Still room for improvement

I have decided to put back publishing update on the remont front, until even bigger progress across the entire dwelling is witnessed, which I expect to come about by 27 January. Today I could only post the snaps of tiles laid in the bathroom and in the toilet. A noticeable progress, yet insufficient to assert the flat has taken its final shape.

On Wednesday I (unexpectedly) had a one-day foray in business to Kraków. After nearly a decade of working I am no longer fond of business travels, which in over 90% are a one-day tiresome trips with no time for sightseeing or enjoying the places I visit for more than one minute (this year I was lucky enough once, in Wrocław).

I got to Kraks by most convenient possible means of transport, i.e. by train. By timetable, the service between Warszawa and Kraków covers the 298-kilometre route in less than two hours and thirty minutes (beating the plane connection given boarding time and distance from the airport to the city centre), plus the station in Kraków was in the vicinity to my destination.

On my way to Kraks I sat back in a regular EIC train, with a notebook on my laps, to catch up with several minor overdue tasks. After less than an hour of the journey the carriage attendant came over to serve beverages. I asked for a coffee… Fortunately, they do not serve ready coffee or tea, but give out ingredients to passengers so that they brew it on their own. I found that peculiarity a nuisance, but on Wednesday PKP Intercity’s serving policy saved me. As the attendant was trying to hand me a mug with hot (fortunately not scalding) water, the train lurched and he spilled the water on my trousers (around my knees, not the crotch!) and the laptop. He callously uttered a simple “przepraszam” and carried on serving beverages. I was too focused on analysing how big the stain was and whether it would disappear by the time I meet the client and whether my notebook was anyhow damaged to react properly. Accidents will happen and I do not blame the attendant for harming me, such things happen, but I kick myself for not rebuking him over his disregard. My carriage was occupied in less than 50% and I doubt any of the fellow passengers noticed the incident and could react anyhow. Luckily, the water spot has left no trace on my suit trousers, nor is my company notebook damaged, but the bad taste remains…

On my way back I took a pendolino train, I lucked upon the only one in which wi-fi tests are carried out. And here, an endless gripe towards PKP Intercity for buying the overpriced no-frill trains from a foreign manufacturer (I believe Newag could have built the “premium” trains in a consortium with a more experienced partner). Why the hell they have bought tins in which mobile network signal is muffled so that normal phone conversations are disrupted and internet connection is at times too slow to use Messenger! Premium, fast trains connecting major cities in Poland should seemingly be targeted at corporate workers, some of whom like me: firstly, cannot use unprotected wi-fi networks, because firewalls or whatever other shits installed thereon protect them from doing so, secondly, have all resources to work on kept away from the hard drive so in offline mode their laptops are useless. Consequently I wasted over two hours and forty minutes in the train, as I could not work on my way to Warsaw!

Besides, the train came to Warsaw with a delay of fifteen minutes. Not a major fault, yet I bothered to keep checking punctuality of my service at Infopasażer (page was loading or refreshing for more than minute each time) and according it, my train was arriving to W-wa Centralna according to a timetable. Propaganda of success? Nobody’s perfect, but why misinforming?

Next time I will also take train if I go to Kraks, but I can’t wait to see trains as the primary vehicle of choice when travelling to all major cities in Poland. Currently Gdansk, Katowice (and the entire Górny Śląsk) are the only destinations where trains are preferable. To Szczecin and Rzeszów flights are a must, while everywhere else (predominantly to Poznań and Wrocław) I get by car, since in door-to-door travel duration, it still keeps being the fastest, though not the safest and not the most ecological…

Zalesie Górne, Wisła Resort

Both Easter Sunday and Monday, against long-term forecasts, brought clement weather. Though the temperature did not hit balmy +20C (it is bound to get that warm tomorrow), cloudless skies and warm breeze definitely carried the first whiff of spring in the air.

I spent most of the Sunday in Ursus with the family, yet was free to organise some leisure for myself on Monday. Since the bike was not ready for jumping on the saddle and cycling away and I did not feel like pottering about, I opted for a bit of further travel option – by Koleje Mazowieckie train, to Zalesie Górne to check whether the Wisła Resort, whose best days were seen in 1970s and 1980s, holds up well.

Kind of shame to admit, this was my first journey by Koleje Mazowieckie for which I had to buy a separate ticket (until then I could do with the Warsaw travelcard). Before setting off, at home, I checked how much the trip would set me back. Koleje Mazowieckie’s fare list is a pitiable example of lack of simplicity. The very fare tariff is 162 pages long, while the attachment to it is composed of another 64 pages (hint: relevant information can be found on page 13 of the attachment). A passenger who wishes to take a train wants to simply know how much they would pay, instead of learning rail operators recognise more than a dozen types of discounts and by what documents carried along they need to be proven. Then a penny drops – the service search tool, apart from finding suitable services, calculates the cost of a journey. Quick, yet not entirely intuitive.

My no-discount return ticket from NI to Zalesie Górne and back (16 kilometres there and back) would cost me PLN 10.73. Actually this is the price for experience of train travel, since had I chosen to get there by car on my own, the very petrol would have set me back some PLN 6.00, not to mention if I had taken three passengers to the car, the journey by car would have been six to seven times more economical…

My train was due to depart at 13:51. On my way to the station I realised I had forgotten to take the camera. Too late to go back home, I had to do with the smartphone, hence the skimpy photo coverage. The nearly empty KM train pulled up at time. As a passenger willing to purchase a ticket, I boarded the first carriage through the first door, as instructed by Koleje Mazowieckie. Not a ticket collector in sight; I walked the first set of three carriages from end to end twice and did not find any crew member. Eventually, I ended up free-riding (for the first time in my life) to Zalesie Górne, as there was no one who could sell me the ticket. The nearly-empty train trundled from NI to Piaseczno for 15 minutes. The reason for ultra-low speed is the on-going modernisation of Warsaw-Radom line, resulting in trains running in contraflow down to Piaseczno station (then the journey goes smoothly). I feel sorry for commuters riding from Piaseczno every day if it looks bad like this, yet after they endure the repair and reconstruction, they will enjoy far faster and more comfortable SKM services.

The entry to Wisła resort is just next to the railway station, then one needs to walk some half a mile to reach the ultimate destination, ponds / small lakes which are the core attraction of the place. The resort is kind of derelict, yet to judge the extent to which its glory is gone, I will need to venture there, that time by bike and with camera, in high season. There are several facilities for visitors seeking leisure: open-air swimming pool, canoes, water-ski-lift, a few bars and canteen. The place appears then a good nearby destination of a one-day foray for resident of Warsaw and Piaseczno.

I strolled around the place for an hour before heading for the station to catch my train home (the journey back also took 20 minutes, but I did buy a single ticket, for PLN 5.80). My social observation was that I was the only person sauntering there alone. It might have been a matter of the specific day, or just a coincidence, yet I wonder whether it takes a lot of courage to organise and spend time on one’s own if fate brings such situation on us. Definitely, if there is no one to keep you company, it is better to go out, move one’s a**e, breath in fresh air lap up the beauty of the nature, then spending time at home…

Enough writing for today, the bike’s ready for the first ride in 2016, off to Powsin leisure park for the whole afternoon!

Pendolino – first trip

No photos since the camera in Szajsung packed up and I had no room in my briefcase to squeeze there my regular compact camera.

Had some business duties to handle in Gdansk last Tuesday. While looking for alternatives for how to get there I considered: car (by A2 and A1 motorways more than 400 kilometres, i.e. some four-hour drive in each direction would be requisite), airplane (prices of in-country flights have dropped recently, yet getting to the airport in Warsaw and in Gdansk and having to turn up at the airport an hour before take-off are a bit of a nuisance, plus getting corpo-sign-offs for plane travel is an even bigger nuisance. So… a penny drops – let’s go there by train – the new Pendolino service should be in place. I checked the timetable to learn the journey from Warszawa Centralna lasts these days less than three hours! Plus the cost is quite modest!

My train departs from Warsaw at 6:34 a.m. Lots of people around and passengers are from all walks of life. In a carriage my colleague with who I travel and I are accosted by a pissed-off male in his thirties. Not well-dressed, yet silver-mouthed. He boasts about kicking the air and knocking it down, then ask whether we know Johnny and whether he is still alive. Then he walks off. I wonder whether he has a ticket and what the crew has done with him. A woman in her late sixties has a long phone call with her lawyer and discusses with him how to disinherit her son who plans to marry a wrong woman. Why washing dirty linen in public?

The very train passes muster. The smell of modernity lingers, seats are comfortable, plenty of room to stretch out legs for tall people. In second class carriages you get one beverage free of charge. Since displays in carriages do not show current speed of the train, I have no idea how fast the train moves, but passengers do not feel uneasy at speeds exceeding 150 kmph. Punctuality beyond approach – train pulls up to Gdansk Głowny exactly at 9:33 a.m.

Since our destination is mere two miles from the train station and the meeting is scheduled at 10:30, we spare the New Factory a taxi expense and take a walk. Having done what we were supposed we and having two free hours before our Warsaw-bound train departs, we head towards old town. On our way we spot a building resembling Warsaw’s Hala Mirowska and drop in there to Bar Dominikanski eatery. Lunch portions are huge and prices very modest (below 20 PLN for a meal which leaves you full up) – I recommend the eatery for the sake of superb price-to-quality trade-off, although they could do with less grease ;-).

The Warsaw-bound train, whose actual route is from Gdynia to Krakow, arrives on time (2:34 p.m.) and comes to Warsaw also exactly on time (5:30 p.m.). This time we do not come across naughty passengers, yet the train carries mostly the air – does not bode well for improvement is PKP Intercity’s profitability which needs to rely on state subsidies to break even…

In terms of comfort, I have no reservations. Reliability of Pendolino trains will be fully tested by proper Polish winter (heavy snowfalls, temperatures below –20C – as for the latter it was claimed in advance the Italian trains do not withstand such low temperatures). In terms of price per one person it beats flights and car journeys. If two people travel and have no chance to buy tickets more than two weeks before journey date, going by car from Warsaw to Gdansk appears more economical (300 – 350 PLN for petrol and motorway tolls) than by Pendolino (4 times 120 PLN per ticket gives 480 PLN). When going by train you sit back and do not care, or you can spend the three-hour journey reading or working. When going by car you are more flexible, but the journey lasts a bit longer, is more tiresome and statistically far more dangerous. I shall be visiting the same destination a few times a year in the future, so Pendolino will most probably become the preferable means of getting there.

PS. This is not the advertisement of PKP Intercity, nor the eulogy for how things are moving ahead when Bronisław Komorowski is the president. I will be voting for Mr Komorowski, as for the lesser of two evils. Time to reiterate my opinion of him was much higher five years ago and generally his presidency has let me down, though it has been mediocre, yet predictable. Frankly speaking, despite being fundamentally against vision of Poland by PiS, I cannot promise not to change my mind. Mr Komorowski is intent on losing in a run-off. Tonight I will be watching the debate between the two candidates and I can bet Mr Duda beats Mr Komorowski in terms of preparation for discussion and in terms of image. The incumbent president and his henchmen work very hard to help Mr Komorowski move out of Krakowskie Przedmiescie…