Train to Transylvania: Part One
After the epic crazy of my 36 day Topdeck tour to most of the major places in Europe, I decided early on that I would go back for another tour to see some of what I missed at a slightly slower pace. Which is why I got myself one of those handy Eurail passes and have been train-hopping ever since the beginning of the month when I left Morocco.
I won't beat you over the head with everything that I learnt, but one of the biggest things that struck me was how completely different it was from Spain. I know they're different cultures, but with Portugal geographically within Spain's pocket I had thought that they were far more similar in style than they actually were. Contrary to what I had thought, the countries actually had very little similarities at all - not even their languages were similar. This threw me, made me think how obtuse I was to not realise before.
After I got over that, though, Lisbon was amazing. It was beautiful and polished, with a very different history to what I imagined and made up effectively of a very classy sea-side culture. There was plenty of sea food and grilled chicken, beautiful scenery, and for some reason an odd obsession with pirates that they shared with Croatia. Made sense, of course given their history, but was still pretty awesome. Their traditional music, Fado, is also based around sailors.
Lastly, there was Sintra: a beautiful mountain-too micro-universe filled with lavish manors, palaces, bakeries and all the colours of the rainbow. There was even one manor abandoned and slowly falling to ruin because everyone was so terrified of what may be in there that no one would work, buy or stay there. They were convinced it was haunted. It was definately my kind of place to be.
Limoges, France
Oddly I could only reserve a first class ticket on the train to France (such a shame), so the day went really quickly. Although by the time I finally made it, 3 trains later, to Limoges and to my (likely) haunted hotel, it was well after 12 hours of travel. Since I got in so late, I barely had enough time to explore the city of Limoges at all and that's one thing that was a bit of a shame; despite staying in one of France's medieval cities for two nights - I actually didn't see much of it past the train station.
The real reason I was there, was because of the proximity of the city to the much smaller city of Montingac - if by another 2 hour train ride and a 20 euro taxi you can consider it close. But for the purpose I needed it, Limoges served pretty well as a base point for the day trip I took to see the mortally amazing Grotte du Lascaux. Believe me when I say that years of studying and imagining what the place would actually be like was so below par that I'm ashamed; Lascaux was hundreds of times better than what I imagined it would be, and standing in the cave (albeit a replica) it was so hard to not be completely awestruck by the atmosphere and significance of the site. For those of you not in the know, Lascaux is a Palaeolithic cave sight, attributed to one of the most visually stunning and oldest artworks in human history. Archaeologists have so far dated it to approximately 27,000BP and there are numerous different interpretations of what the significance of the paintings actually is. One archaeologist even referred to Lascaux as the 'Sistine Chapel' of the Palaeolithic, and personally I found it hard to not be swept away by that idea; I had never spent so spiritual in my entire life as I did inside that cave, and I have been inside all of the most famous churches and cathedrals in Europe. It was complete magic, I don't even know how better to describe it.
Montignac itself was a bit of a hidden gem I wasn't expecting. Alongside Lascaux, there was the nearby Neanderthal burial site of Regoudou that the owner had turned into a tourist attraction and simultaneously attempt to reintroduce bears back into south-west France. Of course he tried this with 3 bears and it didn't work, but the park still had live bears inside (which was fun to see), and from an archaeological point of view it was interesting to read the information supplied about the 'Clan of the Cave Bear' phenomenon brought on by the cave bear bones found beside the grave. Not to mention highly romanticised in the famous book series by Auel. For the record, however, it's not a hugely accepted idea in the archaeological record for the time. It's rather controversial. On the other hand, apart from the bear site, the little town was just generally really a pretty place to wander through. There were traditional French patisseries and boulangeries everywhere, and it felt a little like a real taste of country France - so very different to the bustle of Paris!
Zurich, Switzerland
It was a lovely summer day in Zurich, and with the single day I had I managed to do a loop right around the city on the tourist walking travel, visit the museum, and hunt down some quality Swiss chocolate. Not to mention see some finer Swiss architecture and be wow'd by just how damn prompt every thing is. And expensive.
Having only been to Lauterbrunnen, a small Swiss village, it was an interesting comparison to visit Zurich, one of the small county's main cities and find out what urban Switzerland was like. It wasn't a hugely entertaining city - there wasn't a big list of things to see and do already set - but it was certainly a nice one to just explore. Since I only had the one day I felt that it was sufficient, and were I to go back perhaps I'd discover more to the city that you can't really touch on the surface. But it was just lovely all the same.
Personally, I preferred Lauterbrunnen and the cutesy, picturesque atmosphere of it, but Zurich just felt like a bigger version of that with added buildings, less cows with bells, and a castle or two. I'll let you decide on that one for yourself, but I did enjoy it.
Brussels, Belgium
I felt that Brussels really had to grow on me. When I got in from Zurich I was a bit disappointed - it was so ugly! The subway looked like I had walked into the 70's and when I first went into town everything I saw looked run down and miserable - and not in a charming way. Of course, Belgium is famous for its beer and so my solution to the problem was to go on a beer tour, get a bit drunk, meet some awesome people, join the pub crawl and end up (shamefully) back at McDonald's. Funnily enough, the city started to charm me by then .
And it only continued over the next two days: the history of the city was courageous and endearing, I didn't realise that the EU headquarters were there so that was cool, and the city centre itself was actually kind of beautiful when you saw it from the right angle. I did the Sandeman's walking tour again (I will do these in every city they're available for), met some more cool people, and went to the comic book museum. My dad, when he was younger, was a fan of Asterix and Obelisk so I went as a salute to him even if I was a little disappointed to learn that there was hardly anything about them there. A little on Tin Tin, but not all that much. So, via frites and Belgian waffles, I ended up back at the pub crawl for round two.
The last day was the best in the plucky little city, and I started off with a visit to the chocolate museum where I not only got to watch and learn how praline was made but I got plenty of free samples. I was also a little excited to note, from a historic point of view, the mentions of the Aztecs and the abominable Hernando Cortes. Google it - it's an interesting but sad and gory story. No trip to Belgium would be complete without chocolate. But since I prefer Swiss chocolate, the best thing that I loved about Brussels was Mini Europe: a little theme-park dedicated to all the countries of the EU, the history of the EU and the hope for the future. It was sort of like 'It's a Small World' at Disneyland but night in ride form, or with a theme song. It was totally awesome though, and each country had various models to represent different parts of the country, buttons to push that played the national anthem, and all sorts of information about the country from populations to capital city to the year that they joined the EU. It was fun and educational - and trust me when I saw I had a ridiculously fun time on that one posing with giant clogs, next to a pint-sized Big Ben and as a Viking. I definitely recommend it to anyone heading to Brussels because it's good for an afternoon of uncomplicated fun - plus you really might learn something.
Anyway, plucky little Belgium really grew on me even if Brussels was a total ugly duckling at first glance. I got to have some chocolate, have a lot of laughs, meet some more amazing people and learn plenty I didn't know about beer. I really think I appreciate beer so much more now.
I'll be back soon with part deux of my rail adventures real soon!
Only a week left to go before Transylvania!
Now, it's not all been roses and sunshine, and I don't mean because it's been surprisingly cold for summer (I live in Australia, 20 degrees is a cold day in summer). There have been so many ups and downs already that at half way I almost feel like I've run a bit of a marathon and I've started to feel myself suffering from the fatigue.
This being my first time on a rail pass, it took a bit of getting used to; the first few days trying to not only figure that out but a plan for the entire month as well saw me in somewhat of a cornucopia of stress. What the hell did I do? How did the pass work when I didn't need a reservation? Why if I couldn't get on a train? What if I ran out of euros? All sorts of situations ran through my mind and more than once I was so worried that it wasn't even fun anymore. It was different, scary and felt like a much bigger task than it should have been to catch a couple of trains.
Of course that was only the first couple of days, and one I caught my first train, figured out a semblance of a plan and got on the road (well, tracks) everything seemed to calm down quite a lot. My stress misted out the window just like Dracula.
My original concept back in January after trying to frantically reconfigure what to do since my 5 year plan had been thrown off, was to work my way backwards from Russia towards the UK. When I threw Topdeck into the mix along with a bunch of other things like Morocco, there suddenly wasn't time or energy left to jumping through the 50 hoops that would have let me into the once-Imperial empire, and that idea was soon disbanded in favour of another: something closer to this one. And just as well it would seem considering how the Russians have been carrying on lately.
So fresh off of the plane from Marrakech, the first leg of my 11-part train journey to Transylvania began once I'd touched down in one of the most amazing places I'd ever been:
Lisbon, Portugal
When I tell you that all I knew about Portugal and it's culture was peri-peri (sadly, not even a thing) I'm not lying. I knew they were once a big aquatic power like the Dutch, they settled Brazil, and that they were a sea-based culture. All true, of course, but that's surface level stuff - what did I really know?
As it turned out: nothing.
I won't beat you over the head with everything that I learnt, but one of the biggest things that struck me was how completely different it was from Spain. I know they're different cultures, but with Portugal geographically within Spain's pocket I had thought that they were far more similar in style than they actually were. Contrary to what I had thought, the countries actually had very little similarities at all - not even their languages were similar. This threw me, made me think how obtuse I was to not realise before. After I got over that, though, Lisbon was amazing. It was beautiful and polished, with a very different history to what I imagined and made up effectively of a very classy sea-side culture. There was plenty of sea food and grilled chicken, beautiful scenery, and for some reason an odd obsession with pirates that they shared with Croatia. Made sense, of course given their history, but was still pretty awesome. Their traditional music, Fado, is also based around sailors.
Another thing I wasn't expecting but ultimately liked was portugal's rich export of cork. Like wine bottle cork, the way things used to be. There's certainly something so cool about that much cork, especially when they love it so much they turned it into things like bags and phone covers as well.
Lastly, there was Sintra: a beautiful mountain-too micro-universe filled with lavish manors, palaces, bakeries and all the colours of the rainbow. There was even one manor abandoned and slowly falling to ruin because everyone was so terrified of what may be in there that no one would work, buy or stay there. They were convinced it was haunted. It was definately my kind of place to be.
In the end I didn't have nearly enough time in Portugal to see everything I wanted, but at least I know more about it and that I definitely want to go back for more.
Madrid, Spain
My second taste of Spain was debate-ably (Google spell did not let me have that word) better than my first, and I attribute this mostly to the fact that I spent more time in Madrid than I got to in Barcelona - not that I prefer Madrid. However, after my stressful first couple of hours after hopping off the overnight train from Lisbon, I met a bunch of people on the Sandeman's walking tour, learnt a lot about Spain I didn't already know and really relaxed right into the city. It was actually quite marvellous.
From the copious amounts of Sangria (again) to the tapas and flamenco, Madrid was a pretty cool city. It was hotter than hell (and not just because the Gay Pride parade was on) and it really felt like the saucy, sultry kind of place I always imagined it to be. It gave me a real itching to watch the Mask of Zorro (I know that's set in California, but they're Spanish) and the film version of Carmen (which I did, but all in Spanish). I got to eat lots of good food, drink lots of fruity wine punch, learn how to pour special Spanish cider and even got to salsa at some club we went to on the Pub Crawl. It was all very much the part of Spain I wanted to see - at least to begin with.
The second day was just as good and for a totally different reason: we simply walked around lazily, probably a bit hungover, and just discovered the city. We stumbled across some cute little flea market, people watched the oddest looking family from Starbuck's and did you know that someone reconstructed an Ancient Egyptian temple in the middle of Madrid? Well, we saw that, too, along with the Plaza Mayor, the Basilica and plenty other sites around the city. Madrid really is much more fun than I thought it would be and I have the sultry city to thank for that as much as the amazing people that I met along the way. I was sad to leave for France, even if I didn't speak a word of Spanish past 'de nada'.
My second taste of Spain was debate-ably (Google spell did not let me have that word) better than my first, and I attribute this mostly to the fact that I spent more time in Madrid than I got to in Barcelona - not that I prefer Madrid. However, after my stressful first couple of hours after hopping off the overnight train from Lisbon, I met a bunch of people on the Sandeman's walking tour, learnt a lot about Spain I didn't already know and really relaxed right into the city. It was actually quite marvellous.
From the copious amounts of Sangria (again) to the tapas and flamenco, Madrid was a pretty cool city. It was hotter than hell (and not just because the Gay Pride parade was on) and it really felt like the saucy, sultry kind of place I always imagined it to be. It gave me a real itching to watch the Mask of Zorro (I know that's set in California, but they're Spanish) and the film version of Carmen (which I did, but all in Spanish). I got to eat lots of good food, drink lots of fruity wine punch, learn how to pour special Spanish cider and even got to salsa at some club we went to on the Pub Crawl. It was all very much the part of Spain I wanted to see - at least to begin with.
The second day was just as good and for a totally different reason: we simply walked around lazily, probably a bit hungover, and just discovered the city. We stumbled across some cute little flea market, people watched the oddest looking family from Starbuck's and did you know that someone reconstructed an Ancient Egyptian temple in the middle of Madrid? Well, we saw that, too, along with the Plaza Mayor, the Basilica and plenty other sites around the city. Madrid really is much more fun than I thought it would be and I have the sultry city to thank for that as much as the amazing people that I met along the way. I was sad to leave for France, even if I didn't speak a word of Spanish past 'de nada'.
Limoges, France
Oddly I could only reserve a first class ticket on the train to France (such a shame), so the day went really quickly. Although by the time I finally made it, 3 trains later, to Limoges and to my (likely) haunted hotel, it was well after 12 hours of travel. Since I got in so late, I barely had enough time to explore the city of Limoges at all and that's one thing that was a bit of a shame; despite staying in one of France's medieval cities for two nights - I actually didn't see much of it past the train station.
The real reason I was there, was because of the proximity of the city to the much smaller city of Montingac - if by another 2 hour train ride and a 20 euro taxi you can consider it close. But for the purpose I needed it, Limoges served pretty well as a base point for the day trip I took to see the mortally amazing Grotte du Lascaux. Believe me when I say that years of studying and imagining what the place would actually be like was so below par that I'm ashamed; Lascaux was hundreds of times better than what I imagined it would be, and standing in the cave (albeit a replica) it was so hard to not be completely awestruck by the atmosphere and significance of the site. For those of you not in the know, Lascaux is a Palaeolithic cave sight, attributed to one of the most visually stunning and oldest artworks in human history. Archaeologists have so far dated it to approximately 27,000BP and there are numerous different interpretations of what the significance of the paintings actually is. One archaeologist even referred to Lascaux as the 'Sistine Chapel' of the Palaeolithic, and personally I found it hard to not be swept away by that idea; I had never spent so spiritual in my entire life as I did inside that cave, and I have been inside all of the most famous churches and cathedrals in Europe. It was complete magic, I don't even know how better to describe it.Zurich, Switzerland
It was a lovely summer day in Zurich, and with the single day I had I managed to do a loop right around the city on the tourist walking travel, visit the museum, and hunt down some quality Swiss chocolate. Not to mention see some finer Swiss architecture and be wow'd by just how damn prompt every thing is. And expensive.Having only been to Lauterbrunnen, a small Swiss village, it was an interesting comparison to visit Zurich, one of the small county's main cities and find out what urban Switzerland was like. It wasn't a hugely entertaining city - there wasn't a big list of things to see and do already set - but it was certainly a nice one to just explore. Since I only had the one day I felt that it was sufficient, and were I to go back perhaps I'd discover more to the city that you can't really touch on the surface. But it was just lovely all the same.Personally, I preferred Lauterbrunnen and the cutesy, picturesque atmosphere of it, but Zurich just felt like a bigger version of that with added buildings, less cows with bells, and a castle or two. I'll let you decide on that one for yourself, but I did enjoy it.
Brussels, Belgium
I felt that Brussels really had to grow on me. When I got in from Zurich I was a bit disappointed - it was so ugly! The subway looked like I had walked into the 70's and when I first went into town everything I saw looked run down and miserable - and not in a charming way. Of course, Belgium is famous for its beer and so my solution to the problem was to go on a beer tour, get a bit drunk, meet some awesome people, join the pub crawl and end up (shamefully) back at McDonald's. Funnily enough, the city started to charm me by then .And it only continued over the next two days: the history of the city was courageous and endearing, I didn't realise that the EU headquarters were there so that was cool, and the city centre itself was actually kind of beautiful when you saw it from the right angle. I did the Sandeman's walking tour again (I will do these in every city they're available for), met some more cool people, and went to the comic book museum. My dad, when he was younger, was a fan of Asterix and Obelisk so I went as a salute to him even if I was a little disappointed to learn that there was hardly anything about them there. A little on Tin Tin, but not all that much. So, via frites and Belgian waffles, I ended up back at the pub crawl for round two.
The last day was the best in the plucky little city, and I started off with a visit to the chocolate museum where I not only got to watch and learn how praline was made but I got plenty of free samples. I was also a little excited to note, from a historic point of view, the mentions of the Aztecs and the abominable Hernando Cortes. Google it - it's an interesting but sad and gory story. No trip to Belgium would be complete without chocolate. But since I prefer Swiss chocolate, the best thing that I loved about Brussels was Mini Europe: a little theme-park dedicated to all the countries of the EU, the history of the EU and the hope for the future. It was sort of like 'It's a Small World' at Disneyland but night in ride form, or with a theme song. It was totally awesome though, and each country had various models to represent different parts of the country, buttons to push that played the national anthem, and all sorts of information about the country from populations to capital city to the year that they joined the EU. It was fun and educational - and trust me when I saw I had a ridiculously fun time on that one posing with giant clogs, next to a pint-sized Big Ben and as a Viking. I definitely recommend it to anyone heading to Brussels because it's good for an afternoon of uncomplicated fun - plus you really might learn something.Anyway, plucky little Belgium really grew on me even if Brussels was a total ugly duckling at first glance. I got to have some chocolate, have a lot of laughs, meet some more amazing people and learn plenty I didn't know about beer. I really think I appreciate beer so much more now.
I'll be back soon with part deux of my rail adventures real soon!
Only a week left to go before Transylvania!
Sam xox
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