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init6
WayToRussified
Joined: 01 Jun 2005
Posts: 363
Location: Москва, Россия
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 Posted: Sat Aug 27, 2005 1:52 am Post subject: Hello from Warsaw! |
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Greetings all,
I was supposed to be asleep on my train right now, but that little thing called a "Belarus Transit Visa" was never mentioned to me, so I got off in Warsaw. My compartment mate, a nice Muscovite kid who spoke PERFECT English (alas, I got to practice almost NO Russian), assured me I could "arrange" a transit visa at the border for a fee but the old Russian conductor, who we lovingly nicknamed "Grandpa," seemed genuinely freaked out about my not having a visa even though he was obviously interested in having me onboard (I was the only American on the whole train).
So, long story short, I got off the train in Warsaw, by myself, at just before 9pm. I speak ZERO Polish, but luckily after gleaning a few sentences from Grandpa's instructions on how to get out of Warzawa Station to the street, I found a cab. I made a big mistake in not thinking to negotiate a price (this isn't Russia, after all!) when I noticed there was NO meter inside the car. He genuinely surprised me when we got to the hotel, though, by asking only EUR15 for a good 20-minute ride from the station. I was pleased. Maybe I got screwed, but I was ready to argue him down to EUR20 from EUR50!
So I'm in the Airport Marriott in Warsaw right now. I'll book a flight today to Moscow and probably take a flight out Sunday morning. This whole trip has been a suckfest when it comes to actual travel, but I'm not complaining (much). 
I'll post a LOT more and update my blog tomorrow, but I'm exhausted. I've been running strong since 6am and it's 1am now. I finally got some food in the restaurant, but they could only accept zlotys so I had to put it on my room bill.  No big deal, but I hope they didn't grossly overcharge - I have no idea what a zloty is worth so I just ordered what I wanted and prayed for the best.
Greetings and goodnight from Warsaw! |
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MrSpice
Lounge Wizard
Joined: 14 Jul 2003
Posts: 3431
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| Posted: Sat Aug 27, 2005 2:24 am Post subject: |
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| Moving slowly but surely toward Moscow. I can't wait to hear read impressions of Moscow when you get there. Start practicing russian now :) |
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cyndy22
Lounge Wizard
Joined: 15 Oct 2004
Posts: 1076
Location: massachusetts
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| Posted: Sat Aug 27, 2005 3:16 am Post subject: |
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El Casey,
I really enjoyed tour travel story re Warsaw! It was from the heart and very genuine. You will be a superb journalist if you are able to keep true to these two important traits. I give you alot of credit and am happy to hear that you are able to go with the flow. Well with good instinct on top of that! Be well, enjoy and do keep in touch! |
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e
VIP
Joined: 23 Apr 2005
Posts: 654
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| Posted: Sat Aug 27, 2005 4:44 am Post subject: |
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| So how is Warsaw? Fun? Boring? Got any pictures to post? |
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vitalsigns
Lounge Wizard
Joined: 25 Dec 2004
Posts: 2784
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| Posted: Sat Aug 27, 2005 10:41 am Post subject: |
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Yes, deleted.
Last edited by vitalsigns on Wed Nov 09, 2005 4:18 am; edited 1 time in total |
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init6
WayToRussified
Joined: 01 Jun 2005
Posts: 363
Location: Москва, Россия
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| Posted: Sat Aug 27, 2005 3:45 pm Post subject: |
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The cab driver was an old guy in a private car, a beat-up old Mistubishi, with just a "Taxi" sign stuck on top. Furthermore, he sounded like he was on his second bout of black lung after a first-time remission. I gave him EUR20 and didn't really want to dork around with change and all that, but I still don't have any zlotys, only Euros. The currency exchange is in the airport and this morning when I went to buy my ticket to Warsaw (bloody 1700 zlotys, which is almost EUR500!) the lines were stretched clean across the airport. They don't have those "maze dividers" like in the US, apparently, so the line stretched across the middle of the airport, with people having to "break through" the line just to get from the door to the information and ticket desks!  So I'll go later tonight when the flights should be less. I am dreading checking in to Aeroflot on Monday morning now...ugh...
I posted my writing regarding Germany from shortly(ish) after arrival until seeing off the Chechens at Berlin Zoologischer Garten station - http://init6.blogspot.com - and will begin to write about Ostbahnhof station until Warsaw today shortly.
I haven't done ANYTHING in Warsaw except check into the hotel and eat and sleep. It's been that kind of two days. But tomorrow I intend to cash in about EUR20-30 for zlotys and try to find some sort of tour. This hotel is awesome. It's not cheap by any means at EUR104/night, but I have breakfast included which is incredible and high-speed internet in my room - for what I do, i.e. write on my laptop all day while listening to tunes, it's like paradise. Don't worry, I'm not completely sequestered - I will likely check out some night life tonight, if only the hotel bar which seems to frequented by high(er)-rolling locals - maybe I can get some good fodder for writing there; if not, I'll head into town, but being alone and speaking no Polish at all, I'm a little apprehensive.
The restaurant is excellent but a little pricey I think (it's in zlotys so I have NO CLUE ), but all the staff speaks functional English and they are all fit young people, mostly attractive young women. I definitely see a return trip to Warsaw in the future to explore the city. It has an incredibly Eastern feel to it, and not necessarily in a good way!  My room is on the 5th floor (the top) so I have a decent view of the city, but it just doesn't "translate well" to the lens for some reason.
Well, check out my blog for now, it's rather long, and I'll have Part II up tonight.
A side note - while I respect Winston's writings if only for the sheer volume (hundreds of pages), I don't think "my readers" want to wade through the endless minutiae of bullshit, boring details that Winston seemed to love to write (understandable if you never sleep and spend every night, all night, in an internet cafe). If you do, let me know, and maybe I can work on something else. I'm writing completely stream of consciousness at the moment, but I do try to take notes when I'm 1) disposed to and 2) not completely shitfaced drunk. Which I then work off of later. But mostly, since my brain is mostly intact despite my best efforts to kill off my brain cells, I just write from memory.
If you guys like the style of the writing on my blog, please let me know - constructive criticism is always welcome. The posts I make here are mostly just stringing a few thoughts together, but I try to make the blog posts, i.e. the stuff I think might be able to be massaged into publishable material, linear and topical. Again, feedback please! |
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bigmother
Just Starting
Joined: 27 Aug 2005
Posts: 1
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| Posted: Sat Aug 27, 2005 5:11 pm Post subject: |
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El Casey!
The first Way you have to go is embassy an american embassy . You have to write to cole it. The people would like to help you to buy a tiket to Moskau by train or you´ll get visum for Belarus.
4.pm |
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init6
WayToRussified
Joined: 01 Jun 2005
Posts: 363
Location: Москва, Россия
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| Posted: Sun Aug 28, 2005 12:06 am Post subject: |
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| Sorry, Big Mom, I didn't understand what you said. It doesn't matter, I don't need a Belarussian transit visa now, because I'm flying to Moscow from Warsaw. Thanks anyway, though...and no, the American embassy does not issue visas for other countries. |
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cyndy22
Lounge Wizard
Joined: 15 Oct 2004
Posts: 1076
Location: massachusetts
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| Posted: Sun Aug 28, 2005 3:35 am Post subject: |
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Your travel digests are interesting but toooo long. Don't get me wrong, I am very glad to get postings of your travel experiences. You are an interesting fellow and a good writer. My constructive criticism for you is to condense. I have the same problem when I write. You need to pay attention to the most significant experiences and events and let the others go. El Casey, trust me, you will not only have a great journey, but will also in due time become a well etablished journalist. I have good instincts.  |
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init6
WayToRussified
Joined: 01 Jun 2005
Posts: 363
Location: Москва, Россия
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| Posted: Sun Aug 28, 2005 11:41 am Post subject: |
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Thanks for the feedback, Cyndy. I don't actually intend the blog posts to be "digest," per se, so I try to make "synopsis posts" on the forum while posting the full text on my blog. I'm not necessarily looking to write a book but when it's all said and done maybe some interest will be expressed, or at least an article or series of articles, which the "loooong" posts will fit nicely.
Other than another, shorter, segment I intend to write entitled "Train Tales," which goes into the detail of everything that happened and was talked about on the train, I don't have anything else to write about so far. I will be touring some of Warsaw in an hour or so (I will try to, anyway) so I'll have a lot more photos later today, but I'll be taking a break until I get settled into Moscow tomorrow. At least I won't have that fierce jet lag that plagued me for three or four days in Germany...
I feel like I'm still dehydrated from over a week ago, but I feel good and I haven't had a single drop of alcohol since Thursday. I guess I'll worry about that if I start to feel weird or something. |
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sputnik
Lounge Lizard
Joined: 02 Jan 2005
Posts: 141
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| Posted: Mon Aug 29, 2005 11:04 pm Post subject: |
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Read your blog briefly. Lots of text  It's quite 'funny' that you encountered a very similar problem as i did 2 years ago on my way to St. Petersburg. The trip was not arranged by a travel agent though, but by a study fraternity that made some errors..
Some chinese (Taiwanese actually) students in my travel group were removed from the train after crossing the Polish border, first stop after Frankfurt a/d Oder. As they were no EU citizens, the organisers had inquired especially on visa requirements for them for several countries we were visiting or passing through: Germany, Finland, Sweden. They would be fine there travelling with their short term residence permit for Holland. None of them had thought of Poland though, let alone Belarus. The whole group folowed them out of the train. Later on, on this small station that gave the impression that it was in the middle of this huge forest named Poland, while waiting for our fellow travellers to be released, we realized we had no transit visa for Belarus as well.
In the end, our fellow students were sent back to Berlin, with their own 'private' train. We took a regular train. From Rostock we then took a Ferry to Helsinki and never visited St. Petersburg, since our visa were already almost expired by the time we were in Finland...
Pity i didn't know about you taking this train. I could have warned you. But you would have missed all the excitement of course |
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MrSpice
Lounge Wizard
Joined: 14 Jul 2003
Posts: 3431
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| Posted: Mon Aug 29, 2005 11:11 pm Post subject: |
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init6: My feedback is that I find your postings to be very interesting, and I don't find them either long or boring. So feel free to send Cyndy the condenced version via private email, but post everything you've for the rest of us :)
Apparently, Cyndy have not read War and Piece - it's much longer :) |
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