On our trip to Gdansk, the four of us took a sleeper train...I thought I had booked private compartments for couples, but evidently not. When we got to our compartment (no, not compartments...), there were people in the bottom 2 bunks, and there were 6 bunks. I was quite shaken and not so sure about this, but it turned out to be fine. The odd thing was this older gentleman was out in the aisle when we arrived (so I mistook him for the train car monitor) trying to explain to us the situation in Polish, of course...we don't understand nearly enough to communicate so we just nodded and tried not to look too confused. There was a women and a boy already asleep in the compartment, so we tried to be quiet as we put our bags up in our bunks and got into bed. During the night, the man kept opening the door and looking in. As the night wore on I must have slept some because when I woke to the door being opened again I noticed that the man was now where the woman had been. Oh, I finally got it, they were sharing their bunk and the boy (who we met when he woke up) was in their other bunk. Wes' mom was awakened by the boy in the bunk below because he was poking her in the back through a space in the bunk with his walking stick he had gotten from Zakopane. But she made the best of it and played along with him as he giggled while they played tug-o-war with the stick. His grandparents didn't know he was doing that, as they were both out in the aisle then. When we got out of our bunks we shared a small breakfast of apples we had brought and train coffee while we watched the Polish countryside go by. So now I guess we are "seasoned" train travelers, but the next time I will be sure the ticket agent and I are on the same page.
Poland is known for it's amber from the Baltic Sea, a lot of it is made into jewelry that they sell all over the country. We combed the beach for amber pieces while we were there, but they say after a storm is the best time to find amber, so we didn't have much luck since the weather was fairly nice.
