Day 7) Dream of the sea

Route: Prague-Warsaw-Gdansk

Last night, I had to say goodbye to Prague. At 10:00 PM, I boarded the night train from Prague to Warsaw. I was feeling quite nervous all evening because I finally wanted to see the sea. I love the sea and I was incredibly excited to be able to see the first of three seas (followed by the Black Sea and the Adriatic Sea). The journey started without any significant incidents. The only thing that took a few minutes was finding my train and my carriage. The example of my train shows how the system with night trains works. Because there was no night train from Prague to Warsaw, only one to Bohumin. After arriving in Bohumin, the train was divided; a few carriages went to Zvolen, a few to Hummene, three to Warsaw, and the train went to Kosice. My carriages were coupled with the carriages from Vienna to the night train from Budapest, and together we drove to Warsaw. We were supposed to arrive in Warsaw at 07:00, but at that time the train was still somewhere in the Polish countryside. Afterwards, the train continued at a snail's pace; it stopped for 10 minutes and then drove at a walking pace for 10 minutes. In the end, we reached Warsaw with a 2-hour delay. In Warsaw, the next shock; not only were most long-distance trains delayed by over 30 minutes, but the next two trains to Gdansk were also fully booked, so I had to spend an additional 2 hours in Warsaw. Warsaw is a very modern city with some tall skyscrapers. That surprised me a lot. Finally, at 11:20, the high-speed train to Gdansk departed, which cost me just under 12 Swiss francs in reservation fees. It arrived in Gdansk with only a 25-minute delay and I was about 5 hours later than planned. At around 4 PM, I was finally ready to explore the city, but it was too late to visit any museums. At least I could still climb the church tower. Normally, when climbing a church tower, you go up a small staircase in some small stairwell and then end up on a balcony. Here, it's different; at first, you also have to walk through an extremely narrow stairwell, but after you are above the ceiling of the church nave, a staircase along the wall of the church leads to the roof. Next to you is a drop of about 50 meters and the church bells, and you also walk across the floor to end up on a platform on the roof of the church. Truly an experience; and all for only 3 zloty, less than 1 Swiss franc.

The old town of Gdansk is breathtakingly beautiful; I have already fallen in love with it.

Tomorrow, I am looking forward to a historical day with visits to many museums with themes from the 20th century.

By the way, the irony of the day is that I didn't see the sea today, even though I was so looking forward to it. My hostel is located in the historic old town, which is on the other side of the city...