Train from Moscow to Warsaw

In Europe, Eastern Europe 2002 On  24/07/2002  No comments

I was a little worried about this trip to Warsaw, it would be a 20 hour train trip. I got a first class train ticket because it has only two beds. Almost all the short distant trains I got in Russia there was a drunk man sitting next to me. I started to imagine 20 hours smelling someone’s alcohol breath. I ends up being lucky, there was nobody sharing the cabin with me. I was by myself.

There was no passport check when we left Russia and entered Belarus. The way out from Belarus they came to see if I had the transit visa. I had to pay 45 dollar to get it in Moscow. I believe almost all nationalities need a transit visa just to go through Belarus in the evening. People say it is just for them to make some money out of the tourists.

The trains stopped for about two hours so they could check everyone. When they came to my cabin, they asked me to leave and checked every single thing. They even unscrewed the roof and wall and looked in there. They took a long time because they had to assemble everything back again. I didn’t understand the reason for that extra check. I saw that, in my car, they just checked that way my cabin.

Then, it came the Polish immigration that spent 15 minutes asking for my visa. I said that the consulate told me I didn’t need one. They radio other people, it came other officials, they talked a lot. I could just understand “Brasilia”. After a while they stamped the passport and left. Well, I realized I am not lucky crossing countries frontiers.