Białystok - quicker to get to, still dull

Białystok railway station, October 2008, below.

Early February 2015, below.

And here we are again, below, today... note new train standing at platform 3, a PESA Dart.

Here's the Dart in close-up... Bydgoszcz-built, lovely design, very comfortable. With the railway line reopened after extensive, EU-financed modernisation work, journey times from Warsaw are now shorter (2hrs 23mins, down from 2hrs 46 mins).

But Białystok still offends the eye. Too little beauty, too much ugliness - the all-pervasive advertising is particularly annoying, plastered on every facade. And too much 1990s architecture. Shabby.

My least-favourite Polish city, below Radom even. But then I do tend to visit during the dull times of year. It could do with better town planning and architectural supervision.

Full posts from Dullsville, 2015 here, and 2008 here.


This time three years ago:
UK's first town where Poles are a majority

This time four years ago:
Lost legend of rock'n'roll: Johnny Kołyma

This time five years ago:
Stalin's plans to escalate nuclear Armageddon

This time six years ago:
Warsaw's favourite weekend destination

This time seven years ago:
We are two

This time eight years ago:
Crushed velvet dusk in my City of Dreams

This time nine years ago:
My very first Jeziorki blog post