Rico

As promised a brief diary of the Bydgoszcz trip. Got train up to Stansted on Wednesday afternoon to meet HenryW who was flying in from Edinburgh and we stayed in the Hilton in preparation for our early start in the morning. A few of the worlds most expensive bottled drinks were consumed as well as a £28.10 round which included one hamburger and a pizza, a bottle of bud and a JD & coke. As they have a totally captive market there they really take the pi$$ on their pricing. Anyway, morning broke far too early and we were off on the shuttle bus to the airport where we bumped into StartTart and Joanne at various points. I took the outrageous move of flying sober so didn't particularly appreciate the handbrake turn at 3,000 feet as we approached Warsaw, otherwise the flight wasn't too bad. A taxi ride to our hotel (5* Sheraton no less, cheaper than the crappy Hilton at Stansted - well done HenryW) and a meandre round Warsaw for a couple of hours. We tried to watch the speedway in Champions sports bar, but they only had SS1, SS2 and SSE available - sods law dictated the Thursday match was on SS3. Anyway Legia were playing away in Austria and the locals were enthusiastic in their backing. Friday morning saw us on our way to Bydgoszcz and as we pulled out of Warszawa Zachodnie our party number had been doubled as 2 forum watchers joined us. We arrived in Bydgoszcz around 1430 and got a taxi straight to the hotel, dumped the bags and then headed off to buy tickets and watch a bit of practice. Upon sitting down at practice a text was received asking me to look behind and good old Mateusz Kulka was sat right behind us. Once practice was out the way we went for a couple of beers on a river boat beside the very impressive arena that the 'party' was taking place. After the party we wandered back to the hotel, had a quick freshen up and then had some food. Then it was onto the Brda to meet the rest of the forumites. The party took a little while to get going but we certainly were all in good spirits as the night went on. Just as we were appearing to wind down around 1am in pop another 4 Monarchs fans, including B52, and that seemed to lift everyone again to such an extent I think it must have been around 4 or 5 am before the Pod Orlem saw me again. Vague recollections of encouraging people to join in my Kenny McKinna songs Saturday arrived (around 2pm) and hurriedly we joined the others for food (Capri pizza house in Bydgoszcz, fantastic place) - things were a little giddy but the food seemed to settle me down a bit. We headed to the stadium around 4pm and met Mateusz and a lot of his friends and settled down into the swing of things. Could have done with a beer or two in the stadium, but it was probably a good thing in hindsight. Atmosphere was awesome and we saw a few of our fellow drinkers from the Friday night in the crowd. Only downside was our seats were way to close to the smoke bombs that were let off, one of which seemed to go on for an eternity. That didn't spoil the overall occasion though. I went in the hope of seeing a Gollob win and Tomasz didn't let me down. Here's to a fourth in a row next year. As we left the stadium I had the pleasure of bumping into a Polish fan from Gdynia that I'd met in Chorzow three years ago and it was nice to catch up with him, albeit briefly. The post meeting plan was to head to Chesterfields, underneath the City Hotel. After a few drinks in our hotel HenryW, B52 and I headed along and the place was its usual throbbing self. It really can be a sight to behold. About an hour after we arrived, in poured 4 or 5 of the Friday night crew and the party really got going as B52 continually refreshed a tray of odd-looking blue liquid and passed it around. I reckon HenryW and I must have been not far off being last out around 5.15am. I'm not going to mention any more about the Saturday night to protect the not-so innocent and spare the innocent from having their names mentioned in the same breath. It was great fun anyway and I'm looking forward to seeing the photos and of course doing it all over again next year. I've not mentioned all the great people I met at the weekend as I'm too scared of missing some of them out or naming and shaming them. But one or two I must say a big THANKS to - MK for looking after us over the weekend, Splatty for providing us with lots of amusing moments, B52 for having a camera to hand to capture some of the shenanigans, HenryW for putting up with me for a week, FSP for being Finninsh, Pugwash for his namebadge, PapaB for looking slightly less like Timothy Spall, Tony Hadley for changing career and driving trains for WAGN, Andy Smith for being a living legend and Middlo for being an honest sort (no I'm not John Poss !!). Sunday meant the 1054 train to Berlin (how we made that I'll never know) which was met by some riot police - hooligans on the train. Don't they get a long lie on a Sunday ?? Three nights in Berlin followed and sadly back home. Rico

We popped along to the 'Party' as well and I thought it was a pretty good gesture on behalf of the organisers affording fans the opportunity to see the majority of the riders. Wasn't particularly my cup of tea but it was excellent PR and given the crowd of between 3,000 and 4,000 I'd say it was pretty well received. Hearing the adulation afforded to Gollob, Jonsson and Smith was pretty special with the fans chanting, pleading with AJ to stay next season. Hearing the ill-feeling toward Nicki P both at the party and at the meeting made me chuckle as well (I'm neither here nor there but it's good to hear the fans creating an atmosphere.) Rico

Got back last night after a few days in Berlin post GP. Another fantastic time had in Bydgoszcz and it was great to meet up with a lot of fellow forumites as well as lots of friendly locals. Big public thanks to Mateusz Kulka for assisting greatly in our seating requirements. Also thanks to your friends Mateusz who made some room for the rest of our Edinburgh crew and made them feel very welcome indeed. Will do a bit of a Bydgoszcz diary piece when I've got more time. Rico ps B52, get those photos sent asap

Forgot to mention about the budget Terminal at Warsaw, there is nothing other than seats, toilets and a vending machine once you are past security so don't expect to do any shopping or have a drink. There is a slightly different check-in procedure where you go to the desk (amid chaos usually) check-in and get your bag weighed. You then carry your bag through to the security screen before you have to place your hold luggage onto a conveyor belt and just hope that it arrives with you at your destination. At this point you can go back out the terminal and use a cafe (outside turn right and it is signposted, less than 2 minutes walk - but watch out for the firebreathing female running the place ) or you can go up to the main terminal and use the ground facilities there (obviously pre-security check). You need to be through security and passport control at Etudia 40 minutes before take off though. Here's a link to an interesting article about someones experience of flying budget from Etudia (seen lots of different spellings for this). Rico ps Splatty, no drowning your sorrows about Monday's shenanigans over the weekend

1. Andreas Jonsson (he's gonna satisfy my prediction one of these days) 2. Tomasz Gollob 3. Leigh Adams 4. Pepe Protasiewicz

Anyone else is Warsaw on Thursday night ?? Myself and a fellow forumite HenryW will be venturing to the Sports Bar underneath the Marriot around 2030 to watch the Elite League coverage from (insert track name ) - the food in the Sports Bar is superb and the portions generous. Reasonably pricey by Warsaw standards, but still comparatively inexpensive. Failing seeing anyone there we'll see those in town on the Friday at the Brda, shall we say around 2000/2100 (allows us to check the party out if required). The annual pilgrimage starts tomorrow lunchtime (staying overnight at Stansted tomorrow). Safe journeys to all heading over. Have a great time and hopefully meet a lot of you there. Rico ps Addy, I've sent Kevin H an e-mail with my number - hopefully see you at some point over the weekend. Anyone else wants my number drop me a line before 1000 tomorrow morning.

Ok, as promised (especially Joanne ) a little guide to arriving in Warsaw and getting to the town. I've been out to Warsaw a couple of times in the last month using the budget airlines Air Polonia and WizzAir. Both flights were perfectly acceptable and expect nothing more than your flight for your cash, though I heartily recommend the cans of Budvar for 5zl (about 85p) on Air Polonia. Main reason for this post is for anyone using the budget airline but there might be one or two pointers for those flying Lot or BA going out for the first time. The budget Airlines use a separate terminal in the airport called Etudia which is only a few minutes walk from Etudia (on leaving Etudia angle left and walk straight on). Definitely the easiest way to get train tickets is at the Airport through Orbis travel, who always have English speaking staff which makes things a lot easier. Also available in the main terminal are cash machines, usually a lot better value than using exchange booths/banks etc etc. From my experience the taxis outside the main terminal are a bit cheaper than those sat outside Etudia, but makes sure it's an official cab you get in, ignore random blokes offering their services. Official cabs have their rates on display in their window. There is also a bus service 175 that stops outside Etudia that will take you into town (not sure about getting tickets for that). Taxi should be somewhere between 25 and 40 zl (£4 - £7) but depends on traffic and time of day. If you find yourself at a station wanting to buy a train ticket it can be quite a difficult experience - best method I've found is writing down your requirements so an example is below (Polish cousins, please excuse my doubtless imperfect grammar - the method works ) 2 bilet w jednà stronę do Bydgoszcz Głowna @ 1215 dzis - pierwszy/druga klasa prosze Translates as (roughly) 2 single tickets to Bydgoszcz Głowna today @ 1215 - first / second (insert as appropriate) class please. You can change this to suit your needs I guess. When buying ticket on inter-city trains you also need a reservation - check the Polrail site if you aren't sure, but generally when buying your ticket and telling the cashier the time you want it they give you a reservation as well. Couple of handy websites / pages Some phrases Warsaw mini guide Hope that is of some help (esp Joanne) Rico

Can heartily recommend your first two recommendations sjw - the menus do tend to have more than your steak tartare and I'd definitely recommend trying a proper Polish meal at least once. Rico

No time for a full reply to your post Kevin - got to make my way to Cowley to see the big match I agree with a few of your points, especially in relation to the promotional issue, however others I guess we'll have to agree to disagree on. It's an emotive issue, some are pro-SGP and others aren't. Looks like the national federations missed the boat, especially when it came to the renewing of the contract - that was the point they could have stepped in, but in reality could you really see that happening? I wouldn't be surprised if the time and effort of staging some of the recent world finals was worth the small gain to be made, especially when you then start dividing that small sum up around the tracks. Then again, would the promoters use the money they did receive to enhance the sport at grass-roots level, no they'd have just paid the money out to Rider X to entice him to ride for them the following season. I am guessing that none of the fee paid (I assume that was part of the contract) to the FIM gets filtered through to the national federations as things stand at present (genuine question) I personally don't think we'll ever see a full-time series, it will remain merely a series of competition, whether that takes in countries outside of the SGPs present incumbents is another matter entirely. As for your point about the Polish league, on a general principle I agree, however without opening up a huge political debate there appear to be countries who are able to enforce their rules (noticed you are only allowed to take bring back 200 cigarettes from the Czech Republic for example - not sure who wanted that). Given the performances of the young poles in the SWC I'd say they'll be happy to get away with that one as long as they can. Must run Rico

I've tried biting my tongue on this particular topic, but now I've failed. Kevin, your point above I have read as being directly related to Britain - we don't hear of such arguments coming from the other big speedway nations - correct me if I'm wrong on that front. I wouldn't say Britain exactly have a conveyor belt of riders coming through at the moment in the GPs - other than Loram winning in 2000, no rider has finished in the top 3 of the GP series since its inception in 1995. It's a bit of a chicken and the egg argument going on here and I'd have to agree that we should be looking to get our own house in order first. I'm sure the money coming in from Sky would outweigh the potential profit share from 'owning' the world championship rights. The Speedway Academy will hopefully see some new riders, firstly ready for the Elite League and secondly, if they harbour the ambition to become World Champion stepping up to the GP Series. Imagine the scenario in the EL at the moment if teams were told to build with one foreigner as per Polish rules at the moment. The standard would drop dramatically. However when you look at the number of riders coming through the ranks in Poland then you can see the benfit of such a move - we just don't have the riders at the moment to fill our own top flight, come to think of it there are probably too many foreigners filling up our PL teams, which should be the breeding ground of British riders capable of moving up to the EL. Sorry I've probably gone off on a huge tangent here - but I personally don't see BSI and the GP series as the big baddies they are often made out to be. Rico

Is that when you type in Warszawa Centralna as the departing station ?? The times I've shown above are from Centralna, but some of the trains stop at other Warsaw stations, eg the 1025 from Centralna stops at Warszawa Zachodnia at 1030 and is appearing on your query. I guess it depends where you are staying in Warsaw as to which is closest to your hotel - we're normally based in the Holiday Inn, which is right beside Centralna. Rico

I put in the date of travel of 17.09.04, travel time 10:00 and the stations and got all the trains I mentioned above by clicking later and earlier connections buttons. The site you mentioned uses exactly the same engine as the Polrail site. Rico

I'm a little confused here - I assume you mean on the Thursday, after you arrive. There are trains at 0700 arr 1112 0820 arr 1242 1 change 1025 arr 1434 1027 arr 1723 1 change 1320 arr 1737 1 change 1425 arr 1820 1427 arr 1955 1 change 1624 arr 2004 1835 arr 2220 Same trains appear to run on the Friday as well. Rico

1. Warszawa Centralna to Bydgoszcz Główna is the route you want 2. We always just get of at Bydgoszcz Główna and get a taxi from outside to the station to the hotel (sometimes an experience in itself). We are flying Air Polonia next Thursday morning from Stansted so I guess it may well be the same flight. Staying in Warsaw Thursday night before heading off to Bydgoszcz on Friday morning. Rico

Will probably pop along and investigate this shindig but doubt it will keep us amused for the whole evening, hence suggesting the Brda as a convenient meeting point where everyone is likely to be able to meet up with each other. I'm sure they were supposed to do something in the town centre last year the evening before the GP but it was cancelled. Hopefully this years event will go ahead as planned. Rico

Everyone is of course welcome - the more the merrier. Sounds like there should be a rather large gathering of Forumites and their entourages. Rico

Just try and keep a bit of strength in you for the Saturday night fun this time as well, eh ! Rico

1500 Local Time. Rico

Bardzo dobrze A61. Wy jesteście bardzo rozumnymi dziewczyną Rico

Splatty, We decided against buying tickets up front and are just going to get them at practice. Definitely going for the backstraight (Sektor along with our good forum chum Mateusz and his friends. We've sat in Sektor A for the last 4 years and decided it was time to venture out - last year there were too many people in Sektor A and it slightly tainted the evening for a couple of our group. People were just passing their tickets out through the fence which resulted in people all down the stairways and behind the back seats. The view from there of the first bend is superb, but I'm hoping the view from the middle of the back straight and atmosphere (and cost !!) will more than make up for it. I felt sorry for the poor steward who was clearly having the wool pulled over his eyes by quite a few peeps. You know you want the back-straight madness Rico

Courtesy of the Polrail site. Bydgoszcz Główna Toruń Główny 0 21:45 22:37 0:52 Bydgoszcz Główna Toruń Główny 0 22:30 23:32 1:02 Bydgoszcz Główna Toruń Główny 0 23:16 0:06 0:50 Bydgoszcz Główna Toruń Główny 1 23:59 6:13 6:14 Bydgoszcz Główna Toruń Główny 0 5:20 6:15 0:55 Bydgoszcz Główna Toruń Główny 0 5:44 6:43 0:59 From, to, number of changes, depart time, arrival time and duration of journey. The last two are there just in case you fancy the party in Bydgoszcz Don't fancy getting the 23:59 though, that's for sure. Rico

1) Jonsson 2) Adams 3) Gollob 4) Protasiewicz Rico

There is a number 175 bus that runs from the airport to town but in any guidebook or website you read about Warsaw they all warn you of pickpockets on the service. I haven't been on the service myself and like you Henry W stick to the taxis. If anyone is arriving in Warsaw with one of the budget carriers (e.g. Air Polonia, Wizzair etc) the building you come out of is actually separate from the main terminal building. It may be a little disorientating (not sure if it was confusion or drink) if you have used Warsaw airport before. I'll post something nearer the time regarding anything to watch out for if you are using the budget airlines - the taxi (there was only 1) was about 50% higher than the rate per k/m of the taxis outside the main terminal (still a hell of a lot cheaper than getting stung by one of the guys hanging around in arrivals). Rico

For Bydgoszcz if you follow the link kindly supplied by Champion and click on the City Map icon. If you scroll down the page to the links, click on Baseny (swimming pool), then when the page refreshes scroll down again and click the 'Point' beside KS Polonia the map will zoom into show 'Sportowa', the street beside the speedway stadium. You can then zoom out and see where this is in relation to the town centre. Rico

Map of Torun here. If you zoom out you can see the railway lines coming in just south of the river - that's where the station is. The link above is a close up of where the speedway stadium is. To get the above map from scratch, select 'Apator' on the Kluby sportowe dropdown in the top right of the screen you can see the location of the speedway (zuzel). Rico