11-12 June On board the Euro Night train from Bratislava to Krakow

We arrived at the station at 10.15 pm to ensure that we would not miss the 11.30 pm Euro Night that was available only in high season (summer) to Krakow.  Our train was assigned the nearest platform to the station that evening.  

Our train ticket was in two parts / stubs.  The first part was from Bratislava to Kuty.  The second was from Zebrzydowice to Krakow.  How was this to take place?  How will we get from Kuty to Zebrzydowice?  The schedule at the station though referred to it as a single journey starting from Bratislava to Krakow.  The train appeared to be coming from somewhere and it will continue beyond Krakow.  It was picking up several but not a huge number of passengers at Bratislava.  There were several ladies waiting with us on the platform that chilly night.  They were already in comfortable pajamas.  They were looking at this chart on the wall.  We approached the same.  It was a diagram of which direction the train would enter the station and the location of our coach vis a vis the engine.  The Euro Night consisted solely of First and Second class sleeping cabins.  

The train pulled into the station.  The conductor specifically assigned to our coach met us at the stairs and helped us with our bags.  He informed us that we are alone in our cabin so we can locked it once we are inside.  He also informed us that he will knock on our door in the morning 30 minutes before arrival to wake us up.  There would be no border check as both Slovakia and Poland are members of Schengen and European Union.  He spoke perfect English so we took the opportunity to ask him about the strange information on our tickets.  He advised us not to worry and that we would not be left in a coach abandoned in a rail yard somewhere.  He thought it was amusing that we were even concerned.

A First Class cabin all to ourselves.  Now that was a luxury.  Although there was no wi-fi this time, we had all that space, the bottom bunk, a sink, and charging points.  Thus far on this adventure, we had slept in our day clothes on the overnight rail trips but this night, we took the time to change into our pajamas.  It was luxury indeed.  Our cabin also came with drinking water, a soft fluffy wash cloth, bottled water for washing, toiletries like those on an airplane and a muffin for breakfast or snack.  

We adjusted the blinds and screen over the window  to let us watch the lights of cities, villages and stations whiz by from our bunk.  The train traveled fast on the first part of the trip to the Czech border.  Our coach was coupled and decoupled several times such that we were facing different ends of the coach banks through the trip.  We realised that because we were woken up several times in the night by our coughs.  Somewhere in the night, we made a stop for a substantial length of time.  We remembered thinking that this must be where we were being halted in a rail yard.  The speed of the train reduced substantially once we had crossed the border.  That gentler rocking was more conducive to sleep than the frequent decoupling and coupling of coaches.

We woke up long before the conductor came to tell us that it was 30 minutes to arrival.   We spent the morning looking out of the window at the passing countryside of Poland.  It was lush and green with the occasional stream and idyllic villages.  Early birds were foraging as the mist was burnt by the rising sun.  

Early birds foragin

The train ambled its way to Krakow.  At 7 am, exactly 30 min before arrival, the conductor knocked on our door as promised.  We had already repacked our bags.  At 7.30am, we arrived at Krakow, and the conductor helped us off the train.  First class on Euro Night is definitely civilised. :-)