BS: Long train journey - advice

Subject: RE: BS: Long train journey - advice
From: Penny S.
Date: 17 Jun 10 - 03:37 AM

Oh, great. But Seat61 does say that the sleepers cannot be opened from outside, even by staff. (I have concerns about that under some circs). Then again, I know that I never slept on sleepers to and from Scotland some time ago, or at least woke up at any chnage in movement.

Penny

Subject: RE: BS: Long train journey - advice
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 17 Jun 10 - 05:21 AM

Camera ideas - The new Panasonc G1 looks compact enough but is also fully featured. Assuming you don't want to lay that type of cash out on something that may vanish anyway though I can only suggest putting your camera in a resilient case inside an old duffle bag or some such.

I usualy keep my Fuji S7000 - Which a fair old size - in a standard shoulder bag rather than a purpose built camera bag and it has not suffered any harm - As yet!

Cheers

DeG

Subject: RE: BS: Long train journey - advice
From: GUEST,Jim Martin
Date: 17 Jun 10 - 06:14 AM

We had a chain on the sliding corridor door so we could keep it slightly open for ventilation - big mistake - we should have locked it!

Subject: RE: BS: Long train journey - advice
From: Penny S.
Date: 18 Jun 10 - 05:20 AM

Without going into huge detail, I've an SLR, which I will be needing on Santorini. I had thought of using it en route as well, though I do have the compact option, too. As well as the suitcase, I will have a rucksack for the train, and a coolbag for food. Christmas tree, me. But no handbag on the train. I have an idea for the sleeping bit.

Penny

Subject: RE: BS: Long train journey - advice
From: GUEST,Guest, DaveA
Date: 18 Jun 10 - 07:37 PM

As of 2008, the sleeping car doors do lock from inside. You get ventilation by opening the carriage window. Only the top portion opens and then only about 5 inches. Certainly not enough for anyone to climb in - like all smokers, I tried to stick my head out for a smoke and it wouldn't fit through.
So you'll be safe while you sleep as long as the door is locked from inside.
Have a great trip

Dave

Subject: RE: BS: Long train journey - advice
From: Penny S.
Date: 19 Jun 10 - 04:47 AM

Thank you Dave.
My sister has enlivened me with a horror story from Rome (where she was watching as I got pickpursed). An elderly couple arrived late at Termini and were offered coffee in a cafe by someone who dosed it with rohypnol and robbed them. The man woke, confused, and walked onto the tracks, where a train hit him.
The tour agent has included with the itinerary a very nice little booklet on how women can travel safely produced for Canadians. It isn't quite as horrific.

Penny

Subject: RE: BS: Long train journey - advice
From: GUEST,Penny S. elsewhare
Date: 27 Jun 10 - 03:56 AM

So far so good. Sleeper to myself lastt nnight, thogu I ididn't sleep. Pleaase excusee cafe keyboard, which has problems! Language and problem keys. A day t waste now. Usefully seeing thcity.

Penny

Subject: RE: BS: Long train journey - advice
From: GUEST,Penny S. further elsewhare
Date: 28 Jun 10 - 11:51 AM

TRain bit completed, at airport for last leg. Last night also alone in sleeper, so called, with merry youth one side , and chatty and laughing gentlmen the other, whose combined weight shook the bed. And there were two passport stops.

Istanbul tonight.
Penny

Subject: RE: BS: Long train journey - advice
From: Jack Campin
Date: 29 Jun 10 - 05:01 AM

Dunno how long you'll be there, but Istanbul is a European City of Culture this year so there will be a lot of events to see (I've seen the brochure).

One good place to find out is the municipal bookshop (Istanbul Belediyesi Kitabevi - blue shopfront) halfway up Istiklal Caddesi in Beyoglu (use the Tunel to get there). Or the Mephisto bookshop/CD shop/cafe at the top of the street.

I'm amazed that people are still repeating that bollocks about train gassings.

Subject: RE: BS: Long train journey - advice
From: GUEST,Jim Martin
Date: 29 Jun 10 - 05:50 AM

You may well be amazed, as I was when it happened, it's not an experience I would wish on anyone!

Subject: RE: BS: Long train journey - advice
From: Jack Campin
Date: 29 Jun 10 - 07:37 AM

Train robberies are not unheard-of. Using any kind of gas to facilitate them is physiologically impossible, without leaving a trail of dead bodies and the occasional train-wrecking explosion (incidents that never feature in the urban legand).

Read up on the physiology of anaesthesia and then see if you think these stories make any sense.

Subject: RE: BS: Long train journey - advice
From: lefthanded guitar
Date: 29 Jun 10 - 07:37 PM

Why not take Long Island Rail Road instead- sounds like that would be much easier on the nerves. Just watch the gap. :D

Subject: RE: BS: Long train journey - advice
From: GUEST,Penny S. Somewhere in the Aegean
Date: 04 Jul 10 - 12:24 PM

Off Patmos, actually. I was only in Istanbul one night before joining the ship - did I mention it's a study based cruise with its focus on Byzantium? Santorini tomorrow.

I got all coy about putting precisely where I was while in transit. The dodgy keyboard was Budapest, the airport was Bucharest - which could stand in for Airstrip 1.

No problems, except that my legs didn't like all the sitting, so the time I spent in the 2 Bs I spent in places of transit, because walking was a bit of an effort. My right ankle is still being a pain., and when climbing up and down flights of steps in invoved, means I'm not getting the best out of the trip. Yesterday I missed one monastery on Meteora, which is geologically amazing.

I do get a bit peeved by the rules of the monasteries, which don't like women and demand we show respect by not wearing trousers - (the cheap response is "this is from men in skirts?"). But my real objection is that their demands emphasise that they do not respect women in return. If they asked for people to show respect for a place of worship, fair enough.

I can't remember which of the trains had the most enormous gap I have ever seen between train and platform. Bigger than the gap between the tender and the ship!

Penny

Subject: RE: BS: Long train journey - advice
From: Micca
Date: 04 Jul 10 - 12:41 PM

PennyS I would be interested in any/all pix you take of Santorini!! especially if there is one of the "Hole that used to be Thera"!! and the sense of scale, Its on my "Bucket List" but I dont know if I would be able to do all the steps( I am told) a visit requires. Enjoy!!
Micca

Subject: RE: BS: Long train journey - advice
From: GUEST,Penny in the Cyclades
Date: 05 Jul 10 - 02:39 PM

Micca, I don't think you would be wanting the entire 512 Mb card contents, would you?
There is an airport on the eastern side, which is gently sloping. There are coaches which can pick up cruise passengers on the caldera side, and a cable car. And donkeys, but not advised.
The scale is surprising, you just don't get it from the TV - I'm going to be sticthing some shots into panoramas to give some idea. It is huge. Unfortunately, I ddi not manage to get the panorama from up in Fira, because it was time for lunch - I reckoned I could get back to do it afterwards, but just missed the tender.
Not only views, but also rock shots of different formations, and of teh recent lavas on Nea Kameni. And the old mine workings, and some caves.
Penny (Athens tomorrow - I keep having the chorus of Nana Mouskouri singing "The White Rose of Athens" in my head, but can't remeber the verses.)

Subject: RE: BS: Long train journey - advice
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 05 Jul 10 - 03:02 PM

On my travels, I'd spend most daytime looking out the train window.

Subject: RE: BS: Long train journey - advice
From: Micca
Date: 05 Jul 10 - 09:35 PM

Penny, if you PM me when you are back in the UK I would happily send you a 2Gb card to copy what you regard as "significant", Maybe I could exchange some Alaskan blue glaviers and humpback whales to you.or the train trip through the Rocky mountains in Colorado ? I have looked at Google maps satellite pix(of Santorini) but I'm sure it doesn't convey the reality of scale and scope being "on the ground" would,
Many thanks, I hope you are enjoying (and continue to enjoy) your trip!!
Micca

Subject: RE: BS: Long train journey - advice
From: GUEST,Penny east of the Pelepponese(?)
Date: 07 Jul 10 - 09:31 AM

My doom has come upon me. Athens, a blitz of pickpockets - the police station had a lot of complainants, several from our ship did not bother to report their losses, followed by a blitz of police on the Metro. Able to open bags unnoticed. Cards gone and stopped. About 50 euro in euro and turkish lira gone. Fortunately I had unused forints and lei, so am solvent, and on ship it is all found (there is a little issue about paying the ship for services on board, which I think should be solvable with online banking. Solves the getting home by train without loss problem. The general belief is the varmints are Rumanian, and having seen the place, theft is understandable. They have been stolen from, and badly.
Penny

Subject: RE: BS: Long train journey - advice
From: GUEST,Penny again
Date: 07 Jul 10 - 09:33 AM

Micca, where are you? I have an idea we might be near enough for you to get to choose - and I could throw in a couple opf dophins as well.
Penny

Subject: RE: BS: Long train journey - advice
From: Micca
Date: 07 Jul 10 - 09:56 AM

Penny S, I am in East London UK!!and work in education, so the summer hols are about to start, so I am free to travel moderate distances.

Subject: RE: BS: Long train journey - advice
From: Jack Campin
Date: 07 Jul 10 - 06:10 PM

How on earth do you manage to spend or exchange lei in the eurozone?

Subject: RE: BS: Long train journey - advice
From: GUEST,Penny off Albania
Date: 09 Jul 10 - 07:56 AM

Jack, I simply went to the first booth in Athens I came across, offered my forints, as being most likely to be changable, and having had them agreed, offered the lei, too. No problem. I didn't shop around, though, being desperate. I had thought it would be impossible, and was set up to take them back to the travle agent in Dartford where I got them from.
Micca, I'm in New Ash Green in kent, and frequently pass across the eastern part of Sarf Lun'on.
I'm skipping the trip to Botrint this afternoon - pickpocketing capital of the world, Albania, apparently, not that I have anything left for them - I'm really trying to get my legs to look normal. Coach trips have not been good to them. I watch people walking into the lounge in the evening, and most of the women have the same problem. The others are slender.
Penny

Subject: RE: BS: Long train journey - advice
From: GUEST,Penny S. off Croatia
Date: 10 Jul 10 - 12:56 PM

Today I saw a five-master off Dubrovnik, apparently a training ship, and there were some teenagers in the city, thought to be from it. Do they have strongbodied sailors as well, and experts to go up the rigging?
I tried to get a decent picture, but it was overshadowed by a very large cruise ship behind it - it's going to take months of photoshopping to get every trace from out of the rigging.
Someone else got their pocket picked today, making four that I know of. So I'm split about my performance at the end of trip concert tomorrow - currently booked as The White Rose of Athens and Blow the Wind Southerly. Should I substitute Lionel Bart?
Not to mention my comic parody of Cosher Bailey.

****** ****** had an engine
which he sailed round the Aegean
as it chugged along the coastline
it left smuts on every clothesline

now the weather it was swelt'ring
and there was nowhere for shelt'ring
all the passengers were melting
the aircon needed a good belting

There is a website about this ship.

Penny

Subject: RE: BS: Long train journey - advice
From: GUEST,Penny further up the Adriatic
Date: 11 Jul 10 - 03:26 AM

Today we saw oil rigs - not drilling, presumably drilled already. One of the crew counted 19. Off the east of the ship, so presumably whichever Balkan state lies there.
Our GReek guide said something odd on Santorini while discussing water, desalination, and energy needs. The Greeks know that there is oil in the Aegean, but there would be problems with Turkey. And they know there is oil in the Ionian, but the oil companies won't drill there.
I thought they drilled anywhere they could.
Penny

Subject: RE: BS: Long train journey - advice
From: Charley Noble
Date: 11 Jul 10 - 08:48 PM

Penny-

Sounds as if you're doing fine, from someone who has traveled well off the guide book routes. Do keep the reports coming in. Or we may have to send out the famed Mudcat Flying Squad for a rescue.

A 5-masted training ship? I wonder which ship she is.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Long train journey - advice
From: Micca
Date: 12 Jul 10 - 05:07 AM

Penny, could this be the Ship you saw? Royal Clipper as she is the only 5 master I could find that might haave been in the area.

Subject: RE: BS: Long train journey - advice
From: GUEST,Penny in Venice
Date: 12 Jul 10 - 08:21 AM

It was indeed the Royal Clipper, and as we had someone who has been on the staff of the Greenwich Maritime Museum, and has sailed on her, we had a bit of input about her. Apparently the Russian captain used to run training ships where people actually had to haul ropes and stuff, but has adapted very well to pressing buttons. you wouldn't have thought she was mechanised from looking at her.

Back to the train advice. Tomorrow we disembark, and the ship is providing me with a taxi to the station of St Lucia. At 10.30 am. My train leaves at 20.57. A fun day will be held, during which I will be feeding myself by methods not involving expenditure. I am going to need my remaining dosh in Paris on Bastille Day, I think.

After this arrangement was made, it transpired that they were providing passengers who had booked flights through them with a hotel to fill the idle hours, and I asked if I could pay them to include me in this arrangement, but it wasn't possible for some reason for them to arrange a taxi from there to the station. And, of course, I can't pay a taxi.

As I can't pay the ship in the normal way through my credit card, they are allowing me to leave a promissory note and pay later, but I suspect they may not be wanting to add too much to my account, in case I cheat on them. I feel somewhat resentful.

It seems odd to me that it cannot be arranged for the innovative ways mobile phones are used in Africa to transfer funds to be made available in Europe. Or for me to go into a bank anywhere, open up my account on a secure computer, transfer money to that bank and them to give it to me. The nearest is to go to a bank with my passport and bank details, but it takes several days and is useless when cruising. I did suggest to the ship that I transferred money to them immediately after the theft, but they did not find this a good idea.

I suspect there are rules about busking. My singing went well last night. One of the crew sang, with a good voice and pelvic gyrations, Delilah - most people joined in. Do they listen to what they are singing so cheerfully? At least Mack the Knife sounds nasty.

Penny

Subject: RE: BS: Long train journey - advice
From: GUEST,Penny at the beginning of a long day
Date: 13 Jul 10 - 02:34 AM

Two hours to kill until I leave the ship, including 14 minutes left of computer time, then 10 hours on S. Lucia station. I have Kakuro problems, a Tandy chess machine, crochet, a book by John Julius Norwich, sundry edibles acquired from the restaurant, three bottles of water, a notebook and pen, and a very small amount of money.

I need to save 1.50 euros for the Metro, and something to tip the taxi driver from the ship, and can do the rest on my bus pass.

15 euros. I might be able to get some computer time there. time hangs heavy.

9 minutes now.

Penny

Subject: RE: BS: Long train journey - advice
From: Penny S.
Date: 14 Jul 10 - 04:45 PM

At home.

The day on the station was fine, and not as long as I thought. Fortunately I checked the time, an hour earlier than I expected! Unfortunately, as I settled into my room with its funny little basin I was supposed to wash my face in, it transpired that the crank to turn to make a breeze was inoperative. The whole coach had no aircon, so I was moved. From first to a couchette - not shared, but next to the loo. 3 hours after leaving Venice, we stopped for new passengers at Milan. Young people filled the rest of the compartments, called to each other up and down the corridor, tried my door and were still at it at 12.30. Everytime someone went to the loo, I knew. No bedding, no towels, no refreshments, no breakfast. No sleep. I woke fully about 5.30. At Bercy I was given an address to write to about a refund.

Bought a croque monsieur and a cafe in a boulangerie opposite the Gare du Nord after discovering the strange absence of escalators in Paris. Got home to Kent to discover a) the shop on the station does not use euros, and b) the local taxi drivers do, so the last leg was not on bus pass.

Totally moneyless, I found the new debit card at home. Hooray.

My brain, while I was hobbling over a bridge in Venice, brought up from the depths a bit of G&S I haven't heard or thought of since my 20's I think. "I will never never never never never never never never never never never go to sea again." Amazing link to the duke of Plazatoro on such a bridge.

Penny

Subject: RE: BS: Long train journey - advice
From: Deckman
Date: 15 Jul 10 - 06:55 AM

Reading this very interesting thread reminds me of TWO THINGS: Just how helpful catters are ... and, HOW MUCH I HATE TO TRAVEL! bob(deckman)nelson ... still hiding out in the Seattloe area with lot's of loo paper!

Subject: RE: BS: Long train journey - advice
From: Penny S.
Date: 16 Jul 10 - 02:50 PM

While on the station in Venice, I emailed my neighbour/travel agent. I wrote - I'm sitting on a railway station, got a ticket for my destination...homeward bound, I wish I was...

And she texted back "That reminds me of a song - wasn't it Simon and Garfunkel?"

Penny