Blogs from Europe - page 14474

Vienna was a good night's sleep away, so that was our next destination. We had to share the compartment on the train with two Japanese guys, which made it very cramped. On the assumption that they couldn't understand, we shared stories about life at college, which consisted mainly of drunken depravity and sexual conquest. When we all got off the train the following morning, they happily grinned at us and said "Goodbye" in perfect English! First order of the day was to get some local currency. We were all very bitter and twisted when it cost us £2 to change a £10 travellers cheque. I think that if any of the Euro-sceptics in our political parties were to go inter-railing, they would soon be in favour of European monetary union. Bloody pain in the backside changing ... read more

I don't know why the Italians bother with time tables, as they have absolutely no intention of following them. The train to Rome left late and arrived having lost even more time on the way. I arrived in Rome after getting a longer night’s sleep than I had suspected, but after several days travelling, I could kill for a shower. I decided to check out the facilities at the station and there were some showers, but it would cost me £3.50. As I was used to spending little more than that for a full night’s accommodation, I decided to go in search of a room. Absolutely no chance - everywhere was full to overflowing long before I arrived. Seriously running out of motivation, I decided to go and do the tourist bit anyway. After a fairly ... read more

I arrived back in Madrid in the early hours, but the next train to France was not leaving until 3.30 in the afternoon. There was no real incentive to leave the station and venture into the city, so I stayed, playing cards and talking to an American girl whom I had met on the train. She had come to Europe to travel with her boyfriend, but had promptly dumped him the moment they arrived. I couldn’t help but feel sorry for the poor guy. They had arranged to meet in Amsterdam and she was on her way there now, despite the fact that she claimed she had fallen in love with some waste-of-space Dutch hippy. She was also running a couple of days late, and I’d be very surprised if he was still waiting when she ... read more

Upon arrival, first priority was again to find somewhere to stay. It didn’t take long to discover that our books that were supposed to be up-to-date weren’t. The first hostel didn’t exist, the second had hiked up their prices to out of our range and the third, the YHA for which there were accurate directions, was full. As they had done in Paris, they found us somewhere else. This looked like it could have been a brothel, but we were grateful for anywhere. We set off to try and find a beach, just to discover that the nearest one of any quality was a half-hour train ride away. We went back to the hostel to get our Inter-rail tickets, just to discover that it was locked. Depressed, we spent the rest of the day checking out ... read more

That night was the first of many on trains, giving us a taste of what was to come. The train terminated at Irum on the boarder with Spain. After going through a pitiful excuse for a customs office, where you were required just to flash something that vaguely resembled a passport, we caught a 'bone-shaker' train the short way to San Sebastian. We first walked into town to get some money, although we had to wait in a square for an hour until the bank opened. My credit card would not authorise for some reason, which was very, very worrying as that was supposed to be keeping me alive for the next month. Spent a relaxing day slobbing on the beach catching some long missed rays. At least we did until early in the afternoon when ... read more