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[PAL@YWG]

Copenhagen is picturesque and vibrant and due to liberal immigration policy of the Nordic states, the city is very cosmopolitan. While leaving Denmark, I wished if I could spend one more day but it was not to be since I already had my ticket for Warsaw departing from Malmo (Sweden) with Wizz Air. And being a LCC I can’t take any chance.

July 7
Route: MMX- WAW
Flight#: W6 1510
Aircraft: A320
Departure: 5:15PM
Arrival: 6:35PM

Wizz Air is a LCC in true sense. Under the Wizz Air brand name, they had 3 entities operating out of Ukraine, Hungary & the UK. My ticket was issued by the Hungarian entity. Since I booked well in advance, I paid CAD63 that included price of one checked-in bag. That was not bad but if you ask for a preferred seat or you do web check-in but forget to print your boarding pass (strictly 2 copies), you pay hefty additional price.

Wizz air operates out of Malmo (a low cost airport) to mainly Polish airports. Because EU’s boundary now includes Poland, lots of Polish folks are going all over the western Europe in search of jobs. UK is their most preferred destination but soon I will discover the Scandinavian countries are not spared.

Departing from Malmo (MMX) will also give me a chance to cross the Oresund bridge that links Denmark & Sweden. The bridge is an engineering marvel, the most of the length is on the sea with tunnel on both sides (or on the Danish side, I don’t remember now). You can cross the bridge by Car/Bus or Train. Since my hotel was very close to central railway station, I chose the train. The train will bring you to the Malmo railway station and from there you have to take a airport shuttle to catch your flight. Since Ryanair operates out of MMX, the shuttle timings are coordinated with their flight departures.

at Malmo Railway Station


downtown Malmo

I did lots of research for each segment of this trip but one thing I didn’t check was the time the Shuttle takes from Downtown Malmo to MMX. When I reached Malmo rail station I still had almost 2 hours in hand. But while boarding the shuttle I casually asked the driver how far the airport is, he answered it’s more than an hour! Wow! Am I going to make it…gate closes strictly 30 minutes before…what happens if I miss it! The scary thought didn’t let me enjoy the drive thru unwinding Swedish countryside which otherwise quite scenic in some parts.

Ads on the seatbacks of the shuttle


more of Malmo

Anyway, I reached just in time and ran to the counter and handed over my 2 boarding pass printouts. She treaded them with a real boarding Pass. I am done!

MMX is my first low cost airport experience. Nothing fancy here but every thing works.
Wizz air doesn’t assign seat numbers, I realised that when I saw people lining up even though the aircraft didn’t arrive. I didn’t bother to stand in the line and that worked in my favour when we had a last minute gate change! Here you go, the last in line is now in the front in the new gate! Passengers are predominantly Polish immigrants going home with handbagful of stuff they could purchase for their loved ones. Poles were always sandwitched between big powers(read Germany & Russia). When they were part of Soviet block, the immigrant Poles used to cross in a ferry from Sweden to go home, two decades after iron curtain fell, they are not using ferry anymore, they are flying home. I will come back to Poland later on…


part of tax-free section at MMX




Before boarding, a Wizz air staff had a stern look at everyone’s handbag to figure out whether there is any real heavy bag masquerading as hand bag. One lady got pulled up and made to pay!

plane spotted while boarding


Boarding was fast and I found an aisle seat, I was happy. The aircraft is in a pretty good condition, looked not very old. Load is definitely 100%. Once airborne, co-pilot (with British accent) came on the PA and said it’s a very short flight for an A320 and weather en route is good. Duty Free items came up for sale, I bought a model Wizz Air aircraft for 10 euros, I always collect them. They also have a decent inflight Magazine (Free for you to keep). At least they wrote it’s free, nowadays not all airlines says on cover page it’s free. Well, then you make me steal, I can’t help it but I will take it if I didn’t have it in my collection.




scotch-taped luggage hold opened up while taking off


In no time we were in WAW.
WWII being my second passion (after civil aviation), Poland is a country I always wanted to be. Poles endured enormous suffering during the war and after the war. Auswitcz concentration camp, Warsaw ghetto, Warsaw uprising are some of the historical events that took place on the soils of Poland.

I kept the first day for Warsaw and it’s old town (Unesco heritage site). Though German bombing had raged everything to the ground but after the war thru painstaking effort the whole place was rebuilt. Once upon a time Jewish population thrived here before they were sent to the death camps. Here some pictures.

view from my hotel window








Nearest city to Auswitcz concentration camp is Krakow that itself is very beautiful but I didn’t have enough time to see Krakow. From Krakow Auswitcz is about 1.5 hours by bus or train. There are two camps, Auswitcz and Birkaneu, 3 kms apart, free shuttle bus will take you between the two.

Next day, I took a train around noon from Warsaw Central station and reached my final destination to Auswitcz after about 4.5 hours via Krakow.

Polish countryside from train window

changing money at a Krakow shop
The experience at the camp was very emotional, heart-wrenching and will leave you with a lasting impact. The pictures will do the justice to narrate the horror.


infamous propaganda at the camp gate: Work will set you free

logistics was the main reason for it to be important

crude statistics





Birkaneu camp entrance: point of no return

I came back to my hotel in Warsaw very late in the night (or early morning next day). A sombre feeling came back with me from the camp that lingered on next few days.

Next morning I took a short taxi ride to WAW airport to take my next flight to Kiev, Ukraine.

July 9
Route: WAW- KBP
Flight#: VV 208
Aircraft: E45
Departure: 9:35AM
Arrival: 12:00 Noon

I heard in recent years WAW has been modernized but I had so little time that I couldn’t explore the airport properly. Once I found my check-in counter, I checked in my bags till Tashkent (TAS). Since I had two separate tickets (one thru Expedia other as a PTA ticket thru a friend of mine in Tashkent), the agent got confused and had to call her superior to help her out. After about 15 minutes of struggle, I got my baggage tagged till TAS!

I will be flying with Aerosvit (VV), my first time with them. What I gathered about Ukrainian aviation scene is that it is dominated by 2 players, Aerosvit & Ukrainian International Airlines. Between the two they have shared Europe & Asia whereas VV had ventured into North America (JFK & YYZ). Both are typical east european airline that are striving to improve and catch up with the western counterparts.


With little time left, I had to immediately go to the boarding area, a bus then toook us to the aircraft. It’s a Emb 145 operated by Dneperoavia (an associate of Aerosvit airlines). My seat# was 18A, the last row. E45 has 2+1 seating, I was alone on one side. I took a picture of inside as I always do but this time it caught the attention of the lone airhostess. She came up to me and told “Sir, Dneperoavia doesn’t allow taking pictures inside the aircraft. Please delete them” She stood besides me to see that actually I am deleting them. Well, I should have realised that I have entered in former Soviet territory.
E45 reminded me of Yak-40 (though not right comparison) but being a narrow tube, you can feel every turn, every bump and every manoeuvre pilot makes.


some plane-spotting while boarding

lots of LOTs!


my aircraft

Soon, we landed at KBP. Some plane-spotting:




My next flight was 1t 10.45PM, so I have about 10 hours to spare. Canadian passports don’t need a visa for Ukraine, I am out in no time. With my backpack, I am super lightweight to explore Kiev. Kiev city is about 50 km from the airport. Taxi is pricey, there is a shuttle bus that takes you to the nearest Metro station ( I think it’s called Kharkivskaya). One thing the Soviet system has done right is that they built beautiful Underground transport system in most cities of the Soviet empire. That’s why you will find Metro in places like Yerevan(Armenia), Baku(Azerbaijan) and Tashkent(Uzbekistan).
Knowing Cyrillic really helps…bought a token for the metro ride by paying peanuts and after one change of line, I am in downtown Kiev.


going to another line in a metro station: one of the steepest in the world





Kiev is a beautiful city, lots of greenery and also lots to see if you are interested in WWII.
I have chosen to see the War Museum situated near the Motherland statue. While enjoying the sights and sounds of Downtown Kiev, rain started pouring in. Well, weather god was on my side all along but I guess my good spell was coming to an end. I waited under a shed prayed for rain to stop but on the contrary it came down on us heavily. With no umbrella, I had few options. One of them was to get inside the Mcdonalds nearby. Hey, we may curse Mcdonalds for all the junky stuff and the problem of obesity but from all my travel I realised one thing “BigMac never lies”. Whether you are in Bosnia or Budapest, Cancun or Copenhagen, BigMac tastes the same. No wonder, Economist magazine has an index going called BigMac index. Hey, BigMac as purchasing Power Parity measurement between countries? How cool is that?

While I munched on my BigMac and kept an eye on my fries and the other on rain, gradually I knew that I am loosing my battle to see the War Museum this time. Well you can’t win all the time and be happy what you could see.

Thanks for taking your time to read this part. Your valuable comment keeps my writing spirit alive!

Part 3 (coming soon) will cover KBP- TAS- DEL- CCU
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Tally Sheet:
41 Countries ||55 Aircraft types ||60 Airlines ||75 Airports

[jasepl]

Nice report; love the routing!

I remember going to Malmo. I was in Copenhagen, and once I discovered that Malmo was just across the newly-opened bridge, I was determined to go across. So we went, had a beer, and came back to Copenhagen. That's how I can claim to have been to Sweden!

And those camps really are an experience, aren't they? I've never made it to any of the extermination camps, just a couple of the concentration camps (Dachau and Sachsenhausen).
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four years free of jetya punti!

[shasi1711]

Very nice TR! Auschwitz always makes me emotional. Looking forward to visit sometime.

Wizz Air looks good too - typical European LCC.

[sumantra]

PAL@YWG, an awesome dose once again.
- nice LCC descriptions! The no-photography rule is a dampener. I wonder what they do for those with film cameras. Aeroflot doesn't mid too much, I guess. I got a few pictures on my cellphone camera, as well as some shots using my analog SLR. This was an awesome Moscow trip - I will send this in three parts (Moscow, The Central Museum of the Armed Forces, and ...Monino! The Rain Gods were on my side, I guess I was lucky! 25 Jun - 01 Jul, 2011)
- Beautiful pictures - you sure have an eye for detail.
- The Auschwitz and Birkaneu descriptions and pictures were heart-wrenching. Thanks for sharing this with us.
- The Moscow Metro is very similar! It goes really deep, and the escalators go really fast! The cost is very low, and the pricing is per trip, irrespective of the distance. Was it the same in Kiev?
- The BigMac leveller was nice!
Ardently looking forward to the next part!
Sumantra.

[Nimish]

Great report - and a fascinating combination of cities to visit. I visited a concentration camp in the erstwhile east Germany once long ago and that was bad enough, can't imagine these "mother of all camps" type of places.
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We miss you Nalini!

[sri_bom]

Great Report again.

I visited the Dachau concentration camp in Munich, Germany last year and all along I could feel very strong negative vibes so I did not stay for a long time. It requires a lot of courage to go through the torture these folks had to go throug.l

[PAL@YWG]

[PAL@YWG]

[PAL@YWG]