Must try experience in Europe

If anyone were to ask me what is the one thing you gotta try while in Europe, I would have to say it's the train experience. Do you know that Europe has the most beautiful scenic train route? Passing through plots of meadow field with snow capped mountains at the back drop.

How about trying something more unique than simply boarding and alighting the train? We decide to go for Night Sleeper train for a long distance journey from Rome to Vienna. In this way, you can save the money for another day of accommodation and also save some time. But of course, it may not be suitable for everyone because it is not a so comfortable night as compared to the comfy bed in hotel and hostel. Which is why I said, it's simply for the Experience :) Normal people (like me) will have to catch some additional hours of sleep after reaching your destination.

The Experience

I was quite excited before taking the night train because we have heard some stories about the people you will come across on the train, and whether you will end up with a good/bad experience all depends on your luck. My travelling mate and I was hoping to have a slightly better chance of good experience, so we chose the 4 person 'bunk'.

As usual, we reached the platform, train came as scheduled and we found our bunk. The train steward was a really nice and courteous young man. He started making rounds to distribute clean bed sheets, blanket, pillow and explaining to us when our 2 other bunk mates will arrive. We boarded the train on the first main station at 7pm, while the other 2 will be boarding from subsequent stations at 9 and 12pm. 

As the train depart, we also started to settle down in our little sleeping area. We booked the 2 upper deck of the bunk so that there's less disturbance. That was a good choice made because the upper deck does feel more personal and private. I had my takeaway Mac Donald's dinner on board, while enjoying the scenery out there. After a couple of minutes, the steward came back to collect our boarding pass and passport. This is compulsory for night sleeper train that crosses any EU borders. My friend kind of pre-empted me, so we weren't that shocked, but we were still quite insecure without our passport with us.

Walking along the corridor, I managed to peek into other types of bunk. I was rather surprised to see how the 6 beds bunk is possible, having 3 stacked bed in such space constraint. You still can sit upright on a 2 stacked beds, but you can only lie down on a 3 stacked bed. That is how squeezy. Interesting right?

It was a jerky ride and the bed was rather hard. There was constant noise coming from other bunks, but we were quite lucky because our 2 other bunk mates, a lady and a man (both lone traveler),  are of the normal and considerate ones.

The next morning, the steward came back to return our passport and informed us about the breakfast he prepared for us in the emptied bunk next door. That was when we chatted with our male bunk mate who's a baseball trainer from US.

So that is the kind of thrill and adventure you can never get taking a plane. 

Eurail Pass

Manage to dig out this parcel that are stashed away together with other memoirs. I have the habit of keeping tickets to attractions, used maps and postcards collected from vacation trips. Especially used maps, the mint condition adds value to the whole collection.

There are mainly 4 types of pass that Eurail offers; Global, Select, Regional and One Country pass. These passes cater to many different travelling plan, you may refer to the website for more details.

We chose the Select Pass (5 countries in 6+1 days) because it was the most suitable one that catered exactly to what we needed. Select pass works on the condition that the countries chosen must be bordering countries. When we bought the tickets, there was a promotion for 1 free additional travelling day when the 6 days pass is purchased. So we snagged the deal by paying 303 euros each.

Here's the Eurail package that I received after making the payment. It consists of a Eurail Train Schedule, a map of the cities in Europe and the Eurail Pass itself. (Yes, these 3 booklets are worth 303 euros).

Eurail Ticket
They are pretty simple to use and there's full instructions how to go about using them.

Before the whole trip, you can filled up section 2 & 3. They are mainly some details. You can refer to the next photo for reference.

Here's for section 1:

In order to start using the Eurail Pass ticket, the first thing you need to do is to activate it. To activate it, Easy! Simply just go to any participating Eurail countries train station counters, show them your Eurail Pass and passport. They will filled in the activation date, passport number and lastly stamped it. You can activate it on the day you decide to start your trip, and it will be valid (me for eg. 2months) and good for use for 7 days.

The bottom 7 columns are to be filled by you on the days you travel. I just fill it in just before taking the train, in case there's any unforeseen changes to the travelling plan.

While you are on the train, the train conductors will make their routine checks, so all you have to do is to present your Eurail Pass ticket and train reservation recipt. They will validate it by either stamping on the date you filled in or punch a hole underneath the columns.

The map that is in the Eurail package. Doodle them as you like, just like i did!

Ticket reservation is compulsory for some of the trains. For example, i noticed that most intercity trains in Italy require seat reservation. You can reserve the seat either through the automated machines at the train station of over the ticketing counters. Some popular train connections are sometimes fully booked on the departure day, so book early to avoid disappointment! Here's a photo of how the reservation ticket looks like.

Eurail Train Schedule

This booklet contains the schedule of train connections that connect the major cities. It's the next best alternative if you do not have data connection to search it on the Internet.

For eg. (Venice -> Florence)

From Santa Lucia train station take the train to Venezia Mestre at 7.18am (which is available mon to sat). Then transfer to another AVI train (reservation required) that departs at 7.39am and arrive Florence at 9.35am.

The platform for the train is subjected to changes, hence it is not provided in this booklet. Do reach the station early to check the platform of the train. For trains with seat reservation, you can check the rough location of your seat from the board at the specified platform. Sometimes boarding time can be relatively short, so it's always good to be in the vincity your reserved seats. Don't underestimate europe train, you need probably 5mins to walk from one end to the other end of the train.

Hopefully this is comprehensive enough for anyone who's considering taking train in europe.

Just one more thing I would like to recommend - The bayern ticket by DB Bahn.

This ticket which cost 29 euro is valid for 1 day travel in the entire Bavaria for up to 5 person. So it is especially useful if you are in Munich and are planning a day trip to visit Salzburg or Fussen (Neuschwanstein) with your travelling buddy. Effectively one journey will cost less than 4 euros!!(based on 4 travelling buddies).

Alright, that's about it! I shall update if anything cross my mind again.

Snippets of Europe

Long hiatus since my last update. So many things has happened and suddenly I have the urge to do something to revive this blog again. One of my "blue moon" again maybe? I will probably start with some snippets to my Europe trip last month when I was sent over to Germany for training.  In my opinion, Europe has far too many under-rated and over-rated cities. If you are planning to go Europe on a free-and-easy trip, you should probably stay tuned. 

The first question a lot of people would have in mind would be the travelling itinerary. For me, it wasn't much of an issue because I already planned to meet up with friends half way through the travelling trip, so all I have to do is to tag along their planned itinerary. Over the 1 month of training based in Germany; I managed to make trips down to nearby cities such as Berlin, Salzburg and Munich over the weekends. After the training ended, we left Germany for 12 days of budget trip to...

Just to highlight some of the places I've visited. These are probably some of the best memories I have for Europe, and you would be surprised that it's not all about the place, but what's more important is the events/people that leaves a better impression than other highly raved place.

Don't miss: The Christmas store in Salzburg at Goldenstrasse.

They sell intricately painted, laced, beaded and carved egg shells that you can hang on you Christmas tree. Finally something different from the boring ornaments that you find during Christmas Bazaar right? I'm sure you will not leave this shop empty handed because they are just so unique you know you have to get them. Each range between 3 to 20 euros depending on the design.

Mai Wiesn with fellow mentors. 

We were invited to the Burghausen traditional beer festival. Many of you would have heard about Oktoberfest, but you probably didn't know that each city in Germany celebrate their own beer festival on a different month; and Oktoberfest is a Bavarian event. During the event, young ladies and men would dress up in their traditional costume and party the whole night away with beer, beer and more beer.

Opening Ceremony of Mai Wiesn

Don't miss: Hofbrauhaus in Munich

What's better than enjoying 1 litre of malty beer and delicious Schweinhaxen (pork knuckle) in this oldest beer hall together with some live gig.

Prague - Old Town Square

The city looks so much different when night falls. The best time to take photo would be during sunset/sunrise and of course at night.

Venice - Beautiful Canals and Gondola ride

There are simply too many canals and bridges that every corners and turns will lead you to think that you were there just a few minutes ago. We ditched our map here and just blatantly followed a group of students who were led by their teacher, to bring us to the popular place like Piazza San Marco.

There's so much to share. We bought Eurail pass ticket and took trains throughout the whole Europe trip. There's so many options to how travel from taking domestic flights to hop-on buses. But there's so many advantage to take trains as compared to domestic flights. 

1. Convenience: Train station are usually right smack in the middle of the city's center and tourist attraction. Which is why when travelling to each destination you can save a lot of trouble and hassle finding ways to get from airport to city center.

2. Accurate train schedule: I'm really impressed by the train scheduling. It is almost always on the dot. Unlike domestic flight where it always get delayed and requires you to check in 2 hrs prior to flight.

3. Experience: Taking train is one activity that you must experience while in Europe. If you can, try taking a night sleeper train! 

Next entry I will probably share some useful tips on how the Eurail pass works. Till then!

This is probably the one and only place i hide my little thoughts and i can pour to. Times change and so does people. People whom you regard as friend, become someone you can barely recognise. It seems like there bound to be this phase in every friendship/relationship - all too familiar, too cruel. At the end of the day, everything reduce to the superficial reasons that people refused to admit.

Too stubborn to succumb to the superficiality, too many principles that i hold on to, too lonely i feel i am in this world.

PS: Reading those past entry, I guess i seem to understand all these far too young.

I know where i stand.

Boring friday afternoon

Was too bored, so i began to play with curlers at home. Heh, after seeing jlow in curls which turns out rather nice, I got quite curious how i will look in curls. So yeah, just fiddled with my hair a bit plus camwhore a bit.. this is the outcome.



Definitely need to grow longer hair length to pull it off, but my hair seems to stop growing when it reaches this length. Hmm, maybe it's time to have a new hairstyle

Friends come and go, drift and disappear do they?

Even your very best friends?

Especially when stepping into a new phase of life, your existence got buried into their sea of busy life, like a forgotten part of memory.

14/9/2011

The night before dawn is always the darkest, I hope dawn is coming soon because I have enough of darkness. I've never ever been so emotionally dependant on someone like this before, and I'm really grateful to the person who's always standing there for me. Although thank you is probably not the word you are hoping to hear.

Am I too selfish?

pictures credit to leilockheart.tumblr.com