Exactly, high speed rail is a nice option, but it's not really widely available. I needed to go to Warsaw, 1200km away, I wanted to go by train, but I don't have that kinda time. It's either 17 hours, half of which is going to be in a bus anyway. An alternative route had me take a ferry, extending the travel time to almost two days.

Taking a plane was cheaper and took three hours and given that airport security, at least in one direction is basically non-existing you just show up 20 minutes before your plane leaves.