Tag Archives: holiday

Travel Advice on InterRailing around Eastern Europe

Posted on by

Hello everyone that found my site whilst googling interrailing through europe! I had discovered that people are being directed to my old posts from last year.  So with the benefit of hindsight, I thought I’d write this post.

I realised that a year ago, I was doing the exact same thing that you’re doing now and whilst I was absolutely clueless then, I learnt a lot from my journey and I’d like to offer some advice/experience if you happen by my blog, feeling the same way.

When I say ‘clueless’, I really meant it.  I had no idea how long it would take me to get from A to B.  I had no idea what I should pack.  I had no idea where I wanted to go (other than I wanted to delve into eastern Europe).  For inspiration I looked to organised travel tours, there are a few about that offer trips around Europe.  They were a bit expensive for what I wanted but they were a great place to find a suggested route and a list of must-see places.  This is how I discovered Kutna Hora and the Sedlec Ossuary in Czech Republic (and I’m so glad I did – it’s a day trip out from Prague).

The dates I looked at for my flight out and return gave me 5 weeks and I stayed in each place (13 stops) about 3 nights each, give or take depending if I liked the place.  I found this gave me time to saunter at my own pace – staying just one night for several stops doesn’t give you time to soak in a place and it just knackers you out.

If you’re interested, this is the route I took, I found it was a good pace for me:

Prague (czech republic) 3 nights

Olomouc (czech republic) 3 nights

Krakow (poland) 4 nights

Zilina (slovakia) 1 night

Kosice (slovakia) 2 nights

Budapest (hungary) 4 nights

Pecs (hungary) 1 night

Budapest (hungary) 1 night

Cluj Napoca (romania) 2 nights

Sibiu (romania) 2 nights

Brasov (romania) 3 nights

Veliko Tarnovo (bulgaria) 2 nights

Sofia (bulgaria) 4 nights

My favourite cities/areas:

Krakow and Budapest and would recommend them.  Be aware that train travel is slow going through Romania and Bulgaria but it’s not so bad because the landscape is just stunning.  It gives you a good amount of time for gawping.

Things I’m so glad I packed:

I bought a digital watch which I love.  It has an alarm for when you need to get up to catch a train; it has a stop watch so you can time how long it takes to walk from the train station to your hostel (so you can allow yourself plenty of time for the walk to the station to catch the train); it even glows in the dark.

A torch in an accessible place in your bag.  Great for when you get back late/get up early and need to tip toe around whilst others are sleeping.
3 separate waterproof bags of varying sizes and colours.  This kept my bag fairly organised so I could get to various bits and bobs easily.

A phrasebook.  But I’m guessing you thought of that already.

The fear:

I was pretty damn scared before I went into the deep unknown (to me, at least), all alone – I guess the people that gasped at me with wide-eyed wonder saying that I was ‘just so Brave’ didn’t help to calm me.  Although this did allow me to feel smug for being so Brave once I’d come back alive and (relatively*) unscathed.  A friend told me that the worst bits are the going and the coming back.  I found that very much true, I had loved my trip so much I didn’t want to come back to real life.  In my case, the way I’d phrase it is that you start out nervous, you bumble about a bit** and come come back saying ‘that was AMAZING!’

*a little bit of being scathed adds to the journey of self discovery.

**(no adverture-er ever knew what they were doing otherwise it wouldn’t be an adventure)

Play the game whilst you’re out there, tasks become puzzles, even your own detective story.  If you’ve never travelled like this before, it’s ok, you get better at it quickly.  It becomes your full time job, so you have to.

I hope you have fun, wherever you go!

Goodbye! Awesome Adventure beckons

Posted on by

Wow, only one more sleep before leaving the country.  It’s an odd feeling, I’d had this idea that I wanted to go travelling for a little while, so long in fact that the thought of ‘oh I’m going to go somewhere sometime’ became just another normal thought in my bunch of thoughts that reside in my head.

Until suddenly, I realised 3 weeks ago, for all my tickets and important bits of paper to arrive on time I had to commit money and I had to do it NOW.  So the past 3 weeks have been a little manic but good.  It means less time fretting, more time focused on ‘Awesome Adventure’.
Note from the future:  if you’re looking for advice on travelling around europe, you may want to read this:  Advice on Interrailing around eastern Europe

map of my route through eastern europe

I’m going to be InterRailing for a month around eastern Europe, flying into Prague and winging it between there and Sofia in Bulgaria where I’ll fly back home.  Please see illustration for hideously vague route and badly scaled map…  I have never done a trip quite like this before, neither have I done much travelling on my own, so when I first started planning this trip, I didn’t have much of a clue.

First up, info:  Ok, I think, let’s do a little research, so I buy a couple books off the internet (meanwhile pumping all my friends for information and advice).  Unfortunately, I made the error of buying a book that didn’t have a photo to go with it’s blurb.  Book arrives (hooray), I open package to discover a slightly battered Rough Guide on Eastern Europe.  Published in 1988.  Ok, internet purchasing lesson learned.  Apart from that, I’ve been vaguely sussing out where I want to go but as to where I’ll actually end up, is anyone’s guess.  And yes, I have been reminded about that film, y’know, called Hostel, set in Slovakia, lots of gore, a bit deathy…

Packing:  I tried so very hard to pack light.  Usually I’m quite good.  We’ll see how I manage carrying a 60 litre bag for 5 weeks.  Ok, uh…   Silver lining…  It’ll be a good workout?  Maybe when I come back I’ll be a beefcake.  I have allowed myself a couple luxuries in the shape of a sketchbook with the Amazing Spiderman pencilcase (it was the only one in the house that was the right size) and my pocket etch-a-sketch.  These will entertain me for hours, I’m hoping not to the detriment of me sightseeing.

I’m most excited about the inspiration inundation, I can’t wait to draw to my heart’s content.  Unfortunately, you all will have to wait to see the fruits of my labour, I intend to update my blog where I can but won’t be able to upload pictures until I’m back.  And then my posts will be flooded with imagery.  At least that’s the plan.

I’m travelling solo and have lost count of the amount of times I’ve heard the word ‘brave’.  When it became clear that I’d be on my own, I’ll admit that I went through varying degrees of pant-wetting fear but the sunny rays of excitement are beaming through (amongst a few remnant clouds of ‘the fear’).  I’m sure that once I’m out there and into the swing of things I’ll be well on my way.  Besides, I believe that a little bit of courage is required for adventuring otherwise it won’t be much of an adventure.