You may be aware that I love to travel by train. Preferably long-distance trains with a private cabin to sleep in. I did a bit of that by taking the Amtrak from SF to NYC and "more recently" taking the Indian Pacific in Australia (I also took the Ghan Experience, but haven't blogged about that yet).
I haven't done many train trips in Europe, since after taking -let's say- a 3-day sleeper train, you probably have left Europe behind you. Railing Europe, with its many countries, also results in navigating many train organizations and complicated journeys. Thankfully we have something called Interrail (Eurail for abroad living readers), that offers various passes for train transport around Europe.
Interrail is something that used to be a very popular thing that students do in a gap year. Many students have experienced sleeping on trains/stations/tents while exploring Europe. The cheaper the better!! This low-budget experience never really attracted me. But when I was suddenly confronted with a massive discount, I booked a 2-month unlimited pass for 1st class on impulse...
Oh shit, now what?
I had 11 months to figure out when and where to go with that. Ideally, I would see a few new places, and take advantage of the unlimited trains, but also not kill myself doing so. I needed to find a balance between exploring and slow travel. And since I had just been to Croatia (and fell in love with it), I knew I wanted to stop there too.
And so the route planning started. Prague, and Budapest...both cities I had never been to that were on the bucket list. And then Croatia for sure. After that, something along a coast? With nice views? All the way to Spain? Was that doable?
Months later, the plan was fully formed. The route would be pretty simple, stopping in all new places. I would stop in Split for a week and would finally see Cinque Terre IRL. Not the busiest schedule, but balanced. Early spring would be the moment to travel!
The map shows my original plan. Again not something the student interrailers do. You'd normally just go with the flow, show up at the train station and decide on the spot what next train to take. But I need to be back at work at some point and had a non-refundable hotel booking in Italy I didn't want to miss. So I planned out every day, train, and booked all required seat reservations months in advance. Those reservations are pretty essential for the final part of my journey through Switzerland. The scenic routes through the mountains are very popular, and I didn't want to miss those highlights.
And now we wait...
The timing of my trip couldn't have been better. It had been raining in the Netherlands nonstop since fall and I needed a bit of a break from work and evaluate my life (gosh that sounds dramatic). April would start with me getting on my first train, en route to Prague, via Berlin. Also the longest stretch of them all.
And not only the longest but also the one that stressed me out. Because, while Germany is kinda synonymous with quality, the railway is the odd one out. I was warned beforehand that I should take delays into account. And maybe even cancellations. Train strikes were happening all around Europe, and being slightly paranoid, this train trip was already doomed in my head before it started.
So yeah... I can turn into a bit of a control freak and doomsayer
So I took all safety measures possible. I included extra stopover towns, to have a little bit of slack along the way. If possible, I would book hotels that could be canceled. I printed all reservations, just in case I would lose my internet connection. And the worst bit? Minutes after leaving Amsterdam, I already practiced in my head the telephone call I would have with the hotel in Prague that I wasn't going to make in time due to my issues in Berlin that were (of course) bound to happen.
The next 6 weeks I learned:
- That local trains are hardly ever full in first class
- That having hotels across the train stations is a must for a comfortable experience
- That interrail is pretty popular with older people too
- That Switzerland is even more expensive than I expected
- That it's hard to relax if your next train is leaving every other day
- That I need to reach out to @asgarth just a bit earlier than when my train is in his town
- That there was nothing to be worried about...
It was all great! Despite returning home very tired after taking 30 trains to visit 25 places in 6 countries, these 4000+ kilometers by train were worth it and I will very likely do something similar again in the future. Oh, and I didn't count the kilometers I took with the below train...
PS. Stay tuned for some updates about my stops along the way!
