And today it is my departure day! My train, the Sud-Express, will be leaving “Gare do Oriente” at 16:14 with route set to Hendaye where I will arrive tomorrow at 07:10, connecting with the TGV to Paris. And I take a soooooooooo heavy bag!!! I didnt weight it but I guess it should have around 25 kilos! I am even wondering how I will be able to carry it so many days, but I know that some of the things inside I will leave during my way, so some place will be open to put some “recuerdos” Later I will try to post some pictures of the train and how the trip went. In the meanwhile and if you want to know which place I am crossing here is where the train will pass

Station/Stop	Date	Time		Platform	Products
Lisboa Oriente	Th, 15.05.08	dep	16:14			311 310
Entroncamento		dep	17:19
Fatima		dep	17:33
Pombal		dep	17:57
Coimbra-B		dep	18:26
Pampilhosa		dep	18:42
Santa Comba Dao		dep	19:09
Nelas		dep	19:36
Mangualde		dep	19:45
Celorico da Beira		dep	20:15
Vila Franca das Nave		dep	20:26
Guarda		dep	20:42
Vilar Formoso		dep	21:25
Fuentes de Onoro(fr)
Fuentes de Onoro		dep	22:32
Ciudad Rodrigo		dep	22:52
Fuente de S. Esteban		dep	23:20
Salamanca		dep	00:05
Medina del Campo		dep	00:57
Valladolid Campo Grande		dep	01:30
Burgos		dep	02:54
Miranda de Ebro		dep	03:55
Vitoria/Gasteiz		dep	04:24
San Sebastian		dep	06:34
Irun		dep	06:59
Hendaye(fr)
Hendaye	Fr, 16.05.08	arr	07:10
Hendaye	Fr, 16.05.08	dep	07:58			TGV 8524
St-Jean-de-Luz-Ciboure		dep	08:12
Biarritz		dep	08:26
Bayonne		dep	08:38
Dax		dep	09:14
Bordeaux-St-Jean		dep	10:22
Angouleme		dep	11:20
Poitiers		dep	12:14
Paris Montparnasse	Fr, 16.05.08	arr	13:45

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See you around!

There are times when you wake up and feel like your life is not going the right direction and today I feel a bit like it, but we never should stop dancing!

At times life is wicked and I just can’t
see the light
A silver lining sometimes isn’t enough
To make some wrongs seem right
Whatever life brings
I’ve been through everything
And now I’m on my knees hoping

But I know I must go on
Although I hurt I must be strong
Because inside I know that many
feel this way

Children don’t stop dancing
Believe you can fly
Away…away

At times life’s unfair and you know
it’s plain to see
Hey God I know I’m just a dot in
this world
Have you forgot about me?
Whatever life brings
I’ve been through everything
And now I’m on my knees hoping

But I know I must go on
Although I hurt I must be strong
Because inside I know that many
feel this way

Children don’t stop dancing
Believe you can fly
Away….away

Am I hiding in the shadows?
Forget the pain and forget the sorrows

Am I hiding in the shadows
Forget the pain and forget the sorrows

But I know I must go on (go on)
Although I hurt I must be strong (be strong)
Because inside I know that many
feel this way (feel this way)

Children don’t stop dancing
Believe you can fly
Away…away

Children don’t stop dancing
Belive you can fly
away…..away

Children don’t stop dancing (am I hiding in the shadows)
Belive you can fly (forget the pain and forget the sorrows
away…..away

Children don’t stop dancing(am I hiding in the shadows)
Belive you can fly
away…..away

Am I hiding in the shadows?
Are we hiding in the shadows

Hello again!

Today, I was here, looking at the computer and thinking of what to do and decided that I should get back to writing. I will start a train trip on the 15th of May and some of my friends told me that I should blog it or, at least, I should write my thoughts, my experiences on some kind of diary and then blog it.

Well, among my thoughts today, I remembered that I had this blog and that its main intention was to write the experiences of me and a friend in an interrail, but as it is not going to happen, at least now, unfortunately, I thought I could use this same blog to write my experiences on this trip I am going to make now. This is a very personal trip, a trip where I will try to find, by one side, my inner self and learn more about me and what I want to do with my life after it, as life should not be only (or not at all!) the 9 to 6 job, traffic and worries, the main purpose of life is to be happy and I am not happy now with the life I have… And in a trip like this I will have a lot of time to think. By the other side I expect it to be a trip where I can learn more from life, from what surrounds me, from other people, also have some fun… basically it will be a trip to grow…

I will try to place some updates as I go by, with some pictures, texts, whatever I am willing on the day

See you around!

Well… Lets talk a little about our plans for costs…

Because an interrail is not only going, going, going, it is also spending, spending, spending, something we must take in consideration is how much this trip will cost us.

I am not going to write here how much this trip will cost us or how much we are planning to spend, but just that you should consider your trip costs. Not to take the risk of getting without money somewhere.

So, lets start by the ticket itself. Just the ticket alone can cost us a considerable amount of money. I can give you our example. We are thinking of buying the continuous month ticket which will cost us 599€. To be able to buy the ticket i will need my Christmas allowance and for the rest of the trip i am already putting aside 100 Euros per month and i don’t know if it will be enough I am also counting with my holidays allowance for the trip! So… be prepared!

After the ticket the first thing we should consider are train supplements. As i guess you know, the interrail pass only allows you to travel in regular trains, not “special trains”, like TGV or Thalys. So, you must count with some more extra money if you want to go a little bit faster. What we did was to send emails to some companies asking for interrailers fares. All of them were very fast to answer. We sent email to SNCF (TGV), to Thalys and to Viking Line (boat crossing in the Baltic Sea) asking for fares and besides being fast they were all very kind!

Of course that costs are also related with the length of the trip you want to make. Our plans are to go to the North of Europe and some Eastern European Countries. Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland are in our plans and being them some of most expensive countries in Europe we are already counting to spend some big bucks there, but on the other side of the scale we have some of the cheapest countries in Europe which will counter balance our expenses.

Our plans also includes spending as most nights as we can in trains, to avoid being stopped, but besides that to avoid spending extra money on hostels. A night in an hostel can vary a lot. It will depend of the country, city and location. Visit https://www.hihostels.com/ to make some simulations of what a night can cost you. This is the official website of Hostelling International. Other extra way of saving money is to become a member of Hostelling International. To become a member just contact the Youth Association of your country for details of how becoming a member. [Or you can try your luck with CouchSurfing! ]

I guess I’ve covered the most relevant costs you should consider for this trip… I didn’t count with the food because food is a very subjective and personal thing. You can eat well in one day and in the other day survive with just water and some cookies… As I said, this is very personal and everyone should take their own considerations

In conclusion, the best thing is to plan your journey and your expenses! Of course that plans always fail, but if you don’t plan you will never think of a “what if…?”, will you?

See you around!

Interrail is a train ticket that lets you travel through Europe. Well, but that everybody knows.

What most of you, probably, dont know is some of its history.

Interrail was born in 1972 as a way of celebrating the 50th anniversary of the International Railway Union. At that time it was a pass that would let you travel through 21 countries of Europe for a period of one month.

The next year a age limit was imposed, to 21 years old. Although the age limitation the pass would still let you travel through the 21 countries for one month.

In 1976 the age limit was extended to 23 and later to 26, allowing a larger number of people to travel.

In 1985 some ferry companies joined the interrail network allowing interrailers to travel by boat through countries with sea connections.

In 1991 with the fall of the Soviet Union the network was expanded to the Eastern Countries.

In 1994 a major change in the network was made. Seven zones were created and a new variety of tickets appeared. Travelers could opt for the global pass that would cover all countries for a month, monthly passes that covered two or three zones for 15 days or a 15 days pass for one zone. With the creation of zones and new tickets variety there were more affordable tickets but including less countries.

In 1998 the age limitation was abolished. From that year on everyone could be an interrailer!!

In 2001 the official website was created. www.InterRailNet.Com

In 2005 Bosnia-Herzegovina joins the Interrail Network.

By now, millions of people “interrailed” and despite of being one of the most popular ways of traveling it is an unique experience, allowing you to plan your way, make the trip at your pace and allowing you to meet new people and new places. For sure an interrail can be the trip of your life!

Join us in our journey!