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Published: April 30th 2011
BC: Belarussian Comfort? After our few days in Freiburg, all too soon we were to set off for Poland. It was my birthday, but sunny solar Freiburg wasn’t so sunny and we didn’t go on the planned trip into the mountains of the Black Forest lying just behind the city. Instead we had a stroll up the Schloßberg before a meal at the veggie restaurant in the city centre. There you pile up your plate and then they weigh it: good job they don’t do that on North Sea Ferries.
In the evening we departed Freiburg on the night express to Warsaw. We packed up and said goodbye to David who was heading back to England the next day. At the railway station as the train rolled in I looked vainly for the Polish carriages – no “WARS” company sleepers. Instead a Belarussian Railways lass leaned out and asked where we where headed “Do Warszawy” (To Warsaw) I replied, thinking she would point me on. “Here” she said, I checked the carriage number, and, yes, we were going to be treated to a Belarussian Railways (BC) experience without the expense of a Belarussian travel visa! The carriage
looked modern enough, but that was as far as the birthday treat was going to go.
We unloaded our rucksacks and I nearly knocked myself out lifting up my rucksack and hitting the corner of the top bunk with my head. The top bunk was down despite us paying for a 2-bunk sleeper. We tried the lights: nowt, apart from the nightlight. Ok….the lasses helpfully came in and opened the sink cabinet, where there was another dim light. The heating was also out - they helpfully told us that; also there was no drinking water. I went down the train to the section which was headed for Copenhagen and spent a fortune on German Railways’ tea and peanuts. In comparison WARS had air con. which worked, bottled water for drinking, eucalyptus water for rinsing, a little overnight kit, and they made the bed for you. You get a cup of tea or coffee in the morning. Belarussian Railway’s top showpiece sleeping car was run mostly on the theme of “niet”.
Anyhow, once under Polish wires early the next morning, the electrics of the carriage sprang into life. We could watch the air conditioning work its magic as the
prominently displayed thermometer showed the temperature climbing steadily up into the low 20s Celsius. And carry on climbing too: by the time we were reaching the outskirts of Warsaw the mercury has passed 25ºC and there was nothing we could do about it as the controls were mere decoration. Having said all that, I slept ok, and it was still better than the Slovak Sauna experience on the Hummené express
A hot night on the Hummené Express: Home of the Erotic Disco, though God knows what the BC carriage would be like on a scorching hot day.
We staggered out back into the late winter of Warsaw Centralna, and bought our tickets for Białystok. In under half an hour we were on our way again, for the final stretch.
Poland As we ran northeastwards into Podlasie, it was clear that at the end of March, winter had just packed up – there were some little left over bits of ice amongst the shady spots.
Once settled in Białystok, we were focused on our work teaching students at the university over the weekend. The classes went well, which was good because it was a long way to come!
The next few days we went over
to the Knyszyn Forest. After days of the city we needed some space (Warning: Imminent Rant). Increasingly, space is getting short in Białystok, and more and more of the city is getting sacrificed to the car: pavements, allotments, playgrounds, greenspace. Not only are roads getting widened but new dual carriageway ring roads are being built, ripping through residential parts of the city. Meanwhile, the bus services are getting sparser. The plan for the long distance trucks to be put on to trains was ditched, due to lobbying by motorists. It is as if the “Green Lungs of Poland” concept for Poland’s North East never happened. So the Knyszyn Forest is a important space for recreation and wildlife and tranquility, but already road expansion is eating away into the interior – whilst peoples’ attention is turned towards the expansion of the Białowieża National Park further south.
Our first trip was up west of Czarna Białostocka to a part of the forest we hadn’t been to before. We got the bus to Jezierzysk. This place has the distinction of being remarkably difficult to pronounce (hey, Szczerbrzeszyn is a piece of p*ss in comparison). It is very small, on the way to
wetland, Knyszyn Forest
ice and algae make abstract artnot a lot, but at least it has a bus service! From there we walked through the forest back to Czarna Białostocka.
As hinted at by the guide on the back of our map, this part of the forest is notable for its beauty, mix of trees and the spread of flowers which were in bloom. Further on, there were ponds dammed up by beavers, some still with bits of ice in them. From Czarna Białostocka we got a train back out of sheer stubbornness: there were earlier buses but the bus stops were on a busy road, information was patchy and I wasn’t so keen on funding the operators who were “cherry picking” the most lucrative routes taking revenue from the main operator, PKS (who, admittedly, are stuck in the past), who still serve places like Jezierzysk.
The next day we took a trip out to Krynki, a little village/town on the very edge of Poland close to the Belarussian border. Originally Jewish, the Nazis wiped out the Jewish population, but one of the synagogues still stands. Krynki lies in a zone which has an interesting ethnic mix – there are the descendents of the Tartars, and
Any more apples?
Kasia goes horse riding in Podczopek, and donates part of our lunch. (Good job we didn't meet lots of ducks). the surrounding villages are Belarussian speaking. We wandered around the slopes surrounding Krynki, it has the unusual feature of being at the source of a river that immediately leaves the country – the river Krynka. Nearly all other rivers in Poland drain into Vistula or Odra.
Krynki also has mineral water – and when someone stopped their car by a unremarkable standpipe and hopped out with big plastic containers we tanked up ourselves.
On our way back into Krynki we passed a secondhand bookshop, and it turned out to be, in the words of the proprietor, a “left wing anarchist bookshop” which, along with the giant Smurfs mural, is just the kind of thing you’d expect in a slightly dilapidated oversized village on the eastern border of Poland. The bookshop had lots of history and art history books, books on ethnic minorities and Arab history. More Kraków than Krynki, but then I expect the rents are lower in Krynki.
Our third trip out was to Podczopek, on the far edge of the forest, and Kasia went horse riding there. It was at a new centre just being built, no expense spared by the look of it, but
Comfy outdoor sofa
time for a nice sit down!
Krynki (of course). done well rather than some of the typical crap that has got thrown up by the newly moneyed. Kasia had a great time, and then after a nice chat with the girl doing the lessons we headed off to the Silvarium – an open air display of plants, herbs and trees and exhibits of animal trails. Sadly the weather decided to put a dampener on things and the small yellow sun god was unable to change matters. We had butties in a shelter just as the heavens opened and a dog came round sniffing for scraps. Barbara felt sorry for the hound, and found some left over sausage from a previous barbecue, which doesn’t say a lot for its own scavenging abilities.
The next day we got some bargain jeans in Białystok; at £25 a pair we were in possession of good fitting keks that outlast the expensive tissue paper jeans you get in Britain. After a evening farewell meal in the city with Barbara, we boarded the overnight bus to Warsaw airport for our 0500 departure back to Britain. We left in a cold wet night, and the plane followed the dawn all the way to the Irish Sea, landing in a warm sunny morning in Liverpool. We got the train back to Leeds, and were joined by some merry lads on their way to York races – but what I didn’t get was the attraction of a series of beers starting at 0850!
It was a good trip; I hope to develop some work out of our trip to Germany, and it was good to have work which paid towards our trip in Poland. Inevitably the vast Knyszyn Forest faces the challenges of development; the danger is whilst the exterior might not change outwardly the vital corridors of wildlife and tranquility will be lost to multi lane highways. Freiburg and Białystok are two very different cities and the paths they chose reflect the kind of place they are and quality of life they offer. Both cities suffered massive damage during the war – but it is in Białystok that much of the older heritage buildings have only recently been demolished. Much of the planning in the sought after green district of Vauban in Freiburg is seen as exemplary: low rise flats surround greenspace, and it is not permitted to keep a car there. Such style of development had been built many years ago in the post World War II period in Białystok. Now the tree filled courtyards and playgrounds there are steadily giving way to car parks.
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