The background story of the Interrail trip of the four students Isabelle, Jeni, Pauline and Zoé from southern Germany is quite unusual: an unexpected ticket win had led to their trip together. Having just started their studies in Freiburg, none of the four friends had planned to go city hopping in Europe. Money is tight during studies anyway, and those who still live in Freiburg have to finance high rental costs. As fate would have it, however, Isabell won an Interrail ticket worth 500 Euros from the German government this year. Originally, she didn’t know exactly how she was going to use the unexpected windfall. Talking to her friends, however, Zoé and Pauline immediately offered to go along for the ride as a joke – each had an idea of where it would be best to go, which cities in Europe they had always wanted to see. The fun eventually turned serious, Jeni accompanied them and the four began planning their joint trip to Europe by train.
Since Isabell could only use her 500-Euro ticket for herself, they had to find an adequate and inexpensive ticket for the others. They ended up buying the Interrail Global Pass for 185 Euros for people between the ages of 12 and 27. The ticket included four days of travel in one month. On top of the low price, they later added about 100 Euros in costs because some trains had to be reserved in advance (which ones are shown in the Interrail app). For only 285 Euros, the friends traveled from 13 to 18 September 2022 the metropolises of Paris, London and Amsterdam. Zoé told me what the four of them experienced and why it is still dangerous to travel alone as a woman in Europe today.
How did you plan your itinerary?
At the beginning, we agreed on the three cities Paris, London and Amsterdam. We then chose the route so that it made sense in terms of kilometers – the city closest to our starting point first, i.e. Paris, followed by London and then on to Amsterdam. The Interrail app is really handy for planning. You deposit your ticket and then add the trips, like in a construction kit. Because of our ticket, we were only able to travel four days. Since we were traveling for a total of five days, we timed these travel days very tightly. However, the four travel days could also have been used within a month with more stay days in the respective places in between.
What is special about Interrail for you?
For me, traveling through Europe by train was incredibly relaxing. You sit in your compartment, let the landscape pass you by, and arrive at your destination quite comfortably. We mainly used the train rides to sleep. The cities cost us a lot of energy, so we used the travel time to recharge our batteries. In London, we also felt almost like we were at an airport. There was high security there, our bags were screened and checked. This is probably also due to the fact that the UK is no longer part of the EU. In addition, traveling with the Interrail ticket was very cheap. Without this offer, we would probably never have made the trip in this form – so many places in such a short time.
For whom is Interrail travel a good option?
Interrail travel is interesting for anyone who plans to visit several cities in Europe. If you are going to only one city, of course, the ticket does not make sense. Also, for older people who are already retired or younger people, it may be easier to travel for a long time at a time. After the trip, the four of us regrated a bit that we didn’t stay longer in each city. We should have extended the trip even longer. Interrail travel is not expensive either. We did need a little more money than expected for the train routes because of the reservations, but on balance it was quite affordable. Only Amsterdam as a city was very expensive! The accommodations cost a lot, even if you book the cheapest options.
Which places did you visit in the metropolises?
Looking back, I have to admit that we didn’t think much about it beforehand. We let the trip come to us. What we then looked at on site, we decided spontaneously. In Paris, we visited the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame, on the second day then Versailles. Notre Dame was a bit unspectacular, because the church was still partly closed off, because of the fire 2019. We didn’t visit the Louvre, because we did not want to stand in line for hours for a picture with the Mona Lisa. We had only two days in the city available. But we went to the Arc de Triomphe. The view of the Champs Élysées was fascinating, because from up there you have the feeling of being in the middle of Paris. In the evening before our onward journey, we sat down with a bottle of wine at the Seine – with a view of the Eiffel Tower, which sparkled every hour. It was a really beautiful atmosphere! Oh, and we saw a marriage proposal in front of the Eiffel Tower.
We have all been to London with the school before. Therefore, we could cross some sights, such as Big Ben, off the sight-seeing list. We mainly strolled through the city and let ourselves drift. There were lines of people everywhere and we didn’t think much of it at first. Eventually we got into conversation with people and understood that this was the queue to see the upset Queen. She had died three days before our stay. The whole thing was totally organized: at the Tower Bridge they offered entrance bands in three different colors, representing times of day. The entrance bands were free, but you needed them to be let in to see the Queen. There were also stewards everywhere in the city – a huge security presence. To us, the entire public behavior seemed a bit exaggerated. That it is tragic for the nation that the Queen, this representative figure, has died is understandable. But the fact that people stood in lines for hours just to pay their condolences to the dead woman seemed a bit strange to us. At the beginning there were eight hours of waiting and at the end even 24 hours!
In the last stop of our trip, Amsterdam, we mainly looked at beautiful corners in the city. For example, we went to a bridge that one of us had discovered on Instagram. We also bought souvenirs for our families. We also went to the red-light district, which was a bit shocking because it was so incredibly busy, mostly tourists. In really every window there was a lady sitting in front of a red light or a red curtain. They all had as little on as possible, mostly lingerie. We also saw some men going into the houses.
Did you meet any interesting people during the trip?
We didn’t meet any other travelers on the trains themselves, since we mostly slept. In London, however, we got into conversation with quite a few people. One man in his early 50s has remained well in my memory. It was 9:00 pm. He had just come out of the church where the Queen was arrayed and told us he had been in line at 2:00 p.m. He said it was “completely worth it”. The complete opposite was delivered by a woman in her early 20s with whom we also talked about the queues, which she rather smiled at. She recommended the live stream, which was available worldwide and showed the upset Queen. In her opinion, one would not have to queue to see the Queen. We wondered, maybe that was also due to her age?!
Were there any unexpected or dangerous situations during the trip?
There was actually an unpleasant incident in Paris. Our hotel had a super location, close to the center. But the rooms were very small and there was no common area for all of us. Therefore, we had to sit in the courtyard if we wanted to talk in the evening. The hotel’s rooms were arranged around the courtyard, with doors and windows facing inward. At about midnight, Jeni noticed that we were being watched. A man kept peeking out from behind the curtain of his room and staring at us. We then pointedly looked back to show him that we saw him. But that didn’t faze him. He just continued to stare. Suddenly the curtain fell a little to the side and we saw that he was standing there naked and satisfying himself. This scared the hell out of us and we quickly fled to our rooms. A few of us couldn’t sleep properly afterwards because of fear.
What was the best part of the trip? What is a moment you remember most fondly?
For us, it was special to see the Eiffel Tower in real life. You know the landmark from social media and television. But then to really stand in front of it is a strange feeling. Overall, Paris was a very beautiful city with great old buildings – but I would not call the city the highlight now. The locals were also very nice. But when you spoke English with them, they just kept talking in French. Therefore, we did not feel 100 % comfortable. London, on the other hand, was then very liberating because we could simply speak English. I would therefore say London was my highlight! In our hostel, we met quite a few other travelers due to the fact that we were in a room with 12 beds. One roommate was around 30 and had been living in hostels for months as he traveled all over Europe. He had great stories to tell. There was also a pretty funny situation in the hostel. One of the nights, two Asians came home at 02:00 at night and left the lights on for 20 minutes. I was then really awake and thought it was morning. When I went to get up, the mistake then came out. We had a great laugh. Overall, it was just great to spend so much time with my girlfriends. In the evenings, we always sat together forever and talked. Spending time together so intensively is something you rarely do.
What was it like coming back to Germany?
Actually, I feel Germany is very clean now after the trip. We have a very high standard of hygiene and I didn’t realize that until I compared it to the other cities. Paris, for example, was very dirty, not only our hotel but also the streets and parks in the big city. London was then, although it is also a very large city, already cleaner. Overall, after the trip I totally appreciated having my own bathroom, not sharing my bed with others (in Paris we had a one-meter-wide bed for two) and having more space to myself in general. A fun fact, although I don’t want to serve any clichés: The trip abroad went totally smoothly. But once we got back to Germany, there were delays with Deutsche Bahn and we sometimes didn’t catch our connections. From Basel, just before our hometown, we had to be picked up by our parents because there were no more trains to the final station.
What did you bring back from the trip?
I definitely became more confident in my English. Especially in London, I realized that I have no problem approaching people and speaking to them in English. Even though I don’t speak with a perfect accent, the native speakers understood me perfectly. But we also brought back very banal souvenirs: everyone took a small Eiffel Tower keychain from Paris, Jeni and I brought back Dutch cheese from Amsterdam, and Isabell bought her mother flower seedlings. In London, we also picked up great Street Art prints from a street vendor.
How do you feel about flying?
I think I can count on one hand how many times I’ve flown in my life. My parents are very environmentally conscious, so we’ve never traveled much by plane. We have relatives in northern Germany, for example. We always traveled to them by train during our vacations. We were always on the road for eight hours, but there was never any question of flying the distance. My sister recently spent a year in New Zealand because she wanted to see the country. She couldn’t avoid the flight. I myself realized through the Interrail trip how centrally located Germany is. We were so incredibly fast in Paris. The train is a really good alternative to flying. However, if you’re only going one way, it’s still enormously expensive. I do have a Bahncard 50, which reduces the cost somewhat. Nevertheless, I find the price high, for the fact that something goes wrong again and again. There is definitely room for improvement. Then more people would certainly travel by train.
Interview by Anika Neugart.
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