The planning begins
Istanbul. Source: Wikipedia
After last year’s Mongolia trip, I decided that this year I’d take my other half on a special holiday. Whereas by no means a sun-seeker, it’s safe to assume she’s not previously been a fan of travelling holidays, the Trans-America drive aside.
However, I was pleasantly surprised when inter-railing was suggested. One of the big regrets of my younger days was never taking the opportunity to see Europe by rail. While I’d have been too young to see the fall of Communism and the break-up of the old bloc, I feel the benefit of having seen the Czech Republic, Hungary and the likes during such formative years would have been massive.
But here, in my mid-30s, was the chance.
Bran Castle, Romania. Source: Wikipedia
With a requested end point (Istanbul) and only one “must-see” (Bran Castle in Romania), I set about planning a route. It soon became apparent that there are many interesting ways to get from England to Istanbul by train: Ljubljana, Brno, Venice, Zurich, Koblenz, Krakow and even Copenhagen became possible destinations. But one place stood out as unavoidable if heading to Brasov (the nearest station to Bran).
Unless you’re going from Venice to Ljubljana via Villach and Lake Bled it’s unlikely you will be able to miss out Budapest. Sadly, Bled was soon cut from the possibilities, due to the timing of the trains between Ljubljana, Vienna and Budapest. The Hungarian capital was therefore added to the list and, due to its nearness, so was Vienna.
That was the middle section sorted: Vienna-Budapest-Brasov.
But where to go before that? Messing around on bahn.de, the excellent German website that covers most of Europe, some initial plans started to form. From London we could head to either Cologne (for northern Europe) or Paris (for the southern route). Using Cologne as a starting point, the train to Munich and Vienna became an option as it winds its way through the beautiful Rhine valley at dusk. Or perhaps we could keep going east to Berlin and onwards to Krakow, eventually taking the night train to Vienna? One other route caught my eye. Leaving our home in northern England on Friday morning, we could wake up the next day in Copenhagen. This seemed unbelievable.
However, a later request from the other half dictated we should take the southern route. Venice was to be added to the itinerary. With limited time to spend on the trip, visits to Lucerne and Liechtenstein were quickly but regrettably snipped and the final schedule was sorted: London-Paris-Venice-Vienna-Budapest-Brasov-Constanta-Bucharest.
The eagle-eyed amongst you will notice that Bucharest isn’t Istanbul. You’re right! However, due to a lack of concrete information about trains from here to Istanbul, we’ve decided to play this section by ear. We’ll be passing through Bucharest on the way to Constanta, so can sort that out then.
With the route settled on, we could start tentatively booking sections of it. With our departure date too far in advance for most train companies, we could only book the Eurostar from London to Paris. With that, we also booked a night’s accommodation in the French capital.
Venice. Source: Wikipedia
More waiting ensued until I saw a decent offer on a Vienna hotel. That was then booked. For the wrong dates. I had managed to confuse myself as the departure dates for night trains obviously don’t match up with the date a hotel will be needed. Not to worry – a swift alteration to the route means we now leave Paris and spend a few hours in Zürich, before getting the night train through the Alps to Vienna. After a few nights there, we get an afternoon train to Salzburg, before a night train takes us to Venice for the day. In the evening we board the train once more and wake up in Vienna again. This also gives us an opportunity to catch the boat to Bratislava before travelling on to Budapest the same day. The Vienna mix-up may have worked in our favour, proving that there’s no such thing as cock-ups just additional opportunities. Feel free to remind me of that when we’re stuck in rural Bulgaria..!
With my holidays booked at work (my other half is a teacher so doesn’t need to worry about such things) and a return date agreed, we could also book the flight back: Istanbul to Heathrow as (hopefully) including the train, that works out cheaper than flying to Manchester and getting the train.
Reminders have been set for when the rail passes go on sale (you can set up an email alert from the Voyages-SNCF website) and the approximate date when UK train tickets are able to be purchased.
Until then, we scour the web for information and shops for books on our destinations..!
The planning continues
Time passes. Some people get wiser, some more indecisive. I clearly fall in with those in the latter category. The route is still being played with and being tweaked, hopefully, to perfection.
On a positive note, we’ve now booked trains as far as Vienna. The Voyages SNCF alerts proved a success and told us in good time that our tickets were about to be put on sale. Hot on the heels of the Vienna incident, I presumably felt in need of a fresh cock-up. Pull down menus were my latest enemy, specifically those allowing me to enter my other half’s birth date in the rail pass application. The tickets arrived, mine with the correct date, hers with the birthday one day out. Avoiding potentially a holiday-threatening situation, I explained that the pull-down menu must have slipped after I had entered her dates.
Vienna: This means nothing to me, yet. Source: Wiki
This wasn’t the end of the matter though, as Voyages SNCF clearly didn’t believe my version of events (even though it was the truth). We would have to send the pass back as incorrect details invalidated it. They would refund the price, but charge us over £50 admin fee.
Still, this didn’t stop us ordering more tickets. The train from Paris to Zürich was reserved at a cost of £30 each. Plus, the night train from Zürich to Vienna was booked, with the two top beds in a six-berth cabin coming in at £25 each.
So there we are. We had trains from London to Vienna booked, with my other half’s new pass arriving a week or so later.
Next up was the English leg of the trip (to and from London). The train down to the capital was booked without incident and came in at £12.50 each for a two-hour journey that should give us an ideal amount of time at Kings Cross/St Pancras.
The return, however, wasn’t so easy. With prices coming in at £72 each for the same trip, a bit of scouring and searching was in order. As we were looking to book as soon as tickets became available we didn’t know what the next day would bring. If they were £12.50 it would be worth staying in London for the night.
Goole’s Aire Street, also known as “Blood Alley”
Typically, there was also severe works near our home so we were being diverted to Goole – and no one needs that!
The day after came, and the same prices remained. Thanks to our personal version of money-saver Martin Lewis, we managed to find a train that would get us back home before midnight on the Monday, our preferred day. Singles from London to York were coming in at £20 each, with the rest of the journey being the usual £12 for a duo. With some vouchers, we managed to reduce this to £16 per head. A bargain!
As I mentioned earlier, the route is still being tweaked. The latest ‘improvement’ being cutting out Constanta in favour of more time in Transylvania.
As we’d have had to leave Brasov in the morning and wouldn’t have made Constanta until that evening, doubling back on ourselves to Bucharest the next day, it seemed wise to check out other options. It turns out we could have the afternoon in Sighisoara (the birthplace of Vlad Tepes), before catching the train to spend the night in Sibiu, a beautiful old town I passed through last year.
The Bulgaria part of the route is beginning to take shape slowly. It’s hard to find any concrete information on schedules, but it seems like we’ll arrive in Sofia in the morning and have time to visit Plovdiv before boarding our final train to Istanbul.
It’s great to have a plan, but it’s also very important not to be tied to it. We are booked until Vienna and, from there, everything is still in its idea stage, until the flight back from Istanbul. We have a few days in Vienna to book our return trains to Venice, our boat to Bratislava and our hotel in Budapest, if we so desire.
With about seven weeks before we set off, there’s not a lot left to do. I’ll look at Turkish visas and create my money/language documents. These are just handy printouts with important information and phrases on that can be used to give yourself a smattering of the local language. The vital phrases are all there, ‘hello’ ‘please’ ‘thank you’ ‘beer’ etc.
So, until then, thanks for reading and enjoy any travels of your own.
It’s now or never
Tomorrow sees us take the first steps to Istanbul. An early morning walk to the station is followed by trains to London and Paris.
Everything is organised – hopefully. If not, it’s too late to worry.
The most important item on the list was the Turkish Visa. This has only come into practice recently as, before then, you could just slip $10 into your passport and you were allowed into the Eurasian country. Now, however, you have to apply for an e-visa before you go. To be quite honest, it’s not the hardest visa I’ve ever had to fill in. There are no questions about your history with guns and whether you make chemical weapons, nor do they need to know your destinations for the past ten years. All they ask you to do is fill in some standard personal information and your passport details. And it only costs $20.
Once you’ve filled in the details and paid, you are sent a link to the PDF, meaning you can print off your visa almost instantaneously – no weeks of worry about whether you’ve been accepted. The only thing you have to be sure of is you’re using the government’s website (https://www.evisa.gov.tr/) as there are reports of fake websites.
These may look like overkill, and to some extent they are, but they do prove handy. Of course, they should only be done if you have enough space.
Speaking of which, the rucksacks have been packed (just as well, really) and are surprisingly not bulging. It’s worth bearing in mind that, if you’re staying at hotels on your trip, you can wash any dirty laundry there – even if it’s in the shower. Therefore, four of five days worth of clothes is more than enough!
The other, slightly unexpected thing, I’ve packed is a pillow case. There is logic behind it! If you’re sleeping in hostels or on trains, you can put your valuables in here and keep them close to you
As for money, due to previous travels I have enough Euros, Hungarian Forints and Romanian Lei to survive until we find a cash point. A FairFX card or similar is recommended, but I prefer drawing money out as and when it’s needed. If you’re going on a trip through various countries with different currencies, it’s wise not to get them before you go – exchange rates aren’t that bad abroad anymore. In fact, it’s been recommended that I withdraw Turkish Lira in Istanbul as you get a better rate.
And there we have it. In 24 hours, we’ll hopefully be on the first of our trains. Live updates should be available, depending on Wifi access.
Thanks for reading.
Black Tar Rivers 