We left Amsterdam early in the morning and took a direct
train to Berlin. We did not have a reservation, at the start of the journey we
only reserved seats on the trains we absolutely had to. I wouldn’t say it was a
mistake, just out of convienience I would recommend reserving them. But you
don’t have to do that through the Intrarail website and wait until it is sent to you by post, you can do
that at any train station. With that first journey we had two small problems
(not even problems, just things worth noting that are not that obvious for
people that don’t use trains all the time). Firstly, since our train left at
7am, there was almost no staff on the train station and we couldn’t get through
automated gates were you just scan ticket (our was a printed ‘old fashioned’
one). We managed to find a bigger group with the same problem and when they
found a member of the staff, we just tailgated. Secondly, we didn’t know that
the names of the places above the seats mean that they are reserved until this
destination is reached (seems pretty obvious, right?) and we had to change
seats 3 times, until finally someone pointed those with no writing at all (not
reserved). For that reason it would be better to get a reservation, but It
wasn’t the end of the world.
The train station in Berlin is big and modern, with a lot of
food places and…that’s it. We had 3 hours to spend in Berlin before catching
another train (with the reservation this time!) and there was nothing to do! We
walked for about 20 mins one way from the train station and there was nothing
appealing, no market square, no restaurants or bars, just a wide road, few huge
buildings and construction works. I know 3 hours in a city is not the best
reflection of its potential, I was quite disappointed tho. We met one of my
brothers (he is working there for few weeks) and off we went to Poznan, Poland.
Entering my homecountry, the landscape has become more
homely than Germany. Again, there isn’t really a big difference, but the view
across Germany was just…boring. In Poland we passed through little villages,
meadows full of poppies, we saw a stork or two… and we reached Poznan, quickly
met with brother number 2 (who studies there) and caught our final train that
day, to my hometown, Oborniki Slaskie, near Wroclaw.
Time spent at home was mainly family time (with my 3rd
brother, parents, granny, dog and 2 cats), our friend’s wedding and lots of
‘organizational work’ (paperwork, hairdresser, shopping etc) so there is not
much to write.
I’ll post a few photos tho because it was a lovely time spent
with my closest. I do sincerely recommend visiting Poland, if you haven’t, it
is very underrated and has a lot to offer. Here is mainly surroundings of my hometown and the beautiful city of Wroclaw. Enjoy!