Day 13. Stuttgart

Had to take two fast German trains and pay 15+27€ extra suplement to travel from Brussels to Stuttgart. The first train was a Thalys and the second a ICE (InterCity Express). To prove that the second train is fast but not that much check the picture above.

I took about 3 minutes to find Pedro in the train station. Both of us were loaded with our cameras to shoot first and say hello after. Nothing arranged in advance but both of us are very competitive you know? :P

Try to guess who found the other and shoot first?

Days 11 to 13. Belgium

Stayed a few more days in Belgium. We went to Brussels one day where we walked through the center and went to a train museum that was free for InterRail holders (and very expensive to all the others, wasn't it Max?). There I could remember my childhood when I had trains from Marklin filling my room from top to bottom hehe :). I really miss those times and those trains. I think that if I ever get enough money I will rebuild a train city like the one I had. It was for sure with Marklin that my passion for trains started till today.





Staying with Max and his family was rewarding. The company was good and had very nice talks. Unfortunately there were hard times cleaning....


Thanks Max for having me with you. Hope to see you again soon and good luck on the job finding!

Day 10. Brussels and Ottignes

This are the marvelous slepeerettes where sleep is an authentic heaven on earth. :)

In the afternoon went with Max to play baby-foot, video games and have an ice-cream. I must say Max does not play that well and had to let him win sometimes so that he was not upset with me (good think I do not allow comments on my blog hehe).



(to continue...)

Day 9. Leaving Poland.

Monday was day to leave and start preparing the arrival to a new town. I left Łódź main station to Poznan. There I took another train to Colonia. Then finally from Colonia a train to Brussels.

Well, this did not go smoothly. The train was late to arrive Łódź So I was a bit stresses about getting the train in Poznan on time. Then the train arrive with a retard of 2h to Colonia... and I missed the train to Brussels. In the end I arrived at 14h15 to Brussels when I was expecting to arrive about 10h30. Normal things for an interrailer. The trains were warm while outside was raining. Me and my books as a company in a perfect environment to read. In the end was a nice trip ... oh.. almost forgot .. the slepperettes are the best I ever had to sleep.




Anna, thanks a lot for the mysterious sandwiches :) They were fundamental for the large train trip.... Thanks for your friendly hospitality and of your family. I'm already missing you again. Hope we can met again with less space in between. When are you coming? :)

Day 7 to 8. Poland

After leaving Vienna I paid for a couchette to Warsaw. They were great. Free bottles of water, cookies and a hot coffee brought by the morning. Everything included. Paid about 25€ extra.

Unfortunately, my compartment companion only spoke Polish so our conversation was only gestures :P

In the Saturday morning was not easy to find a train from Warsaw to Lodz. The main station was a mess with new schedules for many trains because some upgrades are being done on the polish railway system. Because of this I had to take a train to a small town called Koluszki near Lodz and fortunately Anna and her father came to my rescue :)






After being presented to the family we wentto visit one old cemetery. This cemetery had the interesting feature of having many Russian and german names. Łódź was many years ago on the border between Germany and Russia.

The 1st of November has just been on Thursday. There are still many persons walking by this places and flowers everywhere.
Some of the tombs are big since many people got rich here on those times.





In this cemetery there are also very strange and scarring trees. There branches are irregular and point in different directions. At night there shadows aunt us. Here I show two of those trees. Don't look for to much time or you may turn into one yourself. :P















We had wonderful food at home and in restaurants. And we haven't drunk any bear at all. Well Anna drunk a bit but I didn't. Well mainly on Saturday Anna had a few 0,5L bears but I did not at all... :)

I can say that polish eat a lot of beet. I had very good beet soaps, for example. Check my photo album for some pictures of the dishes I had.











On Sunday we walked a lot (maybe 15km or more). It was interesting to see how Łódź had suffered from a economic crisis. Many places are being recovered and it seems there is many space for money investment and business in this town. I hope the next few European Union membership years will help to develop a very interesting city.