Lucy and Sarah's Impossible Adventure

Barcelona

2007-07-28T15:58:07Z

On a whim we skipped Marseille and opted for more time in Barcelona.
Good work team.
Feeling very ill after another sleepless night train, Sarah exchanged her Harry Potter book for a coffee and we decided the best cure for our ailements would be a McDonalds.
Bad work team.
Feeling sick eating it we then read the calorific values and proceded to throw the rest away as our stomachs began to grumble. Finding a campsite we caught the train to El Masnou. The campsite is beautiful, lots of sand and pretty trees, a swimming pool and overlooks a beach. We are finding that there is just too much to see and do in Barcelona. Being lazy tourists we caught the sightseeing bus, hopping on and off at Sagrada Familia, the Gothic Quarter, Park Guell, Placa de Catalunya and seeing Casa Batllo, Teleferic de Montjuic and Port Vell.
Park Guell was lush, we clambered up hidden pathways finding fantastic views over the whole of Barcelona. The park was scattered with Gaudi architecture, curving shapes, angular points and colourfullness hidden amongst the trees. The brightly coloured broken tiles shone against the dusty paths and the intricately patterned paving adorned the walkways. There were so many things to catch your eye as you meandered up the hill.
Barcelona could be the ultimate city. With 5km of beaches, so much artisitic history and stunning architecture it is surprising modern and European.
However every day we have had to visit Barcelona Sants station in our desperate attempt to book a train, any train to Algeciras. We were met with numerous obstacles, we were told there were only first class seats on the night train, we were then told that we could get another train so we tried to book seats but were told very rudely in Spanish that the train was full and the journey 'impossible'. Panicking we went to the coach station but were told we had to book at another bus station, a train ride away. We arrived at this bus station but the ticket office was closed and we realised that it was only for intenational coaches anyway. So the next day we went back to the original coach station to book but were told the coach was full except for an expensive peak time trip costing 100euros. We then went back to the other bus station hoping we could use another company to get to Algeciras. After a short queue we actually managed to book the 'golden' tickets and the gateway to our adventures in Morocco.

Barcelona remains copyright of the author lucysarah, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Not so Nice

2007-07-28T15:25:17Z

Another journey, another train strike. We couldn't book the night train we wanted to Nice because there was a train strike in Italy so we had to book a train that took us on a slight detour through Switzerland. We had to get a train at 14.39 to arrive Basel in Switzerland at 19.48. From there we had a 10 minute walk before boarding the half hour train to Mulhouse Ville at 20.20. At Mulhouse Ville we would then get our night train to Nice at 22.09. So with all this ahead of us, imagine our panic when the first train from Innsbruck was delayed by 10 minutes before it had even arrived. This train then accumulated delays at every station before eventually announcing that we would be terminating at Zurich. We had stopped worrying about the night train and were planning a night at the station. Debating whether to go to the information desk or take a gamble on the announced train to Basel we ran to platform 13, past rows and rows and rows of first class seats, plonking ourselves down next to two aussies, hoping for the best. Magically the train arrived in Basel at 19:30 so we had plenty of time for the 10 minute walk to Basel SNCF. We wondered down a passage in the station and freely walked across the border into France.
After the short train ride to Mulhouse we had a long wait for the night train. We had treated ourselves to couchettes, looking into the compartment we saw 3 people in our cabin. Lucys stress levels rose, thinking of another squashed night train. As we stepped inside however we looked up and saw 2 free bunks squashed against the ceiling and nowhere to put our bags. Luckily one of the bunks was free so we shoved our bags in there and climbed up, gradually realising just how slender the beds were. There was nothing to stop you falling out of the bunk whatsoever so we lay still on the bunks, holding onto the luggage racks for some support and prepared for a sleepless night.
On our arrival in Nice we pushed through the busy station to go to tourist info to find a campsite. After a short train journey we arrived on a beach and found the nearest campsite. Can't say we actually saw or wanted to see Nice, it was expensive, pretentious, boring and full of nothing but tourists and holidaymakers. Our experience here was so different to the other cities we have visited. We spent the days on the beach and the nights in bars.

Not so Nice remains copyright of the author lucysarah, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Innsbruck

2007-07-28T14:50:45Z

Loading our bags onto the luggage racks we slumped into our seats looking forward to another scenic train and hopefully some sleep on the way to Innsbruck. It was a brief relaxing stint on the train, at the first stop we heard very familiar repeated announcemens about an autobus. We remained hopeful until the entire train began to disembark. Sheepishly we followed the crowds to the bus station. Due to the tracks being repaired we had to get a replacement bus service to 'somewhere'. The journey took a very long time, for a while we wondered if it was going all the way to Innsbruck. We finally arrived at 'somewhere' and somehow managed to find our train which had now become very busy; like true EXIT veterans we sat on the floor. We were growing evermore tired and Sarah's festival flu was worsening. By the time we made it to Innsbruck we were both exhausted and fed up. We had no idea where the campsite was and every information point seemed to be closed. Although we were helpfully informed that it would reopen at 9am. Sarah panicked and decided the best solution would be to go home. Lucy then panicked pondering the next couple of weeks by herself. Lucy took charge and asked at the ticket office. We guessed where the campsite was by looking at the map and found the nearest station. We eventually arrived at Kranebitten station; a singular train track overlooked by a mountain. Noone else boarded or left the train. Seeing as there was nothing at the station we wandered down the hill to find a little map spotting the tent symbol we made our way towards it. We hiked down a steep rubble path through woodland the sun rapidly setting behind the mountains. Triumphantly we found the campsite, they were still open, had space and were still serving food at the restaurant. Rusty the Tent was put up very quickly, we had a very quick meal and then collapsed. We woke up to stunning views.

We spent most of the day relaxing at the campsite before heading back to Innsbruck station to book our night train to Nice.

Innsbruck remains copyright of the author lucysarah, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Salzburg

2007-07-28T14:26:28Z

Arriving at Lesce Bled station after an expensive taxi ride (for fear of missing the train, we didnt know exactly what time it went) we had an hour wait, in which we planned to purchase a seat reservation. No. The station had one platform and no toilet, and the "ticket office" had closed at 3. Luckily this gave us time to get food for the train, although there was a slight pang of doubt that the train existed or, if it did, that we could get it without a seat reservation. When a train eventually arrived at the station a haze of confusion swept across the only platform and all 7 passengers mostly caused by one silly woman insisiting this was not the train to Salzburg. We ignored her and boarded the train, found seats, sat in them and went to Salzburg. The journey itself was beautiful, the train was just as we had imagined, open windows to lean out of and 'touch' the landscape; stunning mountains, gushing rivers and glittering waterfalls fell and rose both sides of the train.
The scenery began to change as we neared Salzburg, the trees and mountains turned to skyscrapers and roads. We left the train to wander into a city far removed from the 'living' hills. Admittedly, we had walked out of the wrong side of the station. After a rubbish nights sleep we went to explore the city. We sat on multiple benches discussing what to visit in only one day, we rejected the 38euro Sound of Music tour. Realising we were far to tired for any sight seeing we decided to go straight to Innsbruck, after a refreshing orange juice costing us a mere 2.95euro.

Salzburg remains copyright of the author lucysarah, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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EXIT

2007-07-28T13:55:39Z

Madness. Rumours spread that the festival had run out of space for camping so we joined up with a group we had met on the train who kindly let us camp with them. Campsite was so much fun, mostly English, on the first night there was a 'party'. Lots of laughs dancing on tables and sitting on the beach with pints of wine. Yum.
The campsite was amazing, it had everything - a beach, a bar, food and portaloos. From the beach we could look across the Danube to the Fortress where the festival was held.
Massive queues everywhere. The first day of the festival was terrible, serious lack of crowd control. Queue was as wide as it was long, everyone was pushing and trying to get through a filter system. Just as we had got through the barriers we turned around to see that the crowd had knocked down the barriers and were rushing towards us. Needless to say, we ran. After all the commotion we saw the Prodigy which was awesome, we raved with our glow sticks and the Serbians. The festival was held in a fortress, there were lots of passageways and 'hidden' stages. Somehow we stayed out to watch the sunrise that morning with the help of fried ham and cheese baguettes (which seemed to happen every night).
Most of our days at the festival followed the same pattern; sleeping in the day in weather over 30 degrees, buying jewellery, waiting 2 hours for food at the only restaurant in town and of course going to the festival on the otherside of the Danube every night to see Basement Jaxx, Lauryn Hill, CSS, Beastie Boys, Kissy Sell Out and lots of random acts we stumbled across. We met a lot of people at the festival, mostly Serbians, all of whom painted a dull picture of Serbia. After the usual greetings, the Serbs would plunge in to political debate. We learnt that Serbs need a visa to visit anywhere outside their country and this is apparently very expensive and difficult to attain, possibly why we have never met anyone from Serbia before or since. Serbia itself was pretty dire; racist, political and generally offensive graffiti everywhere, it really seemed like a place you would want to leave. They have 10 years before they can even apply to become part of the EU. Unsurprisingly some Serbs didnt take to kindly to playing host to 20,000 English people with "alcohol oozing from their pores".
The festival had such an atmosphere and a strange sense of community. Possibly because we were all English. It was very amusing during the day to watch people sleeping outside, queuing for the internet, brushing their teeth and attempting a full body wash in the outside very public sinks beer can in hand at any time during the day/night.
Although it was really busy and the queues for everything were massive, the festival was amazing, we met loads of really lovely people especially Faye and Catherine who we spent most of our time with.

EXIT remains copyright of the author lucysarah, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Another Busy Train

2007-07-28T13:43:43Z

Judging by the train from Budapest, we assumed most people would be travelling back the same way. We were wrong. Sad to leave the festival we went to Belgrade to book the night train to Ljubjana. The train to Belgrade was horiffic in itself, even though it was only an hour and a half journey people got off the train with t-shirts and faces dripping with sweat. We waited at Belgrade to reserve our seats on the night train and then waddled to the left luggage where we found a group of people we met on the train from Krakow to Budapest. We went for food and spent the rest of the day at the train station. We caught up with the group we saw earlier and realised we were all in the same carriage going to Ljubjana. We also all realised that there was no way we would get to sit on our reserved seats - the platform was full of people getting the same train, most without reservations. When the train arrived it was only two carriages, people bundled onto the train and climbed in through the windows. The added more carriages which didn't really help, it was so hectic but we eventually got onto the train and the very kind people we met earlier let us share their carriage with them. We slept 9 people in the 6 berth compartment, very uncomfortable and very little sleep. It was hideous.
14 hours later we arrived in Ljubjana and it was beautiful. We couldn't have gone somewhere more different to Serbia. Serbia was poor, political and rascist and most of this was expressed through grafitti. Slovenia was quiet, modern, clean, wealthy, beautiful and scenic. Our hostel was amazing. We met so many people in such a short space of time, considering we slept most of the time we were there; it was the most sociable place we have stayed. On Wednesday we went to Lake Bled with Jack (we met him at the hostel) and on the coach there we met AGAIN the group from the train. Amazingly we spent 2 train journeys and 1 coach journey and yet we never found out their names. Shocking. Anyway, so Lake Bled was again beautiful. The emerald green water and tree-covered mountains with hidden churches. We had lots of fun rowing across to the island in the middle of the lake with Jack and some Irish girls we had met on the coach. We moored the boat at the island onto a big gondola and went to explore the island. Running out of time we quickly went back to the boats, everyone jumped in, Lucy started to untie the boat when a rather angry looking Slovenian man began to shake his fist and ask 'what is this?' Staring at each other silently, Lucy quickly got into the boat and we rowed away to escape with the man shouting things behind us. We didn't really want to leave Slovenia but we had to go and get the afternoon train to Salzburg.

Another Busy Train remains copyright of the author lucysarah, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Its Been a While

2007-07-28T13:42:34Z

Well since our last entry we have been to/through Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia and now we are in Austria. After staying an extra day in Budapest, we went to catch our train to Novi Sad, Serbia for the EXIT festival. Little did we know, every English person also travelling to the festival was taking the same train. Apparently it was cheaper to fly to Budapest then get the train than to fly straight to Serbia. The entire station at Budapest was full of backpacks and people, much to the amusement and bafflement of the locals. Rumours started to circulate as to which platform the train would arrive on. There were only two trains a day so everyone was desperate to catch the same train. With an hour to go until the train arrived, there was a stir of movement as people silently put on their backpacks looking ready to make a move. Eventually a train arrived unannounced and there was a serge towards the platform although noone actually knew for certain that it was the correct train. Luckily we got on, it was the right train, lots of people were left at the station and we had very uncomfortable seats on the floor for 10 hours. We originally thought this was the busiest train we would ever be on. Little did we know. Our carriage was full of fun and merriment helped by cheap beer in Hungary. Many games of uno and connect 4 were played whilst a very druken nerdy looking boy uncannily similar to Harry Potter stumbled up and down the train climbing on the arm rests and nearly killing Lucy by falling on her head. Everyone was in high spirits looking forward to the festival.

Its Been a While remains copyright of the author lucysarah, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Budapest

2007-07-28T13:57:46Z

OH DEAR.
On the train we realised the hostel we had booked was far out of the city. Hastilly, we booked another hostel from the station. What a mistake. The 'hostel' was actually university accomodation, the man at the desk forcefully suggested we look at the room before we paid. He was right, it was shit. However, it was late in the day, and we couldnt risk not having anywhere to sleep.
We went to cheer ourselves up at a posh looking restaurant. We thought it was going to be amaaazing when everyone in the restaurant practically tutted when we walked in, smelling of smoke from the dirty train and in our sweaty travelling clothes. The goulash soup was amazing, but the main courses were clearlya microwaved and tasteless.
After a pretty sleepless night in the dirty hostel (in our sleeping bags, we didn't trust the sheets) we checked out and began our search for somewhere better. We found the amazing garibaldi guesthouse right next to Parliament in a beautiful area. We have a kitchen, bathroom, balcony, bedroom and hall aaaaaaalllll to ourselves. Words cannot describe the decor, will upload photos later.

Spent most of the day on a boat tor on the danube to margret island in the sunshine. Hysterical recorded tour guides, Buda and Pest. We realised Budapest was not as scummy as we first thought. Our first hostel was in a bad area.

We went to Szentendre yesterday, a little old town with lots of narrow twisting streets and cafes.

Budapest remains copyright of the author lucysarah, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Krakow

2007-07-10T14:02:25Z

On Wednesday Sarah was ill, Lucy had a lazy day.

We visited Auschwitz on Thursday, there really isn't much we can say.

We didn't do anything for the rest of the day.

On Friday we wondered through the old streets of Krakow, buying squashy dragons along the way. We went to the Salt Mines in the afternoon. They were special, very special.
Apparantly the statues were built by the miners a looooong time ago, around the 17th centuary. We were very suspicious - they could only use candals for light, some of the 'statues' were plastic, some of the statues were gnomes, there were convinient places for the electric lights to illuminate them, and apparently they carved them after a full day working in the mine, instead of going hooome.
We both still bought authentic wolly 'mining' hats.
After a shot of Polish vodka (Lucy was asked for her ID) we headed for the surface in the terrifying 'lift', paprika crisps keeping us company.
The journey back was loooooooooong, Sarah rewarded herself with breaded fish and ketchup (served in an ice cream wafer pot) for supper, Lucy's wasn't much better. yum.
Then we emigrated to a cafe a few doors down and had profiterols and cocktails while we watched people with fire poi.

Krakow remains copyright of the author lucysarah, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Bitte Wartezeit

2007-07-06T10:51:51Z

Beginning our journey at 8am we stood waiting on the Charlottenburg SBahn platform. Beginning to wonder about the lack of trains and signs reading 'Bitte Wartezeit' we heard an announcement. Luckily someone translated it for us and it turned out there were no trains running and we would have to catch the UBahn. We were beginning to panic, we knew our tickets were not valid on the Ubahn and we had to get our train from Hauptbahnhof at 9.38am. We had an awkward conversation with German train guards about the best way to get to the station. We illegally boarded the UBahn and travelled 14 stops. We were told to catch bus M14 from Hermansplatz station, however we could not find the right stop. At this point our rucksacks were feeling VERY heavy and our backs were feeling the burn. It was hot and muggy and we both felt faint but we soldiered on searching all the surrounding streets and eventually found the right bus. A couple of M14 buses drove past, terminating at our bus stop and again we panicked. Finally the bus arrived at 9.15am, we had 27 bus stops to go before we reached Hauptbahnhof. We started to plan another day in Berlin clinging onto the dream of the Reichstag.
Buses and backbacks don't mix. We were united with another backpacker though this struggle against the common man. A VERY friendly German with goggley eyes asked if we had heard about the rail strike. Not wanting to seem like the average British tourist we nodded and asked if international trains would also be affected. In his very pleasant manner he laughed and said "Yes...Delay has become an institution'. Our quote of the day. After a long pause he exclaimed "Hauptbahnhof is a loooooong way from here".
Getting off the bus at 10am we wandered into the station certain we had missed the train. Glancing at the departures board Lucy saw a 9.38 train delayed by 40 minutes. Screaming and jumping (yes jumping with backpacks) we realised it was OUR train to Krakow. We ran soooooooooo fast. It was a sprint to platform 12. We stormed onto the platform only to be met by lots of gloomy unhappy faces. Clearly not everyone was happy by the delay. After the initial celebrations were over we realised that the train didn't actually leave for another 10 minutes. Throwing my bag down I sprinted back to get some breakfast and lunch.

The very uneventful 10hour journey went past fairly quickly. We were kept amused on the Polish boarder by the armed passport control struggling with a womans suspicious passport. They eventually stopped the train and escorted her and her young daughter off. We watched them walk past smiling. Very suspicious.
As we entered Poland the scenery changed slightly. The stations were old and empty, the houses were covered in graffiti with smashed windows, people wandered about aimlessly on platforms some sitting on the plastic chairs watching the trains go by, dreaming of life in the big shiny city.

The sun began to shine as we drew nearer to Krakow travelling through the Polish countryside.

Krakow appeared to be much nicer, lots of lovely ornate buildings and gypsies asking us if we needed accommodation. How kind. We walked past all these lovely buildings towards our hostel.

The buildings became slightly more ramshackled. We were very tired from carrying our bags by this point. We eventually found our hostel, we wandered into the backyard to the 'reception'. It is cold, damp, grey, dingey, grubby, falling apart and generally not much like the pictures. Room is not much better.

Bitte Wartezeit remains copyright of the author lucysarah, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Berlin

2007-07-06T10:48:27Z

After an impressive German breakfast accompanied by the news...terror attacks...thanks for letting us know...we made our way to the next hostel in Berlin. The next hostel was in a bit of a rough area. There was a gun shop. Our floor only had one toilet for 30+ rooms.
Once we had dumped our bags we made our way into the centre of Berlin to the Parissa Platz where we joined our free guided tour. Our tour guide Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaary (Gazza) from Northampton was incredibly English. His amazing sarcasm went wonderfully unnoticed by the rest of the group (mostly Americans). We met some GREAT American stereotypes in the form of Houston Jr. and his brother. Both are planning to join the 'service' after University. They boasted a lot about the guns their father had given them for their birthday. Cultural differences clearly apparent. The tour covered the basics of Berlin; the Brandenburg Gate, Pariza Platz, The Reichstag, The Holocaust Memorial, the site of hitlers bunker (still there, full of rubble, didn't see it), The Berlin Wall, checkpoint Charlie. Berlin is such a modern developed city, it was strange to be reminded of these events in recent history when it is doing its upmost to forget them.

We got lost in our desperate attempts to find somewhere cheap to eat but we eventually had an amazing spag bol for 3.90euro cooked by our Turkish waiter himself.
Realising the time we raced to the Reichstag (last entry at 10pm) to join the long queue outside. After been told it was unlikely we would get in because it was already 9.30pm we carried on. At 9.50 another group of people were let in and we raced forwards only to stop several people from the entrance. Then again at 9.55pm more people were let in...we made it two people away from the door. The doors closed separating the crowd ruthlessly. And yet still we waited. Conversations began with two Aussies, plans were being made to storm the building but the dream was dying. But then out of nowhere a perky northern voice restored our faith. The huge blonde haired, ginger bearded black rimmed glasses wearing friendly giant spoke of how "like in the Grinch...the stern German guards would open their hearts and find the love inside..." Later he revealed this was his second attempted to queue and live the dream of conquering the Reichstag. Commotion was beginning to stir; the old couple in front of us had been separated from their friends. Much arguing entailed should they stay or go, lots of shouting and signing to the guards when finally in the words of the Aussie 'this is going to ruin their marriage'.
10 minutes later after being told quite sternly to leave we all parted ways and we left for Sandsation. Not sandsational. The huge sand sculptures were meant to be transformed at night with a light show and beach bar. However it was simply dark and gloomy with a rope light swinging from the empty bar. Leaving disheartened we went mad in the station supermarket and treated ourselves to some cheap wine. We then remembered we had to corkscrew and after HOURS of using nail scissors and a pen knife we admitted defeat.

Berlin remains copyright of the author lucysarah, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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From Amsterdam to Berlin

2007-07-06T10:47:31Z

after an epic 40 minute flight we arrived in amsterdam....didn't do much. Was pretty seedy and our hostel was in the middle of the red light district. We didn't go after dark.

Ate a HORRIBLE meal in a chinese buffet 'restaurant', we should have left when he asked us to pay before we ate...

Now in Berlin after brief 6 hour train journey with lots of friendly germans lending us pen knifes for cutting our bread and cheese. ü
Sarah impressed with German bin system (5 compartments for recycling!)
Lucy unimpressed with german keyboards...the Y is in the wrong place. hard to type with only 10 minutes.

have taken pics...will upload when possible.

Full day in Berlin tomorrow...may be spent trying to find other hostel that isnt on our map!!

Lucy and Saaaaaaaaarah!

Krakow on Tuesday?? not sure of days ü

From Amsterdam to Berlin remains copyright of the author lucysarah, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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The Route

2007-06-24T18:15:07Z

See the itinerary of this trip, and details about each destination.

The Route remains copyright of the author lucysarah, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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