Sleepy borders

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Ask a Pole, and disappointingly they’ll tell you it’s pronounced “cheshin”, not “cheese-in”.. and there isn’t any special cheese to be found :/

It’s a small border town divided by a shallow river, half in the Czech Republic, and half in Poland. These new EU id cards are a blessing for the border guards who work the bridges over the river. A quick look at photos and they can just wave everyone past - everyone that is, except us unfortunates from “other” places. Then they have to decide who’s turn it is, who’s got the keys to the office, who last used the stamps, and where they are. I spent a lot of time on the bridges 😊

We slept a night on the busy old town on the Polish side as trains only cross the border twice a day and we were too disorganised to catch either one. Instead we just used local trains and walked across the border. It was quite interesting, the aging track network in Poland means even the “fast” trains are slow, and at times I felt like leaning out to pick fruit off trees as we lumbered past. Jumping on to the Czech “fast” trains, and the explosion of air as opposing trains passed the same open windows would almost cause our ears to pop. Rail is such a good, cheap form of transport here, but it seems to be taking some time to bring Poland’s aged network up to speed.

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Photos

Cieszyn – Cesky Tesin
Poland on the left, Czech Republic on the right