Friday, August 5, 2011

Taking over Europe: relived

On the 7th of August it will be exactly one year since the legendary InterRail trip began. We never got around to blogging about our journey when it actually happened, but hey - better late than never, right? Pinky had the brilliant idea to update this blog now, and write about each day of the trip with a slight delay of one year. If nothing else, it's a nice way of reminiscing :)

-Brain

Ps. The texts, at least from my part, will be in diary form, straight out of the diary I kept while traveling. 

-Pinky
Half of our luggage, view of the Baltic Sea through a window, and my foot


Sunday, August 29, 2010

A little summary

So we're back from our trip. It was pretty damn awesome :D Here is a list of just some of the high-lights:
  • Phrase of the trip: "You'd think"
  • Language of the trip: various types of German
  • Favorite currency: HUFs! (spent 29000 of those in two days)
  • Drink of the trip: Rum (in different forms)
  • Cuisine of the trip: Italian (pizza counts)
  • Songs of the trip: Alejandro and Waka-waka
  • Best camping site: Natterersee Camping in Innsbruck
  • Best hostel: Greenfield Private rooms in Budapest
  • Most memorable places: Untersberg and the Rhine Falls
  • Most surprising places: St Peter's church in Vienna, and Schloss Schönbrunn in Vienna
  • Most frustrating city: Zürich
  • Best scenery: Innsbruck
  • Major frustration of the trip: MasterCard not being accepted or not working
  • Biggest argument of the trip: whether or not apple struedels are mentioned in "My favorite things" from Sound of Music
  • Best train ride: Night train to Berlin
  • Best dinner: Mia's cooking (Copenhagen)
  • Most expensive meal: McDonald's in Zürich (27 CHF for 2 BigMacs, 2 large fries and 2 milkshakes)
  • WTF moments: Being asked for directions in almost every city
  • Weirdest keyboard layout: Hungary
  • Proudest moment: Managing to open beer bottles with a can opener
More details will be posted eventually :P

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

What to pack - updated version

These things are the ones I took with me. The ones I left home are in italics. Also the numbers are now definite.

Random:
  • Tent
  • Sleeping bag
  • Sleeping pad (is that it in English??)
  • Watch & Alarm clock
  • TICKETS!!!
  • Phone & Camera chargers
  • Extra memory cards
  • Insurance Cards
  • Medications (own first aid kit with whatever you're used to using, painkillers, bandaids etc)
  • Scissors
  • Some kind of a multitasking tool. Bottle & can opener, corkscrew, knife etc. 
  • Pens & notebook (diary)
  • Passport & driver's license if you own one. Copies of passport as well.
  • Sun lotion (SPF 30 and SPF 50 for me)
  • Lunch pack thing, well the cutlery + plate in it and a cup of some sort.
  • Playing cards for the longish train rides
  • Presents for the people who we are staying with
Clothes:
  • Thin towel x1
  • Bikinis x1
  • Jeans x1 (leaving home wearing them)
  • Hoodie x1 (leaving home wearing them)
  • Long sleeve shirt x1
  • T-shirts x3
  • Tank tops x3
  • Underwear x6
  • Bras x2 (black & white, possibility to remove straps)
  • Socks x3 (short ankle socks) (and maybe x1 high ankle socks)
  • Sandals x1 (leather, "fancier" sandals, work with a dress
  • Sporty sandals x1 for hiking, longer walks etc
  • Sneakers x1 (leaving home wearing them)
  • Flip flops x1 for wearing while showering at hostels/campsites... Don't want to catch anything.
  • Capris x1
  • Shorts x2
  • Dress x1
  • Skirt x1
  • Bandana scarf x1
  • Small black bag for when going out
  • An over-the-shoulder bag where passports etc are carried in front of you when you're carrying the big backpack. Also when not carrying the backpack a shoulder bag is good to have in town for water bottles & whatever you carry with you while in town.
Toiletries:
  • Toothpaste & toothbrush
  • Hair brush
  • Marseilles-soap for washing clothes on the road
  • Floss
  • Hair removal things of choice
  • Minimal makeup, absolute necessities (mascara x1, black eyeliner pencil x1, a neutral eyeshadow palette with 3 eyeshadows, mineral powder foundation)
  • Shampoo & Hair conditioner, in small bottles
  • Face wash
  • Qtips
  • Tweezers
  • Nail file or clippers
  • Hairbands, hair clips or whatever needed to keep hair in control
  • Toilet paper roll. 

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

What to pack?!

I've read a couple 'what to pack'-lists, and Brain has read them too, and we both agree that those have been written by men. So here's the female version, well one of them. I don't know if I end up taking all of these things with me or the amounts that I mention, but I'm sure I'll do an updated post right after packing before leaving or once we're back.

Random:
  • Tent
  • Sleeping bag
  • Sleeping pad (is that it in English??)
  • Watch & Alarm clock
  • TICKETS!!!
  • Phone & Camera chargers
  • Extra memory cards
  • Insurance Cards
  • Medications (own first aid kit with whatever you're used to using, painkillers, bandaids etc)
  • Scissors
  • Some kind of a multitasking tool. Bottle & can opener, corkscrew, knife etc. 
  • Pens & notebook (diary)
  • Passport & driver's license if you own one. Copies of passport as well.
  • Sun lotion (SPF 30 and SPF 50 for me)
  • Lunch pack thing, well the cutlery + plate in it and a cup of some sort.
  • Playing cards for the longish train rides
  • Presents for the people who we are staying with
Clothes:
  • Thin towel x1
  • Bikinis x1-2
  • Jeans x1 (leaving home wearing them)
  • Hoodie x1 (leaving home wearing them)
  • Long sleeve shirt x1
  • T-shirts x3-4
  • Tank tops x4 (OR x3 + 1x tube top)
  • Underwear x6-7 
  • Bras x2 (black & white, possibility to remove straps)
  • Socks x3 (short ankle socks) (and maybe x1 high ankle socks)
  • Sandals x1 (leather, "fancier" sandals, work with a dress
  • Sporty sandals x1 for hiking, longer walks etc
  • Sneakers x1 (leaving home wearing them)
  • Flip flops x1 for wearing while showering at hostels/campsites... Don't want to catch anything.
  • Capris x1
  • Shorts x1-2
  • Dress x1
  • Skirt x1
  • Bandana scarf x1-2
  • Small black bag for when going out
  • An over-the-shoulder bag where passports etc are carried in front of you when you're carrying the big backpack. Also when not carrying the backpack a shoulder bag is good to have in town for water bottles & whatever you carry with you while in town.
Toiletries:
  • Toothpaste & toothbrush
  • Hair brush
  • Marseilles-soap for washing clothes on the road
  • Floss
  • Hair removal things of choice
  • Minimal makeup, absolute necessities (mascara x1, black eyeliner pencil x1, a neutral eyeshadow palette with 3 eyeshadows, mineral powder foundation)
  • Shampoo & Hair conditioner, in small bottles
  • Face wash
  • Qtips
  • Tweezers
  • Nail file or clippers
  • Hairbands, hair clips or whatever needed to keep hair in control
  • Toilet paper roll. 

The tent Brain and I will be splitting in two. She's taking an mp3-player and I playing cards. I don't think we'll need two Marseilles-soaps cause one is quite big to begin with. We'll probably make do with one phone charger since they're the same kind. Camera battery charger I need to take with cause we have different kinds of batteries.

My backpack is either 55L or 60L depending on which one I'm going to take.

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Camping in Denmark

So I think I found a good camping site in Denmark - Vejle City Camping. It's in Vejle - a small town halfway between Copenhagen and Billund. InterCity trains from Copenhagen to Vejle go every hour (18:50, 19:50, 20:50 and so on) and the trip takes about 2 hours. It'll be much easier to get to Legoland from there - we won't need to get up insanely early, cause the bus trip from Vejle to Billund only takes about an hour (e.g. X-Bus 907X leaves from Vejle Trafikcenter at 9:14 and arrives at Legoland (Billund) at 10:00, which is right when the place opens :D)

The camping site is pretty cheap - 75 DKK / person (~10€) and looks decent, at least according to the pictures on the website... It says that a camping pass is necessary to enter the camping site and that it can be purchased there for 35 DKK / night (~5€). I guess it's not a universal camping pass that could be used in other places, but it applies to the whole household, so an extra 2.5€ per person ain't too bad.

Yesterday I e-mailed the owner and asked whether it is necessary to make reservations and if they have a curfew. I'm guessing his English isn't very good, cause his answer was "NO." and "Oben 7:30-22:00" :D

Sunday, July 4, 2010

A little update: Posts, Trangia and Tent

Sooo I've been kinda lame and haven't updated this blog about Innsbruck's part 2 or Prague. I don't think I will have any time to do that for 3 weeks. Maybe I'll be able to finish the post about Innsbruck but I make no promises. I don't know what I've been doing lately, nothing, but still I haven't managed to write. I have all the things about Innbruck written down so all I would need to do is type it up. Prague pictures I don't have here, and those I most likely cannot access until the end of July. 

Brain and I tested a tent yesterday that can we put it together, and we could. I tested another tent today and it was easy too. The tent is shaped differently. It's not a square, it's some shape that I don't know how to describe. It is sturdier in the wind than the one we tried yesterday. My brother has used the first tent as well and it wasn't good if it's windy, the sticks bend down to the ground. But not in the second tent. 

He showed me how to use the Trangia. 

( Trangia
There's no coffee pot in ours but that's what it looks like otherwise, and we have a possibility to use gas instead of the liquid that is poured in the bronzy thingy that cannot be found from central Europe unfortunately. I don't know why, but it's not sold there.

It's just that since we are flying back, a can of gas (about 10€) or the liquid, cannot be taken back to Finland with an airplane. I'm not even sure that can Trangia be in the luggage because either the middle part, the burner, will have some liquid residue, I don't know what the liquid is called (methylated spirit according to wikipedia), and then there's the other part (not in the picture) that connects to the gas bottle.

We need to read more about the campsites and that do they have kitchens, because this Trangia business might be a little problematic. Trangia itself does not weigh much, but the gas bottle or the methylated spirit bottle does weigh something.

Saturday, July 3, 2010

Wooo!

  • InterRail Global Passes - purchased
  • Boat tickets Finland-Sweden - booked
  • Plane tickets back to Finland - booked
All in all, we are well on our way to taking over Europe. Hurray to that!