In December of 2015 I embarked on a month long Interrail trip from London, England to Vilnius, Lithuania overland, that took me through France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, Hungary, Romania, Republic of Moldova, Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic, Ukraine and Belarus, before flying to from Vilnius to Glasgow, Scotland and onto Belfast, Dublin, and Rosslare, Ireland. Where I then returned to London via Cardiff, Wales to complete a grand circle of Europe. All of this was done by rail, road and sea travel with the exception of the flight from Lithuania to Scotland.
I have started this sub-blog to document this epic journey at last, after promising to do so for far too long now.
A bit about me:
My name is Kris, I'm a native of Glasgow, Scotland, but I've been living and working in London since that legendary Olympic summer of 2012.
I've always had a passion for travel since a very young age, with a keen interest especially in rail and sea transport. As my teenage years passed, it became clear what I wanted to do as my chosen career path when leaving education, so my passion became my career in 2013, when I took up an apprenticeship in Railway Operations with the now defunct First Capital Connect (FCC), one of the twenty plus privatised train operating companies in the UK that made up ATOC/GBPR, or National Rail or even the Rail Delivery Group as it likes to call itself these days in the big mess that is the twenty-plus year (..and counting) failed experiment that is Rail Privatisation.. Before 1996 it was all simply, British Rail (BR).
Anyway, that's not what this blog is about...
Background:
As I've always been passionate about overland / sea transport, I've travelled just about the length and breadth of the British Isles by rail and ferry, from Lands End to John o' Groats, Great Yarmouth to Galway and many, many more places in-between..
However, up until 2015 I had done very little in the way of overland travel on the continent or beyond Nord-Pas-de-Calais for that matter. I had many "boring" package beech holidays in France, Catalonia, Spain, Portugal and the USA with family when I was a kid but those who know me will know that I am by no-means a fan of the Airport experience.
I firmly believe that getting there should be just as exciting as the destination itself, true the plane can slash hours off the journey times but where is the fun in stressful airport transfers, endless waiting in lines for check-in/bag drop and all the fun of the pantomime that is airport security..?
Surely there is a more stress-free and relaxing way to get from point A to point B?
I had long been inspired of several bloggers tales of traveling Europe and Beyond overland, such as Helmut Uttenthaler and his friend Oliver's epic journey from Wein to Pyongyang by rail; http://vienna-pyongyang.blogspot.co.uk/ , Geoff Key's https://motopangaea.com/ , Larissa the Blonde Gypsy http://blonde-gypsy.com , James Finnerty's 121 Degrees, London to Shanghai https://jamesftravel.wordpress.com/ , as well as James Stearn's Trains Today http://trains-today.blogspot.co.uk/ and René Hameleers' Euro Rails http://www.rene-rail.nl/ .
So come 2015, I thought it was high time that I got myself out on our European Rails and make a mini adventure of my own!
"Eurotrash '15" is the story of my crazy mis-adventurous circular tour of our continent by rail. The name is obviously taken from one of my favourite TV shows of the 90's hosted by non other than the legendary Monsieur Antoine de Caunes et MonsieurJean-Paul Gaultier!
I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!
