“Youth shopping in Warsaw”? It's not Wars and not the Warsaw-Szczecin train

A photo from the inside of a carriage, showing young people sitting at a table abundantly filled with various alcoholic beverages, has been widely shared on social media in recent days – also in Poland. Four young men can be seen on the seats at the table, in front of them are over forty bottles and cans: beer, cider, herbal liqueur. There are also cans of energy drink and cookies on the table. The author of the Polish-language post on the X website commented on the image: “Sunday, shopping for 'youth' in the Warsaw-Szczecin train, a few minutes before 5 a.m. Poland of our times” (original spelling of all entries in the article). The post generated over half a million views.

Seeing such a scene, it is not hard to be surprised that the photograph provokes comments. And since not all Polish internet users looked at it carefully, many believed in the truth of the description. “Another success of Polish youth”; “In Warsaw they spent little on this”; “I did nothing for such a Poland!” – they stated.

Others – and there were many of them – pointed out that the photo was not taken on a Polish train. “I understand that in Poland we have Peterborough, which is what the information board says”; “But you can see that it is not in Poland”; “Peterborough is on the Warsaw-Szczecin route? Aha”; “Not Poland, but you can see the journey is long” – they commented.

So where was the photo taken and where were the men sitting at the alcohol-filled table traveling?

Before the photo made its way onto the Polish web, it was often shared on English-language football or fan accounts on Facebook and X platforms. One of them was signed: “Ipswich fans on their way to the Etihad (Manchester City stadium – ed.). You could say they plan to forget about this match.” Some accounts have tagged the X profile where the photo was originally posted. This is the account “itfc_louis2”, where itfc stands for the name of the English football club Ipswich Town Football Club, which plays in the top division of England and Wales – the Premier League.

Indeed, it is its user he published photograph on August 24, 2024. The description shows Ipswich Town fans who were traveling by train to an away match with Manchester City. This is evidenced by the word “City” and the letter “a” meaning “away”, i.e. an away match. “Alcohol is needed to prepare for today's result. Let's go, guys,” wrote the author of the post. The entry quickly gained huge popularity on the web: it has already been viewed by over 12 million users of the X service.

There is more evidence that the photo was taken on an English train. A board at the top of the carriage displays the name of the city of Peterborough, which lies on the route from Ipswich to Manchester. The woman in the background is wearing a t-shirt Ipswich Town. On the day the photo was published – August 24, 2024 – the Ipswich Town club was actually playing an away match in the English Premier League against Manchester City. It turned out that the author of the photo wrote for a reason that it was necessary to “prepare for today's result”. Although Ipswich – which was only promoted to the top league this season – was the first to score a goal, they ultimately lost the match in Manchester 1:4.

After the photo became very popular on social media, the photographer he commented Internet users criticizing him: “We, the guys, work from nine to five and have been traveling around the country for years, following our club. I don't understand what kind of problem people see in a group of young guys drinking a few beers on weekends.”

Which does not change the fact that the photo circulates on the Polish internet as a fake because it was not taken on the Warsaw-Szczecin train.