..you're only lost if you know where you're going..
Posts tagged train
Glacier Express on the cheap!
Apr 11th
Want to take the Glacier Express across Switzerland? So did we, it was just that the price tag was a little too high for us. Luckily our Swiss hosts told us about a 24 hour railpass for CHF38 each. We could have used these passes on the Glacier Express itself but we would have had to pay 13CHF each for seat reservation, so we ended up jumping on a normal train.
It actually paid off for us – every Glacier Express carriage we saw was packed with retirees, and we realised as we began to take photos that the Glacier Express’ windows are actually a limitation more than anything else. We were alone most of the time in the normal carriage, able to move from one side to the other, and when there was a good photo opportunity we were able to open the windows and take a clear shot!
If you ever come to Switzerland, this is a train journey not to miss.
It snowed in Venice…
Mar 13th
… And we got rather wet from all the snow soaking through our clothes as we walked the streets trying to head back to the train station. But as they say, everyone gets lost in Venice!
We arrived in Venice via train from Udine, midmorning, and were greeted by snow covered paths and the cool air. It was pleasant, however, and we were eager to begin exploring. Perhaps because I have been so relaxed at “home” with the family, I didn’t put much effort into researching what to see and do in Venice. Thankfully, a sign pointing the way to ‘San Marco’ triggered my memory and we began to follow what became a long maze of narrow alleyways and ambiguous signs.
We eventually arrived in Saint Mark’s Square, after crossing the disappointingly famous Rialto Bridge, and were blown away by the beauty and magnificence of the basilica. The detail and effort that went into the building and decorating of the cathedral was amazing. While exploring we also saw several other impressive churches and wandered round a free exhibit dedicated to Antonio Vivaldi.
Despite the length of our visit and the bad weather that saw us leave Venice, we had a really fun time. Lots of laughs and lots of sandwiches (thanks to my Italian “mum” Ombretta!) meant that even the worst weather couldn’t have put a downer on our day trip.
Interlude
Mar 5th
Today we are on the OBB EC 531 train from Wien Meidling (Vienna) to Villach Hbf, which is in Southern Austria.
Before I begin though, I don’t want to detract from what we have done on this trip. The entire thing has been a great experience to date and we have learned a lot about history, geography, and most importantly eachother, and “us” as a couple. With the exception of Langkawi and Singapore (because a lot of time was spent in nature there) we have experienced times that have been boring, disappointing and in some ways depressing.
For sure, I sound like some 25 year old from Australia that has every opportunity in the world and still complains. It’s not like that.. You see, Jess and I aren’t really city people. I mean, we love our home town of Adelaide, but realistically we don’t spend every night sitting in a restaurant, or out on a terrace having a drink. When the weekend rolls around we head for the hills or go for a walk down Linear Park.
Stockholm was fun. Warsaw was exciting because of our friends. Prague was cheap and beautiful. Vienna is amazing and probably my favourite city so far (and one of us will blog about this soon), but as I sit on this train and stare out the window I am finally really excited about where we are at.
As we roll on the beautiful little villages pass by. Forests are everywhere, broken up by green grassy fields. As we climb the mountains, snow begins to litter the forests. We pass through a lot of short tunnels so the mountains must be steep, and every so often we will cross a river on a very picturesque bridge.
Usually a short distance from a village will be a small industrial area, however they aren’t ugly like those next to most railways. Yards are small and tidy. It is interesting, not repulsive.
As we rise higher into the mountains there is the occasional chairlift in the distance – if you look closely you can see people skiing down the slopes. The clouds amongst the snow capped mountain peaks make me imagine just how fresh the air must be out there.
We are on our way to Udine in Italy. By the time I post this we will be there. We alight the train in Villach and catch an Intercitybus from there. Here we will stay with Jess’ family, something we are both really looking forward to.
Like I have said, we are learning. We have realised that even though we are overseas, we still have the same interests. For example, while the museums here are obviously well setup and have a lot to offer, we never go to them in Australia, so why would we be completely amazed about one on the other side of the world?
This may read negatively, it isn’t intended. With just over a month of travelling behind us we have made some really important observations that will help us to enjoy all of our future travels.
From Udine we will explore Italy a little, then fly from Rome to Brussels. It will be a short stay in Brussels (it was the cheapest way to Amsterdam from Rome) and take a bus for a week or so in Amsterdam where we will see one of our favourite bands, Phoenix, in concert.
From here we aren’t 100% sure on how things will go. We will either head to Geneva in Switzerland or Stuttgart in Germany, and then make our way to see more family in a town called Domat/Ems, just outside of Chur in Switzerland. If we head to Geneva first we will probably visit Stuttgart after Domat/Ems, and vice versa. I’m hoping to visit the Porsche museum in Stuttgart but we’ll see how we go. If it’s too hard we won’t bother. Jess is all for it though – just another reason why I married her.
Regardless of what happens after Amsterdam, I think this will be a part of the trip that we will really love. We will get a chance to see some more countryside and some smaller towns – it will be a nice break from the major cities.
I am a little sick, but feel a lot better now than I did two days ago. We have been eating well and avoiding alcohol which has helped a lot. Hopefully in a day or so I’ll be 100% again.
Anyway enough typing for today. Time to stare out the window some more.
Warsaw, Sochaczew and elsewhere in Poland
Feb 28th
We originally planned on visiting Poland to see our two friends, and nothing more. Anton, our friend from school was visiting his girlfriend Ola, who lives in Warsaw. Since he was there for a few months it was perfect for us to catch up with them on the other side of the world. Ola has visited us in Australia, so it was nice to see her in her home country too. We had no real plans of what we wanted to do and what we wanted to see, just that we wanted to see them.
Our visit to Poland was however, unintentionally relevant. The day before our train from Berlin to Warsaw we had visited the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin, as Jess has mentioned in her post on Berlin. It had set us up to see just exactly what this meant for those affected by the war.
As our train slowly brought us into Poland and eventually Warsaw we realised that Poland wasn’t going to be a rich country. We arrived in Warszawa Centralna, the central train station, to the familiar face of our friend from Adelaide. We had a quick greeting then began walking to Ola’s apartment, a quick 10 minute walk down the road. As we began walking Anton explained to us how Warsaw was a combination of old and new. It is predominantly filled with old “Commie Blocks”, aka apartments built for the masses in the communist days, with some newer buildings dotted around the place, usually by the larger corporations and some newer apartments.
We arrived at Ola’s apartment, welcomed by Ola, a welcome banner on her door, and lunch. We had a bite to eat over a catch up, and then changed for the night ahead. I won’t bother telling too much in detail here – Anton and Ola had friends around to farewell Anton from Poland (he is leaving soon), and to meet us. We went through more than enough vodka at their place, and then left for the local pub for more booze. Long story short the next day was one of the worst and best days of my life.
We woke around 8am, in a rush for the train. What train? Honestly I had no idea. I had an agonising headache, but had no time to think about it. We put our clothes on from the night before (and smoking is legal in pubs here, so that didn’t help the hangover situation) and began our power walk to Centralna. We were heading to Sochaczew, the town in which Ola’s parents live, for a feast. Excellent – I needed food.
Jess and I bought our tickets, and as Ola was buying tickets for herself and Anton, the train arrived. We ran for the train, and Ola followed. Anton was hanging out of the door to keep the train stationary, however it just left. Ola was left at the platform! Some cursing in Polish and a few phone calls from Anton to Ola and her father, and we found out what was happening. Ola was on the next train and had a refund for the tickets, and the Police were waiting for our train at Sochaczew. Long story short, Ola’s father has a bit of power with the authorities and he isn’t afraid to use it. The hilarity of the situation perked me up a fair bit too which was great.
We went back to Ola’s parents’ place, and met her mother and auntie; before long Ola had arrived too. Ola’s father offered to take us to a town nearby that had a thermal pool where the water is heated naturally. We spent around an hour or so there, just relaxing in the water, and occasionally running out to roll around in the snow. Yep, true story, we were in bathers, on the snow. It sounds bad but realistically it was maybe a few minutes of freezing cold and then you’re back in the perfectly warm pool again.
We returned to Sochaczew to find the biggest feast we have ever had waiting for us. It was around 3 or 4pm by this stage and we were given soup (served in bread), ribs, chicken cutlets, potatoes, salads and more. And cakes of course. Thinking this was it we settled down on the sofa to watch some Winter Olympics. About two hours later we found us eating dinner. More vodka, more beer, more soup, pierogi, and so much other food. We were all so full, and extremely satisfied.
It was so nice to be able to stay in a home again. We only spent a few days at Ola’s parents place, however that time was some of the best in the trip. You stay in a hotel, a hostel, and even Ola’s apartment, and you get the impression that while people may live there, they don’t consider it home. It’s a place to stay while they achieve something. We thank Ola’s family very much for making us feel so welcome. They both really went above and beyond for two complete strangers – it was so generous.
Throughout the rest of our time in Poland we stayed predominantly in Warsaw. Anton toured us around a fair bit during the day (including taking us to the Warsaw Uprising Museum which was excellent), and then any other time she could spare we would spend with Ola. One night we walked through a much more “classy” looking part of Warsaw and had some chocolate at E.Wedel’s, and another night we grabbed some Chinese and feasted upon it back at the apartment.
We were lucky enough to be toured through Old Town by one of Ola’s friends and gain some solid local knowledge on the area and how it has been rebuilt. While many countries may take these “historic” areas for granted, Warsaw clearly does not. The majority of these buildings were destroyed by the Germans during the 1944 Warsaw Uprising. As a result, in order to have this area live on, they have all been rebuilt, often funded by local families and small businesses.
There is so much I could talk about, but for fear of dragging on I will leave it at this. Poland itself is a very interesting place. The history is not too far in the past, and you can see it all around you as you catch a train, drive along a highway, or walk along a street.
To Anton and Ola, thanks for taking care of us and guiding us around. Thanks for the food, thanks for the local knowledge, thanks for the accommodation, and thanks for the comfort. It was nice to be able to let our guards down for a few days and know that we were safe in your hands.
Au revoir Paris
Feb 10th
I entitled my post “Goodbye Paris” because I was reasonably happy to be moving on to Stockholm, where I am sitting in my hostel writing this. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy the City of Lights and Love, I do look back with fond memories, but felt it just wasn’t the city for me. Jase and I discussed this while sitting in a cafe watching Parisians walk by. You either are a Paris person, or you aren’t. If you are the type who loves to sit around, chat and watch the world go by then Paris seems the place to be. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy doing that from time to time too, but for me Paris was really just another big city. Maybe it would have been different in the summer…
We arrived at the Orly airport early evening before using the trains to head to our first accommodation venue, A Room in Paris. This was a quaint bed and breakfast managed by Peet Verrest. It was a nice room to stay in, in a beautiful old apartment. Peet and his partner Thierry made us feel very welcome and we enjoyed chatting to Peet over breakfast. The apartment was located in the 10th Arrondissement, which I think is meant to be trendy… but didn’t feel very comfortable for us. While down that side of town we saw the Arc de Triomphe and the Eiffel Tower, both impressive.
A change in location brought about a whole new outlook for us. I certainly noticed the difference in Jase after finding our bearings in the 12th Arrondissement (right near the Bastille), the area our hotel was located. The Hotel des Trois Gares was neat and the staff were very helpful. Actually, I have to admit that over our whole stay we really did not encounter the cliché rude Parisian that you hear so much about. Perhaps it was our persistence in starting all our communication with French (albeit pronounced poorly). “Bonjour, parlez-vous anglais?”
Ice skating (see Jase’s post here) kicked off the fun times in Paris. It was a nice walk from our accommodation, down rue St-Antoine and rue de Rivoli, to the rink. We did this walk many times over our last four days in Paris, which I really enjoyed, as it lead us to the various sites, eateries and shopping district. Becoming familiar with the walk made me feel at home and gave me more of a sense of belonging in Paris. The walk also led me past all my favourite things in Paris, which included:
- Looking up (to see the long lines of gorgeous old balconies on the apartment blocks)
- A beautiful florist shop (with the cutest floral arrangements)
- Windows full of pastries (although we tried to avoid eating them)
- Nutella crepes (which we only had on the last day but wish we’d had more of as they were so filling for the bargain price of 3€)
- Ice skating (a whole lot of fun)
So, all up, my views of Paris? It was definitely worth it to see all the major attractions. Notre Dame and the Louvre were purely amazing (and as a bonus the Louvre was free since it was the first Sunday of the month!) You can’t take away from the sheer magnificence of such old buildings that are so detailed and ornate.
Would I go back there? Maybe, but probably not.
So au revoir Paris, thanks for the memories.
