2025: A Year in Numbers

Well, this is it. Another year over, a heart attack survived, and still feeling in good shape. How have I done on the old spreadsheet (est. 1 Jan 2014)?

Compared to previous years, 2025 has seen a reduction in the number of exercises I do. I have abandoned pull-ups, press-ups, sit-ups and weights, as the strain of intense effort is not good for my heart. But where I have persisted, the results are good. More paces walked – I have hit the 12,500 a day target (remember, this is averaged out across every day of the year). The number is significant because the length of my pace being 80cm –four-fifths of a metre – those 12.5K paces equal 10 kilometres. A day, every day. Throughout the entire year.  Looking back, I can see that Covid-19 had a greater impact on my paces (from lock-down in 2020 to 2023 when I finally caught the bugger) than my heart attack. I have given up on moderate-to-high intensity walking as a metric; the methodology used by Samsung Health is so wildly different to Huawei's that it's not worth comparing.

For the 12th year in a row, I have reduced my alcohol consumption. It's now down to 12.0 units a week (the NHS England recommended limit is 14 units a week). But note, the number of dry days over the course of the year has fallen, which means that on days that I have had a drink or two, the number of units has been less than before. Indeed, I see that on the average night out, I consumed 4.5 units of alcohol compared to 6.1 units in 2023.

Gold colour indicates a personal best.

Measurable and manageable
	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025
Paces (daily average)	12.0k	11.1k	11.2k	11.6k	11.9k	12.1k	12.5k
Alcohol drunk (units/week)	18.5	15.5	14.1	13.7	13.6	13.4	12.0
Dry days over course of year	198	208	231	234	249	243	226
Days with zero physical training	17	11	22	9	10	6	20
Squats/day	N/A	N/A	28	46	45	47	21
Sets of back extensions/day	N/A	N/A	0.3	1.3	2.8	4.5	5.4
Plank time (min: sec/day average)	3:40	4:11	4:21	4:58	5:55	6:17	6:42
Portions fresh fruit & veg/day	5.3	5.4	6.1	6.3	6.7	7.3	7.9

Squats remain in the exercise cycle, though fewer than in the past. These are above all important for balance and posture. Holding the plank: I can do this longer and it really does shape the torso. If done consistently over many years. You won't get a six-pack in weeks as the Facebook ads suggest. My back-extensions have become fun ever since Pacyfik decided to join me as I lie down on my ZemBord™ and start rocking backwards and forwards. He's not missed a single day, and neither have I (since mid-August).

Fresh fruit and veg continues to grow as a part of my diet from year to year. Making big veg bakes in the oven gives me up to four portions in one go. And my new vegetable steamer, bought post-heart attack, is another bonus. Steamed spinach, asparagus, runner beans, etc. Another 2025 discovery is that "sweet potatoes do count towards your 5 A Day, unlike regular potatoes, yams, cassava or plantains. (These are considered starchy carbohydrates rather than veg). Sweet potatoes are treated as a vegetable as part of the daily fruit and veg intake." So bataty go into my weekly shop. A big one provides seven or more portions.

For next year, I shall include one new exercise, bird-dog hold progressions. And I shall make a note of my creative output too. And the input – more reading in 2026. 

This time last year:
2024 – A Year in Numbers

This time two years ago:

2023: my tenth year in numbers

This time three years ago:
2022: a year in numbers

This time four years ago:
2021: a year in numbers

This time five years ago:

2020: a year in numbers

This time six years ago
2019: a year in numbers

This time seven years ago:
2018: a year in numbers

This time eight years ago:
2017: a year in numbers

This time nine years ago:
2016: a year in numbers

This time ten years ago:
2015: a year in numbers

This time 11 years ago:
Economic forecasts for 2014 – and 2015?

This time 12 years ago:
Economic predictions for 2014

This time 13 years ago:
Economic predictions for 2013

This time 13 years ago:
Economic predictions for 2012

This time 15 years ago:
Classic cars, West Ealing

This time 16 years ago:
Jeziorki 2009, another view

This time 17 years ago:
Jeziorki 2008, another view

This time 18 years ago:
Final thoughts for 2007

The Long Review of 2025: Pt IV

Long and short of it: I had a heart attack on Saturday 5 April, had stents fitted immediately, spent six days in intensive care and now pretty much all is well with me, healthwise. Daily medication has come down from a maximum of ten pills a day to six, and I hope that next May's check-up will lead to a further reduction in doses.

Changes in habits? Well, no more strength-building exercises such as pull-ups and push-ups. Just the plank and back-extensions to maintain spinal flexibility. Will be returning to squats and balance-maintenance exercises in the New Year. More walking than ever; I've averaged over 12,500 paces a day every day across the whole of 2025. Not as fast as before though. [A Year in Numbers will appear tomorrow]

Changes in diet? A massive decrease in consumption of yellow cheeses (Cheddar, Parmesan), replaced to a degree by white cheese (Lidl's Balkan cheese in particular). This has lower levels of saturated fat. Out (totally) has gone Chorizo, sadly; meat has disappeared from my shopping, apart from duck breast fillets (eaten with skin off, which the cats love). No more hams or sausages. A lot more vegetables. And much more porridge oats. More on the numbers tomorrow.

Changes in my approach to life? Take it easy, man! But on the other hand, time ticks away, write more, think more.

This time five years ago:
Review of the Year II: Investments

This time two years ago:
Exploration of a largely unknown Ealing

This time five years ago:
Eric Ravilious

This time ten years ago:
Dark thoughts at 2015 comes to an end

This time 11 years ago:
Shots from the sky

This time 12 years ago:
One-millionth of a zloty 

This time 14 years ago:
Random year-end thoughts

This time 15 years ago:
Beery litter louts

This time 18 years ago:
Xmas lites, Jeziorki

The Long Review of 2025: Pt IIIThe Year of the Cats

As 2024 approached its end, I had no idea that a year on I'd have survived a heart attack and become the owner of six cats. Health I'll cover tomorrow; this post will be all about cats.

A kitten followed me home in early January, became pregnant in April, and in June gave birth to five healthy kittens. All of them have stayed with me. This was unplanned – but meant to happen. It was in the stars.

I had witnessed the mating, but didn't think it would come to anything; Wenusia was too young, she hadn't shown any signs of coming into heat. But 63 days later, right on schedule, out they popped. And here they all are (below). In the top left corner, Céleste, in the grey basket in the middle, we have Pacyfik (tabby/white) and with him Scrapper (tuxedo); in the top right corner, mum, Wenusia, the cat-colony starter-kit, in front of her Czestuś the Czonker, all 4.4kg of him, and in the foreground, Arcturus (clever with his paws).

It has been suggested, and AI backs this up, that there were at least two, if not three fathers involved in creating this brood. It's called heteropaternal superfecundation, when a female cat mates with two or more different males during one heat cycle, leading to a single litter of kittens with different fathers. Since cats are induced ovulators, multiple matings are needed to trigger ovulation. If these matings occur with different males within a short period during the same oestrus cycle, multiple eggs can be fertilised by different males, resulting in kittens with varied traits such as coat colour and character from the same litter.  

As Wenusia, my adopted foundling, grew ever more visibly pregnant in late spring, I was thinking that I'd be giving away some of her brood once weaned (indeed I even had three potential takers lined up). However, once weaned, I realised that I simply loved these kittens too much to let go of any of them. I wanted to watch them grow and develop. I loved each one of them individually and as a group; as a family unit. It would hurt them too much to be separated from their siblings, and from their place of birth. 

In practical terms, living with six cats is really no problem as I have a huge garden (nearly one acre/3,880 square metres) and a forest next door, and whether I tear open one sachet of cat food or two or three or six is neither here nor there. I'd also posit that taking care of one dog in an urban setting requires far more effort than taking care of multiple cats out in the country. Letting them in and out means nothing more than leaning over and opening the kitchen window.

The five kittens are unusual in that they live together with their siblings and their mother, in their own company, in the same place where they were born. They know each other, they know me and they know my house from birth. Familiarity. So important to the soul.

Making eye contact with my cats daily, I am totally convinced that they are conscious beings, with agency and personhood, aware of their own existence. Maybe their brains don't have the cognitive power that human brains have, but their level of sentience match ours. The tuning of their senses is different to ours (greater acuity of hearing and smell, sight that's optimised for movement rather than granular detail, taste organs that can't detect sweetness, and a body that can withstand extremes of cold better than us). Nevertheless, I'd posit that the essential experience of what it feels like to be alive as a cat is not dissimilar to what it feels like to be alive as a human.

The kittens are turning into cats; six and half months old today. Each one has a completely different personality. Scrapper, a quick-witted tuxedo tom, button-bright. Czestuś, the orange tom; big, fat, lazy and cuddlesome. The two tabby tom twins; Arcturus – the engineer, who can use his paws almost as if they were hands, and Pacyfik, who has accompanied me on my back-extension exercises every single day for the past two months – our little ritual. And their sister, the glamorous Céleste, the most beautiful cat in the world, with her long, silky hair that's such a pleasure to stroke; an expert tree-climber and explorer.

My day has acquired a new rhythm. An earlier start, feeding the cats, letting them out, cleaning the litter trays. Keeping tabs on who's in and who's out. The cats also mean I can't leave them for too long on their own (longer excursions mean having to organise support for feeding). But then I'm not one for long holidays to exotic countries so no great loss.

Castration looms for the boys, but Céleste will be left intact. She's unlikely to fall pregnant as quickly as her mother, Wenusia, for two reasons. Firstly, cats with the long-hair gene mature a lot more slowly than normal house-cats. Secondly, she spends her time outside surrounded by her four brothers, so an external unneutered tomcat will not have uninhibited access to her when she does come into heat.

I do look forward to the joy of another brood of kittens; it was certainly the high-point of this year, seeing them enter into the world, a world that to them is safe and secure and yet interesting, lots of land around which they can range. When I see them scampering about in the garden, chasing each other up trees, I appreciate the ennui of life as an indoor cat. And when I see them in my warm kitchen, fast asleep, belly-up, after eating their fill of moist and dry cat foods, I appreciate the security that they have.

I am definitely a fan of Felis catus as a species. The symbiosis between H. sapiens and F. catus works very well for me. They have enriched my life greatly, bringing me deep and rich joy, and I am thankful to them all. I hope all goes as well for them next year as it has in 2025.

Incidentally, I kept a note of all my feline expenditures over the year, this includes vet fees (390zł for Wenusia's sterilisation and a course of deworming), cat equipment (food-bowls and beds) and the bulk of it all... cat food.Total 5,007.10 złotys (£1,032). Be interesting to see what it will be next year.

Finally, a thank-you to Jacek K. for suggesting Doris Lessing's On Cats, and to daughter Moni for buying it me for Christmas.

This time last year:
Local hellos and farewells for 2024

This time two years ago:
An Alternative Theology

This time three years ago:
From the Long Review of 2022, Pt IV

This time four years ago:
S2 tunnel under Ursynów opens

This time five years ago:
The first year of Covid-19

This time six years ago:
Last night in Ealing, twenty-teens
[A strangely prophetic post, suitably dream-like in quality]

This time seven years ago:
The Day the World Didn't End

This time ten years ago:
Hybrid driving - the verdict

This time 12 years ago:
Pitshanger Lane in the sun

This time 16 years ago:
Miserable, grey, wet London

This time 17 years ago:
Parrots in Ealing

This time 18 years ago:
Heathrow to Okęcie

The Long Review of 2025: Pt II

Today I focus on geopolitics. Putin's Three-Day Special Military Operation to conquer Ukraine is approaching the end of its fourth year. Trump want nice shiny peace prize medal so his amateur (no experience necessary) 'diplomats' are trying to broker peace between a burglar and the owners of the home he's broken in to. "Look – the burglar's already got your utility room, so why not just sign over one of your bedrooms to him and quit fighting the guy?"

Putin can't stop the war. He doesn't want to stop the war. It is the war and the war alone that keeps him in power – and keeps him from being strung up from the nearest lamp-post. He saw what happened to Gaddafi when his people turned against him. And Ceausescu. And Saddam Hussein. And Samuel Doe. A similar end awaits Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin should he lose his grip on the nation. An end to the war means the return home of hundreds of thousands of veterans, brutalised by their experiences in the army. With no social safety net, these men will terrorise their neighbourhoods. The very chaos and anarchy that Putin's social contract with the Russian people pledged to end. At the same time, it is the war and the total war economy that keeps the billions flowing into the coffers of Putin and his remaining oligarch cronies. Those who protested that they were not getting enough, or who were most brazen in ripping off the army have fallen out of windows. The cake is smaller, sure, but there are fewer cake-eaters in Putin's circle. For them, and for Putin, the war must go on. He will pretend to humour the American 'negotiators'. But he will carry on regardless, sending thousands of Russians a week to their deaths in human meat-wave assaults, and continuing to fly guided missiles into Ukrainian homes, schools and hospitals.

This quote from the excellent Institute for the Study of War website about the situation in Ukraine: "Russian forces are unable to open a new front and cannot expand their recent limited attacks. Constraints on Russia’s available military manpower are a severe constraint on Russian operations and will likely remain so in the coming year. Russian forces are unlikely to change the pace and scale of their advances along the frontlines in 2026 if support for Ukraine continues at current levels. The grinding nature of Russian advances incurs high casualty rates, and Russian forces need incoming personnel to replenish losses in active sectors of the frontlines to maintain their slow rate of advance. Putin has continued to claim that Russian forces are advancing all along the line, which is untrue..."

Remember, Pokrovsk and Kupyansk were the targets for the Russian army's summer 2025 offensive. Neither town is in Russian hands. So what chances does Russia have to attack, for example, Poland? Putin's nuclear sabre-rattling is seen as a hollow threat, one that if anything signals his desperation. When things are looking bad on the battlefield, his minions will shriek: "We have nukes!"

Meanwhile, Trump is disengaging the US from Europe. Europe is belatedly stepping up to the challenge and increasing its defense spending. In the case of Poland this is resulting in a significantly larger budget deficit and public-sector debt, the only macroeconomic indicators to give any cause for concern. However, my worry is that not enough of that cash is going into Poland's home-grown defence industry, and too much is going to buy kit from the US and other countries. Poland should treat this as an opportunity to ramp up domestic manufacturing industry in much the same way as the US did in the 1940s and '50s. The spin-off for civilian manufacturing is clear.

Trump continues on his merry way. The jokes fall thick and fast. Mentally, the guy is utterly unfit for office. Will he be able to keep the Epstein stuff covered up? Will he implode? Will MAGA (and indeed all nativist/populist movements) implode under the weight of their internal contradictions? Is MAGA/Reform etc a broad church – or should "all migrants be deported now"? Somehow the show will go on, wokeism will become diluted, DEI initiatives will be pedalled back and, I hope, common sense will prevail. The photo (below) of Poland's foreign minister Radosław Sikorski and president Karol Nawrocki at the United Nations filled me with optimism. The two guys seem to be getting along... Good!

Will the war be over in 2026? I very much doubt it. Putin has mobilised a further 409,000 reservists and Russia being Russia there will be no change in doctrine (brutal stupidity/stupid brutality the default mode of thinking). 

China is the great geopolitical mystery. Run by one party which is run by one man, with publicly stated views that Taiwan should be incorporated by force if needs be into the Chinese nation. However, I believe that China's real goal is Outer Manchuria – the 900,000 square kilometres of land ceded to Russia in the Treaties of Aigun (1858) and Pekin (1860) along with China's access to the Sea of Japan. The longer the war in Ukraine goes on, the weaker Russia becomes, and the more leverage China will have when it comes to crossing the Amur River and helping itself to what used to be Chinese land. Full of natural resources and living space. The weaker Russia becomes, the cheaper it is forced to sell its oil and gas to China. Xi Jinping looks at the war and smiles. Europe is funding Ukraine to degrade Russia militarily. Nice strategy.

Trump and China? It seems (as of Q4 2025) that the tariff wars are not hurting the US economy, although the dollar is weak. When Trump entered the White House, a dollar cost 4.08zł, today it costs a mere 3.58zł. 

Is this a strong złoty? It's grown against the pound too (reducing the spending power of my UK state pension), from 5.15zł a year ago to 4.83zł today. The euro has held up better (from 4.27zł to 4.22zł). The UK media has been full of articles praising Poland's economy, but frankly, I'd love to see those articles balanced by ones praising the actual UK economy. In the third quarter of 2025, it grew by a mere 0.1% quarter on quarter, while Poland's economy grew by 0.9% – nine times faster. At this rate, Poland is indeed on course to overtake the UK in terms of GDP per capita at purchasing-power parity by 2030.

This time last year:
Radom

This time two years ago:
New bridge over the Czarna

This time three years ago:
The Long Review of 2022 - Pt. III

This time four years ago:
The Person Who Contemplates Not.

This time seven years ago:
2018 – a year in journeys

This time 13 years ago:
Wise words about motoring

This time 14 years ago:
Hurry up and wait with WizzAir at Luton

The Long Review of 2025: Pt I

What a year! Two life-changing events for me (more on both in subsequent posts), namely a heart attack in April and the shift from being pet-free to sharing my small house six cats. Just kind of happened.

But I'd like to start this cycle of posts reviewing 2025 with something else that interests me – Poland's development, as seen from the local, regional and national level. I have now lived 28 years in Poland, and during that time, the national quality of life has gone up and up and up, though it must be said, from a modest base. This blog records 18 of those 28 years, and looking back, I can see numerous tipping points, technological and infrastructural, that make life more comfortable, easier.

This year, that progress has been equally visible. Poland's improvement makes a contrast with the austerity-level stasis that the UK is experiencing since the global financial crisis of 2008. Poles today are on average 50% better off than they were 20 years ago, whilst Britons are earning less in real terms than they were 20 years ago. And unlike the UK, where the nation's wealth remains resolutely concentrated in London, one can see Poland flourishing in every corner.

This year, most of my longer journeys took me to destinations east of the Vistula, which makes up for absence there in recent years. I visited Kazimierz Dolny, Białowieża, Przemyśl, Zamość and Rzeszów, by car and by train and was impressed at the huge improvement in the road network. Two major station remonts were completed this year, Warsaw West (W-wa Zachodnia) and Rzeszów Główny, although the former still awaits its underground tram connection. Warsaw's tram network remains a work-in-progress, although it's now possible to take one down ulica Rakowiecka (finally finished). 

A propos of my travels in 2025, worthy of note is my overnight stay in Wawel Castle ("free to those that can afford it, very expensive to those that can't"). Kraków, south of the river, has also seen big leaps forward in construction and infrastructure, although it does remain the victim of over-tourism.

Locally here in Chynów, many infrastructure improvement projects were carried out and completed this year (for instance here and here and here), with many more in the pipeline for next year. Chynów has a new supermarket (Deko Market, its third), and a second kebab outlet (Amigo Kebab), though unlike the Luxor Kebab, which opened in 2024, there's no indoor seating. Maybe the new retail centre next door to the old retail centre, completed but not yet let out, will see another eaterie. The old BP petrol station, which became a TransOil petrol station in April, has a great little restaurant opening by it, Zajazd u Latoszków. Weekday lunch menu 30zł (soup and generous main course).

I mentioned recently that a new, long, pavement will be built connecting the level crossing in Jakubowizna to Chynów station and then on to ulica Wolska. Below: ul. Kolejowa, Chynów station behind me and to the right. The asphalt is recent (before, the road would flood from edge to edge after any thunderstorm), the posts preventing pavement parking appeared this spring. By next spring the pavement on the other side of the road should be complete too. And parking facilities. As I wrote earlier this month, the number of bicycle stands on the Jakubowizna side of the station has tripled.

The election of a young and dynamic wójt (mayor of a rural municipality) will see greater dialogue and transparency when it comes to choosing priorities for further roll-outs of local infrastructure.

Below: fibre roll-out... optical fibre has been laid along the entire length of my lane. This roll, just outside my front gate (I presume looking at its length) is long enough to stretch to my house, but not to the houses beyond in Grobice. One gigabyte per second here we come!

Meanwhile, back in Jeziorki, ulica Karczunkowska still doesn't have a pavement.

This time last year:|
Jacek Malczewski exhibition, Radom

This time two years ago:
Back out into the open

This time three years ago:
The UK's year of Two Monarchs, Three Premiers and Four Chancellors

This time four years ago:
Wintery gorgeousness and filthy air

This time five years ago:
Jakubowizna – moonrise kingdom

This time eight years ago:

Rural sunlight, Derbyshire

This time 11 years ago:
Derbyshire in the snow

This time 12 years ago:
Is Britain over-golfed?

This time 14 years:
Everybody's out on the road today

This time 15 years ago:
50% off and nothing to pay till June 2016

Poland works at Christmas

Three public holidays in a row, for the first time. Christmas Eve became a statutory day off work this year, along with Christmas Day and the day known in Britain as Boxing Day (referred to here more prosaically as Drugi dzień świąt ('second day of the holidays'). Below: sunrise, as seen from my kitchen window, on Christmas Day, a few minutes before eight.

Normally, I'd have stayed over, but (again for the first time ever) there's six cats at home that need feeding, so on each of the three public holidays, I travelled between Chynów and Jeziorki and back again with Koleje Mazowieckie. All my six trains arrived on time; the ticket app worked faultlessly (together with banking app for payment); there was no rowdiness among the passengers. The train was neither crowded nor empty (about the same passenger numbers as you'd expect on weekdays outside of rush hours). Many people had suitcases or rucksacks. 

Each of my six train journeys took 24 minutes (the 35km journey by car takes around 45 minutes using about two litres of petrol). And given that one litre of 95-octane petrol costs the same as my train ticket (with senior's discount and annual Warsaw travel card), there's no sense in driving whatsoever. It's twice as expensive. Plus, I can drink, which, let's face it, is a good reason to avoid the car at the festive season.

Compare the situation in the UK. This is the message from National Rail: "There will be no National Rail services on Christmas Day as usual this year. On Boxing Day most train operators will have no service – however, there will be a very limited train service operated by a small number of train operators." Given the far larger percentage of non-Christian workforce in the UK than in Poland, it surprises me that public transport grinds to a complete halt in Britain, whilst in Poland it's working well. By leaving public transport to operate across the Christmas holiday, seasonal travel problems are diluted and folk aren't forced into cars.

Poland gets on with it. The shops have been shut for the three days, not a problem with a little forethought, but a lack of public transport would be a hindrance. The Christmas timetables were basically a Sunday service minus a handful of trains, but essentially an hourly service was maintained throughout. Over the three days, I received five alerts via email from Koleje Mazowieckie that some train or another was delayed or cancelled on my line. However, four out of those five were either south of Radom or east of Czachówek Wschodni, so they would not have affected my travel. 

Having said that, coming back from town on the night of Friday 19 December there was a massive delay (one train was 85 minutes late, my own one home was 20 minutes late); this was caused by a driver crashing a car into the level-crossing barriers south of Ustanówek station. As my delayed train crawled south from Ustanówek, we passed several fire engines on either side of the tracks, blue lights flashing in the cold night. Below: a Góra Kalwaria-bound train passes the scene of the previous night's hold-up, Saturday 20 December.

Below: a seasonal photo of Czester the Czonker who has occupied an empty box of tangerine oranges.

Back to normal tomorrow, fortunately I still have plentiful supplies of cat food but I am right out of fresh fruit and veg.

This time three years ago:|
Part I of the Long Review of 2022

This time four years ago:
S7 extension Section A walked end to end

This time six years ago:
Eighty-five chains to Hazelwood Station

This time seven years ago:
Christmas round-up

This time nine years ago:
Derbyshire at Christmas

This time ten years ago:
Across the High Peaks

This time 11 years ago:
Derbyshire's rolling landscapes

This time 12 years ago:
Our Progress Around the Sceptr'd Isle 

This time 13 years ago:
Out and about in Duffield

and...
Christmas Break

This time 14 years ago:
Boxing Day walk in Derbyshire

This time 15 years ago 

Derbyshire in the snow

This time 17 years ago:

Derbyshire in the sunshine

This time 18 years ago:

Derbyshire in the drizzle

Sylvia Bossack

I wake up and look at the bedside clock. It's 03:00. As I return to the waking state, a name pops into my stream of consciousness – Sylvia Bossack. The spelling is exactly like that; not Sylwia Bosak (the usual Polish spelling), but Sylvia with a v, Bossack, double s, a, c, k. 

I jot down the name in the dream diary that I keep by my bed, have a wee, and go back to sleep. In the morning, I google the name and find one – just one – result. 

Here we go. Sylvia Bossack, the daughter of Sol (Solomon) and Anna Bossack, born Kings County, New York, on 1 August 1918. By the time of the 1940 census, she was living with her parents in Brooklyn, her profession was stenographer. She marries in 1941, to one Herman J. Siegel, an order clerk. She dies in Florida on 20 December 2004 outliving her husband by 12 years.

Why should the name of this entirely random person pop into mind? At three o'clock in the morning on Christmas Eve?

I am no stranger to the phenomenon of hypnagogia and hypnopompia – the mental states as you drift in and out of sleep, respectively. Strange yet familiar thoughts, visions, concepts pass through your stream of consciousness – catch them. Note them down. Do they mean something? Do they relate to anything?

I am thinking of my past dreams and flashbacks, that have for decades pointed me towards the US of the 1930s, '40s and '50s. Did my consciousness once inhabit the body of someone who knew Sylvia Bossack? Was Sylvia Bossack (by then Sylvia Siegel), one of the girls in this story? She would have been in her late 20s/early 30s back then. [Below: ChatGPT illustrates the scene from Life and Death under the Shadow of the El.]

I ask ChatGPT about hypnopompic phenomena: "Hypnopompic wakefulness is the transition state between sleep and full waking, occurring as you come out of sleep (the mirror image of hypnagogia, which is falling asleep). In this state, the brain is no longer dreaming in the usual sense, not yet running its full 'reality-checking' systems, while still allowing imagery, words, and associations to surface freely. It typically lasts seconds to a few minutes". Hypnopompic wakefulness and hypnagogia are two sides of the same neurological coin. Hypnagogia = falling asleep. Hypnopompia = waking up. They are mirror transition states on either side of sleep, and they share many of the same cognitive features."

ChatGPT also offers this useful metaphor: "Think of sleep as a tunnel. Hypnagogia: you’re watching ideas drift into the tunnel; hypnopompia: you step out of the tunnel holding something you didn’t notice picking up. Same tunnel. Different direction."

So why name? And why the precision as to the name? I have had names 'served up to me' on numerous occasions before; sometimes the name is so common that googling results in hundreds or thousands or hits – or else a name with zero hits. Maybe this is why I was offered the spelling? This time, a name with just the one hit, but the precise spelling given in the dream/wakefulness state pointed me to the target straight away..

This time six years ago:
10,000 paces through Duffield, Derbyshire

This time ten years ago:
Sizewell B from 20,000ft

This time 12 years ago:
The start of the annual pilgrimage

This time 14 years ago:
We flew into Manchester that year...

This time 15 years ago:
Christmas Eve in England

This time 16 years ago:
Washing the snow away

This time 17 years ago:
Traffic at 38,000 ft

Solstice, and the metaphysical meaning of Christmas

Today marks Winter Solstice, the shortest day, the longest night of the year in the Northern Hemisphere (home to 87% of humans). But, as with Equinox and Equilux, the story is complex. The year's earliest sunsets are already behind us, whilst the year's latest sunrises are still to come. Sunset today was already two minutes later than the earliest ones; but the next sunrise will be two minutes earlier than the latest ones. 

Here in Chynów, the earliest that the sun set was 15:24. It had set at this time for eight days in a row, from 9–16 December. The latest that the sun will rise is 07:43, and it will rise at this time for seven days in a row, from 27 December to 2 January. So today, Winter Solstice, is indeed the shortest day – but only because of net daylight length, and not (as most people tend to think) because the earliest sunset coincides with the latest sunrise.

The word 'solstice' comes from the Latin meaning 'the sun is standing'; the difference in day length being minimal from one day to the next, both at this time of year and in late June at the Summer Solstice. Here we have the earliest sunrise over several days (at 04:15 for eight days in a row). From then on, day-length change accelerates towards its maximum at the Spring (or Vernal) Equinox. At this time of year, each day is around four minutes longer than the previous one.  And having passed the equinox, the acceleration of day-length slows back down to negligible with the Summer Solstice. The latest sunset of the year in Chynów is at 20:59 for six days in a row. Source: TimeAndDate.com

Below: I ask ChatGPT to whip up a graphic to illustrate the above...

[AI gets it wrong with dates of earliest sunset and latest sunrise]

Now, let's go back to prehistory, when early hominids first gazed up at the heavens and began to be aware of the progression of the sun through the heavens and making the connection with the seasons. The turning of the year is a miraculous time. Darkness begins to encroach, starting imperceptibly at first after the Summer Solstice, then accelerating around Equinox, before slowing to a halt at the Winter Solstice. And at that point – again, imperceptibly at first – Light begins to prevail. By 25 December, sunset is already five minutes later than at its earliest. That's noticeable, even to people without clocks. Time for celebration! 

The Twelve Days of Christmas, ending on the Twelfth Night (5 January), which preceded the Three Kings feast on 6 January, coincided in north-west Europe with agriculture's dead season, when there was no work in the fields and in any case the ground was usually frozen solid. By the time Christmas was therefore officially over, sunset was quarter of an hour later than the earliest.

It makes me think how lucky we are here on our planet. Take a rocky exoplanet like 82 G. Eridani d. Located 19 light years from earth, it takes 650 days (1.8 years) to orbit around its sun. It is located at an average orbital distance that puts it within the habitable zone, with liquid water. However, due to its eccentric orbit, its distance from its sun varies greatly. At its longest separation from its sun, 82 G. Eridani d finds itself beyond the habitable zone, and the irradiation received decreases sevenfold compared to when it is closest. Although well over a half of its orbit is spent within the comfortably habitable zone, 3% of its orbit (around 20 days) is at a distance where water on the surface would freeze solid. Imagine Christmas there, celebrating the thaw as the planet begins to get nearer to its sun.

The metaphysical meaning of Christmas is the triumph of light over darkness. A temporary victory in the eternal struggle between entropy (the second law of thermodynamics, which states that all things tend to disorder, that energy dissipates, that matter decays) and syntropy (life, consciousness and the unfolding of the Cosmos). And this relates to the metaphysical meaning of Easter – the triumph of life over death.

[Postscript: I found this excellent discussion on the Religion for Breakfast podcast with Dr Tom Schmitt, in which he postulates that the early Christian church may well have settled the date of Jesus's birth on 25 December after marking the conception of Jesus as 25 March, which was calculated to coincide with both Passover and the Vernal Equinox. These 'cosmic signposts' meant that the nine months gestation of Jesus would result in a 25 December birth date.] 

This time two years ago:
At the nadir
(Covid, day eight)

This time three years ago
Last good day of 2022

This time four years ago:
The Year of the Phenomenon

This time six years ago:
Sentimental stroll – streets of my childhood

This time seven years ago:
Streets of my childhood
[I did the same walk exactly a year earlier]

This time eight years ago:
Jeziorki – swans and bonus shots

This time ten years ago:
A conspiracy to celebrate

This time 11 years ago:
The Mythos and the Logos in Russia

This time 12 years ago:
Going mobile – my first smartphone

This time 13 years ago:
The world was meant to end today 
[It may not have ended, but it was a tipping point in history.]

This time 14 years ago:
First snow – but proper snow?

The time 15 years ago: 
Dense, wet, rush hour snow

This time 16 years ago:
Evening photography, Powiśle

This time 17 years ago:
The shortest day of the year

This time 18 years ago:
Bye bye borders – Poland joins Schengen

Letters to an Imaginary Grandson (X)

Whom can you trust? I would argue that having as a default position "trust everyone until it turns out they can't be trusted" is better than "trust no one until you find out that they can be trusted". It is, of course, again a matter of setting the sliders between two extremes, but erring on the side of trust than distrust.

The first position doesn't mean you shouldn't keep your guard up; it just means that you don't unduly waste time and resources checking that someone is trustworthy. 

Start off with the fact that the majority of people are generally of good will and can be trusted. Showing signs of mistrust to someone can be insulting to them.

The percentage of dodgy people in this world isn't overwhelming (even though this differs widely from culture to culture). There are psychopaths, narcissists and Machiavellian types (the so-called 'Dark Triad' of personality); you should learn how to spot these people and avoid them and dealing with them.

The issue of trust is critical to the smooth running (or not) of society. The cost and friction of living and working in a low-trust society came home to me when moving to Poland in the late 1990s. The business community had not yet learnt win-win; transactions were adversarial (one side would win, the other would lose). So armies of lawyers were needed to draft lengthy contracts covering all eventualities in case the business deal went wrong. But over time, as Poles learnt how to navigate the regulated free market, contracts simplified or were just replaced with purchase orders.

Social trust can be tested. Drop a lot of (fake) credit cards and see what percentage is handed in to the bank and what percentage is used in attempts to make a contactless payment. Drop a wallet with contact details inside as well as cash and see whether it's returned, with cash, to its owner. Or simply ask people whether they trust their neighbours. Then there is also institutional trust; typically this is reported in surveys as being much lower than social trust even in high-income democracies. Institutional trust is easier to dent, especially in the age of social media. Politicians on the take – it's easy to cast baseless aspersions. 

Whom do I tend to mistrust? I'd start with salespeople. Especially those on commission. If you are aware of their agenda, and their need to stretch the truth, and you make them aware (even in a lighthearted way) that you are aware, you'll get stung less often. Salespeople are trying to get you to buy things that are of questionable necessity. Companies with dodgy salespeople are ones that engender lower corporate trust. How often do you the consumer read the terms and conditions? If you were to do so scrupulously at every transaction, you'd soon become bogged down in bumph. AI can help here – if you can trust AI. The less shit you want, the less of a target you are for avaricious and lying salespeople.

Build trust among those around you by keeping your word; be punctual, do what you'll say you'll do; do it on time and to a high standard. As a habitual behaviour, this will make you trusted and retained as an employee, contractor or business partner. But give people a reason to distrust you, and the slightest excuse for dispensing with your services will be found. 

Trust is the lubricant that keeps societies ticking over smoothly. When it starts breaking down, societies function poorly, everyone lives in constant fear of being cheated and spends time protecting their interests – doing things they wouldn't need to do in a higher-trust society.

Assess people in terms of whether they can keep their word. If they can't, repeatedly, if they have a tendency to bend the truth, quietly walk away from them.

This time last year:
Deny, distract, dilute (the UK and US drone/UAP flaps)

This time two years ago:
Pain and questions of loss

This time three years ago:
No true beauty without decay

This time four years ago:
James Webb Space Telescope launch

This time six years ago:

Driving the Silk Road reviewed 

This time eight years ago:
Snapshots of Lublin dressed for Christmas

This time nine years ago:
The best of Warsaw's Christmas illuminations

This time ten years ago:
Changes on ul. Baletowa

This time 11 years ago:
UK migration – don't blame the Poles

This time 12 years ago:
Jacek Hugo Bader's White Fever: A Journey to the Frozen Heart of Siberia

This time 14 years ago 
Thoughts upon the death of the Dear Leader

This time 15 years ago:
Global warming or climate change?

New cycle provision at Chynów station

The speed is amazing. It wasn't here yesterday evening when I returned from town – and now lookie here! Eight brand-new bicycle stands. Installed this morning. Można? Można! I had complained about the lack of sufficient cycle provision earlier this year, when I saw 17 bikes chained up at this side of the station , and only four stands. Each one is for two bikes, so the remainder were left tied to the fence (right) or to the handrails going down into the pedestrian tunnel. A nuisance for many, a hazard for a few.

The new stands are marvellous news, and a sign of a new commitment from rail infrastructure operator PKP PLK. I photographed the sign below in Warka station two years ago. The answer to the problem of where to leave your bike wasn't to put up more bike stands, but to threaten cyclists with confiscation of their property should they chain their bikes incorrectly.

Attention!

The fastening of bicycles to barriers is prohibited.

Vehicles left will be removed at the owner's costs.

And as the number of cycle-using passengers grow, so PKP PLK should continue to provide more and more stands. Then we get a virtuous circle. (Motorists – apart from anything else, driving your car ultra-short distances twice a day is really bad for internal-combustion engines. Walk or cycle. Fifteen minutes there, fifteen back – good daily exercise.)

And work on the new pavements connecting Jakubowizna to ulica Wspólna and ul. Wspólna to ul. Wolska is already under way (below). I am really impressed at the tempo. I presume that once the pavement's been laid, the next job will be putting down a hard surface on the station car park (the former goods yard). Not too bad today, but when it rains, it's gloopy mud from edge to edge.

Below: recording another new bit of infrastructure – newly laid asphalt on the lane leading off Jakubowizna's main street. This part of Jakubowizna is known locally as 'Działki'.

This time last year:
Poland's sleeper-train services for 2025

This time two years ago:
UFO/UAP disclosure – current state

This time 10 years ago:
A tiny bit of pavement for Karczunkowska

This time 13 years ago:
Welcome to the machine, Mr Kaczyński

This time 15 years ago:
'F' is for 'Franco', not 'Fascist' [Prescient post!]

This time 17 years ago:
Christmas lights: all in the best possible taste

This time 18 years ago:
Letter from Russia

The kittens at six months

Kittens become fully-grown mature cats at the age of 12 months. So here we are at the halfway stage, although I no longer consider them to be kittens; rather – they should be considered feline adolescents. How are they all doing? Well, here they are all, one by one...

Below: don't dismiss Arcturus as 'ordinary', 'plain' or 'boring'. He does stuff I've seen no other cat do. He is handy with his paws. He can reach into jars to extract the last of the tuna, he can pull bowls of cat-food towards him, away from his siblings, he can use his claws to bring chunks of food to his mouth rather than just shoving his face into the bowl; he can dip his paw into milk and then suck it from between his fingers. He can also signal with his paws that he wants to be let into the house. I am considering to leave him unneutered as an experiment, to see if his handiness will evolve in future generations. Weight at six months: 3.1kg.

Below: dear, sweet Scrapper – he has mellowed out since early kittenhood. No longer looking for fights with his siblings, he's much more relaxed. He hasn't lost his round-eyed curiosity, and is keen to see what I'm up to. He'll be first onto the kitchen worktops if he's aware that I'm engaged in food preparation. The others are less interested. Scrapper is first to follow me on our walks to the forest next door, and looks out for his siblings. He knows when one's outside the front door wanting to be let in – he will approach me, engage in eye contact, and walk over to the door. Invariably, there's a sibling waiting outside. The natural 'leader of the pack'. Weight at six months: 3.3kg. Not particularly affectionate, but a loyal companion to all.

Below: La Contessa – Céleste, as glamorous and beautiful as ever. She's the lightest of the five, weighing a mere 2.9kg (Czester, see below, weighs 4.2kg). Google Gemini puts this down to her Norwegian Forest Cat genes, a breed that has a bigger male/female size difference than your average house cat. She is indeed 'a very healthy size' for a six-month-old female with 'Wegie' genes (they should be between 2.3kg and 3.2kg at this age). She is likely to grow more slowly than other breeds (and hopefully not hit reproductive maturity for a while yet).

Below: Czester the Chonker, a massive 4.2kg at six months; a fully-grown male adult house cat averages 4kg at maturity (12 months+). Google Gemini AI tells me "he is going to be a tank", and could top out at 8kg. Czester is not a voracious eater, although he has a tendency to be lazy (staying in when everyone else is out). Nor is he fat – I can feel his ribs, he's not flabby. And he is most affectionate.

Don't dismiss Pacyfik as 'ordinary', 'plain' or 'boring' either! He does something no other sibling does, and he does this day in, day out, every single day, uninterrupted, for the past two months or so since the first time he did this. When I do my daily back-extension exercises on my ZemBord™, Pacio will stroll into the front room and run around me as I rock backward and forward; he'll head-bump me, fall over sideways in front of me, or paw at my head. He'll be purring loudly all the while. And when I've finished exercising, he'll jump onto the ZemBord and I'll spin him round (like a record, below), before rocking him to and fro. No other kitten has ever joined me for this, but for Pacio and me, it is our daily ritual. He's not missed it once, and neither have I. And I love him for it! A most affectionate fellow. Weight at six months: 3.2kg.

Below: Wenus (Nuś-Nuś), beloved mother. After her escapade the week before last (six days away from home), she's not wandered off again, although she will spend the nights outdoors (it's still not freezing outside, despite it being mid-December!) Here she is in a very typical indoor pose – vigilantly monitoring the behaviour of her brood. Not knowing the circumstances of her birth, I can only guess that Wenusia is about 14 months old. 

This time four years ago:|
Homeland Elegies by Ayad Akhtar

This time six years ago:
Britain for Christmas
[not been since]

This time nine years ago:
IT frustrations

This time 10 years ago:
Wałbrzych's Gold Train - the dream ends

This time 12 years ago:
Kitten football

This time 13 years ago:
The drainage of Jeziorki

This time 14 years ago:
The Eurocrisis – what would Jesus do?

[Remember when the EU was about to fall apart, according the UK's Brexity media?]

This time 15 years ago:
Orders of magnitude

This time 16 years ago:
Jeziorki in the snow

This time 17 years ago:
Better news on the commuting front

This time 18 years ago:
I no longer recognise the land where I was born

Poland's sleeper train services: changes for 2026

With the new 2025/2026 railway timetable coming into effect today, there have been significant expansions to Poland’s night-train network. Having said that, there are reductions in the number of services with sleeper/couchette coaches. New international connection from southern Poland to Germany and Austria, while some internal routes in Poland have been extended.

The ongoing war in Ukraine has been a major driver behind the expansion of Poland's night-train services. Look at FlightRadar24.com's map of Ukraine, you'll see no civilian aviation overhead.  Ukrainian citizens wishing to travel internationally cannot do so safely through Belarus or Russia, and so must cross the border into Poland by road or rail. Polish railway stations close to the Ukrainian border – Przemyśl Główny and Chełm – now see vastly more cross-border traffic, many of those being Ukrainians wishing to head on further west by train.

So – this post is an overview of existing and new night train services, starting with those that connect Warsaw with the mountains and the sea...

Note the difference between a night train (one that travels at night) and a sleeper train (one that has specialised coaches allowing passengers to travel lying down on a bed. (All sleeper trains are night trains, but not all night trains are sleeper trains, as you will see below.)

 
The cheaper version of the sleeper is the couchette, which has six mixed-sex passengers to a compartment; you sleep lying down but clothed. A proper sleeper is either three-berth, two-berth or individual (really expensive!) accommodation. The two/three berth sleeper cabins are single-sex but couples/families can reserve cabins for themselves. 

Below: a two-berth sleeper cabin, as featured on IC (InterCity) services. The remaining TLK (Twoje Linie Kolejowe) service features old-school sleeper carriages for that nostalgia vibe. And less comfort.

Sleeper trains are 100% safe. They have just one door to the outside; there's a conductor/guard on duty all night at the end of each corridor, and cabins can be closed from the inside with a chain. I cannot, however, vouch for the security of non-sleeper coaches at night with such absolute certainty.

Sleeper trains from Warsaw/ passing through Warsaw

A major change to my favourite sleeper, the Uznam, in this year's timetable change, is the fact that it now runs east beyond Warsaw. The service to Świnoujście now goes all the way through to Chełm on the Ukrainian border via Lublin. This makes the journey 708km (440 miles) end to end. It also manages to hook round via Łódź, as well as calling in at Poznań and Szczecin, thus connecting five provincial capitals, enhancing its usefulness.

The IC 440 Uznam departs Chełm at 18:28, calling at Lublin at 19:22, Warsaw East at 21:34, (an hour earlier than in last year's timetable), then shortly after at Warsaw Central and Warsaw West. It passes Łódź Widzew at 23:35, Poznań Główny at 02:40, Szczecin Główny at 05:09 before finally arriving at Świnoujście at 06:37. Note: this train has no name westbound! Be careful when boarding the westbound IC 440, because this train splits at Poznań Główny. Some coaches go on to Szczecin and Świnoujście (at 03:10), but others head west to Berlin as the IC 430 (see below), leaving Poznań at 03:19. The night-train service to Berlin has no sleeper coaches. This service between Chełm and the German capital suggests that many of the passengers will be Ukrainians.

IC 82170 Uznam: Świnoujście – Chełm (dep. 21:30 arr. 09:26) is the return service. It passes through Warsaws West (05:45), Central and East, before heading on to Lublin and Chełm. The train is already in the platform well ahead of departure time, so passengers can board early and get themselves comfortable before it sets off. 

Taking the Uznam there and back from Warsaw in summer gives you the best part of 12 hours on the beach. With a hotel or apartment from Saturday to Sunday, you can get a full weekend of Baltic sun-and-sea, having left the office on Friday evening, to be back to the office first thing Monday morning. The extension to Chełm via Lublin (and indeed Otwock) will be great news for those in eastern Poland wishing to dip their toes in the Baltic. 

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No change with the Karkonosze, the sleeper + couchette services that runs from Warsaw to the Sudety mountains in the south-west, close to the Czech border. The Karkonosze runs all the way through to the resort town of Szklarska Poręba, though only in the winter timetable, terminating at Jelenia Góra in summer. This is another sleeper train that I've used many times, though never beyond Jelenia Góra.

IC 16170 Karkonosze: Warszawa Wschodnia – Szklarska Poręba Górna (dep. 23:36 arr. 07:53). The Karkonosze returns to the mountains, calling in at Łódź Widzew (01:05), Wrocław Główny (04:25), Wałbrzych Główny (05:58) and Jelenia Góra (06:46) along the way. 

IC 61170 Karkonosze: Szklarska Poręba Górna – Warszawa Wschodnia (dep. 20:19 arr. 06:15). Departing a bit earlier than in last year's timetable, the return service now arrives in Warsaw more than an hour later, which gives passengers more snooze-time on board. Taking this train lets skiers and hikers get a weekend-full of mountain air and get back before their offices open on Monday morning, having had a good sleep on the train. 

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There's a new Warsaw-Berlin night train, the IC 440 (no name, not good news)... with no sleeper coaches. Westbound, it departs from Chełm, at 18:48, passing through Warsaw's three stations, East, Central and West, between 21:34 and 22:21 including a 33-minute stop at Warsaw Central. It then proceeds at a leisurely pace through Łódź and onto Poznań, where it splits in two. Carriages go on to Świnoujście (as the IC 430, see below), the rest continues on to Berlin (re-named the EC 430 on crossing the border), arriving at Berlin-Charlottenburg at 06:27 (passing through Berlins Ost, Hbf and Zoo). Travelling all night sitting up is hell. Something for young people only. I suspect the main users of this service will be Ukrainian citizens who are expected to have limited travel budgets and enhanced resilience.

The eastbound EC 441 starts in Berlin-Gesundbrunnen, departing at 20:42, passing through Berlin-Lichtenberg before crossing the border into Poland (re-named the IC 441 as it does so). It reaches Poznań Główny after midnight, and here it waits an hour to hook up with coaches from the IC 82170 (see below). Some passengers will need to move to other coaches here. This train now heads onward through Łódź, Warsaw and Lublin, arriving at Chełm near the Ukrainian border at 09:26.

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IC 38170 Ustronie: Kraków Główny – Kołobrzeg (dep. 21:03 arr. 10:23). Year-round seaside-special for folks from Poland's south, calling at Kielce, Radom, Warsaw East and the Tri-City on its way to the resorts of Ustronie and Kołobrzeg. Full sleeper and couchette service. You can use this train as a nocturnal connection between Warsaw Central (dep. 01:53) and Gdańsk Główny (arr. 05:55, Gdynia 20 minutes later), though with four hours between the two cities, you'll not get quality sleep-time. The Ustronie also calls at Warka (01:07) and Piaseczno (01:27) on the way. Takes its time; 13 hours 20 minutes to cover 568km. 

IC 83170 Ustronie: Kołobrzeg – Kraków Główny (dep. 19:15, arr. 07:26). Passing through Warsaw Central at 03:25. The train is a useful nocturnal connection for Varsovians needing to be in Kraków for early business meetings. Departs Warka at 04:14 in time for breakfast in Kraków.

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TLK 35170 Karpaty: Zakopane – Gdynia Główna (dep. 21:53, arr. 08:40) From the mountains to the sea, direct, 867 km. Not upgraded to IC, so fans of old-school rolling stock can still experience the veneered wood, moquette upholstery and clunkiness. This is the last TLK sleeper train, so enthusiasts of the genre should make the most before its inevitable replacement by an IC service with modern coaches. The Karpaty also functions as another nocturnal sleeper train connection between Kraków, Warsaw and the Tri-City (calling in Kraków Główny at midnight, stopping at Warsaw Central at 04:36 for nearly half an hour before proceeding towards Gdańsk Główny at 08:13). The Karpaty now skips Piotrków Trybunalski, taking the CMK through Idzikowice after its stop in Częstochowa. 

TLK 53170 Karpaty: Gdynia Główna – Zakopane (dep: 19:22, arr: 06:02) On the way back from Gdynia to Zakopane, the Karpaty leaves Gdynia at an early hour for a sleeper service, passing through Warsaw Central at 23:23 and arriving in Kraków at 03:30. This means Krakovians can get home after a late night in the capital. The Polish mountains are connected to the Polish sea by night train again – but unlike the Szklarska Poręba service, this one runs all year round.

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Sleeper trains/night trains that avoid Warsaw

IC 83172 Podhalanin from Świnoujście (dep. 18:55) to Zakopane (arr. 08:33). A proper sleeper service with new-style sleeper and couchette options as well as seats. That's 13 hours, 38 minutes to cover 983km, passing through Szczecin, Poznań, Łódź Kaliska, Częstochowa and Kraków. Bring your own food – there's no restaurant carriage.

On the way back, the IC 38172 Podhalanin leaves Zakopane at 20:22 and arrives at Świnoujście at 09:21. Just under 13 hours. Again, sleeper accommodation, no food.

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The night-train connection between Świnoujście and Przemyśl, the north-west and south-east extremes of Poland takes a slightly different route as of this year's timetable change. It now calls in at Katowice, making it seven provincial capitals along the way – Rzeszów, Kraków, Katowice, Opole, Wrocław, Poznań and Szczecin. A long train journey (994km/618 miles).

The night services linking Poland's two diagonal opposites look complicated in the new timetable. Heading north-west from Przemyśl (dep. 18:54) to Świnoujście (arr. 06:07), the IC 430 train has sleeper carriages, but going south-east, from Świnoujście (dep. 21:30) to Przemyśl (arr. 09:11), it does not! The IC 82170 /IC 431 night train from Świnoujście to Przemyśl has lost is name (it was formerly the Przemyślanin) as well as its sleeper carriages. At Poznań (arr. 00:56), there's a change of rolling stock. There is now a couchette option, though only for disabled passengers; there are now air-conditioned coaches with first-class accommodation added to the train for the onward journey to Przemyśl. Presumably, if you have bought first-class tickets you'll need to move. This train pulls out of Poznań Główny at 01:26 as the IC 431. The decision to drop the sleeper option from Świnoujście to Przemyśl is weird and not a good sign.

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Another night train with no name and no sleeper carriages that connects Przemyśl and the seaside is the IC 33172. It leaves Przemyśl Główny at 20:07 and reaches the seaside resort of Ustka 1,107km away, at 09:22, calling at Kraków, Łódź Kaliska, Poznań, Koszalin and Słupsk. Ustka is about halfway between Kołobrzeg and Gdynia. 

The return, also without a sleeper option, is the IC 87172, which departs Ustka station at 18:05, reaching Poznań Główny at 22:20. Here it connects with the IC 83172 for the rest of the journey on to Przemyśl, where it arrives at 08:01. Another hell-train that I do not intend to take, ever. Unless sleeper carriages are added.

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The TLK Rozewie sleeper-train service from the seaside to the mountains has been ditched and replaced with the nameless IC 461 train from Gdynia Główna (dep. 21:57) to Szklarska Poręba Górna (arr. 07:53) travelling overnight but without sleeper or couchette coaches. Ten hours. 760km. Via Toruń, Bydgoszcz, Poznań, Wrocław, Wałbrzych and Jelenia Góra. Overnight. No lying down. Murder. Trójmiasto skiers; you have been warned.

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International sleeper-train services

Here, the most notable changes for this year's timetable are additional connections between Poland and western Europe. Check rozklad.pkp.pl for full details – too complex to include them here, given how the trains split up into different sections for different destinations.

EN Carpatia (new launch): route: Przemyśl – Rzeszów – Kraków – Munich (via Ostrava, Vienna, Salzburg). A new daily EuroNight service, linking southeast Poland directly with Bavaria and the Austrian Alps. Carries couchette and full sleeper coaches as well as seating. Coaches are added to provide direct links to Budapest and Bratislava.

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TLK Baltic Express has been upgraded this year to a provide permanent year-round daily overnight service (no longer just summer season), from Gdynia to Prague via Bydgoszcz, skipping Łódź in this year's timetable (to my daughter's displeasure, a client PKP has lost to Flixbus). The Baltic Express includes a sleeper-carriage service.

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EN Chopin: this classic train continues to run between Warsaw and Kraków then on to 1) Vienna and Munich, 2) Prague, and 3) Bratislava and Budapest, splitting into three once it crosses the Czech border (usually at Bohumín and Breclav). Includes high-standard sleepers (including deluxe cabins with showers), couchettes, as well as ordinary seating.

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EN Metropol: connecting Berlin to Budapest/Vienna, passing through southwestern Poland along the way (stopping at Rzepin/Zielona Góra/Wrocław/Racibórz). While often seen as a German or Hungarian train, it serves Polish passengers boarding in Silesia/Lubuskie heading to Berlin,Vienna or Budapest overnight.

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There are also a number of services connecting Poland with Ukraine. These remain a critical lifeline service. You may find details online from Chełm and Przemyśl stations.

Direct sleeper routes to/from Russia (Moscow/St. Petersburg) and Belarus remain suspended indefinitely. These all-sleeper coach services from Moscow and Minsk used to run on to Paris and Nice.

I suspect that next year's timetable update will see further expansions of Polish and international night-train network, and I hope that more sleeper coaches will be brought onstream. I would not wish anyone under the age of 35 to travel overnight slumped in an ordinary train seat. It has to be beds. Taking a sleeper train means you get hotel accommodation and delivery to your destination in one ticket. 

This time last year:
Slow progress, but the healing goes on

This time two years ago:
A mind-blowing dream

This time three years ago:
Utter, utter gorgeousness

This time four years ago:
Hoar frost and proper ice, Jeziorki

This time seven years ago:
Alcohol, servant not master

This time ten years ago:

Classic car quiz, 2015

This time 11 years ago:

Classic British Car Quiz, 2014

This time 12 years ago:

The poet's gift - an exploration into Why One Writes

This time 13 years ago:

Advertising H&M on Warszawa Centralna station

This time 14 years ago:

Jeziorki in the snow

This time 18 years ago:

Staying Underground: Piccadilly Circus