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Chatting in the dining car, I got two know two young men who were going to watch Eurobasket. Thanks to Wikimania 2010 and 2024, I knew their hometown Gdansk and I could even recommend a good restaurant in #Katowice.
One of them was a national champion in fencing! (I duly took a picture for Wikimedia Commons.)
I never heard of #Eurobasket before, but for the rest of the month I kept seeing news about it (usually I'm just blind to sports news, I guess).
This was a very satisfactory train trip.
After the ferry to #Tallinn and my usual cafe, I had a comfortable #LuxExpress overnight bus to #Warsaw. The bus arrived early to the central station, so I hopped on an earlier train to Prague a minute before it left (#EC116 instead of #EC131). No surprises from an 8h direct train. Wifi didn't work but a fellow traveler supplied a hotspot so I could get a valid ticket on the interrail app. (Having to be constantly online to get and show a valid ticket is my least favourite part of interrail.)
Chatting in the dining car, I got two know two young men who were going to watch Eurobasket. Thanks to Wikimania 2010 and 2024, I knew their hometown Gdansk and I could even recommend a good restaurant in #Katowice.
One of them was a national champion in fencing! (I duly took a picture for Wikimedia Commons.)
I never heard of #Eurobasket before, but for the rest of the month I kept seeing news about it (usually I'm just blind to sports news, I guess).
This was a very satisfactory train trip.
Shoutout to my favourite #OsmAnd feature at the end of a long day in a new city: the option to display tram routes prominently on the map. When I've had enough walking, I just pick the longest and most circular-looking tram routes and ride the trams in circles until I've seen enough or I feel inspired to hop off and visit some random spot near the tracks. Usually, tram tracks are where they are for a good reason.
The next step was Prague-Milano via Munich and #Verona: departure at 7:35, expected arrival around 21. #EC360 accumulated some delay in Germany so I missed #RJ87 and took #RJ89 instead. I got to Verona on time for regional train #RE2648 and got to Milano just before midnight.
Öbb staff sells the Italian supplement for interrail onboard at 10 €, while it costs 20 € from Trenitalia.
The views around Brennero are great. I didn't like the new Railjet class trains, their design is incomprehensible.
On the way back I again took a regional train from Milano to Verona, then #RJ86 to #Innsbruck, #RJX869 to #Wien, #EC341 to #Budapest (I narrowly missed #EC40347 shortly before). After a night in Budapest, #EC272 to Breclav and #EC100 to Ostrava (a tight connection, which worked because they were both delayed 7 min). Next morning, #EC108 to Warsaw (no seat reservation required despite what the interrail app says; this train was fully booked and corridors were also packed after Katowice).
Looking at #Warsaw from 200 meters high feels a lot like playing Sim City 3000, in that I get to wonder about not just some but dozens of buses and trams in apparent traffic jams.
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