I'd been looking into day trips around Germany from Berlin. We'd already done one - to Potsdam, the nearby town of Royal Palaces which had been a very natural and easy first trip as it was still within Berlin's main commuter fare zone. For some reason I'd been looking into what the Berlin fare zone encompassed and noticed that there was a special deal where you could get tickets to a place called Szczecin for 10 Euro one way. I had learned of Szczecin prior to my first Berlin trip when researching flights, and knew it was in Poland - and something like a 2-hour train trip from Berlin. Why on earth was it part of the fare zone for a place so far away, let alone in another country? But the why didn't matter - 20 Euros return per person to go to a city in another country seemed a pretty good bargain, especially since we were trying to watch funds. We'd been looking at destinations about the same distance away in Germany, but I hadn't been to Poland and was keen to add another country to the list - particularly as if we didn't manage to stay in Berlin, I wasn't sure I would be able to get to Poland otherwise. But what was there even to do in Szczecin, if anything? A quick bit of Googling and I discovered that Szczecin is a Polish city which for a time (or a few times) in history was a German city, and they spelt it Stettin - and its said "Schtettin". It is the closest sea port to Berlin, and has a lot of old buildings there and a tourist trail painted on the ground in red paint to follow. We could easily spend a day there wandering around the city following this trail and seeing what there was to see, which looked like it could be quite a bit. So I put the idea to Sasha, who had been to Poland previously but never Szczecin - she was keen. So we decided to go that Saturday.
On Saturday morning we headed to Gesundbrunnen Station where the direct train to Szczecin departed from. It wasn't a big train, and there was a lot of people wanting to hop on - some with large suitcases (I guess they were catching flights out of Szczecin Airport as flights there can be cheaper than flying in and out of Berlin). We got ourselves a seat though, and rode the 2 hours into Poland - I kept track of where we are and was able to point out when we crossed the border, though there was nothing to mark it. I'd read that Poland had re-introduced border checks 3 days earlier to do with some Governmental conference being held a few days later, so we expected to have some kind of check either on the train or when we arrived at Szczecin Station but there was nothing. I grabbed a few photos at the station (there was a steam loco plinthed at the station, cut me a break!) and then we wandered into the station building to get out a few Zloty's to last us the day (Poland is EU, and part of Schengen but doesn't have the Euro yet). We then set out and followed the red-painted line trail (accidentally the wrong way round!).
Undoubtedly, Poland will make a good and cheap holiday destination at some point in the future for us - it is in easy distance and with good transport links from Berlin so that weekend trips to places like Poznan, Wroclaw or Warsaw will be possible. Nonetheless, I very much enjoyed our time in Szczecin - a day was probably all we needed to see the place, but its always there to go back to if we feel like it and we know where a good restaurant/brewery is too. Of course I can now say I've visited Poland - yet another country to add to my growing list...