Category: Interrailing
-
Klaipeda and Nida, the sandy West coast of Lithuania
We arrived in Klaipeda close to midnight, thanks to the only train options there from Siauliai (or Vilnius or anywhere) being very early or very late. On the plus side, I didn’t get hassled for not having a reservation, there were no dog issues, and my Interrail pass went down okay. After a bit of…
-
Wot no Warsaw? Crossing the North of Poland Eastwards to Elk
Interrailing can easily get dominated by cities, particularly capital cities. But it doesn’t have to be. Railway Dog much prefers greener locations, so we skipped Warsaw and headed to the Mazury Lakes region in North East Poland, as recommended by a Polish hitch hiker back in Romania. From the Gdansk, Tczew, Malbork train, we had…
-
Gdansk and Gdynia, a happy time with Railway Dog; much rebuilding done, more ruins still
First stop in Gdansk was a delicious vegan restaurant, Avocado. In Poland many eateries do not allow dogs inside, but wherever I go the vegan places are nearly always dog friendly. Gdansk is beautiful and very pedestrian and cycle friendly (as with everywhere I went in Poland). The port city got hammered when it was…
-
Krakow to Gdansk, via Warsaw
Poland feels so modern and clean after Hungary and Romania. This is true on this spanking clean train. The trains are actually used by many locals. This was my first commuter train in 6 weeks, an early morning intercity. Every seat was booked, you can see Basbie is initially a bit concerned by the squashing…
-
Polish public transport, tickets and dogs
There are generally good bus and tram services in Polish towns and cities. Trains run fairly reliably between many of them. Krakow was the main place Railway Dog used local public transport. Tickets are from machines at the main stops and on the more modern buses and trams. These take cash or cards and tickets…
-
Sleeping on a seat overnight from Budapest to Krakow
This was one of the times when travelling with a dog too big to put in a case was a problem. There are lovely sleeping cars from Budapest to Prague, Berlin, Krakow and Warsaw. However a pet without a box can’t be booked into them. So I had to book an ordinary seat and a…
-
Cluj-Napoca, a little known gem of Romania
We chose Cluj-Napoca for our last overnight in Romania as it has a good train connections to Budapest and Vienna. There is a delightful sleeper train in which dogs can travel in the sleeping car if you book a whole compartment. See below. Cluj turns out to be a lovely gently European city full of…
-
Interrailing phone dependence: coping with phone loss, theft and breakdown
Phone dependence while traveling is a recent yet pervasive phenomenon. Here I talk about when my phone died and when someone had their phone stolen while Interrailing, as well as basic phone requirements. Interrailing on an open start date ticket is only possible with a phone app, Rail Planner. It’s a well thought out app…
-
Romanian time warp
Traveling to Romania is time travel. From many young people smoking cigarettes, to hay stooks, to human train signals, to 3 ticket inspectors per 5/6ths empty train, to cash only small shops, to dilapidated brutalist architecture juxtaposed to 19th century ruins. My initial exposure to all this was in Baile Herculane, a spa town on…
-
The intrepid Railway Dog goes to Romania, with some learning along the way
Budapest Kelati train station has a small number of long distance trains to Romania daily, to several main cities, particularly Timisoara, Arad and Cluj Napoca. Some go on as far as Bucharest. Several are sleepers (some described by the man at seat 61, as well as one from Cluj Napoca to Budapest not mentioned there).…