InterRail 2010 - England / Wales / Scotland

Kicking this page off, 2010-07-16 17:10

Location: in a train somewhere between Crewe and Manchester.

I'm freezing. That's not because of the British weather but because the air-conditioning in this train is set to 10° or something. Seriously... and we're in a train from Cardiff where we left at 14:50 and we're supposed to arrive around 18:10. The train only consists of two wagons and enough people got in already in Cardiff for another two. It was a little cramped, to say the least. I was standing for the first half hour. Anyhow, back to the beginning of my trip, here's the full story:

(1) Klagenfurt - Ljubljana

On the 8th of July I started my journey with a trip from Klagenfurt to Ljubljana where my plane departed for Zürich. After arriving at Klagenfurt main station I saw that the incoming train was already delayed and I thought I would miss my connecting train from Villach to Ljubljana, but luckily this train waited for 15 minutes for us to catch up. Worrying with me at the same time: two girls from Austria with the same setup as me (large back bags, tent, mattress, ..) who also had to go to Slovenia. Once inside the train to Slovenia the second class was already more than full so we just sat down first class. The conductor didn't complain so all in all the journey to Ljubljana was quite alright. In Ljubljana I waited some time for the bus to the airport and once there I saw huge lines - all for destinations like London or Kos, no one yet in line for Zürich so I made it through with checking in my stuff (around 15kg) and going through the security check within 10 minutes.

(2) Ljubljana - Zürich

The flight to Zürich was actually pretty cool because I can't remember another time when I was flying without a single cloud beneath us, a clear horizon and therefore quite a lot to see. Actually, we were passing Klagenfurt and Villach as well.

(3) Zürich

The reason why I went to Zürich in the first place was the Couchsurfing Paella which would mark the start of my trip like last year. Prior to going to the Paella in Gossau I stayed with a couple near Zürich who also went to the Paella the following day. So I arrived a little late, we had nice chats and delicious selfmade ice-cream, I even got my own room and the next morning had breakfast together (seriously the best pancakes I have had so far! With original maple syrup from New York! And here I was, thinking that maple syrup would be something exclusive to Canada.). Next day we left for some swimming in the Lake (Zürisee) - the first time I was in the water all year! So much for enjoying living in Klagenfurt with the Wörtherse. Seems like I really needed this vacation :)

(4) Gossau

The CS Paella 2010 went from Friday afternoon to Monday morning and I had a blast again like the last years. This year it was quite a bit smaller than the years before but that just gave everyone the chance to get together with more people. I really enjoyed it and we made trips to Rorschach and Arbon for swimming, the Paella itself was more than delicious (so I just had to eat two big portions :) and on Sunday we watched the world cup final NED-ESP in Vince's living room. The Dutch reaction after the Spanish team shot the goal during overtime: "Meh, shit.", very calm :D The whole time we had pretty good weather with the occasional raindrops in the evening, but that was just to cool everything down, during the day the heat was quite intense, you couldn't really be inside the tent later than to 7:30 in the morning because of the heat. Also, I got a little color at last :) On Monday morning I helped cleaning up a bit and after a much needed shower made my way back to Zürich.

(5) Zürich - London

After walking around in Zürich for a bit I went to the airport a little earlier than I needed to but it was just too damn hot in Zürich anyways. Later time, the easyjet flight to London Gatwick was delayed for about an hour. My host in London was Chris, who I already knew from the year before where we met several times (Vienna, Paella, Belgium) with his girlfriend Sarah who hosted me for two nights and Werner for one night because he arrived a day after me. Having thought at first that I would show up at their place around 21:30 it became more like 23:30 because of the delay and me needing longer with public transport than expected.

(6) London

After some much needed sleep I found myself walking around London the next day. Since I already visited London in 2007 (also with Werner actually :) I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted to do: eat my way through some markets and visit the Lomography store in London. The store is pretty cool and it's just so much fun walking into a store and seeing pictures of yourself :) Afterwards I met up with Ollie, who I knew from a photowalk in Berlin and a lot of chats ever since, so it was great catching up a bit and then we went to the London weekly Couchsurfing meeting at The Square Pig where we later met again with Chris and also Werner who came there directly after arriving.

(7) Bath

The next day we took the train to Bath, usually a lovely tourist destination but we got there for something different altogether: to attend the Frank Turner concert at Komedia, which was all kinds of fun and naturally I made a few photos and videos again. This marked the 4^th time I saw Frank Turner live, I'm such a groupie / fanboy :) I also drank Bath's local cider "Bounders" which was probably one of the best ciders I had so far. After the concert we got back to our host for some chats and left the next day around 10 to make our way to Cardiff.

(8) Cardiff

Having tried for some time to find a couch in Cardiff we decided to go to Cardiff regardless of a host. We had a few declines from people who unfortunately already had guests or other plans (it was quite short-notice after all). In the end, Werner wrote to the emergency group in Cardiff in the morning and only while on the train we got the confirmation for a host in Cardiff, lucky break :) Cardiff itself was a very enjoyable experience for a few reasons: it's a nice town and you wouldn't think there are around 2.5 million people living there. There's a nice center and also a nice bay area and we took the touristy approach of going around with the guided bus tour. After that we went to Mr. Smith's in Cardiff because the monthly CS meeting was there and we agreed with our host to meet up there. The Cardiff meeting was really cool because there were around 15 people and we got to talk to a lot of them. As you can imagine, all kinds of stories and different people, quite a lot of fun and highly interesting. One of the better weekly/monthly CS meetings I've been to. Also we already got along great with our host and the next morning, after having slept in a proper bed, we even got some traditional English breakfast. I wasn't even allowed to do the dishes, who am I to complain :) After some more chats we made our way back to the city to go to the Welsh museum which was rather impressive, not so much because of the exhibition (though they were interesting and especially the Wildlife photo gallery was amazing) but because (a) the entrance was free, (b) locking our big bags away was free and (c) the service/people there were very friendly and helpful from the moment we went through the entrance on.

(9) Cardiff - Manchester

Going back full circle we're now sitting in the train to Manchester. Originally we first wanted to go to Liverpool but didn't find a couch again. It obviously is way harder finding a couch in the UK than it was last year with Belgium for example, but also we were sending requests quite short notice again. So we opted for Manchester and sent short notice requests again and also only this morning got a couch confirmed for two nights. Have I already mentioned how cold it is in the train? Oh well.. we should be arriving in Manchester within the hour, let's see when I get the chance to continue with the travel report :)

The chapters below were subsequently added after the initial text.

(10) Manchester

After arriving in Manchester we went to our hosts place, a polish couple who agreed to take us in for two nights. We sat together for some time, chatting and drinking and around 01:00 they decided to go into town for a few more drinks and somehow I was way too tired to go out again, which is funny, cause that day was one of the most relaxed days so far. So I stayed back while Werner went with them. Little did I know that they'll be back by 04:00 - including a few more people who all decided to continue partying in the living room. So I became part of the afterparty till 06:00 - and after a couple of hours of sleep we went to the Imperial War Museum since it was raining. When we got out the weather was perfectly fine again so we headed for town to check out the center. At night we went with Thomasz to the movies to see "Inception", hooray for English speaking countries :D

(11) Liverpool

The following morning we got up at 07:00 to catch the 08:00 train from Manchester to Liverpool, arrived in Liverpool and stored our luggage at the train station. Then we headed to the docks and took the ride with the Yellow Duckmarine around town (on the streets and in the water) - this was already very nice but the tour guide was more of a comedian and was pretty much constantly funny :) At the same time we noticed at the docks that a lot of pirates where gathering - we found out for the Guinness World Record attempt of the biggest pirate gathering. We don't know yet if the attempt was successful but we don't think so, they would have needed around 1.800 pirates. In between the Yellow Duckmarine and the Pirate gathering we walked around Liverpool. I think Liverpool is a bit nicer than Manchester. While as far as I saw Manchester has a large mix of old and new buildings, Liverpool has much more old buildings, a lot of whom look like they could be straight out of Gotham City. Afterwards we started our way towards Glasgow. We didn't find a host either in Edinburgh or in Glasgow so far, even with using the Couchsurfing Emergency Group, so now we will be heading for a hostel in Glasgow instead.

(12) Glasgow

Update 2010-07-19 00:15 - we're in a hostel now, booked a room for 3 nights so we can make one day trip to Edinburgh, one daytrip to the Highlands and explore Glasgow on the last day before leaving for oxford. At least this is the plan for now.

Update 2010-07-19 09:34 - on a train for the day-trip to Edinburgh. The shower was freaking cold that morning, no warm water at all. At least I'm really awake now.

Added later on: We eventually figured out how to make the water warm the next day, stupid showers, seriously... :)

(13) Edinburgh

We took the train from Glasgow to Edinburgh to walk around the city, very impressive but very touristy in the direct center. It started raining quite a lot but we were prepared well enough for that as well. We only walked to Edinburgh Castle and didn't go in (14 GBP admittance) but after lunch we took the train to North Queensferry and went to Deep Sea World which was pretty cool, made a long video in the underwater tunnel with sharks swimming over my head several times :) Afterwards a little more Edinburgh and then back to Glasgow where we met up with a local Couchsurfer and his guest.

(14) Highland Experience - Loch Ness Day Trip

What a day. We had to get up early in order to depart from Glasgow at 08:00 for our day-trip around the Highlands, taking us from Pitlochry to Ben Nevis to Loch Ness to Glen Coe and Loch Lomond. It was quite interesting, we were driving around in a Minibus with around 15 other people and our driver, Bob, was also the guide, providing us with historical information about Scottish history. Rob Roy, William Wallace and the likes. After arriving in Loch Ness we were given the option to either stroll around and have lunch or to go on a boat cruise for an hours on Loch Ness. Of course we opted to go Monster huntin' and we did actually see Nessie! The weather started off a little cloudy, then it started raining a little and by the time we arrived in Loch Ness it was raining cats and dogs. After we got on the boat it was raining less and less until it stopped. By the time we arrived in Loch Lomond it was a little cloudy but mostly sunny and very warm (almost unusual warm compared to the weather so far). The scenery throughout the route was very impressive, actually a little Austrian (though lacking the really big mountains :) but also very much how I imagine New Zealand to look like. Great landscape and tons of lakes, or "Lochs" as they are called here. We arrived back in Glasgow at around 19:15.

(15) Glasgow - Oxford

After taking the tourist bus for a guided city tour through Glasgow we were at the Glasgow Museum of Modern Art and then for YAB* at the Filling Station (tasty!). Glasgow really is nice, more like a proper town and richer in things to do than Edinburgh I would believe. But Edinburgh has more of a medieval charm to it :) Before boarding the train that took us all the way down to Oxford where we will stay from Wednesday until Friday where our ways will part. I will head to Vienna on Friday and Werner will continue his trip.

* yet another burger

(16) Oxford

When we arrived in Oxford we were picked up by a friend of mine who is living in Oxford. She brought us along to a birthday party of a friend of hers. Then we went to another friend of hers who was also celebrating his birthday. We ended up in the Pub "Cape of good hope" and then headed back to her place. Thursday was then used for exploring Oxford by walking around. The weather was as usual but as soon as we got into the Covered Market it started pouring down massively. Also, there was a huge thunder that set of a few alarms in the surroundings, all while we were enjoying our milk shakes. :) While en route to the National History Museum we also stumbled accross some movie shoot, but I don't have any idea what it was they were filming. From the looks of it I don't care anyways. In the afternoon we met up with Marlies in her pub, had a few drinks and then started our pub-crawl: The Turf, The Eagle And Child, The Royal Oak, The Bear, King's Arms and afterwards some club (no idea what it was called) but there we saw Johnny Rotten in the crowd. Not that I would have recognized him anyways* but (gladly?) a few people obviously did. We only stayed there for one drink though before heading back home, but not without having a tasty Kebap first. So Friday morning started with a hangover, what a great way to end the tour. We got to the airport and after arriving in Paddington our Ways parted and Werner went on to take a ferry to Calais.

* I am first to admit that neither did the name immediately ring a bell until explanation.

(17) Oxford - London - Cologne - Vienna

I flew back to Austria with Germanwings from London Stansted to Cologne and Vienna where I was welcomed by a friend of mine. Originally he was supposed to return to Austria from Miami the same day/time that I did but he mixed up the dates and actually arrived a day earlier. He still waited in Vienna for us to meet up once again. Also, he provided me with a long awaited shower. I still would have needed some sleep though but that was out of the question as we directly went to a party.

(18) Vienna - Klagenfurt

Getting a few hours of sleep we took a train from Schwechat to Vienna where I had to wait for my train for some time because of a one hour delay, but eventually I arrived in Klagenfurt around 19:00, arriving at home half an hour later. Trip over. It was great seeing so many people and cities, now I have to plan the next travels :D

Additional trip information

Since we are both customers of "3" (Three) and they still offer "3likehome" we didn't have to pay for data roaming, so we didn't necessarily have to look out for free wifi every now and then. This also explains the almost regular facebook updates :)

The Gadgets

Thomas: iPhone 3GS, Asus Eee PC (mostly used for writing Couchsurfing requests but also to recharge our iPhones during the day :), Sony Cyber-shot DSC-TX7 (which really proved to be excellent for travel, the iSweep Panorama function is awesome), i-Blue 747 GPS logger (for some reason, it wasn't able to track the whole part Glasgow»Oxford), lots of charges and spare batteries.

Werner: iPhone 3GS, iPad 3G (with 1GB data from Three UK microsim), Nikon D300 with 18-200/10-22/30mm.

The Route

We wanted to Couchsurf all the way but had a lot of troubles finding couches on time for our short-notice requests (the lack of proper planning left us often not knowing where we'll end up and when) so we had to adapt our initial route by shifting some priorities. In Glasgow we had to go to a hostel for 3 nights. Everywhere else was Couchsurfing for me until I headed home to Klagenfurt on the 24th.

The map

This is the map with the recordings of the GPS logger, slightly enhanced and extended when there was no signal at times (or when I shortly actually thought that I lost it but later on found it again :) With the help of some free online path length measurement tool I know that the tour was around 6.000 kilometers (3.700 miles).

the pale green part is the path where I do not have any GPS track at all while the bright green part consists of a mix of actual GPS data (one spot every 2 minutes) and manual correction. Yes, I did think I lost the GPS logger in between the Paella and Bath, which cost me 3 days but most importantly it cost me the record of the flight from Zürich to London Gatwick. Pitty.

Trains used

Boarding trains in Great Britain was no problems - we just had to show the InterRail ticket every now and then. With the InterRail GlobalPass you have to enter every train you are using in one form attached to the ticket, so this is the recollection of this years route. Most of the conductors weren't even checking if we constantly filled out this attached form. We never had to buy any reservations and could really focus on the trains that were convenient for us. Of course in between there were bus-rides, metro-rides, walks and so on.

	Date		Departure	Route
	2010-07-08	12:23	regular ticket: Klagenfurt (AT) - Villach (AT) 
	2010-07-08	13:00	Villach (AT) - Ljubljana (SI)
	2010-07-11	18:48	St. Gallen (CH) - Gossau (CH)
	2010-07-12	11:56	Gossau (CH) - Zürich HB (CH)
	2010-07-12	16:01	Zürich HB (CH) - Zürich Airport (CH)
	2010-07-12	22:05	London Gatwick (GB) - London Victoria (GB)
	2010-07-14	10:00	Paddington (GB) - Bath Spa (GB)
	2010-07-15	11:47	Bath Spa (GB) - Bristol Temple (GB)
	2010-07-15	12:21	Bristol Temple (GB) - Cardiff Central (GB)
	2010-07-16	14:50	Cardiff Central (GB) - Manchester Picadilly (GB)
	2010-07-18	08:08	Deansgate (GB) - Liverpool Lime Street (GB)
	2010-07-18	16:31	Liverpool Lime Street (GB) - Wigan North Western (GB)
	2010-07-18	17:27	Wigan North Western (GB) - Glasgow Central (GB)
	2010-07-19	09:00	Glasgow Central (GB) - Edinburgh Weaverly (GB)
	2010-07-19	13:18	Edinburgh Weaverly (GB) - North Queensferry (GB)
	2010-07-19	15:18	North Queensferry (GB) - Edinburgh Weaverly (GB)
	2010-07-19	17:40	Edinburgh Weaverly (GB) - Glasgow Central (GB)
	2010-07-21	14:00	Glasgow Central (GB) - Wolverhampton (GB)
	2010-07-21	17:41	Wolverhampton (GB) - Oxford (GB)
	2010-07-23	09:31	Oxford (GB) - Paddington (GB)
	2010-07-23	11:25	London Liverpool Street (GB) - Stansted Airport (GB)
	2010-07-24	15:15	regular ticket: Wien Meidling (AT) - Klagenfurt HBF (AT)

Costs

All in all the costs for this trip were as expected. Most of the costs where for transportation and food. Lots of food. We didn't do to that many touristy things. Also, the few museums we visited every now and then where free.

	InterRail GlobalPass 22 Days				EUR 309
	Ticket Klagenfurt (AT) - Jesenice (SI)			EUR 4
	Flight Ljubljana-Zürich					EUR 80
	Flight Zürich-London					EUR 90
	Guided Tour Cardiff (Tourist-Bus)			EUR 12
	Yellow Duckmarine Liverpool				EUR 12
	Hostel Glasgow 3 Nights, twin room, my half		EUR 80
	Deep Sea World Edinburgh				EUR 14
	Highland Experience Loch Ness Tour (Day-trip)		EUR 45
	Loch Ness Cruise					EUR 12
	Guided Tour Glasgow (Tourist-Bus)			EUR 12
	Flight London-Vienna (via Cologne)			EUR 80
	Ticket Vienna - Klagenfurt				EUR 23

The Yellow Duckmarine was totally worth the money but that's maybe only the case when your guide is Michael; I have no idea if the other guides are equally funny :)

About the only thing not worth the money would be the Loch Ness Cruise. A Loch Lomond cruise would probably be better.

We also didn't really count pennies / we weren't actually watching our money during the trip, but we did avoid the expensive restaurants or things. Why would you go all out for dinner when there are Burgers to be had?