Still no invitation from Nizhniy Novgorod, but until it comes, I am going to go ahead and plan my journey. Originally the plan was Ryanair to Berlin, and then either Lufthansa, AirBerlin, Aeroflot or Transaero to Moscow. The DUB - SXF leg still stands, but now I am seriously considering going overland from Berlin. Having a housemate from Suwałki, the last stop in Poland for trains to Lithuania, helped persuade me. A hot meal and a bed for the night, courtesy of his parents, would be nice after 23h of travelling (including an 8-hour stop in Warsaw). Before planning, I had a hazy idea that I needed to get as far as Riga, to avoid going through Belarus and having to obtain a transit visa.
After Suwałki, I will get the daily train to Sestokai, in Lithuania, which also, depending on who you believe (PKP or Lithuanian Railways), continues on to Kaunas and Vilnius. That's where my trains run out, temporarily. There are two trains from Vilnius to Riga (one on its way from Simferopol, the other from Truskavets in the Ukraine), but only on odd dates (for the Simferopol train), or every 4 days (the Truskavets one). I appear to be arriving in Lithuania on the one day there is no train. So I can either get a bus for 5h from Vilnius to Riga, or a combination of local trains from Kaunas, or hitch-hike. My resolve to hitch was weakened a little when I happened upon this site, which was humorous apart from the sobering reminder that the Balts are deadlier drivers than the Irish. I think I will try and hitch, none the less, if the train connections aren't 'too hot', as balticsww.com would say. Then, Riga - Moscow will be the easy part.
me to think of a cowshed on wheels). As for Altogether the cost doesn't seem that bad: less than €20 for the Regional Express from Berlin to Frankfurt/Oder, then 60 zł. for Słubice - Suwałki (roughly €15, for a 23-hour, 800-km journey). Riga - Moscow is 18 lats (€27) in the cheapest class (общий, or 'common'), which leaves Suwałki - Riga, for which nowhere on the Internet gives prices, but I doubt the slow trains will be that dear in either Lithuania or Latvia. It still is a good saving on the €120 Aeroflot fare.
If you're planning this route yourself, here are the websites I find most helpful:
http://rozklad.pkp.pl - Website of the national Polish railway company. It has an English, French and German option, and can give prices for all trains within Poland.
Bahn.de - Die Bahn, the German railway company. Good for planning train journeys all over Europe, and can give prices for the faster trains.
LDZ.lv - Latvian national railway's site. Available in Russian and English as well as Latvian. It is a bit awkward to navigate, but has lots of solid information on times and prices.
When searching for connections on the PKP or Die Bahn sites, remember that slower trains are cheaper. The search forms of both give an option to exclude the faster types of train.
www.litrail.lt and www.poezda.net where moderately helpful, as was www.waytorussia.net, despite its being 2 years out of date.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
0 comments:
Post a Comment