Survival kit contents check. In them you’ll find:
- One forty-five caliber automatic
- Two boxes of ammunition
- Four days’ concentrated emergency rations
- One drug issue containing antibiotics, morphine, vitamin pills, pep pills, sleeping pills, tranquilizer pills
- One miniature combination Russian phrase book and Bible
- One hundred dollars in rubles
- One hundred dollars in gold
- Nine packs of chewing gum
- One issue of prophylactics
- Three lipsticks
- Three pair of nylon stockings.
Shoot, a fella’ could have a pretty good weekend in Vegas with all that stuff.
The last night in Poland I checked my e-mail to find a great message and did a happy dance – it appears I’m receiving an award on the way out of law school – woo! It’s been a tough year; I’d like to say it has been a lot of work, but I’ve had the lightest school workload of my law school career.. Nevertheless, I pushed hard to keep my grades high this year despite some challenges.
I packed my bag (now nicknamed Europack) with an extra 6L of water, making it as heavy as it has ever been. I wanted a lot of water because I head by train to Poznan for a bit over 3 hours, wander Poznan for a few hours, then head to Kiev on a train taking 20 hours – the whole journey lasting about 27 hours with the layover. There’s no restaurant on board and no guaranteed option to jump off the train to acquire supplies. I figured if the train ended up being hot, I’d need a lot of water. Eurosac, Europack’s nimbler cousin that acquired its name while I was packing, is the flexible companion that holds dirty laundry, groceries, or random extra things that need to be carried around. It came to be filled with a bunch of sesame seed pretzels, granola bars, muffins, rice cakes, and another 1.5 L of water.
The TLK train out of Wrocław accelerated quickly, promising to be fast… until the waiting began –we sat at the next station for 15-20 minutes, then on the track between stations for another 10-15 minutes. I began to realize the Polish train system might run a bit more quickly if they could get the logistics in order; even the old trains can handle reasonable speeds once going straight down a set of rails.
Arriving in Posnan a few minutes late I checked the schedule and realized my train departed at 2035h instead of the expected 2112h – great save! Or so I thought – I would later find out the train actually departs at 2112h, despite the schedule and my ticket showing a mysterious 2035h train on platform three which never arrived. Realizing I dropped the ball in forgetting to purchase fruit, bread, and jam… I walked into a Polish chain discount grocer to purchase the items, further adding to the newfound heft of Europack and set out to tour Poznan in two hours.
Poznan is under construction – the train station is getting an impressive new structure above the tracks and a lot of road is torn up and being replaced. But it doesn`t look like those will be ready for Euro2012. I stopped at Green Way, a restaurant often frequented for some vegetarian fare in 2010, and enjoyed my favourite dish, the enchiladas. Then I headed to the town square, which was largely destroyed by the Nazis in World War II. It was rebuilt and Poznan’s is one of the nicest ones I’ve seen in Poland.
Poznan had a great feel to the city – despite the obvious preparations for the Euro2012 soccer/football championships, there was a somewhat relaxed feel to the city. I walked past a pub on the way back to the train station that had some live music coming from it and wished I had time to stop in – well, I did have time, I just didn’t realize it. I also saw what is quite possibly the best building mural and the weirdest balcony I have ever seen.
Poznan has a curiosity I also saw in Warsaw: platforms attached to and surrounding some buildings that appear to be present only to protect pedestrians from falling parts of the building. It isn’t a construction site – the wire mesh is constantly there. One might think that simply fixing the building would be a better option. I suppose this method saves money, at least in the short run, but the logic escapes me.
Getting to the train station I headed to platform three. But there would be no sign of the Ukraine-bound vehicle. I tried in vain to talk to the information desk attendant who seemed to find it helpful that he didn’t speak English (or French) and kept pointing to a TV that was persistent in not listing my train. It doesn’t help that with the train covering several languages, two alphabets, and a host of stops you never know with certainty under what heading the train will be listed. Eventually, with the help of a few friendlier folks, I realized there was a train listed on one of the monitors (but not with Kiev or Kyiv in the name) that was not listed on the paper schedule, and without a track listing, leaving at 2112h. It was my train! As platform two magically appeared on the display next to the train I headed over and in a minute or two the train came in.
As the train came in the first cars bore the name “Russian Railways” – unexpected, but cool nonetheless. I walked along the train towards my car and seeing many shirtless men and then several large, shirtless men drinking Jagermeister in one room I began to wonder what I got myself into. As my bunkmate, a scientist working in Switzerland, would later comment: it’s how you know you’re on the right train! I continued walking to near the end of the train, got on board, and met my bunkmate who ordered me a tea and warned me the train surges while braking – it sure does. The first station we came into braking was smooth until I suddenly had to grab a hand rail. I wonder if there’s something wrong with one of the air valves for the brakes – I once drove a semi with a defective foot valve that would suddenly send a more than commanded amount of air to the brakes, and not release once you remove your foot.
I could make the experience sound shady – the train would surge when it stopped and then suddenly stop very harshly, one bathroom smelt of urine, a door with “3000V” on it was left open, Ukrainian customs took our passports for two hours while the train cars were lifted and the bogies (the assemblies carrying the axles) swapped out for wider-gauge Russian standard ones, a lady came on the train in the first significant Ukrainian town to sell home-made perogy like food (it was a little undercooked), and I just saw someone unscrewing a heater cover from the wall… but overall the train is in quite good condition and seems pretty new. And I like trains! We passed through Rivne (Russian: Rovno), which is heavily steeped in the Ukrainian language and holds a deep interest in Ukrainian culture… my bunkmate and I coined its Ukrainian Quebec.
