About a year ago to the date I was sitting on a heavily delayed sleeper train after having an amazing week in Tromsø even though I was panicking we would miss my flights I still couldn’t get over some of the amazing things we had seen and done.
This trip I took Cam along as I wanted someone to share the experience with me. So the week started off with a flight to Stockholm and a wonder round there. It was cold and there was snow covering the city which made it fairly pretty however I don’t think we found the main area of the city as we just seemed to find outskirts areas. However we weren’t there for that long so we headed to the station to catch a train to Uppsala, just north of Stockholm To catch the 1910 sleeper train to Narvik, this would be an 18 hour ride on the train and we would still only be half way there, but honestly it’s totally worth it. We boarded the train and found our couchette, they’re like dorms on a train with generally 6 or 4 beds in each. Unsurprisingly there were people already in the compartment but little did we know that these people would become great friends. So we sat down and started chatting, the first 10 or 20 minutes of a sleeper train is always a bit of shuffling around while you find places to put your stuff. After a very short amount of time the 6 of us were already playing games, chatting and having like a little couchette party, it was great! Although next time don’t hold a onesie outside the window for so long because it will freeze. The train stopped for extended periods of time on the way up due to timetable requirements, however this was a perfect excuse for a snowball fight on the station. It then came to the point where we had to say goodnight to all our new friends as it was bedtime, 1am mind you!
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So, I thought I would write a bit more in depth about my first solo trip out of the UK. It all came about when I was sitting at home one day looking through Instagram at travel pictures and the likes, and I had seen a video of a rhodelbahn in Switzerland which I wanted to go on. Therefore I started planning, but who would I go with? I asked my mate Cam who was unfortunately working most of the time while I was due to be away, and then an idea came to me, why don’t I go on my own!
I didn’t really want to go by plane as I was still not really over my fear of flying so I did a bit of research and decided to get the train to Switzerland! I wasn’t aware of interrail at the time so I just brought a ticket from the trainline international website and used my work discount for the Eurostar. I first got the Eurostar across to Paris and then a TGV down to Strasbourg and in to Basel the next day, first ever double decker train ride! I had stayed over in Paris the previous night, might as well. Personally I wasn’t a huge fan of Paris, no one was that social, and I just didn’t know where to go, it may have been to do with being the first time on my own but I just didn’t get the feel of the place |
Sam InmanA guy who’s trying to find his way round the world, swimming, scouting and travelling to see the world
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