going back out shortly, so keep your eyes peeled for exciting new developments...

...this afternoon we ventured east to Leskieni Park (pictures soon), with it's beautiful gardens and floating palace. After dinner in the old town square we left for an Irish pub close by. Deciding to take a taxi home after being treated to an interesting dance session by the locals (video to follow), to our fortune there was one driving past just as we were leaving...after much kerfuffel we made clear our destination to the driver. Ironically, his spoken English was superb and it soon became clear that he thought he was some sort of racing driver in a past life! So, here we are typing away under the staircase at Jump Inn hostel in the outskirts of Warsaw.

We will be in Kiev next time we report.

Toodles.

guy and ghengis