Some Big Surprises in my European East to West TRAIN-Trip

Not only does Poland has not just very beautiful cities, with Gdanks/Danzig the best, very modern motorways and streets- the same with airport which should not be our topic now, as I am, when possible, a train and bus traveler-, the Ukraine one excellent connection only, namely from Kiev to the cosmopolitan city of Odessa, but are distances not as long as it seems when actually driving by bus from Lutsk to Kiev and not long at all when after that driving from Munich, the same with my home city of Bamberg- Germany s largest world cultural heritage site of the UNESCO-, via France until Spain to make a round trip there. 

Apart from the easy way to travel from the northeast to Cadiz in the southwest of Europe, it is surprising how with border or states and regions too, languages and accents still do chance, like the appearance of houses, looking of the people, the gastronomy, the prices and also the political and social system, to a huge extend even within the Spain. 

Unlike France or Germany every autonomous region there can make its own social politics that includes migration laws. This latter I expected to be in hands of the European Union alone and being the same everywhere, at least within the Schengen countries but it is not and even created by each Spanish region differently. This and that Spanish autonomous regions differ a lot concerning their welfare politics, i.e. applying different laws for its people, was absolutely surprising to me, is almost incredible and, honestly, not fair as all Spanish citizens should obtain the same help when being in need. In some regions I see more Latin-Americans, especially from Venezuela, than Spanish ones that get 800 EUR a month without working, while Spanish in other regions get nothing and have to bag for money. Regarding this I have a great deal of information I could provide. So, write me, if you are interested.

Something what travelers to Germany might surprise is that you can enter the metro or urban trains without any entry control, as it seems to be unique worldwide- also the Ukraine has entry controls- but get punished hard if they find you without a ticket or just with a wrong ticket. For me, on the other hand, it was surprising that the Netherland and France have entry controls for high speed trains too, i.e. both when entering and when leaving the station as well, you have to insert your ticket in the machine that the access/exit door opens. In Spain it is even more complicated to enter a high speed train- they, and not the French or Germans, do have the longest high speed railway net in Europe- as there are two access controls where the ticket has been shown, another when leaving and always your belongings is getting scanned. This even when one wants to store it in a locker only. This rigid way I feel safer now when travelling but annoyed me in the beginning, especially when comparing it with Germany where it is utmost easy to bring a bomb into a urban or midland train. So, why is it not changed here too? Maybe because most of the terrorist attacks are committed by the intelligent services themselves, something the other countries do not know?

MJW