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stealthpilot · Member Joined: 19 Dec 2006 Posts: 2325 Location: BLR, DXB

Almost.... the Baltics because we left out Estonia (there's always next time)
Every year we try to do a 'friends trip' and this time there were 7 of us = big group. Lots of options thrown around R wanted to do Portugal/Spain, someone else wanted to do Iceland, another chap wanted to do a Bahamas cruise, Greece was considered. I was trying to push a self drive safari in Zambia/Namibia but it was too expensive. You can imagine how hard it was to tailor a trip and keep everyone happy. Finally we narrowed it down to 1) Iceland or 2) the Baltics states. It was almost going to be Iceland but the weather/time of year tilted it towards Poland, Lithuania and Latvia which became a 12 day trip.

The initial plan was to rent 2 cars and drive everywhere. Start in Krakow and make our way up. Krakow-Warsaw-Vilnius-Riga-Tallinn. We only had 12 days (everyone getting vacation days together was planned last year....) but this plan seemed bit rushed. We decided to skip Tallinn so we could spend more time in the other cities which worked out very well. Eventually we realised the car part was a bit of a headache and it would be more fun if the 7 of us travelled together ..... so trains/buses it shall be.
We looked for apartments online or hotels as a backup, airbnb and other sites. Eventually I booked everything on bookings.com. I generally use them I find it easy to use and the big plus- the rooms are 100% refundable till a day before check-in.
The plan was to meet in Krakow, 4 days there. Take a train to Warsaw 2 days. Train (eventually took a bus) to Vilnius 3 days and finally a bus to Riga for the last 3 days. Fly out of Riga. Finito.

Flight planning started which was a headache as always. I went thru the options DXB-KRK. R said no way, she flew EK direct to WAW and LOT down to KRK. I had my eye on the Fokker F100/70 and had never been on Austrian so my (practical) choice became clear. I say 'practical' because my other options were to submit myself to torture by flying Norwegian DXB-Scandinavia on a 737 or Wizz Air out of DWC. Tarom/Transavia peaked my intrest but they were not daily flights out of DXB. Anyway OS 767 it was Ojas/Loadmaster as usual gave me load info and the flights looked good. Unfortunately it involved a night flight, with a quick connection to WAW where I would meet R and fly down to KRK. What I did in 2 badly timed economy flights R did with a direct day flight in business class for less money. The hazards of long routings.

DXB-VIE
OS-840
(0140-0550)
767-300ER
OE-LAE

DXB terminal 1 is quite rubbish, I went to the marhaba lounge for :45 mins had some juice and some meat thing with hummus.
Between 0130 and 0155 there were 8 departures (not counting emirates) which included a BA 744 and :10 mins later a Royal Brunei 788 both going to LHR

Flight departed on time, arrived maybe :10 late
The flight wasn't full, but full enough for me not to get a window nor have a free seat next to me. 2-3-2 seating as usual, I was surprised how narrow the cabin seemed when walking down it's been a few years since I was in a 767. I got the isle seat next to the right side window abeam the winglet. If I didn't get a window I hoped for a middle seat with a seat free next to me but o well, what to do.
The seats had a cushion and blanket when we boarded. Nice biggish cushion which was comfy as a back rest-support.
About :45 after take off they came around with drinks + a snack, cheese or roast beef sandwich. It was ok. I watched a movie then tried to get some sleep but kept fidgeting.

The IFE system was very nice. Good screens good resolution and easy+quick interface. I really liked the design, it had a single button, usb port and normal headphone jack. I guess the usb/headphones could have been somewhere else not right by the screen but no matter. That button works as a one touch to bring up usual options. Volume, brightness screen off, home as well as FA call and reading light. It worked very well.

PilotsEye ... perfect for AvGeeks

Breakfast was good nothing wow. The fruit was nice and plain yogurt which was really nice mixed with the jam.
Overall a good flight, barring the fact I couldn't sleep I just couldn't get comfortable in the seat. The food/service was good. IFE very good. The 3 cabin crew I saw in the back were all oldish, youngest one was at least 50 but they were polite, smiled and got the job done. That's all you need.
OS have 5x772 and 6x763 by the way.

2 class aircraft

View leaving the aircraft

Uneventful landing and passport control was super quick. Bags took a while to come out though, after we got to the baggage belts it took another 15 mins.
After my bag came it was a short walk out, up one level and re-check in. I didn't go to the self check in because it was a stby ticket but there was no line and the lady checked me in in 30 seconds. She just asked where I was coming from (we were talking about staff travel) and didn't even look at my passport.
Hassle free and well organised security, 5 mins walk to the gate and boarding started soon after. Excellent.

VIE-WAW
OS-624
(0715-0830)
F-100
OE-LVO (Chisinau)

Took a bus to the aircraft, waited till the end to board was enjoying the view, beautiful cool day in Austria 10 degrees but would warm up to 23 during the day.
Tarmac pictures

the 767 I was just on and the F100 I will be on.

The Fokker experience - she's a good looking girl in a weird kind of way I guess. Weird looking stubby wings but nice nose and the OS colour scheme suits the engines/tail IMO. Our a/c was named Chisinau, I only learnt the correct pronunciation 3 months ago when I flew with a Moldavian crew. Anyway ..... excitement grows!

Cabin was 2-3. The front had a curtained euro-J area with the middle seat empty, so 3 per row. I was in row 14 emergency row left isle (again no window AAAHHH #$(@#(&$@#) had to keep my backpack a few rows up coz there was no place in the overhead bins. Very nice legroom (exit row) but narrowish seats. The chap at the window was biggish and kept spilling into my area. It seemed like the window-fuselage wall was right next to him.

The style of the overhead cabins gave it an old style feeling, can't explain it. The engines sounded nice, very nice whine when they were taxying. Takeoff thrust as well, great change of pitch sounded really nice.
It was a quick flight, an hour. The crew did a drinks run and we got a small fruit bread thing. I skipped tea/coffee and had sparkling water.

The late stages of approach was a bit bumpy, whoever was flying had their work cut out for them. I was in Warsaw just 10 days prior it was bumpy as well but it was 2 degree and drizzling then. Thankfully when we landed today it was 12 and sunny.

Quick bus ride to the terminal, bags were already on the belt. I had to kill 3 hours for R to get in from DXB she came direct on EK. The choice for her was 2 flights in economy at night, or a direct more civilised timed flight in J cheapy staff travel ticket and it's obvious which one she took.
She got in a bit late maybe :20 mins but that was expected. Same thing happened when I was here on work 1.5 weeks ago. Since we don't fly over Ukraine it's a slightly longer route and I don't think EK changed the block time but anyway no issue we knew about it.

The LOT tickets were $45 for both of us the first time I checked but by the time I got my butt around to booking them they had gone up to $100 still not bad for 2 tickets. Unfortunately this flight was a 734 Rolling Eyes

The flight before was a DH4 and the one after was an E75 both obviously would have been more fun to be on but the timings didn't suits us.

WAW-KRK
LO- 3905 by small planet airlines
(1300-1355)
SP-HAB
A320

The check in lady failed to mention the flight was an hour late we realised when we got to the boarding area. hmmmm had time to kill and I was hungry so got an overprices not very nice sandwich. The 737 became a 320 but surprise, the airline changed Smile

Well not really I guess, instead of a boring 734 it was an almost as boring colourful 320.
Slept most of the flight, we got a little chocolate bar. KRK terminal was literally a shed.

Krakow

Spent 3 whole wonderful days in the city not counting the afternoon we arrived and left. The day we got in we just relaxed and had dinner with a little walking/exploring.
We did a walking city tour, visited the Salt Mines, Schindlers Museum, Aushwitz of course. Also made a quick trip to the aviation museum and a tour of the communist part of town Nowa Huta.

Wawel Hill castle

The Krakow dragon

Usual breakfast was sausage and eggs of some sort.

Day 2- Walking tours are always fun we did them in every city but this one was the best. Either we just had a great guide or there was lots to see. Bit of both me thinks. Three hour walking tour of the old town after that we walked to the Jewish quarter (all close by) and strolled around went to a few bars it's a very young lively area (lots of students)

Krakow is an amazing city we stayed 100m from the old square which was the place to be.

Schindlers museum, was more of a WW2 museum but built on Oskar Schindler factory site.

Day 3- took a :20 mins train to Wieliczka station (had already bought our salt mine tickets the day before). The area (actual mines) were amazing but the tour wasn't very good. The audio system was terrible and the guide kept cutting in and out. I doubt it was the tunnels and passages it was just crappy equipment quality. There must have been 35-40 ppl in our group and everyone had the same issues so we maybe picked up 1/2 the information. Besides that it was an incredible place, human ingenuity and art.
It started snowing while we made our way back to the train station, and we froze our butts off.

Wieliczka Salt Mines ... built around the 13th century. Apart from salt the miners carved out chapels, statues and entire halls.

Took the stairs down, and the elevator up Laughing

Looks like something from Lord of the Rings

They had stables for the horses

The most recognisable area, the chapel of Saint Kinga

Before it started snowing on our way back

The 4th day we kept aside solely for Auschwitz-birkenau
What can I say ...... it's probably the lowest humans have stooped in recent history. Maybe ever.

- In the summer of 1944 within 4 months 400,000 prisoners arrived at the camps, 80% were sent straight to the gas chamber

- Camps has 2 functions, mass extermination and slave labour for mass extermination

- Auschwitz 2 birkineau was the largest extermination camp.

- People arrived at the train station and ordered to form 2 lines one for men and the other women/children. They were told to leave their belongings and go for food/disinfection. The SS doctors would simply chose left/right and decide life/death. 75% of arrivals were sent immediately to the chambers.

- 1944 = peak extermination perior. Over 5000 gassed-cremated every day

- Room with children's shoes and clothes, luggage (DOB 1940s). 40,000 shoes + things like combs, makeup, false limbs, toothbrushes etc

- The SS gave a lot false death certificates saying they died of diseases they brought in.

- 3 level bunk beds, best place to sleep was the top due to sickness and diarrhoea on the lower bunks.

- Prisoners had set times to go to the bathroom.

- Block 11 = building of death. People were taken in for small offences.
If 1 prisoner escaped, 10 from their room would be taken locked up and starved to death. 900 tried to escape approx 200 succeeded.

- People were killed and tortured by the minute

- 850 people (mainly Russian PoWs) were killed by 'cyclone B' in the first gassing experiment. They took almost a day to die but the idea was deemed successful and thus led to the gas chamber method.

- The courtyard between block 10-11 was the 'death wall', around 5000 people had their hands tied, faced the wall and shot close range in the back of the head.

- Before the gas chambers people were shot + lethal injections. They were not cost/time effective.

- Torture poles. Their arms were tied behind their backs and hung from piles which led to broken and dislocated shoulders

- Women sterilisation program led to the death of hundreds of women. The idea was to mass sterilise the Jewish population so camps would not be needed in the future.

- Human experiments on inmates, including studying what happened during starvation.

- Out of 8000 SS guards at the camps (all the types of chaps) only 10% were caught and tried, even less killed.

- Nazis took 6 million soviet POWs (six million!!!), half of them died.
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sumantra · Member Joined: 28 Oct 2007 Posts: 4685 Location: New Delhi

Trust stealthpilot to come up with a stellar two-part ravishing TR, at a time when not many of us seem to find the time to describe some so-called mundane India-specific domestic trips. And this has the usual stealthpilot gems:
- exotic locations
- great insight into the planning of the trip, which is something we aviation nutters love
- putting it all together, the routings and other niceties
- great pictures of aviation, and locales
- ...and the food! (always deserves a special mention)

I really admire your ingenuity in choosing places and routings. I have never travelled on Austrian before, and have always found liveries nto to be interesting, when they combine a lot of white, with some red, and blue (note Austrian, and SAS. BA has more coloured areas, at least for me). I have never been on the B767 series, either, so it was interesting for me to read about the descriptions, and of course, admire the pictures! The breakfast tray had an interesting design, with angles: the Aluminium tray is to be disposed off, but cleaning the plastic ones is not something I would look forward to, with the acute angles. To me, the B767 variants look strange, with their stubby pug/boxer-like noses, droopy tail section, and redeeming winglets, in planes where they have been installed.
The F-70/100s have always been interesting to see. Whenever I see them (in most cases, only pictures of them), I remember what the inimitable Sean Mendis has to say about the type. See for instance, the following (search for `Dutch Oven')
http://www.airwhiners.net/whine_cheez/20030614.htm
Your pictures brought back my memories of the only asymmetric type I have flown in (I am a hardened Economy class flyer), the MD-80 series, and the ERJ-135/140/145. I would love to try out the others as well, the RJ-85, and of course, the F-70/100, even if it was to wonder what would the aviation world been, had the Fokker group been more successful, or the MD-series still been around, actively.
You consider a B734...boring? Well...most of us look forward to chances to ride a B737 classic, from a B732 pocket-rocket, to a stubby B735, or among the slightly modern ones, a somewhat rare B736.
Your tourist attraction pictures once again, give the reader a feeling of really being there with you. The Auschwitz pictures and descriptions of course, give a stomach-curling feeling every time one sees the pictures, or hears, or reads about them. Among most of us AI.netters, I think Mr. Samir Pal of Winnipeg (PAL@WYG) has visited quite a few of the WW2 sites, both of the victors and the vanquished, and...the affected, which possibly is most of the world, by the way.
Thanks once again, for a lovely trip report: I look forward to Part 2, which has already come in.
Cheers, Sumantra.

sri_bom · Member Joined: 22 Dec 2006 Posts: 2365 Location: Singapore

A great detailed report captain and great to see some pictures of Eastern Europe which is not the regular tourist circuit for most Indian citizens.

The Austrian 767 hard product, service and food is not too bad considering most European airlines don’t’ offer much anyways. Since Austrian and Swiss Air is owned by Lufthansa group would you say service and process are similar to Lufthansa or do they make an effort to be unique?

The small planet livery I should say is funnily boring but interesting.

The world war II and the concentration camps are events that we hope never to see again. I had the opportunity to visit the Dacahu concentration camp around Munich and I could feel a weird low negative energy all the while I was there.

Sri_Bom

ameya · Posted: Mon May 18, 2015 4:14 pm Post subject:

Thanks for wonderful TR! Enjoyed every bit of this part
F-100 is such a rare bird

The 2-3 seating is interesting. I saw that in SSJ - stationary at Aero India 2011 and later travelled in the MD 83
the person getting the middle seat is the unluckiest of all on such flights

Such a superb report of Krakov and the deadly prison Sad

Will read up the second part soon !
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stealthpilot · Member Joined: 19 Dec 2006 Posts: 2325 Location: BLR, DXB

sabya99 · Posted: Mon May 18, 2015 7:48 pm Post subject:

Pictures of Auschwitz reminds me of dreadful last year of WWII. Thanks for posting. Pictures are very touching and site is very well selected.
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sukritmunjal · Member Joined: 23 Jan 2013 Posts: 178 Location: FMO

Nice TR. Not visiting Auschwitz during my stay in Germany is perhaps one of the major regrets I have. A stark reminder of how humanity died a million times.

PAL@YWG · Posted: Sat May 23, 2015 1:28 am Post subject:

sumantra · Member Joined: 28 Oct 2007 Posts: 4685 Location: New Delhi

stealthpilot · Member Joined: 19 Dec 2006 Posts: 2325 Location: BLR, DXB

Thanks PAL@YWG, I remember your TR but I didn't realise the pictures were the same Laughing

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avbuff · Member Joined: 22 Dec 2006 Posts: 5031

Superb TR,, excellent I'm always glad to give a go ahead to your flight Very Happy

I liked the pilots view on the IFE, pretty neat I must say.

Dubai T1 is trash, trust me you will find SHJ airport a much better place to enter and exit.

The pictures are tempting me to make a trip soon!

Clicking on part deux now ......

jbalonso777 · Posted: Sat Jun 20, 2015 12:51 pm Post subject:

Ah, great to read another Nikhil like TR!

Of course there's a next time. I would make a vacation joke but... I'm nice, so I won't Razz

Super. I love the pictures you took! Nice flight on Austrian it seems - I haven't been on a B767 and that should happen in early 2016 for me!

The Auschwitz...wow.. Those pictures really did send a chill down my spine! Really bad, who knew people would be that bad? Then again, nothing's too different these days if you come to think of it! Speaking of which, I have to watch the 'Der Untergang' movie soon, now that I have a lot of spare time Razz

For some weird reason, I thought you went to Chernobyl. Embarassed

Lovely pictures of the food and the city of Krakow!

The OS flight looks good, especially the little Fokker. Wink

Regards
Jish
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Nimish · Posted: Tue Jul 28, 2015 3:22 pm Post subject:

What can I say - the only thing that remained in my mind after reading the TR was the horrors that man can inflict on man. Such tragedy!
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