I Europa: Riding the Rails

For anyone who's planning on going to Europe, it's really important to know how to work the train systems here.  Some things are different depending on where you go, but I'll give you some general tips on how most of it is done.

First of all, it's important to make sure that you can actually get onto the trains you need.  If your planning on taking a long trip around Europe, a Eurail pass is probably the best thing to get.  It serves as your ticket on any of the train systems that accept that kind of pass, which is most of Europe.  You can get different kinds of Eurail passes, so just find the one that's best for the kind of trip you'll be taking.  It's good to order it as soon as possible since it has to be mailed to you; you can't just print one out.  I would say order it no later than a week before your trip, but even that may be cutting it close depending on how long it takes to mail it to you.  Once you have it, you just go to the train station and they'll help you to get it activated.  Here's a link to the website so you can find out more:

http://www.eurail.com/

However, a Eurail pass DOES NOT serve as a reservation.  When we started on our Eurotrip the other week, we almost didn't even get on the train that goes from Sweden to Copenhagen because it required a reservation in order to get on, which we hadn't gotten at that point.  We lucked out and were able to squeeze one in for ourselves at the last minute, but it's good to get that kind of thing sorted out as soon as possible.  It's a good idea to go to the train station and ask them to reserve a seat for you at least one day in advance.  When traveling, it's good to get the reservation for your next train out as you arrive at the station at your destination.  So the Eurail pass basically saves you time and money on getting tickets, but you need to get a reservation separately for some trains, especially the busier systems like the ones going in and out of Paris for example.  And while in the cities, you may need a different kind of pass for riding the local metro lines, so keep an eye out for that, too.

When navigating the train system, you can always ask for directions or specifics at the information desks at the train stations.  (Most people speak good English over here, so don't be shy about talking to people.)  Most of the time, trains are listed by what direction they're going in.  So say you're going to Hamburg, your train may be listed as going to Berlin since it'll be going in that direction.  Even though your specific destination may not be the one listed, the train will still stop there along the way.  The individual stops are usually then listed on the display screens on the trains, or else on the time tables and schedules you can have printed out for you at the stations.  You'll also need to stay alert and keep track of when you'll be arriving at your stop.  They don't always announce over the PA when they make it to certain stops, especially on the night trains.  (Don't want to wake anyone up.)  So you need to know when to be ready to get off and/or transfer from train to train.

It's also good to book your hotels or hostels in advance before setting out on your trip.  If you've read my other entry, you'll know that one night we didn't have a place booked for the one night we were in Berlin, and we ended up getting stranded on the streets at night.  Not fun.  So be sure to always have a place you can stay, and never assume that there'll be a place available, even in a large city with lots of hotels and hostels.  One reason is because there's the chance they could be fully booked, or else are closed.  (Yes, that did happen to us.)  Unlike in the U.S. where hotels usually have someone sitting desk all 24 hours in the day, a lot of hotels and hostels in Europe are only open during certain hours in the day.  So also make sure you'll arrive in time to get into the hostel you'll be staying in, otherwise notify them so that they'll know when to be expecting you to check in.

At our hostel in Salzburg.  Was actually quite nice!
Before the trip, I thought that hostels would be really
rough with just whitewashed walls and stuff, but
they can actually be really cozy and colorful.

You may find that at the hostels you'll be sharing with
people you don't know, which can be a little awkward,
but it's basically like being in a college dorm or something.
So it's not bad.  Some places also provide lockers so
you can keep your valuables in them.

Hopefully these tips will prove helpful to anyone planning to travel around Europe.  In the end, just relax, plan ahead, be prepared, and HAVE FUN!

I Europa: Höstlov, Fall Break

Whew!  I don't think I've done so much traveling in such a short amount of time as I've done while here in Europe.  The other week the Americans here at SVF took our fall break Eurotrips.  We split up into different groups and went to different places around Europe.  I traveled with my friend Kayla, and we went to Belgium, France, Switzerland, and Austria!  Here are some photos and short stories from our trip.

Antwerpen and Brugge, Belgium

Our first stop on our trip was in Antwerp, Belgium.  Steve and Barb, some friends of my family who are missionaries there, offered to let us stay at their place for a couple of days.  It was great to see them again, and they made us some great American food, and we even had a Poirot mystery movie night with them!   (Seeing as how we were in Belgium, it was only appropriate that we watch a movie about the famous Belgian detective.)  :D

The Sunday we were there, we went to see the little medieval town of Brugge.  It was SO cute!  And the people were so friendly, and the chocolate and Belgian waffles were fantastic.  I would definitely go again if I could!

Antwerp Central Station

Brugge, Belgium

I LOVE stained glass windows!

Time for some Belgian chocolate hot chocolate!  :D

Paris, France

After Belgium, we made our way over to Paris, France!  It was really exciting to be in a city that I had only heard about for forever, and now finally got to see!  To me it wasn't as 'glamorous' as it was made out to be in movies and magazines and stuff, but it was still definitely a beautiful city that had a lot of history and heart to it.  Another thing that I feel I should mention here is that before going to France, I had heard that the French could be a bit hostile to other people (especially Americans), were very unwilling to speak in English even if they knew it, and that the French men would try to flirt with girls all the time and be really awkward and stuff.  Well, I found that image to be TOTALLY FALSE after arriving there.  I found the people of Paris to be very polite, helpful, and even cheerful at times.  They also appreciated any efforts to speak even a little French with them - even just a quick 'bonjour' or 'merci' put a smile on their face - yet they were willing to speak in English if you asked them to.  In the end, Paris ended up being one of my most favorite places on the trip.  :)

I really like French architecture.  I particularly love the
design of the fences around the balconies and windows.

Can you guess where this is from??  :D

The Eiffel Tower

The view over Paris from the top of the Eiffel Tower

Inside Notre Dame...such a beautiful
building.

Another reason why I liked Paris so much was that while we were there, Kayla and I went to Disneyland!  Ok, so maybe that's really American of me to go all the way to Europe only to take a whole day to go to Disneyland, but it was SO much fun!  It was the first time I had ever been to a Disney park, and I also rode a roller coaster for the first time, too!  I also really enjoyed seeing all of the Halloween decorations they had up and all the Disney things.  Really reminded me of home.  :)

A haunted mansion?  In October??
Yes please!!

The Thunder Mountain roller coaster - the first roller coaster
I've ever ridden.  It was great!  :D

*Gasp!*  There be pirates abroad!!

Sleeping Beauty's Castle

Yay!  More stained glass windows!
I LOVE the fairies from this movie!

The Walt Disney Studios park was right next to the
Disneyland park, so we got to see that as well!

How many of you remember this?  :D

Happy Halloween from Disneyland, Paris!

Interlaken, Switzerland

After spending a couple days in a city as large and exciting as Paris, it was nice to slow things down a bit and spend a day in Interlaken, Switzerland.  The town was located between some mountains in the Swiss Alps, and near a few lakes and rivers.  The mountains were SO beautiful, and the town of Interlaken was SO cute!  We didn't really do a whole lot while we were there, but it was a great location for just relaxing and walking around taking pictures.

Salzburg, Austria

Our next stop was in Salzburg, Austria.  I'm afraid it was at this point in the trip that I got a little bit sick the morning after we arrived there, but we were in a good hostel, so I had a good place to just rest and take it easy for when we would go on to Berlin later on.  So I'm afraid I didn't really get to do a whole lot while in Austria, but Kayla got to go on the 'Sound of Music' Tour they had there, so she got to see some of the places where the filmed the movie.  She had a great time.  :)

Some of the countryside of Austria

Berlin, Germany (...Well, sorta)

The next adventure on our trip turned out to be a bit of a misadventure I'm afraid.  While in Switzerland, we had decided to change our travel plans a bit.  We were originally going to go to Prague in the Czech Republic after visiting Salzburg, and then from there go to Berlin and then back to Sweden, but eventually we were just getting tired of traveling so much and thought it would be ok if we tried to get back a bit earlier.  We decided to cancel our hostel in Prague and then just go to Berlin a night early.  Even though our hostel was booked for the next night, we thought for sure that with all the other hotels and hostels around Berlin Central Station, we would be sure to find a place to stay that night.  Well, as it turns out we got in at around 12:30 (or 00:30) in the morning, and (I'm not exaggerating here) we tried over a 1/2 dozen places, and NONE of them could take us in.  Each place was either fully booked already they said, or else was closed for the evening.  Result?  We ended up walking around Berlin for about 3 hours trying to find a place to stay, but could never find one.  Although by this point I thought also about how they also didn't have room for Jesus either in the Christmas story, so I took comfort in that the bright side was that we were in good company on this one.  It was still rather creepy walking around such a big city on a Friday night though.  Yeah, I wouldn't recommend it.

In the end we went back to Berlin Central Station, waited another three hours until morning, and as soon as we could we booked our reservations to get back to Jönköping.  It was a bit disappointing that we ran into such troubles in Berlin (I really wanted to see things like the Berlin Wall, Bonhoeffer's house, and other historical places and see what the city was like in the daytime), but it was also kinda nice to just get back to good ol' Sweden.  Really sorry Berlin, but maybe next time.  There were, however, some other Americans from our group here at SVF that visited there and they liked it, so it really is a good city to go visit.  You just have to plan a bit more carefully than we did.  :)