My Hovercraft is Full of Eels

A journey through Europe by train

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Entries Tagged as 'trains'

Brasov to Budapest

August 4th, 2009 by jane · 2 Comments · trains, travel

Our couchette (cuşetă in Romanian) was already occu­pied by 2 Romanian men and one teen­age lad (one of their sons?) already in bed when we got on at Brasov, so quite strange shar­ing such a small space with 3 people we hadn’t met and weren’t sure we shared any com­mon language with. 

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How do you reserve 3 beds from Thessaloniki to Bucharesti?

August 3rd, 2009 by jane · 2 Comments · trains, travel

9.00am Greek train book­ing office, Athens: “No, I can’t give you reser­va­tions on the train  Bucharest.  I have only 3 beds and I must sell them.  But you can buy in Thessaloniki.  The Romanians have more  —  it’s easy” 1.30pm Larissa train sta­tion, Athens.  Inernational book­ing office opens: “No train to Bucharest” “Why?” “I don’t know!”

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Food for a 2-day train journey

August 3rd, 2009 by callum · 4 Comments · food, trains, travel

2  Spinopitas 1 Tiropita 13 Oranges 7 Bottles of water 4 Large toma­toes 2 Cucumbers

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Venezia to Ancona

July 21st, 2009 by jane · 4 Comments · Uncategorized, trains, travel

Sunday 19th Venazia to Bologna Our first local, supplement-free train! An early rise at 6am and break­fast of corn­flakes, white sliced toast and straw­berry jam at “Sleep Cheap at Francesca’s B&B”, whilst the own­ers slept in the liv­ing room, giv­ing over their two large bed­rooms to pay­ing guests. I slept badly as cannon-like fire­works boomed […]

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Courgettes Are Fun!!!!!!(even though they taste nasty)

July 21st, 2009 by callum · 2 Comments · trains

Cuchettes are fun, like mini­ature houses you share with people youve never met before!!!!!!!! It would have been bor­ing to get a com­part­ment to ourselves

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TRAIN RAP (pom, pom, pom,)

July 21st, 2009 by callum · No Comments · trains

a short rap for three people or more ; Person no. 1 any refresh­ments, any refreshments

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Paris Gare de Bercy to Venezia Santa Lucia

July 21st, 2009 by jane · 2 Comments · Uncategorized, trains, travel

After a 4 hour break­down (we were told 5 minutes 2 hours ago  —  no-one really knows what the prob­lem is) we’re mov­ing on through the edge of the Alps, past Lake Maggiore, towards Milan. The plus side of the delay is that we travel this sec­tion in day light, eat­ing our break­fast of pain au chocolat.

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Resources

July 13th, 2009 by chris · 1 Comment · resources, trains, travel

I’m going to note here some of the resources we’ve found use­ful in plan­ning the trip. Firstly I have to men­tion the remark­able Man in Seat Sixty-One web­site. This is run by Mark Smith, an indi­vidual rail travel enthu­si­ast, who has col­lec­ted together an enorm­ous amount of help­ful inform­a­tion about trav­el­ling by rail in Europe (and […]

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Is it really greener to fly?

June 28th, 2009 by chris · 2 Comments · climate change, flights, trains

Until the other week, I’d assumed that it was com­pletely clear that fly­ing (par­tic­u­larly long-haul, but all fly­ing to some extent) was a really Bad Thing in terms of its con­tri­bu­tion to cli­mate change. I’ve not stud­ied the cli­mate change sci­ence in much detail, but I con­stantly hear from those who have that fly­ing is […]

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Callum’s list of things to do on a boring lllllllllooooonnnnngggg distance train

June 26th, 2009 by callum · 3 Comments · trains

write a story that has the same num­ber of chapters as sta­tions you go through. As soon as you stop at a sta­tion you have to start a new chapter. eat a sand­wich by tak­ing a bite whenever you pass a hill.

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