I’ve created myself a precedent now by merrily writing about Müllermilch whenever I try a new flavour, so I don’t want to end that routine in case it’s unlikely. Anyway, for my long rail journey from Warsaw to Budapest, I had a couple of these and they were both really rather lovely.
The Angel Hair one tasted of pistachio and was really quite sweet (who would have thought….), although there’s a place for such things…. I preferred the Apple Pie style one, a richer and more decadent taste.
And they’re about 90p each, seemingly with some addictive qualities as I keep finding myself drawn to them…..
After a quick visit to Carrefour for snacks, I embarked on what was the longest rail journey that I’ve taken in Europe (I went for over 24 hours in the US….) from Warsaw to Budapest. Here’s the display screen at Warszawa Centralna, with the departure being second from top on the right-hand screen.
Waiting at Platform 3.
Here’s the train layout, and I had gone for first class as it wasn’t much more expensive as I’d booked it at the last minute.
It’s all happening now with the departure board on the platform updating to show the train. I had a flight booked for very early the next morning, so if something went wrong here, it would be hard to resolve. Well, hard to resolve cheaply anyway.
The train after it had pulled into the station and I was glad to see it.
I was disappointed that it was a compartment train, it wasn’t meant to be and I assume it was swapped in at the last minute. These are old fashioned and being removed from the rail network with a preference for open seating which feels safer. It transpired that the lady in the window seat (who had briefly left the compartment when I took the photo) was only going a short distance, so I had that window seat with table for nearly all of the journey. This did make me happier at matters as I do like a table for my laptop.
I switched this down to cold at the first available moment.
A view down looking at the compartments. There was a refreshments carriage next door, but it didn’t look very exciting.
For a long time, it was just me (and my bag and laptop) in the compartment, although a couple came in later on and were annoyed it was a compartment train.
Being in First gives no luxuries other than a free bottle of water and a little more space. It was a nice bottle of water to be fair as far as these things go.
Not only was I going from Poland’s capital to Hungary’s capital, but the train also stopped in Slovakia’s capital of Bratislava. I must admit that I was tempted to get off here as it’s one of my favourite cities, but that would have caused me some logistical issues….
And here’s the train in Budapest Nyugati railway station at the end of the journey. I did take a lot of photos of stations en route, to remind myself I quite fancy going to some of those locations (Ostrava in the Czech Republic looked interesting which has the nickname of Black Heart which I like), but there were no great pieces of scenery that I felt the need to photograph. There were a lot of fields though.
And safely in Hungary.
Overall, I rather enjoyed gazing out of the window for hours, but there was no wifi and the phone connection was poor for much of the journey. It’s generally cheaper by plane, it’s obviously quicker and ultimately much more convenient. Flying isn’t though very environmental and there is a push towards more long-distance trains, although this was 11 hours in total so it’s hardly a fast-paced arrangement.
The cost was relatively expensive for European rail at £50, although as an experience it was worth it. But, there’s going to need to be modernisation here, basic things like allowing for ordering food and drink on the train for either collection in the refreshments car or delivery to the compartment. I had no idea when meal service was, they needed to be clearer about that. They also do need wifi, although they did have power outlets and they were useful.
I had eight ticket checks during the journey, which is excessive by any means. The US system is better here, they check tickets on entry and write the journey on a card above the seat. I also didn’t like the compulsory reservation system, I was lucky to have a quiet carriage because there were no-shows, but I’d rather just sit where there’s space and not be tied to a certain seat (although I had moved across one from my middle seat I had been allocated). I thought that it all went quickly, so I certainly enjoyed the restful nature of the whole arrangement.
The whole thing felt a little old-fashioned and there’s a place for that, but I can’t see passenger numbers ever soaring for services like this unless they can speed them up a bit and make them more comfortable and modern. However, there is a sleeper version of this service so you get a choice between the two trains and that makes more sense in terms of time efficiency. However, I wanted to look out of the window at things as this was more of an experience.
The train arrived into Budapest just twenty minutes late, which isn’t bad given the complexity of going across four countries, namely Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. There were announcements throughout the journey, just about all of them in English. The service is run by České dráhy, who are the national rail operator in the Czech Republic, and I’d say that this sort of long-distance train service is certainly an experience worth trying at least once. So all really rather quite lovely and a reminder that I’ll take more trains on the European mainland.
After flying back to Warsaw from Genoa, I was able to catch one of the last trains of the evening which got me into central Warsaw by midnight. There was a ticket check of everyone on the train, but in typical Polish fashion, everyone had one.
Safely into Warszawa Centralna and the ticket cost about 90p.
Walking past the Palace of Culture and Science….
Free fries in the late night opening KFC…
I had had a long day….. And Polish KFC is much better, and cheaper, than KFC in the UK.
After getting through the main door entry panels this was the entrance to the hostel…. It looked a bit much at first, but they did send clear instructions in advance, so it didn’t take too long. Incidentally, the main door downstairs to get into the building was also the entrance to Thai Me Up and PiwPaw, two rather lovely food and drink options in the city.
I paid just under £30 for a private room for one person with two beds. They’d run out of those so they gave me single occupancy of a room with eight beds. It felt like slight overkill….
It’s certainly spacious and I wasn’t going to run out of power outlet options either. There was free wifi and the beds were sufficiently comfortable.
As for the hostel, it’s a particularly good option for larger groups as they can just book an entire room for themselves and the prices were very reasonable. I’d never stayed here before, but it was sufficiently clean and there were no internal or external noise disturbances. It was just a shame I couldn’t have arrived back in Warsaw an hour earlier so that PiwPaw was still open….
After two interesting days in Genoa and environs, it was time for the next £8.99 adventure and it was back to Warsaw. I had taken the train to the nearest station and enjoyed a pleasant ten minute walk to get here.
They’re reconstructing the lounge here and that reopens next year, but the airside space was sizeable and had power points. I think that there are plans to increase the size of the airport and make it a more important one, so there are a series of renovations taking place.
This is not a major international airport and Wizz Air have quite a limited presence here. There’s certainly potential for more passengers to use this airport, there is a decent public transport link, the terminal is large and Genoa would likely benefit substantially from more tourists and commercial connections.
I’m conscious that I’m very much repeating myself here, but, yet again, the boarding process was well managed with friendly gate agents. Everything was clearly signed, it was efficient and it felt organised.
Boarding the aircraft, which was registration HA-LXS which I last went on in February 2022. Boarding was smooth and efficient, with the aircraft being clean.
The seating Gods had given me a window seat and my bag is visible there having a little rest. But, since the entire row was clear, I moved to an aisle seat. The aircraft was about 60% full which makes matters more comfortable.
I nearly never get anything from the trolley on flights as it’s far too decadent, but I was hungry and so felt the need for some noodles. These are around £4, which doesn’t feel unreasonable for an aircraft.
Delicious, although I won’t get used to this level of decadence.
And safely onto the bus to take us to the terminal and as this was a Schengen flight with no border controls it meant I went from here to the train in just five minutes.
The flight cost me £9 and once again I was surprised and delighted by Wizz Air. Everything was smooth, well managed, comfortable and organised, with plenty of space on board. I accept that my splashing out on fine dining took the price of this to £13, but that still feels decent value to me.
In a similar vein to my photos of Rapallo, I’m going to admit to myself now that I’m getting behind with this blog and so I’ll have to do another job lot of photos to excite and delight my two loyal blog readers.
I rather liked Genoa, the old town is still full of small streets and interesting corners, there’s real evidence in the buildings at how powerful Genoa once was. There are few chain stores, just a lot of smaller shops which do add considerably to the atmosphere. That also makes for lots of small cafes, bars and restaurants, with supermarkets struggling to fit themselves around buildings.
The city does look like it needs a lot of investment, the marina area was improved a couple of decades ago, but there’s a lot of money still needed. I saw one “tourists go home” sign along the lines of those in Barcelona and numerous other cities, but I’m not sure Genoa can easily afford that little plan. I’m sure that Airbnb and the like are damaging, I hope they’re much more heavily regulated and taxed in the future.
It’s definitely a vibrant, and even grimy, city, but it does have some considerable charm because it feels authentic. It’s not as touristy as many other Italian locations and it was also a bit dented by air raids during the Second World War, but it’s still quirky and real.
One thing that I hear in the UK is something like “you don’t hear English any more”, which I’m not sure is entirely true given that just about everyone speaks it. Anyway, I won’t get political…. But, in many cities, English is the language I hear the most because of the number of tourists. That might be convenient for me, but it doesn’t really lead to an authentic charm when overdone. In Genoa, I rarely heard anything other than Italian, but the locals (or the ones I encountered in the hospitality industry) spoke perfect English and were all welcoming.
It’s a city that I would return to, I think it’s likely a harder city to penetrate and fully understand than many others, but I like places like that. I didn’t have time to visit the museums or the largest aquarium in Europe, but I’ll work my way around those if I come back. Anyway, now a heap of photos….
NB, several people thought that the figurehead looked like Richard, but I don’t comment on such things.
After my success earlier in the day getting to Rapallo on a modern and functional train, I thought it would be an easy matter to get a similar service to Genoa Airport. It transpired that it wasn’t.
The ticket purchasing was via machine and that element went well, so I meandered up to sit on the platform confident in my abilities to navigate the Italian rail network.
The view from the platform over the town square.
The sleepy town and its railway station which they didn’t burden their resources by actually staffing it. However, the whole affair is better than Deutsche Bahn, that’s something that I do need to mention.
The waiting room had a few seats, but it needed more and it hadn’t had the modernisation that most UK railway stations seem to have had which has put in not just more seats, but also power points. I found a validation machine in the waiting room, I think I would have put it on the platform rather than hidden around a corner, but I’m not an expert in these matters…..
The board was working, but these rickety old display systems don’t photograph well. Not that I’m complaining, but this said that the next service in was the one that I wanted.
This train trundled in and there was evidently a problem as there were lots of Italians asking each other questions. That meant they didn’t know what train it was and there was no signage which indicated which it was, something that wouldn’t happen on the UK rail network for all its faults. Anyway, that will be the end of my comparing the networks….. Unsure of what to do, I just got on this one as it was going in the right direction.
The train was clean and comfortable, with numerous power outlets. The on-board screens were broken and there were no announcements, but it was evident that I was on the wrong train as it was stopping at stations that I hadn’t expected it to.
However, after some slight concern that I was going to Milan, I realised that this train was actually heading to Genoa and so I could remain on board and just change in the city centre. Some quick Googling also showed me that I had boarded an RGV train rather than an R train, but my ticket was still valid. It meant that it was going to the airport stop that I needed, but at least I wasn’t going to end up somewhere a long distance away.
This all meant an unexpected stop back in Genoa city centre.
I popped to Carrefour to get some drink as it was so hot. I don’t think I’ve mentioned the heat in the last few posts but there were still Italians visible wrapped up in their coats whilst I was still fending off potential heatstroke.
I’ve had these a few times, they’re rather lovely and they calmed my stress levels. Actually, I wasn’t stressed, but it was a handy excuse.
Back on the platform, this is the train that I needed to get to the airport stop.
As a network, it’s evidently understaffed with nearly no-one about. If there is some crisis, it would take some time for anyone to be found to offer assistance. Fortunately, I was very brave and dealt with my little adventure on my own.
Here’s my Rock train sweeping in. My ticket was still valid and so I didn’t have to acquire a new one which made matters easier. Although it seemed unlikely that anyone would actually check the tickets.
This looked like the train I had been on earlier, so all was well as the on-board signage was good and indicated the train and I had the same plan on where we were going. Again, a fair few of the power outlets were broken but the working ones light up which makes it easy to establish this without plugging my phone into each one. I liked this train though, it was clean and comfortable.
And into Genova Sestri Ponente, which is the nearest railway station to the airport. It’s about a ten minute walk, but it’s cheaper than getting the airport service and I’m not made of money. And I like walking.
There’s the old bridge over the tracks to the left and the new one to the right. I’m surprised by looking at it that the old bridge hasn’t fallen down over the rail track, although I’m conscious that the Ponte Morandi road bridge in the city collapsed (my friend Liam must be a very good civil engineer as nothing he has built has, to my knowledge, fallen down) a few years and so I’m sure that this smaller arrangement is safe as it’s at least closed off.
The new pedestrian bridge and they’ve made this an accessible route to the airport as there’s a lift option here as well.
It is really quite a pleasant little walk to the airport.
The airport was constructed by using land reclamation, so much of this area is new.
And eating the last of my chocolates before heading into the airport.
As I’m getting behind with this riveting blog, I think that it’s easier to do a job lot of the remaining photos from Rapallo that intrigued me….. It’s a lovely little coastal town, they’ve been very brave coping with all the attacks made on them over the centuries.
This pretty little gate is the only surviving one of the five that once circled the town of Rapallo. The gate was constructed in the early seventeenth century, although the rather decadent Baroque style is more recent. I imagine that the town authorities had a bit of money one year and fancied tarting it up, perhaps because they’d already knocked the other four down. The destruction of the gates started early, as one was taken down in 1702 to improve access to the town.
The name, Porta delle Saline, comes from the nearby salt pans where seawater was once evaporated to produce salt. Today the gate is now doorless and it marks the pedestrian area of the town from the more car heavy outskirts.
I like a sculpture (I don’t get out much) as its reason for being is often more intriguing than the person who is represented. This one is Giuseppe Garibaldi who is best known for having a biscuit named after him, but he is also known as the Father of the Italian nation. And there are hundreds of these sculptures across Italy for that reason, although perhaps there are more than are really needed.
The sculpture is located in Piazza IV Novembre, the national Italian day which marked Italian victory (well, of sorts) in the First World War and securing the future of the nation.
Incidentally, one of my favourite facts about Garibaldi is that when he was creating the Redshirts to follow his radical political agenda, they weren’t named in some revolutionary fervour. It was rather more because he had got a job load of red shirts meant for slaughterhouse workers in Argentina.
Here’s the local hero Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) doing some more pointing towards his discoveries in the New World. The sculptor was Arturo Dresco and this was another little addition to the town which was paid for by those who had left it to go to the Americas.
The statue was unveiled on 21 May 1914 and it’s quite a substantial little arrangement with two groups of bronze figures as well.
And the main man and local hero…. I couldn’t find any actual link between Rapallo and Columbus, I think they just wanted to show their appreciation for their hero from Genoa. Which reminds me that one day I’d like to visit Columbus in Ohio, although that’s more because it’s the capital of the state rather than me going to places named after Columbus…..
