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Białystok - Ełk - Giżycko - Wilkasy & return
Next morning we were greeted with overcast skies as the train sped through the Mazovian plains of central Poland. Instead of the usual long views the fields were awash with great pools of water; it was clear that some serious rain had been falling and only later did we learn of the disaster hitting southern Poland as a result of the floods.
We rolled into Warsaw and met our friend Radek for a chat and a coffee near Warszawa Centralna station. Then we got our train which had swum up from the flooded south and was only a bit late, and trundled over the Vistula and east north east to Białystok. As we arrived, Białystok felt unusually muggy - more like the Caribbean than the sandy plains of Poland. We were staying at Barbara's (Kasia's sister), and had a few days to plan for our lessons over the weekend. Because Barbara had to do some training herself, she invited us up to stay at her hotel near Giżycko, in the Mazurian Lakes. Next day we followed her up on a later train, opting out of the 5am departure!
On
Lake Niegocin
nice view of a reedy island, and hang on what's that in the distance...? the way, the train stopped over in Ełk, to wait for a locomotive coming on an inward train - things are more complicated now that the railways have been split up into companies - separate locos, separate tickets, all the crap bits of UK-style privatization (with none of the redeeming bits of cooperation or concepts such as certain tickets valid on all trains).
The next part of the journey was through lakes and bright green low drumlin hillocks, evidence of the heavy Spring rains. At Giżycko we got off, and considered whether to walk the three miles to Wilkasy where we were staying. As I squinted at the map, the advancing dark clouds made our minds up for us and we hastily made our way to the taxi rank.
We arrived at a big hotel by the lakeside and got invited for a quick tea and said hello to Barbara's training group - librarians from the town of Gołdap. Gołdap is infamous, to Gołdapians at least, for being end of the line. At least it would be if there were any trains. Score a finger along the top bit of Poland on a map and you'll pass Gołdap.
oh... rain
In the woods again! Kasia unchuffed with the weather. At a later social I asked if they felt as if they were from the north. Which they didn’t. Whereas in northern England, there is generally a true sense of being in the north, even if it is right in the middle of Great Britain. That evening, over a coke to repair an acid stomach, (the fizzy Belgian beer?) the weather entertained us by seeing how hard it could chuck it down with rain.
We did some planning for our lessons, and the next day we set out for an exploratory walk. At first the weather was sunny, and reasonably warm, but all too soon the clouds rolled in and heavy rain came along to cut short a wander into the surrounding forest. There was an interesting nature trail laid out by Giżycko Forestry, with loads on the ecology of the forest, but some parts were difficult to follow and some git had removed one or two of the signs. We returned on a bit of high quality bike path, which was at the edge of town. It lasted about 30m, before joining a pavement, and a highly undulating one at that, so that anyone on a bike avoided the pavement and chanced their luck with the juggernauts on the road. No sign of said bike route at all at the level crossing. That's not the best spend of European grant money.
Barbara had another engagement further west near Ostróda, so we hopped on a train that was heading back to Ełk, a new railcar and quite nippy at that. Then an old electric unit, which was refurbished so whilst there was no longer the a*se breaker seats (i.e. hard plastic), the suspension on it was still clunky.
Back in Białystok it was dry and the weather was getting warmer. We spent the next few days catching up with the family in Białystok and had chance to marvel at the new ring road that has been placed between the park and the nature reserve (replacing an older narrow road), now a wide dual carriageway. These are the guys that tried very hard to bring the
Via Baltica highway to Białystok and hang the consequences on the Rospuda valley, Biebrza marshes National Park and the Knyszyn Forest.
The ice cream at the park was as I have always known it, very fruity and very, very good. We enjoyed our ices to the accompaniment of a Belarusian folk music festival taking place in the park. The nights were warm too, so if a window was open I needed the earplugs. Especially when the church nearby decided to go for the outside broadcast of their gig. At midnight.
The weekend came and we did our classes, finishing by the afternoon. Crossing the city pissed me off, with the hazardous crossings, lousy drivers and the pavements filled with parked cars. It was time for a break from the city and Kaszuby (Kasubia) beckoned. We'd not been there since the mid 90s and we wanted to rediscover this part of the country - another lake district of the north, this time with the added bonus of hills!
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