Warsawa - Berlin - the beginning of the end

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train Warsawa to Berlin - Wed. 9 Sept.09 (or as I realise on having train tickets checked - 09-09-09)

sitting on a Polish train which is rolling across Poland at a generally good Intercity pace towards Berlin (I could save up my joke about rolling across Poland like der Nazi blitzkreig but that would be tastless, ja?)- this was the fastest to Berlin - but still takes 6hrs - it is about 600km after all - and of course Berlin is really only about 50km from the Polish border. It also has the advantage of arriving into Berlin at about 5.30pm so I will have some daylight to hopefully find a hotel or hostel - from the price details I now see from the LP Berlin chaper I have I think it ight be the single rom in a hostel for 35 Euro will be the go as mid-range hotels - such as in Baltics - are just too expensive at 70E and upwards - gotta watch that diminishing budget - and work out where we are in terms of costs and “budget” since I lack the cushion of a credit card for either necessities OR luxuries!

My last night in Warsawa was spent in a search for a gourmet restaurant to soak up my remaining 200Zl or so - as from all acounts it is not received with not that much favour outside the country as a currency of reference - better hope that my Lithuanian litas are better recvd as I was cashed up there from Western Union courtesy of my brother (thanks Huddo), and that is the remaining funds - which will hopefully be accepted in a bank in Berlin - rather than the dreaded kantor (foreign exchanger in Poland - the ones at Central station were partic. bad (hardly surprising and the last refuge of the desperate) and I my opinion is based on them. They have me 1.10Zl per Lita - this morning and yesterday I got 1.16Zl from the kantor ard the corner from the hostel - and also converted some Litas to Euros so I can arrive in Berlin with at least the first night's sleeping in hand. I asked a couple of real banks - one did not do forex the other was only interested in USD, EUR + GBP.

Money raves aside - now about that glamorous dinner. I wandered into the old town after spending quite a bit of time photgraphing a large war memorial of an assemblage of larger than life size soldiers cast in bronze. I had actually seen it in the day time from walking from the Hotel Ibis - but lots of things look much dramatic under floodlighting at night and this was certainly the case here. Wandered on towards Old Town and when I came to Freta street realised that I was close to the In Your Pocket guide recommended Pret a Porter - and the roast duck was recommended - so why not continue my exploration of that bird which I would probably never eat in Australia other than maybe in a chinese restaurant. There was a table of 2 american speakers (clearly on business) and an english speaking local at another table - funny how the Yankee accent can grate - it did in the Vilnius restaurant as well but mostly drowned by the Blondie and later Coldplay music which was otherwise too loud. The music here was not very background but was reasonably inoffensive. As I could not leave Poland without trying the local pirogie (dumplings) I was sure that this more moderne take on them would a bit of reinvention - but it probably wasnt really that radical ( a dumpling is a dumpling really, regardless of the fried bacon on top)- should likely have stuck with an interesting soup with a horseradish base (? - the menu said). Was interested in the venison sirloin under chips and with blue cheese something - but checked whether we were really talking “fries” (and we were - and it did not sound as if the kitchen was up to changing it at all - a bit surprising as I was just substituting one kind of cooked potato for another (roast potato) which they had already sitting in the kitchen (it came with the duck ultimately ordered). in Your Pocket recommd the roast duck as the reason to visit so it was. So the roast duck with a rose and something sauce - the very slowly roasted duck sitting on a bed of roast potatoes and blanketed with the roast skin (avoided most of that) and the rose and ? sauce which was a deep rose colour but not really sweet but rather sticky. The duck meat itself was probably the pick of the lot due to its slow cooking- but I think the total duck dish package winner is still the Italian style partaken in Riga. As they had half bottles of Chilean cab sav had one of those, having decided what I was going to eat first. Then followed by a fairly sweet definitely halva flavoured ice cream - altho the whipped cream with it was a bit unreal. No way I was going to have a coffee so ordered a cream of orange tea - it was not necessarily herbal I maybe thought and the waitress could not explain adequately- until it arrived and it was clearly (cos the tag said) rooibos (red bush - the non-tannin tea from Sth Africa) - however it made a nice change. I went back to Oki Doki and lay down (mistake) and after the wine nodded off for a bit - got up at 2am and went downstairs to do the Net blog thing - and was soon joined by the young people thrown out of the hostel bar when it closed, who were there for the “after” party.

The late 30ish Dutch couple I am sharing the train compartment with today were also staying at the Oki Doki and the party antics kept them awake - they are supposedly verboten from the sleeping part of the hostel - I was thru 2 relatively sound proof air lock doors at the other end of the floor- they were not so lucky and were more central to the “action” - nor did they appreciate the rap music served up with breakfast, which is where I first saw them.

Now Berlin - where will I end up?? The short answer to that is in a 3 bed hostel room at the Circus Hostel Rosenplatz - with a brazilian guy called Juan - and rather later a Swiss guy called Emil - and all of us have laptops (oh, the modern world) - although of course I have an inferiority complex (not) cos I have the smallest screen of the lot. When I finally got here - it took 2 1/2 hrs from Hauptbahnhof - finding out where the damn U bahn went from - going 2 stops - then kine ending - transferring to another line - then another - then a cross town on the S-bahn - and finally 3 U-bahn stops to here - the simplest part. No wonder so many people are clutching the transport maps to find their way around! And this still costs 25 Euros - with free sheets! wow - but no towels - just as well I have a travel towel. The costs of first world Europe are a bit of a shock - after dividing everything by 2 or so - now I have to think of doubling everything!

More later depending how much sleep I get tonight (over the street and quite busy) and how "active" i feel for my lazy wanders around this town - do not foresee a high energy attack on the sights somehow... oh well, what happens, happens (not necessarily for a reason)

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Comments

[Beer budget]

am still reading.....
Sounds good - have been away for 2 weeks - Laos for visa and R and R then BKK for meetings - will read up more on your adventures later.....