“We should take and overnight Ferry…” “It will be an adventure…” I am sure that when I spoke those words I really did think this was a good idea…

We left the comfort of He’s mothers house and boarded the train for Ystad. From there we boarded the Unity Line Ferry to Świnoujście in northwestern Poland. The sun was setting over the rolling fields of Southern Sweden, it was a lovely evening… I had no idea of the harrowing journey that lay ahead.
As He speaks Swedish, we knew we had to distance ourselves from a large group of Senior Swedes in the waiting room. He overhead a few of them mention that they were going to park themselves at the bar and drink as much cheap Polish beer as they could. Also there was a large group of Polish teenagers returning home from a school field-trip – give those guys a wide berth too (pun intended).

As we were too late in booking to get a sleeping compartment (bad move),  once onboard we sought out the reclining seats and joined the truckers for a 9 hour “slumber” party. For many of them, this was not their first rodeo and had brought sleeping bags and curled up on the floor instead of squishing themselves into the 2 reclining seats. Luckily for He and Me these seats reclined a fair bit more than your typical airline seat.

The evening was “helped” along by a pint of the aforementioned Polish beer. Once we had finished our beers He and I thought we could get some reading done and then sleep for a few hours. Unfortunately the TV at the end of the lounge was on all night and at a volume that made it impossible to sleep even with the help of ear plugs.

At long last we arrived in Świnoujście and made our way from the ferry terminal to the train station. Along the way, we passed a few local fishermen loading their boats with ice in preparation for the day out at sea. The intense fish-smell erased all traces of exhaustion and allowed us to be clear headed enough to purchase our train tickets to Warsaw. We were still blissfully ignorant of what was to come…

Dealing with Train Delays
For the most part, we tolerant of delays in our travel schedule. However, after an overnight ferry trip without a sleeping compartment, the news of a train accident that had us re-routing to another station by bus made us a little grumpier than normal. The 4 hour trip turned into 9 hours with a very uncomfortable 3+ hour train ride at the end. We had missed our connection (as did countless others) so we all piled on the train from Pozań to Warsaw with many of us having to ride in the isles standing up. There was also a chain smoker on board, that like clockwork every 30 minutes squeezed by us to go and puff away in the gangway. He has a great photo of the crowds of people trying to elbow their way onto the one bus they send to transport a whole train full of people (He’s post).