From the River Vistula to the River Neris - Today is about the journey from Warsaw to Vilnius

The River Neris, Vilnius

Today's post is tinged with excitement as by the end of today, we won't only be in Eastern Europe, we will also be in the former Soviet Union. For the next few ddays,we travel in the three Baltic states - Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia which each became independent from the USSR in 1990, before its general collapse following the coup against Gorbachov. But before I get too enthusiastic, time to look at the earlier part of the day.

Early Morning  

I awaken at 4am on this Saturday morning and begin to work on one of the Berlin day blogs, getting a little behind with them! Drew wakes at 5am, so I make coffee for us both with the posh coffee machine in this hotel.

We had showered and done our other ablutions so leave the room at 6.25am and go down to breakfast.

Breakfast

While Drew is getting coffee; the machines here make lovely coffee, but don't do it quickly; I check out at reception. 

The breakfast here still surprises us with tastyness. I had more of the 'all things pickled' but included some cooked meats today, which I'd not had yesterday because it was Friday.

Drew is less of a pickle fan than I, so he had some of the cold stuff, but soon went on to bacon and egg.

Breakfast finished we walk out into the lovely bright sunny Warsaw at 7am precisely. The view is still amazing.

A quick walk up to Warsaw Central Station (we have arrived by 7.10am) and we find our way to Platform 2 

where the train to Mockava arrives at 7.33am and pulls away, preciously on time at 7.38am. (Aren't you impressed that we were so close to time, Lloyd). Some of the people on the train have been travelling since 4am from Krakow!

Travelling Second Class

We are in second class for this journey - in this case, given the slightly complex arrangements at the border, I looked to an old friend I'd not used for the earlier parts of the journey - the man in Seat 61 he had been my reliable source of planning when we did a similar trip in Southern Europe in 2012.

His advice for this journey is:

The Lithuanian train is 2nd class only, but the Polish train has both 1st and 2nd class.  However, only 2nd class tickets are sold for international journeys.  There isn't a vast difference between a 1st class compartment and a 2nd class one on the Polish train, both are comfortable, although there may be fewer people in the 1st class car.

His view is dead right, the seats are comfortable, the power between the seats works very well. As with the journey to Warsaw there is no wi-fi, but I'm happy making notes on the second full day in Berlin and the day in Warsaw yesterday, ready to add links and photos once we get some spare time in a wifi zone.

Very noticeable for these long-journey trains is the amount of space for bikes. This carriage alone has 10 bike racks, 8 of them now full! 

The journey takes us through large tracks of Poland stopping at Warszawa Wschodnia, Wołomin, Tłuszcz, Łochów, Matkinia, Czyżew, Szepietowo, Łapy Osse Białystok, Sokółka, Dąbrowa Białostocka, Augustów and Suwałki before entering Lithuania and stopping at the first station across the border Mockava. 

Here we change trains, as Polish and Lithuanian trains are on different gauges (thanks for the spell-check, Janet). It seems that when the Baltic states were in the Soviet Union all trains led to Moscow, hence the route from Warsaw to Vilnius before the Ukraine War would have involved a change in Minsk (the capital of Belarus) but since that line has become inaccessible the new route was launched late last year (2022). 

In fact when I first looked at this journey last September it looked like a long coach ride was the only way for us to do this part of the trip. But the new arrangements between Poland and Lithuania developed.

Time Zones

As we approached Bialystok I ask Drew why he thought it was going to take us so long to get to Lithuanian Border - it was at this point that I thought to check on the time zone in Lithuania. I'm so used to thinking EU equals GMT+2 during the summer, that I'd been caught out when going to Portugal in March (GMT in winter GMT+1 in summer - i.e. same time as UK) and now I'd almost been caught out again as the Baltic States are all GMT+3 (as is Finland), Eastern European time, like Romania and Greece. So, our 10 hour trip (including change of train) will, in fact, only be 9 hours of 'real' time.  

Bialystok always brings to my mind the song from the Producers - Springtime for Hitler and Germany - given I'm in the country that lost more of its population per capita than any other due to that man, I think I'll stay quiet, only singing it in my head. Bialystok is the name adapted from this place of one of the Producers in the play. We saw the play on Broadway [Co-pilot's note: With, dear readers, Broderick and Lane, no less!!], that experience being much richer than the film version to my mind.

We stop for 25 minutes, a planned halt for a change of crew in Suwałki the train then leaves the station in the direction we arrived and takes another line in the direction of Lithuania. This route is slower than the fast route up from Warsaw, but takes us through a lovely, forested area with occasional farms and apple tree orchards.

The train crossed the border just north of Trasinski and arrived at Mockava station at 2:05pm now 3:05pm as we have crossed the timeline - We were due at 2:45pm. We simply have to cross the platform to join the LTG Link Lithuanian Railways' train and we still leave at 3:16pm so perhaps we will catch up time on the way. The train is very impressive and clean, though the principle that you keep the same seats on the Lithuanian train as you did on the Polish one, doesn't seem to apply - we sat were seats are vacant, but to make up for it there is electric power and, even more important, really fast wifi!

The route continues as we stop at Marijampole at 3:58pm, Kazlu Ruda at 4.17pm, Kaunas at 4:45pm and Vilnius at 5:54pm

Arrive in a big station with clear signs of the way out and the way to the buses is a great relief after some aim less wondering in both Berlin and Warsaw. A large, almost soviet atrium leads into the square - Stois. 

Before leaving the train we had used the Trafi App to buy 72 hour tickets. While this is longer than we are staying, at €8 for 72 hours and €5 for 24 hours it made sense as we would be here longer than 24 hours, so otherwise would have had to pay €10.

Having checked we needed the bus at bus stop J, it was just left of the entrance, the bus came at 6pm and we were at the stop for the hotel (5 stops) by 6.25pm, with a three minute walk straight to the hotel. 

We could see the hotel from the bus stop.

We checked in we are in room 710 - in the executive floor - nor less. A nice big room with a window overlooking six catholic churches and a Russian Orthodox one!

Dinner

While I had been busy on the train Drew had looked at potential places to eat. He had spotted a restaurant called Smoke by Chef the Viking, this intriguing title was sufficient to get us to walk a little way from the hotel to go to Smoke, and it was well worth it.

Drew began with Fried Bread with Cheddar Dip, this was amazing, the bread was darkly charred as Drew likes it and it had a hint of garlic through it. The Cheddar dip worked well with the fried bread and Drew mopped it all up. 

I went with a long time favourite of mine from times in the USA - Buffalo Chicken Wings. I don't know this chef, but he has obviously learnt from an American or even worked in kitchens there himself, because the wings were as good as any I'd tried over there. 

For mains we decided we would share a Smoked Meat Platter for Two. This entailed 200gs each of Brisket, Pulled Pork and New York Pastrami served with a hot Red Chimichurri Sauce and a BBQ Sauce, Red Cabbage and Spring Onions. The brisket was moist, the pork well pulled and the pastrami had a tangy piquancy from its brining and peppering. The chimichurri was hot and chilli delicious, very much to our taste.  

We were also able to choose two sides and we opted for Potato Wedges and Redneck Beans, both were nicely cooked and well presented.

Drew finished his meal with Smoke S'mores with Marshmallows, Coconut and Ice Cream. Drew loved these, he was clearly on a sugar rush. The s'mores are toasted marshmallows with a caramel sauce over them, the sauce was sweet and had seeped down into the cracks - perfect for Drew.

A short walk

We decided to walk back a longer route than the one we had come, so instead of turning back on ourselves we crossed the River Nevis and walked on the south bank of the river passing various embassies including the Vatican's and Norway's. It is a lovely balmy evening, and the dark didn't stop us from taking some photos as we walked along.

We got back to the hotel at 10pm having had an enjoyable, but tiring day.