As you may have noticed when reading my blog, travelling is an important part of my life - ideally in combination with knitting.
Here's a list of countries that I've visited and I'm hoping to extend soon:
Europe
Rail travel
My preferred mode of transport is the train. I have travelled amongst others India, Japan, South Korea, Georgia, Armenia, Peru, Ukraine, Belarus, Poland, Moldova, Romania, Bulgaria, most of continental Western Europe (including the UK), and the West Coast of the US by train. One of the most memorable trips was the journey from Gothenburgh, Sweden, to Narvik, Norway, north of the Arctic Circle where the sun never set. But of course every single of those trips mentioned above was memorable in its own way!
I especially love overnight sleeper trains which for some reasons make me feel very nostalgic and are just the most magical way to travel: you get in, sleep, wake up, and you are in a completely different location. Even delays of 10 hours or more (hello, India!) are tolerable if you are anyway set to go for an overnight trip and you have everything with you that you need: a good book, some knitting, and a podcast. And food, if there is no "thali" vendor at hand.
Besides being more environmentally friendly than air travel, I also love that you can see the countryside and appreciate the distance traveled much more. On most of my trips I have also met very interesting and friendly people on the train that have shared stories, food, and once in Ukraine, even a bottle of vodka with me.
Where can you go on an adventure like this nowadays where already buying the ticket is a memory of its own? I remember struggling in Belarus to make myself understood and explaining with hand and feet where I want to go, only to understand after some time that I was at the completely wrong counter.
The most important bit is planning ahead and in some cases, also booking ahead. If you are also interested in planning a trip by train, here are some useful links:
Here's a list of countries that I've visited and I'm hoping to extend soon:
Europe
- Austria
- Belarus
- Belgium
- Czech Republic
- Croatia
- Denmark
- Estonia
- Finland
- France
- Germany
- Greece
- Hungary
- Iceland
- Italy
- Ireland
- Latvia
- Liechtenstein
- Lithuania
- Luxembourg
- Malta
- Moldova
- Montenegro
- Netherlands
- Norway
- Poland
- Portugal
- Romania
- Russia
- Sweden
- Slovakia
- Spain
- Switzerland
- UK
- Ukraine
Asia
Americas
- Botswana
- Kenya
- South Africa
- Zimbabwe
Rail travel
My preferred mode of transport is the train. I have travelled amongst others India, Japan, South Korea, Georgia, Armenia, Peru, Ukraine, Belarus, Poland, Moldova, Romania, Bulgaria, most of continental Western Europe (including the UK), and the West Coast of the US by train. One of the most memorable trips was the journey from Gothenburgh, Sweden, to Narvik, Norway, north of the Arctic Circle where the sun never set. But of course every single of those trips mentioned above was memorable in its own way!
I especially love overnight sleeper trains which for some reasons make me feel very nostalgic and are just the most magical way to travel: you get in, sleep, wake up, and you are in a completely different location. Even delays of 10 hours or more (hello, India!) are tolerable if you are anyway set to go for an overnight trip and you have everything with you that you need: a good book, some knitting, and a podcast. And food, if there is no "thali" vendor at hand.
Besides being more environmentally friendly than air travel, I also love that you can see the countryside and appreciate the distance traveled much more. On most of my trips I have also met very interesting and friendly people on the train that have shared stories, food, and once in Ukraine, even a bottle of vodka with me.
Where can you go on an adventure like this nowadays where already buying the ticket is a memory of its own? I remember struggling in Belarus to make myself understood and explaining with hand and feet where I want to go, only to understand after some time that I was at the completely wrong counter.
The most important bit is planning ahead and in some cases, also booking ahead. If you are also interested in planning a trip by train, here are some useful links:
- One of the best resources for train travel around the word is the "Seat 61" website which I have quoted several times in my blog posts. If you plan any kind of train trip I can really recommend this website as a resource beyond timetables and ticket prices.
- If you need a reliable source of international timetables, Deutsche Bahn (the German Railways) has an extensive database with accurate information. However, they don't quote prices for cross-border travel.
- In Europe, most people probably know the famous "InterRail" ticket which allows you unlimited rail travel over a certain time period and which can be good value if you want to travel intensively over a few weeks. I traveled Belgium, France, and Italy when I was 17 and I absolutely loved it. In hindsight, I would have taken a smaller backpack though.
- Similar offers exist outside Europe, notably Japan which gives excellent value for money with its "Japan Rail Pass", only available outside Japan for tourists. Japan has some of the smoothest and best organised rail operations I have ever seen and you can get pretty much anywhere by train.
- In the US, Amtrak also has some special offers for people who want to travel more extensively but their rail passes are not really worth it in my opinion. I only did a short trip on the California Zephyr but I'm still dreaming of doing the coast-to-coast trip by train. It's surprisingly cheap to do it all in one go but I would prefer stopping a few time to avoid the 3-day trip non-stop.
- India train travel is a chapter on its own and I will not waste my time here. Check out the Seat 61 section on how to book tickets in advance, it is very strongly advised (and read up very well on the different booking categories).
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