Bucharest Airport. Time for the next trip! 3 flights, 9 trains (of which 2 overnight) are to come in the following days. Passing through 8 countries in total -- if all goes according to plan that is as I'm testing corona entry/transit rules to the limit. Count me excited!
Frequent OTP flyers will be pleased to hear that e-passport gates are now installed and working for EU citizens! I for one was certainly happy to see this sudden improvement.
The #Embraer 175 which will fly me to Warsaw. These little planes (and LOT Polish Airlines in general) have grown on me in recent years. Comfy, spacious 2-2 seating, great customer service, great network across Europe. Not the most exciting airline, but amazingly reliable!
Views over Bucharest Otopeni Airport and the Ploiesti oil fields and refineries (3rd picture) upon take off.
And a not-so-sunny Warsaw.. let's hope the arrivals process will be smooth!
Long line at EU passport control, not at "all passports", so the old trick of just queuing there instead worked. Time enough for a leisurely stroll through #Warsaw's very empty old town!
And by empty I *really* mean empty. The Rynek is completely abandoned, and that on a Friday afternoon!
Some more Warsaw impressions..
Warsaw Gdanska station. Although a secondary station, it is closer to the old town than Warsaw's central station and it does have convenient metro access.
Restaurants and bars in Poland are closed. The exception? The @_DiningCar on trains. So if you think I get some takeaway food in Warsaw you are pretty much mistaken! The train to Łódź and back it is! Żurek and pork cutlet are as tasty as always.
View from the dining car.
Rainbow over Koluszki station.
Despite a 20 minute delay I made my planned train back to Warsaw with seconds to spare. One fun thing about dining cars is mingling with other people, and this ride back doesn't disappoint talking with a fun Polish guy with thick Irish accent who is a model photographer!
And to end day 1: a very decent airport hotel & another beer. Tomorrow the journey starts for real with my final positioning flight, a scenic and sunny city to explore (if the forecasts are right) + a cool overnight train to get me closer to my final destination of this trip!
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Last week I spent a couple of days in Ireland, visiting the sights of the fine cities of Cork, Cobh, and Dublin and enjoying a couple of pints of stout. Time for a little Twitter trip report about my time in Ireland 👇
I arrived in Ireland on the ferry from France. If you haven't yet caught up on my travels through France from Paris to Morlaix and Roscoff in Brittany, and my ferry crossing on Brittany Ferries' MV Armorique from Roscoff to Cork, check the thread below:
Cork's passenger port is actually located in Ringaskiddy, which is connected by an hourly bus to downtown Cork. Easily done as a foot passenger, provided you don't carry a lot of luggage with you.
Yesterday I returned home from a wonderful two-week trip through Georgia. So here we go with another Twitter travel thread, starting in the beautiful Georgian capital of Tbilisi.
Tbilisi is bisected by the Kura River. As this long but relatively narrow river valley is surrounded by mountains on three sides, Tbilisi's geography is a bit complex. In the south-west of the city you can find the old town on the right river bank..
Old Tbilisi is characterised by its sulphur baths, churches, and wonderful architecure of the old houses with their typical Georgian verandas..
Reggio di Calabria, Italy. A week ago I had the pleasure to make a short trip to this city in the toe of the Italian mainland. A little Twitter trip report 👇
In the heart of the city you'll find Piazza Duomo, which is home to Reggio's Cathedral. This church, dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, was built in the early 20th century after the old one was destroyed in a big earthquake..
The centre of Reggio, a city with just under 200,000 inhabitants, isn't large. There are however plenty of shops, cafés, and restaurants along Corso Guiseppe Garibaldi, the pedestrianised main drag of Reggio.
Zdravo iz Sente (Hello from Senta)! Or should I use the Hungarian language and say 'Szia from Zenta', as this city in northern Serbia has a large Hungarian majority. For the next few days I'll be admiring some amazing Art Nouveau sights in this region.
In case you have missed it, check the thread below about my overland trip (mostly by train) from Romania to Serbia, my visits to the pleasant Serbian cities of Zrenjanin and Kikinda, as well as my journey into Senta..
In Putin's Russia, you don't travel to the border, but the Russian border travels to you. I'm on the Curonian Spit at the Lithuanian-Russian border, one of Europe's most geographically unusual and beautiful border regions, and I'll be exploring the Lithuanian half of the spit..
If you missed the previous updates detailing my overland trip by train from Romania to Lithuanian, as well as visits to Kaunas, Vilnius, Trakai, and Klaipeda, then check the thread below 👇
First a little map to actually show where I am. The Curonian Spit is a 98-kilometre (61 miles) long, thin sand-dune spit that separates the Curonian Lagoon from the Baltic Sea. The northern half is Lithuanian, the southern half is part of the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad..
High-speed trains, Saudi Arabia style! Today I'll be travelling on the Mecca-Jeddah-Medina Haraiman High Speed Railway, a 453-kilometre-long line linking the two holiest cities in Islam.
The railway is operated by a Saudi-Spanish consortium, which includes Spanish rail company Renfe and infrastructure company Adif. Unsurprisingly, Spanish Talgo trains are used on this high-speed line. In my Uber on the way to Jeddah's station I get my first glimpses of the line..
Jeddah Al-Sulaymaniyah Station, located quite a distance out of the city centre, looks impressive from the outside..