2006-07-31

Never have I been abroad as many times within one year, as I was in 1996 - and never have I visited so many places in such a short time, as I did when my friend Kasper and I went on an InterRail-tour of Eastern Europe in the summer of that very year!

In the summer of 1996, my good friend Kasper and I decided to see a bit of Eastern Europe. I had visited a few of the capitals before, but we also wanted to see something off the beaten track. So we decided to buy an Interrail pass valid for 3 weeks in Poland, the Czech and Slovak republics and Hungary.

Day one (July 1st, 1996)

We had booked a few tickets in advance - From Copenhagen to Berlin and from Berlin to Warsaw in a sleeping carriage (all within the first 24 hours), and reservations from Prague to Copenhagen via Dresden and Berlin on the 14th of July. All we had to do, then, was to somehow go from Warsaw to Prague in 13 days. (This was no problem in itself, naturally - the real problem was, were should we go and what should we see - our limited time taken into consideration).

Luckily Kasper and I share a love for pubs and good local beers, etc., so if everything else failed we could always find a tavern somewhere. And so, after having arrived in East Berlin (Lichtenberg), which was also the place from which our Warsaw-train would leave a few hours later, the first thing we did was to find a cozy german Bierstube and some cheap german food (this involved some fried potatoes and some pork chops, as far as I can recall) - and of course a couple of beers.

A few hours later we returned to the train station, and headed for our train - we slept in a carriage full of 6-person compartments, and were - apparently - the only passengers in there there. We both got a bit nervous, when the train conductor took our Interrail-passes and kept them for the night - due to some difficulties understanding his Polish, and our own failure to get to know the ways of international train travel, we were afraid that he was going to sell them or fail to return them to us - of course, we both got our passes back the next morning..

Day two (July 2nd, 1996)

We arrived at Warsaw central station around 6 in the morning. We decided almost instantly, after having seen the immediate surroundings, that we did not want to spend much time here, so we returned to the station and booked a sleeping carriage for Budapest for that same evening. Then we headed for the river and the old city, which I had visited (for a few hours) a few years before on my way home from Cracow. This part of the city, we quite enjoyed. Having seen the lovely architecture, etc. we found a pizzeria where we had some lunch, and then we found a café on the old town square, just in time because half a minute later it started raining heavily. Later on we discovered a nice little café with outdoor serving on the top of a hill overlooking the river. Around 18:00 we found a small restaurant where we had one of the best dinners of the entire journey. We finally took a cab back to the train station and entered our 3 person sleeping carriage which we shared with a pendling Italian, traveling constantly from Warsaw to Budapest and back - we never really discovered what, exactly, it was he was doing, but we suspected it involved the words smuggling and diamonds....

Day three (July 3rd, 1996)

We arrived at Budapest with our backpacks, and were instantly hailed by a young woman (about our age) who could offer us a choice between 10 different youth hostels - we choose Universitas because we both like Universities. The hostel itself was situated next to the [something] bridge, next to the river Danube (Donau). I bought a walkman mear there - it lasted about 10 hours, and then broke! It was very cheap, though.. We did not really see a lot of things in Budapest - just walked around, had a few beers and enjoyed the summer. We did however, by pure coincidence, stumble upon one of our acquaintances on the afore mentioned bridge... It's a small world, eh?

Day four (July 4th, 1996)

In the afternoon we went by train to Eger, via Füzesabony. There were no rooms available on any of the hotels in the city, but luckily we found a tourist agency who helped us find a pension. This was to be one of the best experiences of the journey - for the next 48 hours we lodged in a great villa (the Panoráma Panzió) on a hill overlooking the valley and the city, run by a Hungarian couple and their 20 yo. daughter. This was great. We visited the castle, tasted some of the famous Eger Bikaver (a.k.a. Egri Bikaver) red wine and listened to an open air musical performance (an open air performance of songs from musicals, that is) in the middle of the city. On our second day there, we found an English pub in one of the suburban areas - we went in there for a beer in the afternoon, and left 8 hours later! This was a fine establishment :-)

Day six (July 6th, 1996)

Our host gave us a ride to the train station, and we headed for Miskolc - here, we waited - at the station - a couple of hours for the next train, taking us across the Slovak border to Kosicé where we stayed a night at the Hotel Europa. This is a very beautiful city - very central European.

Day seven (July 7th, 1996)

This was the most adventurous day of our voyage. We took the train to Poprad-Tatry, and a small local train from there up into the mountains - we left all of our luggage in Stary Smokovec - a skiing resort - took a lift some 400 meters higher, where we had something warm to drink (the weather was terrible at that time) at a lodge called Hrebienok. An hour later we just went out and into the mountains on stony tracks overlooking waterfalls, mountain tops, etc. After having walked for an hour or two, we met some German hikers who guided us towards a cabin (the Zamkovskeho Chata), where we stayed overnight, and met some fellow hikers from USA and Australia

Day eight (July 8th, 1996)

From Poprad to Zilina - the third largest town in the country. We found an excellent hotel & casino just next to the train station. This was the first television we saw in 8 days, and just as we turned it on, we saw Bjarne Riis conquering the yellow jersey in Tour de France - the jersey which he held on to when he won the Tour a week later!

Day nine (July 9th, 1996)

Another border crossing - this time the Czech/Slovak-one. We went to Brno - a nice and classic city, seemingly rather big area-wise. There aren't that many things to look at, but the architecture is fairly interesting and to my liking. We found a genuine Czech bierstube (beer house), where we had some of the world famous Czech dark beer. Back at our hotel I called home to my girlfriend, who told me that Henrik "Porky" Larsen had signed with FCK - disaster. It took Kasper and me some time to get over THAT chock (luckily we found an English pub where we spent a bit of the evening - that helped)...

Day ten (July 10th, 1996)

We went by one of the slowest regional trains I have ever been in from Brno to Cesky Budejovice - home of the original Budweiser! (Budvar) Ironically, when we found a small restaurant in the evening they didn't serve any of their world famous local beer - they served the Danish beer Tuborg! That same day we went to nearby-city Cesky Krumlau - very beautiful but completely overrun by Austrian tourists!

Day eleven (July 11th, 1996)

From Ceske to Prague, via medieval town Tabor in which we stopped for a few hours. In the 15th century the Husittes hided in the catacombs beneath the city, and we visited them (the catacombs, not the Hussites....).

Days twelve to fourteen (July 12th-14th, 1996)

We stayed at a youth hostel in the Dejvicka area of Prague. Quite nice.

On the fourteenth, in the morning, we started from one of the train stations headed for Dresden, Germany - we had booked tickets in advance for Prague - Dresden, Dresden - Berlin and Berlin-Copenhagen. Some kilometers south of Usti nad Labem we encountered our first major train problem - the engine broke down! So, we waited for almost an hour for another engine to replace the downbroken one. In Dresden our train had already gone, so we had to make a change of plans. We traveled from Dresden to Leipzig, Leipzig to Hannover and then went by the fast ICE trains to Hamburg. From here we caught a train back home to Copenhagen were we arrived in the evening around 21:00