Loco

I’m writing this sat on the train about an hour before it’s due to arrive in Poznan. I left London on Thursday evening, getting the Eurostar to Brussels and then the night train on to Berlin. Because of the fact that this is a work trip (I’m travelling to the UN climate change conference with the UK Youth Delegation), I’m afraid I’m not feeling particularly witty, as promised by Rosa in the newsletter. However, I do have some observations that I hope you’ll find interesting.

First of all, a rather obvious point, but one worth bearing in mind: if you’re travelling via Brussels and you want to see some of the city (maybe to get an evening meal), make sure that you leave longer than three hours between trains. We only had a couple of hours, and had to settle for eating in the rather ugly and uninspiring district that the station sits in.

On the night train to Berlin there were nine of us from UKYD travelling together, and we sat in a cabin drinking from a shared bottle of whisky. Inevitably given the purpose of our trip, and the common theme that tied us all together, conversation quickly descended into a full-blown and wide-ranging debate about climate change, and how realistic our efforts in dealing with it are.

When we got to Berlin the group split, with some going immediately on to Poznan, whilst myself and a few others explored the city. The central station is within easy walking distance of the main city centre, and I suggested that we join a walking tour that I had done last time I was in the city.

Berlin is absolutely brimming with fascinating cultural and historical knowledge, and the guides at the Free Berlin tour are excellent at conveying it (they aren’t paying me to write this!). Because of our limited time we were only able to catch 90 mins of the 3 and a half hour tour and when we said goodbye to the Amercian-Bulgarian guide I was touched by his humility and felt that we had had a truly human experience – taking people around monuments to Holocaust victims, the place where Hitler’s body was burnt, and the site of a Communist massacre is not a job to be taken light-heartedly. Going on the tour really brought home the value of cultrual interaction, and how imporrtant it is that we keep learning about each other, especially as we localise our economies and reduce emissions from travel.

In the evening I went for dinner with my friend Ellie in a marvelous jazz club. I need to go out to more jazz and blues and I wish there were more places like that in London. Another friend of Ellie’s who was with us made the apt observation that people in Berlin behave more like ‘provincial people’ than city-dwellers, despite the size of the city, and the community atmosphere was very evident as drinkers enjoyed the live music.

I’m now in Poznan, and I’m going to make a rather crass observation: everyone on the train looked like they were from the eighties.

Photos: net_efekt, net_efekt,

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One response to “En route to Poznan”

1. Igor says:
   May 9th, 2009 at 3:04 pm

   Greetings) I have read the information on your guide in a berlin! Strange! Very often I happen in a berlin and ???????? I hear such responses)