Interrail Adventure Part 3: Go Solo

I can't believe it's been nearly 2 years since I went abroad! While I'm still confined to dreaming about foreign holidays from the UK this year, I thought I'd look back at my solo Interrail trip in August 2019. The whole journey ended up being far too long for one blog post so I have split it up into parts. In this third part I go solo by embarking on my hostel staying leg of the trip through central Europe.

Zürich & Overnight Train - Switzerland & Austria (6th - 7th August)

Another cancelled train meant that I took a detour via Basel and arrived in Zürich around 3pm. This was actually the first travel day in which I used my Interrail ticket! I successfully managed to get the lockers to work in the main station to drop off my heavy backpack (quite proud of this feat after my unsuccessful attempt at Freiburg Hbf). I then had about 5 hours to spare to explore the city while I waited for my night train that evening.

Something I have discovered is that when I'm in a city by myself I end up doing a LOT of walking. My average step count for these 8 days of solo travel was over 25,000 steps per day (I also averaged over 20,000 for my whole Interrail trip). I pretty much just wandered around the city the whole time in Zürich. I saw the Zürichsee and walked up to the hill to the university part to get a nice view of the city at sunset.

Something I did do that was a little out of my comfort zone was to talk to a random stranger who stopped me on the street. He began to speak to me in German before I told him that I only spoke some German. In English he then said he was from Andorra and doing some sort of a 'challenge' (?) or something and he was trying to sell me these embroidered cards. I had no Swiss Francs in cash (was using my travel card) but I was in a giving mood and he seemed like a nice guy so I gave him €2.

What's the best thing about Switzerland? Well, the flag's a big plus (get it?), so I obviously had to take a photo of them (see below). I'm just going to take a moment here to shout out the amazing apricot strudel I bought at Zürich Hbf for dessert before getting on the night train - it was amazing.

I decided that I wanted to take one night train on my Interrail trip for the experience of it. Plus, it also saved a travel day and meant I didn't need to pay for a hostel that night. It was €34 to reserve a bed in a 4 bed cabin. It was rather cramped sitting in the bottom bunk but I was asleep for most of the journey anyway. Two other Interrail girls arrived at the same time and I found out they live in Zürich and go to university there. I said I'd been learning German but I could barely understand their strong Swiss German accents. Luckily their English was pretty good.

I managed to survive the night train and even get some sleep (although I did wake up when another woman got in at 1am and left at 5am). One downside of taking the night train is that you don't get to see all the pretty scenery out the window when it's dark. I'm sure it would have been very nice to look at all the Austrian countryside, although sleeping did allow the eleven and a half hour train ride to go by much faster.

Ljubljana - Slovenia (7th - 8th August)

It felt a bit strange arriving at a new city at 8:13 in the morning. But I managed to find my hostel and drop off my bag there before I could check in later on. Although Ljubljana is the capital of Slovenia it's quite a small (but cute) city for a European capital. I decided to go on a free walking tour to see the city - my first one of the trip! Although I didn't really meet anyone to spend the day with there, it was a very good tour and great way to learn about a new place in a short time.

For lunch I decided to find the traditional dumplings that the tour guide had recommended. I had some buckwheat walnut štruklji. Very nice but a little stodgy and dripping in butter. I then went back to my hostel to check in and have a much needed rest and take advantage of having access to free wifi for the first time in 4 days. The hostel was really nice and had some friendly fellow travellers there.

I found out about a €1 bike renting scheme so managed to register and take a cycle to get a bit further out of the city centre. I had a dodgy veggie burger for dinner (tried this 'Amaze' burger but the sauce really wasn't to my taste and I didn't like the texture of the burger - too juicy? But the purple crisps were nice). I walked off this sub-par meal by going up to the castle which had a lovely view of the city, especially at sunset.

I really enjoyed my day in Ljubljana - I loved this city even just from a short visit. Very pretty and a nice river. There are also recycling and free drinking water points everywhere, and free clean public toilets (!!).

I liked Ljubljana Castle so much I went back there the next morning again to eat my breakfast pot of fresh berries. I also stocked up on more apricots (starting to see a theme?) at the market. The bike rental was such a success the previous day that I hired one again to cycle to a nearby park before my bus in the afternoon.

Bled - Slovenia (8th - 11th August)

Later that day in Ljubljana I took the bus to the small Slovenian town of Bled where I would stay for the next 3 nights. To give myself a bit of personal space, and since the private rooms weren't too much more expensive, I stayed at a lovely little family hostel with my own room. The hostel owner Jani was extremely friendly. This hostel even had the bonus of an incredible free buffet breakfast, the highlight of which was a waffle machine! And they even had rice milk!

As soon as I arrived in Bled, I was blown away by the magnificence of the beautiful Lake Bled. Some might think it's a bit over-hyped but it was simply a fairytale of a little town. Lakes are definitely my favourite kind of body of water in nature. Combine that with a magical island with a church, an enchanting little village and amazing mountains in the surroundings and you get my favourite kind of place!

I had done quite a bit of research on the best places to go around Bled. I found out that that the castle entrance fee wasn't really worth it, but you could sneak around the side (possibly trespassing a little...) without paying to get an amazing view of Lake Bled without paying. This is the view you can see in the first picture below. I came back again to the same place later that evening to get the same picture at 9am and 9pm!

I had decided while planning my trip to Bled to splurge a little on a ziplining trip in the nearby Dolinka valley. I'm not a huge adrenaline person but I really like ziplines, the feeling of gliding across through the air, and I'm not too afraid of heights. This trip promised lots of that with a combined total of 4km of ziplines down the valley, the longest being 700m long. Unfortunately I didn't really meet any other travellers my own age on the trip, as I had hoped a little, but the people were still nice. The guides were also very nice and told us they grew up in the nearby Julian Alps and that they were well worth a visit someday. I was very taken with Slovenia so I would definitely like to visit the Julian Alps one day.

I had a walk around the lake by myself that evening and had a quick dip in the water. The water was incredible - so clear and so blue and a perfect temperature. At 5:50pm I suddenly realised there was a free walking tour at 6pm which I had been meaning to go on. This tour felt much more informal than the other walking tours I've been on, especially since there were only 4 other people (2 couples), but this local man did give me some interesting history of the town. A very nice day.

The next day was a rather eventful one:

• Got up at 8:15 to hike up the hill Mala Osojnica on the other side of the lake to a view point with an outstanding view.

• Got a little lost at one point but found the track again before I realised I no longer had my sunglasses, so had to hike back up this steep path to find them just sitting on a small boulder in the middle of the forest.

• Returned to hostel to grab lunch before meeting Emilie, a fellow DiscoverEU Interrailer who I met through the Facebook group. She was lovely and we spent of a couple of hours by the lake and swimming before she left to go back to Ljubljana.

• Another quick hostel rest before deciding to swim to the island in the middle of lake. I determined the shortest swimming route and the swim ended up taking about 12 minutes each way. This is probably the furthest I've swum in one go in a long time. I had a little wander bare foot and in swimming gear up to the church before heading back.

• Not very advisably (and rather stupidly) I had left my bag with phone and passport in it on the shore while swimming (although the bag was locked) as I planned to get pizza from the restaurant the other side of the lake before going back to the hostel. On my way to get food I realised I didn't have my sunglasses again... I thought I had put them in my bag but maybe they were just sitting outside. I checked the area on the way back again but no where to be found. Still don't know if I just misplaced them or someone stole them, but I was just glad my bag, phone and passport were all still there. Unfortunately these were not the €5 fake Ray Ban sunglasses from Crete that I used to own (that pair had fallen apart and I had instead splashed out on a slightly nicer pair heavily discounted at TK Maxx before leaving on my trip).

• I recovered from my sunglasses debacle with my well earnt pizza and Slovenian beer (they didn't even ask for ID in the supermarket in the end).

Total steps for the day ended up being 40,403 - the most steps I had ever walking in a single day! Quote from the diary: "I keep saying to myself I'll have a less active & quieter day the next day but I keep doing more!"

Wien - Austria (11th - 12th August)

After successfully catching the local bus to the tiny Lesce-Bled train station, I was relieved when my train to Villach did show up, albeit slightly late. This was the only train on my trip that was so crowded that I had to sit in the corridor. I hadn't reserved a seat as it was only an hour. The Villach to Vienna train was much quieter and I had a very pleasant train ride through the Austrian countryside.

Then began my 24 hours (almost exactly!) in Vienna. The hostel wasn't the best as it was super hot and there only 2 small fans for the whole room. There were 2 girls there when I arrived but they didn't even say hello to me.

Seat reservation mission: The first thing I did was go back to the station to get a seat reservation for the train the next day, as I didn't want to risk standing in the corridor again for this 4 hour train ride. I was very proud of myself as I managed to book my seat only in German! I'm sure the lady could have spoken English but I wanted to test my skills.

Sunglasses mission: The next mission was to find some new replacement sunglasses. I really couldn't find anywhere in the centre of town but on reflection I realise this was not the best place (specialist sunglasses shops/ boutiques would be far too expensive compared to the cheap ones I was looking for) or time (Sunday evening) to successfully complete this mission. This mission was still not completed until I was about to leave Vienna and found some perfect replacement sunglasses (which I still use to this day) in a pharmacy in the main station. Top tip for cheap sunglasses: Pharmacy or TK Maxx; not fancy Austrian boutiques.

Danube river mission: I did find the Danube river but was rather disappointed to find it empty where I went so didn't look very nice.

Apfelstrüdel mission: Could not find a cheap one so settled on a €1 one from the supermarket. I had a proper one in a café the next day instead. I felt rather judged by the waiters sitting alone in a fancy café but it was very nice.

Endless walk for food mission: Couldn't decide what to eat and I kept walking up and down to find some good cheap-ish food. I was getting rather tired so just settled on a quiet little restaurant where I had spaghetti. I have decided that Vienna is a pretty expensive city. Was a bit annoyed by the waiter who kept converting to English despite my attempts at German. However, on my search for food I did come across some lovely violin buskers, which lifted my spirits a lot and I even gave one lady €2.

Birthday building mission: My mum had said there was a specific building in Vienna in a book that she and my Grandma had read recently, "The Hare with the Amber Eyes". It was Grandma's birthday that day so I set out to find the building and take a picture of it to send it to her. Then I called her to wish her a happy birthday.

Museums mission: It turns out that most of the museums in Vienna are free for under 19s which I was still was at the time for one more month! I took advantage of this to speed round the Natural History museum in an hour as soon as it opened at 9am.

I then went to this small Globe museum. This is probably one of the most interesting museums I've been to as I actually read everything on the signs and loved looking at all the globes. It might seem like a niche place to go but I took inspiration to go there from Destin's visit there in the recent SmarterEveryDay video on eclipses. It came out just before I left for my Interrail trip. I realised I was actually going to Vienna and it looked like a cool place so that was the only thing I had actually planned on doing before arriving in the city! No one else was there apart from the museum person/ security guard (felt a bit weird when he kept following me around to check on me) so I had the whole place to myself!

With the perk of free museums, I thought I might as well have a quick look in side the art gallery the "Albertina", which I would not have done if it wasn't free. Wasn't a big fan of the Picasso but some of the other paintings were nice. Not a big art fan so I didn't stay long as I was tired and hungry. A cheap falafel sandwich from a street stand perked me up though.

Vienna contrasted a lot with Bled. Big buildings every where, impressive very grand architecture compared to small Slovenian village. But they each had their own charms. I didn't stay nearly long enough to experience everything in this city, but I think I did well for a visit of less than 24 hours.

Praha - Czechia (12th - 14th August)

At Prague station I went to a supermarket to buy a makeshift dinner in the hopes of getting change for my large notes (new currency - Czech Korona!) but the people didn't speak English and I was given annoyed looks when I produced a 200 CK notes to pay 7 CK.... Anyway, the hostel room was very nice. Met a nice middle-aged woman from Brazil who didn't speak much English at all but we still managed to have a friendly exchange. I think I still have her number on WhatsApp actually!

I had another packed day for my full day in Prague in which I was out of the hostel for a full 15 hours! First thing I went on a free walking tour that had a pick-up from my hostel. I met some friendly other travellers around my age and the tour guide Vaclav was really good. Halfway through this tour you could pay to book onto another tour - the castle tour. Since I only had one full day in Prague and I was enjoying this walking tour, I thought it would be good to spend most of it on walking tours.

Before the next tour I had a traditional chimney cake with chocolate for lunch, trdelnik (don't judge the cake for lunch - I was on holiday!). While waiting for the tour to start outside the Rudolfinium concert hall, I saw a poster for a concert that night. I was feeling spontaneous so I decided I would try and get tickets after the tour.

This second walking tour also happened to be lead by Vaclav. I finally told him that I thought he looked like a (younger) John Green, which had been bugging me all morning. I think he'd been told this once before and wasn't too happy about this comment, jokingly saying he would have preferred to be told he looks like Brad Pitt.

I met several fellow travellers of my age on this tour - a Canadian boy, an American boy and an Australian girl. I mentioned to the American guy Francesco that I was thinking about going to this concert that night and he said he'd join. We were all getting along well so after the tour finished at the Lennon wall we went to find food & drink. We had a nice time chatting and it was much less lonely than a table for one! Then Francesco and I speed walked to the theatre to see if they still had tickets left. We arrived 15 minutes before the start and there were still plenty of tickets. The cheapest tickets ended up being very nice seats on the balcony. It was a small chamber orchestra with appearances from a solo violinist, a soprano and an organ player. They were playing well known classical pieces but I think that was my first proper classical concert! I liked Canon but my favourite was definitely listening to Vltava by Smetana while being next to the Vltava river!

Afterwards we joined the other two from the tour at a nice bar for drinks next to the hostel where they were all staying. I just had a small beer as I was reluctant to spend lots of money on fancy cocktails, and I didn't have many Czech Koruna left. I had a really nice time and our conversations managed to get a lot deeper and interesting than just small talk. A shame I wasn't spending longer in the city to see any of them again - that's the disadvantage of planning too much of a trip in advance because you never know where you'll meet some interesting travelling friends. Anyway, I decided to leave before it got far too late and I took the tram back to my hostel.

The next morning I got up pretty early and headed straight out to see the Charles Bridge at sunrise (well a bit after sunrise) before it got really busy. I even touched the plaque of the falling priest on the statue to make a wish as it is supposed to make it true in 1 year & 1 day... (I'm not sure I remember what I wished for but it doesn't come true if you tell anyone anyway).

Nice place, will definitely have to come back to Prague and find Vaclav on the beer tour.

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Next week's blog post will be the final leg of my journey back in Germany and my return journey home. Make sure to subscribe below to mailing list to get notified when I post!