InterRail Soap Series (final) part 17: Viva la France!

16) 800 people in one bus in France?
After three days Barcelona, we continued our journey. Our next stop is Marseille, in France. We took an early morning train from Barcelona to Montpellier, changed trains there and after 7 hours, we arrived in Marseille. It took a while before we get a place to sleep. One cheap hotel, managed by an African Family offered us a room with bathroom, only was the bathroom not quite finished… At an other hotel, an Indian gentleman offered us a room with shower, but as we looked at it, it was indeed a room with a shower, right in the middle of the room with on each side a bed! I never saw something like that…

We ended up in a budget hotel run by Algerian people. It was a cheap room, with bath, and it was okay, except we finally didn’t use the shower because after a close look, it didn’t look very well… (fungus)

After we dumped our packs in the room, we got back to the station, to reserve seats for our next journey to Vienna. As we arrived at the station, something was going on. We saw that it was a huge chaos. Due to bomb threats on several routes of the French railway; almost every train service was cancelled. On the news, there was also a TGV train in problem close to Paris.

Because of every train was cancelled, the French railway company (SNCF), arranged busses to take the passengers to their destination. Dirk and I took a look outside the station, where a huge number of people (hundreds, maybe more than one thousand) was waiting for a bus. But there was no bus… After a while, there was one bus showing up at the bus station. This bus was going in direction Nice and as that came out, a huge number ran to that bus. It was clear that not everybody could go on that bus. The coach has maybe 50 seats and outside there were hundreds of people waiting.
We think that people who were traveling from Marseille to Paris had the biggest delay. We noticed at arrival the double-decker TGV train, which runs between Marseille and Paris. Every service is run by two double-decker TGV trains coupled together. So one train is able to take at least 800 people. Can you imagine: if every hour goes one train to Paris, with a capacity of 800 people, how many people there were waiting or a bus…

--- The InterRail Soap Series ends here. Thanks Jay for sharing your refreshing views on travelling through Europe with InterRail! --- 

InterRail Soap Series part 16: Barcelone, dancing in the rain

15) Barcelona part VI: Sagrada Familia
After visiting Parc Guëll, we went to the Sagrada Familia, of course, one of the hotspots in Barcelona. And of course: it isn’t still quite finished, but the working on it ;)

We walked around, we walked through, took pictures and decided to go up in one of the towers, so again, we queued. But then, the lovely blue sky of that day turned into. It was getting cold in just seconds. We could hear thunder far away and I started to rain. But not just a little bit, it was heavy rain. Suddenly there was thunder and lightning every minute and we were sopping wet in seconds. Streets were in minutes flowed over.   

                              

The line in which we were waiting, wasn’t covered, so we get got wet. The lady at the entrance screamed that due of the heavy rain, it was impossible to enter the tower, because of the safety. Everyone in front of us in line, managed to shelter nearby the entrance of the tower in front of the line, which was covered, so they didn’t get wet, or at least a little bit. (see picture). Dirk and I didn’t managed to get a dry spot where everybody was standing, because it was just too crowded. So we ran to the souvenir shop and as we came in, everybody was looking at us, because we were so sopping wet.

Dirk Jan and I decided to go to the subway and go back to the hotel because we were wet and cold. The sky just didn’t clear up and after minutes of waiting it was still dark grey and raining outside. The street changed into a river… Dirk and I decided to ran to the next subway station, which was around the corner. We ran… we ran hard… took the stairs down into the subway station, where everybody was sheltering. Even water flooded from the street into the station.

                                 

If you once traveled by subway in Barcelona, you probably remember how warm it is in the underground subway stations. Even in summer, underground is warmer than on the streets. But now, on this summer day, Dirk Jan and I were so cold, that we didn’t mind the heat now. In fact, we went to the platform and took a seat. We thought it was nicely warm there so that we could dry up for a little bit. So instead taking the first train, we sat there for one hour, starring at trains, arriving and departing. Security agents noticed us, probably through the security camera’s on the platform. After 45 minutes, a security agent (with dog!) came by to take a closer look at us. They probably were afraid that we were some terrorists or so…          

TO BE CONTINUED TOMORROW...

InterRail Soap Series part 15: Barcelone: DJ, spin those records!

13) Barcelona part IV: DJ is giving a concert
If you ever been to Barcelona, you probably know this huge Spanish shop El Corte Inglès near the Ramblas. Back at home, Dirk Jan plays the piano and because of this trip, he hasn’t touched a piano since we started our tour.

El Corte Inglès sells pianos and as we arrived on the sixth floor (where the cd’s and DVDs are) Dirk noticed that on this same floor, they were selling pianos for 3000 or 4000 euros. His hands were getting itchy; he hasn’t seen or touched a piano for two weeks. Back at home he plays the piano every day.

Dirk was asking me: “Should I, or not play on one piano?” He was scared that if he would take place behind a piano, that salesmen would ask him to leave because it’s allowed to play a piano. I told him “So what? Go take a seat and play a song. And if they ask you to leave, so be it.” And so he did, took place at the most expensive piano and started to play a the “Everybody is changing” from Keane. Within seconds a salesmen indeed came, but, not to ask him to leave. He stayed and listened. And as he recognized which song Dirk was playing, he sang along. More and more salesmen and people came around us and the piano and listened to Dirk. He got an applause played 2 or 3 more songs from Keane. So he was Dirk, playing the piano for the first time in two weeks, in a shop in Barcelona where people listened to him… A breakthrough?   
   
14) Barcelona part V: “slow fast food at Burger King”
If you are in Barcelona, don’t go to the Burger King at the end of the Ramblas/Plaça del Catalunya!

After the mini concert Dirk gave, we were hungry and we thought we grab a burger and continue. And of course, as queuing is now part of out trip everywhere, we also waited here for a very long time. Not very good promotion for a fast food restaurant. As it finally was our turn, we just didn’t get it why it took so long: as we could see from our site of the counter, everything, including every burger which we ordered was in store. So the cashier could grab everything what we ordered, but he didn’t! Although everything what I ordered was ready, he let me wait for another 10 minutes or so, with a huge queue behind me! After I got my order, it was Dirk Jan’s turn. I told Dirk that I was going to look for a table. The cashier let Dirk also wait for a long time. In fact, once Dirk found me at the table, I was already finished eating…

TO BE CONTINUED TOMORROW... 

InterRail Soap Series part 14: More Barcelone

12) Barcelona part III: Mont Juïc

Our first sight what I wanted to show Dirk, was Mont Juïc and its castle. From here you have an amazing view over the city, harbor and sea. I remembered from my other visits that there is a cable car going from somewhere in the middle of the hill, up to the highest point (the castle) of Mont Juïc. So… we took the subway, changed on a mountain train somewhere, which brought us to the cable car station. As we arrived there, the cable car service was closed for a few months for maintenance. Hmz… what to do now. We wanted to go to that ‘highest point’. So we started to walk. The hill and path were steep and it took us about 30 minutes as we reached the castle. And of course, as we arrived at the entrance of the castle, we saw a free shuttle bus, which replaces the cable car service during the maintenance… A bus journey was taking only 5 minutes…

                                      

TO BE CONTINUED TOMORROW...    

InterRail Soap Series part 13: Barcelone continued

11) Barcelone part II: JACKPOT!
After we checked-in, we went to our room. It was huge! A two-room apartment with a long nice bath, kitchen, mini bar and a king-size bed! Wow… and this for just only 27 euros a night per person…

On the next day, of course we planned to get into town. We took the tramway to the next subway station and from there we took the subway into the centre.

We like ticket machines somehow. Or they love us… We read all the rules about traveling with public transport in Barcelona as the possibilities of buying “a more day card”, discounts and penalties, before we bought a ticket. Yes, we learned our lesson in Brussels.

Okay, we decided to buy a single ticket to the main station were we can buy a Barcelona Card for 72 hours including free use of public transport. We liked these ticket machines in Barcelona because these machines also accepts, besides coins and cards, 5, 10, 20 and 50 Euro notes.

This is the situation: I bought my ticket and walked away. Dirk-Jan was next. As I walk away, I suddenly heard a yell: “Ow no!” continued with a sound of a falling coins (ching-ching-ching-ching-ching) as if you are in a casino and won money in a fruit machine. I looked around and saw Dirk-Jan on his knees in front of the ticket machine; he bought a 0,90 cent ticket and paid with a 50 Euro note! He got his change back in coins! And also not 24x 2 Euro coins… no… 2 euros,  1 euros, 0,50 cents… everything came out of the machine! Unfortunately, Dirk had the photo camera, so I couldn’t make a picture of this situation… It was so hilarious. The money he got back didn’t fit in his wallet and even his pockets of his shorts were full of coins.

InterRail Soap Series part 12: Jay and Dirk in Barcelone

10) The things that went wrong in Barcelona: part I

After two days in Salou, we continued our tour and headed to Barcelona. We thanked our guest family, say goodbye to them and of course to our girlfriends. Barcelona, here we come. Ow, and I left my tent behind, because at time we already new, we are only going to stay in hostels or budgethotels.

Barcelona, a lovely, popular city. First time visit for Dirk-Jan, for me my fourth or fifth… We arrived at the main station of Barcelona (Sants) after a short train journey (1 hour from Salou). We already reserved an accommodation on beforehand, because Barcelona was a ‘checkpoint’ for us in our route. Here we could reschedule things, in case of delays or have a goodnight sleep after 2 two weeks of traveling. We booked a 4* hotel (Hesperia San Juan Suites) for just 27 euros per person per night! But how do we get to our 4* hotel, where was it situated?

With the conformation in my hand, we went to the tourist information desk in the station and of course again: a huge queue! After waiting several minutes, I asked the lovely ‘cute’ Spanish lady if she new the address on my confirmation. She was helpful, but she could find the right address on the map… She gave us a map, and marked a street which looked liked the address of our hotel. This address was somewhere in the suburbs of Barcelona, north of the city… Our hotel was actually situated in a business district of Barcelona, close to the airport, south of the city….

After a long walk, taking undergrounds and trams, we arrived 4 hours after we left Salou. The train journey from Salou to Barcelona was only just over 1 hour. Our hotel was only only 30 minutes by public transport from Sants station, but we managed to do the journey in 4 hours… Flashback to Seville…

We checked-in, in this very luxury hotel, with only business people as guests and here we are; two, smelly young travelers, age 19, checking in with a backpack, wearing a t-shirt, short pens and slippers…

TO BE CONTINUED TOMORROW...

InterRail Soap series part 11: Jay loves to eat

What did we eat?

                                                  

InterRail Soap Series part 10 : “Dutch inflation”

After two days Madrid (go there, It’s a lovely city!), we continued to the Spanish east coast. Out next stop was Salou to visit my “future family in law”, who were there for holiday. Of all places in the world, I never thought I would go to Salou. I’ve never been there before, but I already hated it. Salou is a famous holiday spot for Dutch people, who only go there for sun, sea, crowded beaches and party, just like Malgrat and Lloret del Mar. At least, that’s what I imagined when somebody talked about Salou. But during this Tour, I faced the real life of Salou; it was exactly what I had in my mind. Everywhere, in every shop, on the boulevard, on every corner, you hear Dutch people everywhere! Just terrible…

We planned a three day stop in Salou to visit Port Aventura, together with my future family in law. They had a huge surprise, when DJ and I arrived on the campsite: my girlfriend Maudy flew a day before to Salou to see me! She’s got a few days off from her internship and she booked directly a flight from Amsterdam to Reus. I had no idea, that she would be there! DJ knew about it since Malaga, about six days before. Maudy told him on MSN that she would fly down, once we go to Salou. Thinking of it, now I know why he was acting a little bit strange on a particular day in Malaga, when we were in an internet café checking our e-mail and why he wouldn’t let me watch on his screen…

Port Aventura is a huge amusement park! I always wanted to go there. It has Europe’s biggest rollercoaster: the Dragon Kahn. It has 8 loopings, so we all were a little bit dizzy after that ride. But of course, there are also traditional water tractions, where you get extremely wet! But what the heck, the sun is shining. We spent a hole day in the park, from 9AM till midnight!

Oeh, I almost forgot, Dirk fell in love, with this lovely girl he met in the park (see picture). As we left Salou, they just couldn’t say goodbye to each other. Deeply in love…

TO BE CONTINUED TOMORROW...

InterRail Soap Series part 9: Jay loves waiting in line

248 people before us…
Somewhere in the second week. After Seville and Malaga, we arrived in Madrid. We found a nice place to stay close to Attocha train station. It’s a few days before August, before the holiday starts in Spain. In Spain, traveling by train is very popular. For the long distance express trains, a seat reservation with Interrail is compulsory. It’s impossible to get on a express train with Interrail, without a seat reservation. Our next leg will be from Madrid to Tarragona. So therefore we went on our first evening in Madrid to the station to reserve seats, for two days later. We thought, it wouldn’t take long getting a ticket. But of course, we were wrong again; we waited for 3 hours at the ticket- and information center of the Spanish Railways. As we came in, we had to take a number. The computer gave us the number 864. At the time that we took our number, the counter was only at number 616! So there were 248 people in before us, to get a ticket…   

                                  

TO BE CONTINUED TOMORROW...

InterRail Soap Series part 8: Jay seeks toilet

"7) No toilet on a long-distance bus!
The next situation was so embarrassing at the time it happened. On the same Sunday where we were traveling to Seville, we took the bus from Ayamonte to Seville. There is no train service between the Algarve and Seville. After our train ride in Portugal, which only was 20 minutes till the end of the line (so we waited 3 hours for a 20 minute train ride!), we had to change on a ferry which would bring us from Portugal to Spain (Ayamonte). In Ayamonte we had to walk again about 3 kilometers to the bus station. It was an extremely hot day!

After we arrived at the bus station, we bought a bottle of water of 1,5 liters out of a machine. I remembered that my bottle was already empty after less than 10 minutes; I just needed something to drink because it was hot. At that time it was already 3 o’clock in the afternoon (Spanish time) and we were only 30 kilometers away from where we left, Tavira (we ‘traveled’ already for 5 hours!). The bus to Seville was suppose to leave at 4 pm. I actually had to go to the toilet but there wasn’t one at the bus station. So I thought, there would be one in the bus, so I can hold it up. Finally, we boarded the bus and inside the bus, it was cold because of the air-conditioning. We left Ayamonte and I wanted to go to the toilet. But where was it? Imagine, this was a long distance bus/travel coach. There was no toilet on the bus and it was a three hour drive till Seville! Oh my got, what should I do now, I thought… I had 1,5 liter water inside me which had to got out! DJ was reading and I saw that he had a little bit water left in his bottle. I remember, I almost asked him if he would drink his bottle empty, so I could pee in it! And with the air-conditioning on, I just couldn’t hold it any longer.

And then, after 15 minutes of driving we stopped, somewhere in the middle of nowhere on the highway, to let a passenger on board. This was my change. As the bus driver closed his front door, I ran through the bus and with almost tears in my eyes I asked the bus driver to wait, so I could pee outside. At first, I wouldn’t let me, because you can get a fine for it in Spain. But I almost cried, so he let me go. I ran into the bushes and relieved myself from this situation; Now I was peeing in front of bus with Spanish people looking at me. When I was peeing, I saw a second passenger running through the bus to get out. He came next to me, and do you know who it was: right, from all the people in the bus, it was my travel buddy Dirk Jan! So now the Spanish passengers looked at two Dutch passengers, peeing in the bushes. Could you imagine what the reaction was as we got back on the bus again… Yup… we moved to the last row…

After 9 hours we finally arrived at Seville at 7 pm! What a day… 200 kilometers in 9 hours, and an very embarrassing situation… Today, Dirk Jan and I can laugh about it, in fact, I had trouble writing this now, because I had to laugh again about this day!"

TO BE CONTINUED TOMORROW... 

InterRail Soap Series part 7: The bloopers continue even further

"6) Sunday Schedule
On our second Sunday of our trip, we were in the Algarve, on the Isle Ilha da Tavira. A lovely Isle, you just have to go there. We stayed at a big campsite next to the beach. On Saturday we spent the whole day on the beach, sleeping from 10am till around 3pm.

I remember, as we went to the beach we had a nice spot on the sand, somewhere in the middle between people. After 4 hours sleeping, I woke up in the front row, almost in the water… It was high tide…

We stayed two nights on a campsite. On the Sunday, we wanted to continue our travel to Seville, only 200 kilometers away. We wanted to take an early train from Tavira to the Spanish border, to get early in the afternoon in Seville. So, we get up at 7.30am, made ourselves ready and then strike our tent. We hoped to catch the 10.45 train, but to get to the station, we had to take a ferry to get off the Isle and walk a kilometer of 2 through the village of Tavira. We arrived at the station around 10, so it was only 45 minutes till departure of the train.

10.45am. No train, and just 2 other travelers at the station. No announcement of delays or whatever. Suddenly a Belgium man came to us; he came to the station to see a train in Portugal. He also didn’t know what was going on. But then he noticed a remark on the timetable with the 10.45 train; this train doesn’t run on Sundays! The next train leaves at 12.45pm! So we had to wait for another 2 hours on a small, quiet station with no facilities. Of course, we were a little disappointed.

After 3 hours waiting (the 12.45 train was delayed for 20 minutes), the train showed up! And after a ‘hectic morning’ we finally left Tavira."

TO BE CONTINUED TOMORROW...

InterRail Soap series part 6: The bloopers continue even further

"5) First Night train experience
After one night and a second day in Bordeaux, we continued our train travel to Lisbon, Portugal. In Irun (French-Spanish border) we got on our first night train. We booked a 6 persons couchette so we had to share our compartment with 4 other people. We were excited what kind of people these would be. Soon we heard a African woman shouting to her kids. We hoped that they would pass our compartment. And they did… After a while, 4 young noisy people entered our compartment. Oh my god, we thought… oh… and they were Dutch too :S

Alcohol, music… it’s going to be a long night we thought… And then… After a while an young (black) African man with white teeth, came to us to say hello. He was Dutch too, AND he lives in the same place where Dirk and I come from. ACTUALLY, in the same street as where I used to live! Is the world that small? Coincidence?

At 2am, the six of us were finally trying to sleep. Suddenly at around 3 in the night, the person who slept on the ‘top floor’ in our compartment, jumped out of his bed and ran out of our compartment. He was throwing up in the corridor. Could you imagine what a mess it would have been if he didn’t jumped out of bed?

Thank god, at 9m the boys got off the train in Coimbra, so Dirk and I had another 3 hours to get some sleep…
   
                                       

                                                                          Dirk and I in the night train

TO BE CONTINUED TOMORROW...

InterRail Soap Series part 5: The bloopers continue

"3) No driver…
After six hours in Brussels, we got onto the Thalys train which would bring us to Paris. Time of departure approaches and after the scheduled departure time, we were still standing still in Brussels. And then came the announcement: “Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a small problem: we don’t have a train driver, There is one coming from Paris (!), we hope to leave in 20 minutes”. We could hear that the man who was making the announcement was a little bit ashamed of the situation…

                                  

4) Empty train
On day three, after 2 days in Paris, we continued to Bordeaux. It was a Sunday. Unfortunately we couldn’t reserve two seats for a TGV train somewhere in the afternoon: Every train to Bordeaux was full for travelers using Interrail. So the options were: pay more than 13 euros to get a train in the afternoon or take the first train in the morning for only 1,50 euro reservation costs. We took the first train, which left Montparnasse Station on 7.20am! So our alarm clock was set on 5am! We left our hotel at 5.30am and took several subways on a Sunday morning in Paris to get to Montparnasse station….

At 7.15am we boarded our train to Bordeaux. Train is going to Bordeaux non-stop! The train moves, and after 5 minutes Dirk noticed that our carriage was completely empty! 

After 3,5 hours, we arrived in Bordeaux around 11 pm. We took a cheap hotel across the station and entered the town. But it was Sunday and there was totally nothing to do in Bordeaux… So we thought: Bordeaux was boring…"

TO BE CONTINUED TOMORROW...

InterRail Soap Series part 4: Jay goes backpacking

"SOME EMBARASSING MOMENTS

1) The first steps with a backpack
June 15th, Yes! Today is the day that we leave. With a heavy backpack we say goodbye to our family and get on the train to The Hague, where we had to change trains to Brussels. I was dragging a backpack and had a tent tide up horizontal to my backpack and stock out. 

When I was getting on that crowded International Train, I had some problems: I couldn’t get in the coach easily because my backpack was wider than the door (because of the tent)… When I got into the carriage, I bumped with my backpack into several people who were sitting (because I was to wide to walk safely through the carriage). And at that moment, I wasn’t aware of all those trouble that I was making. Dirk told me what was going on when we finally got two seats…

See the brown sack on the right of the picture? That’s the tent… 

2) Day Ticket in Brussels…
Day 1, we traveled from Netherlands to Paris and we planned a 6 hour break in Brussels to visit the city. It was a hot Friday in June. After we dumped our backpacks in a luggage storage, we headed off to the subway. In big cities with a huge network of public transport it’s the easiest to buy a day ticket which is valid in all busses, trams and subways, if you want to explorer the city. So we wanted to buy a day ticket in one of those vending machines. I read something of a discount in weekends; apparently in Brussels, if you buy 1 day ticket in Brussels in weekends, a second person can travel for free… It costs only 3 euro which we thought was cheap. Not thinking that today was a Friday, we only bought one ticket…. And then, at one ride on the subway, there was an inspector who wanted to see the tickets of all people… Of course we showed him our ticket and of course one of us didn’t had a ticket… Of course we tried to act liked ‘the stupid tourist’, telling him that we thought it was a Saturday and we made up a story that we had a jetlag etc… After a long discussion in English (of course, the conductor probably also spoke Dutch) , he was buying it and we didn’t get a fine…"

TO BE CONTINUED TOMORROW...

InterRail Soap Series part 3: Jay loves to photograph

Our route in Pictures:

      
                             Paris                                                                         Bordeaux

      

                        Lissbon                                                                       Ilha de Tavira

    

                             Seville                                                                       Malaga

    

                        Madrid                                                                              Port Aventura

                                                      

                                                                         Marseille

    

                            Nice                                                                        Vienna 

InterRail Soap Series part 2: Jay seeks travel route

"After long thoughts and reading and brainstorming of our interests in cities, we planned our route. It is going to be:

Haarlem (home)-Brussels-Paris-Bordeaux-Lisbon-‘Somewhere Algarve’-Sevilla-Malaga-Madrid-Salou-Barcelone-Marseille-Nice-Munich-Berlin-Haarlem (home)…

… in 31 days. We planned our route as a circle through a part of Western Europe, which was more interesting than just go from A to B and back to A over the same route. This route was approximately 9000 Kilometers, so were we actually ‘nuts’ to travel 9000 kilometers in trains in 31 days?

Today, more than two years later, Dirk-Jan and I still talk about our journey in 2005, as if it was yesterday. We succeeded to do our planned route with some changing in plans. We didn’t had any trouble nor great delays and we didn’t went from Nice to Munich but from Nice to Vienna (only almost 24 hours by train). We also had quite funny and hilarious moments which we thought It wasn’t hilarious at all when we were en-route. And some of those moments, Dirk-Jan and I decided to share it with you; it can be helpful for your planning…"

TO BE CONTINUED TOMORROW...

InterRail Soap Series part 1: Jay seeks travel mate

“The idea, to do something completely new during my summer vacation in 2005, came suddenly when I was traveling from home to school in Amsterdam on a cold winter day in January. I wanted to do something special in my next summer, not going on a plane what would  bring me and hundreds of other people to a sunny destination somewhere along the Mediterranean Sea and being lazy on a crowded beach… And then I saw some backpackers in my train (which I thought it was very strange for this time of year). And then, I remembered this thing called Interrail, traveling by train through Europe, sleeping in hostels en just go city to city of my interests. A multiple city trip through Europe… My summer was born…

But then… who should I ask to come with me, or who was so crazy like me to do such a thing? Who wanted to come with me and travel around with me for four weeks? Who should I ask… Of all my friends, I thought only two people would ‘qualify’ to be my travel companion: My girlfriend Maudy or my best friend Dirk-Jan. Maudy couldn’t come with me because of her study in tourism and in summer she had to do her internship. So I asked Dirk-Jan very carefully…

                           

His first reaction was: “Dude, are you nuts?” Traveling day in and day out in trains through Europe… “Is that healthy?”, he asked. But after he thought about it, he was getting interested in and after a long thought he said yes, I’ll come with you. So, now I know what I was going to do next summer, I had a travel buddy but where should I go to?"

TO BE CONTINUED TOMORROW...

New posts from The Netherlands!

Hi bloggers!

I received a very funny story from Jay from the Netherlands. Jay travels a lot and (amongst others) in 2005, he traveled with InterRail. And within this story, he spares us no embarrassing details and juicy pictures! Thank you Jay!! For the next week, every day you can read a new part of Jays’s Soap Series.

Do you have a story you want to share on the blog as well? Email me at c.sukel@eurail.nl !

Greets, Chantal

RailDance Express (InterRail) winner Louise from Romania

Hello,

I just got my pass and I'm so happy about it because i get to travel and take pictures(one of my hobbies). Be sure I will send you pictures from my trip,probably from the wineyards of Provence, France and...from your attractive country (I barely wait to see the canals of Amsterdam)....and to drink coffee in Wien in the morning...; These are my principal destinations,but i'm free to choose other places spontaneously and this makes me sooooooooooo happy!!!!

There are so many places to see....I can't cover every country ,but I will surely catch some great moments!!

I'm waiting now for the memories to come....!

Thank you,InterRail team,making one of my dreams come true!

Louise Tanasa (Romania)

RailDance Express (InterRail) Winner Lukas from Germany!

Hi Chantal!

I'm sooo unbelievable happy of seeing that I've won an InterRail Pass, I already dreamed of it last night. :-)

Unfortunately I cannot travel before July 2008, because of my holidays, but already now I'm very excited and curious about my journey. I don't know my complete route yet, but at the moment my plan is to travel first to Holland where a friend of mine lives, who I have not seen since 3 years. Then I would like to spend a few days in Spain for improving my Spanish and for seeing life there and also some days in France. I'm not sure about the rest of my journey, most in all probability I'm going to visit some of my friends who plan going on holiday in Italy.

So if your blog is still up-to-date next year I can describe you exactly each day of my journey. :-)

Greetings from Germany,
Lukas Wellinger