I am continuing my project of curating my own Facebook photos, and this post is the first in a long series about an InterRail-trip I took during October in 2010.
I had just finished a year in the military, stationed quite a ways way outside of a city in the northern parts of Norway. It was cold, boring and mostly lonely.
Being stuck somewhere you don’t want to be, for the better parts of a year, really makes you want to spread your wings and experience the world.
Trading one location for many, if you like.
I started in my hometown of Bergen, Norway.
From there I travelled via Sweden and Denmark, down to Hamburg in Germany, where I stayed for the first night.
I only ever saw Hamburg in the dark, as I arrived quite late and left very early, but the area around the train-station is one of the seedier places I have seen in my life.
The first hotel I tried booking a room with was very classy and nice, but I reacted to the prices there. So the man behind the desk pointed me down an alley, claiming there would be hotels more in my price-range down there.
So I found a pretty shabby-looking building which advertised bed-renting. I was not overjoyed, but thought “When in Rome!”, and entered. But when I tried to book a room the guy just stared weirdly at me, and said that I had to “go get a girl first”.
Confused, I exited the building and noticed that, yes, this was a hooker-district.
Those beds where not meant to be slept in.
…
I returned to the first hotel, walked across the street, and stayed at their just as expensive competitor.
The day after, I was pretty happy to leave Hamburg behind, and jumped on the first train to Berlin.
When I arrived, I checked in at one of those hotels where you share a room with three other people. This worked fine and was inexpensive, but I decided that after a day of travel that I needed more privacy. I could not relax completely with a room full of strangers.
After those two hotel-experiences, I stopped caring about prices, and probably lived much more glamorously than most people on InterRail-trips do.
In the next part; Exploring Berlin
I have to agree with you – I’d scrimp on something else for upgrading to a nicer hotel. I’ll forward to Part II of your story.
The train tickets were luckily pretty cheap, and I did not go overboard in the food department.
Glad to hear it 🙂
Not sure if Part 2 will be the next thing I post, but pretty soon anyway.
Sounds like an interesting trip and I can remember as far back as the 70s when people, or often students, traveling through Europe on Eurail passes was the way to see the world … perhaps that method of travel was available long before then, but became popular at this time. None of my friends liked to travel, so I usually went with an organized tour group as it was safer (for me anyway – I was adventurous, but that adventurous to travel by myself the entire trip with no organized agenda). I think that universities would have dorm rooms available cheap to stay overnight – no frills, just clean and cheap lodging.
OK, will hold on and see your Part 2 when you publish it. Always like to read of other’s adventures, especially if I’ve been in that country or place before.
I probably should have tried harder to find someone to travel with. It can’t have been 100% safe.
But all is well! 😛
I went to a lot of countries, so I bet you have been to at least a few.
Looking forward to hear your take on them 🙂
I totally cannot share with strangers, I have too much paranoia.
Same 🙂
I found four of your comments in my spam btw, so that is why I’m replying so late.
Sorry ’bout that.