ABOUT THIS TRAVEL
Febraury 98, 15
days
INTRO
Kind of travel: me in
an independent travel (with a travelmate for the first 3 days)
When: 20 Febr.- 6
Mar., 1998
How I moved: by train,
hitch hiking, boat and rollerblading
Baking or
freezing?: wind, especially along
the coasts, and cold but not too much (-2 +10). Some snow in Berlin.
Where I slept: on
the train, at the station, on the boat and hostels
What I liked: I fell
in love of Bornholm with his quite winter haze, as everything was in lethargy waiting for
the spring. Besides rollerblading in the snowing Berlin was suggestive
What I disliked: German
and Denmark are expensive, expensive and still expensive. In addition Germans in general,
train inspectors in particular, could be nicer.
What you do need: you must feel
at ease plunged in the winter atmosphere: haze and silence
ITINERARY
I need a break from the study-life.
“I wanna travel. I
wanna travel by train and there’s the whole Europe that is waiting for us, so
let’s leave!” I propose to a friend of mine.
We bought an inter-rail ticket for one zone that let us to
travel by train throughout Germany, Denmark and Austria. It was wintertime and the north
of Europe gets charming in the cold season, and so it turned out.
After passing by Hamburg we headed to the Sylt Island. It was so
windy we had to give up rollerblading to reach the lighthouse in the northern tip. From
here we took a ferry to Denmark, where we arrived in the late evening looking for a cheap
accommodation in Esbjerg. No way to find it, so a dark cold station became our shelter and
my travel mate got sick to such extent to decide to turn back home (read the story!!), while I proceed.
I reached the northern tip of Denmark, Skagen and then the
beautiful Danish capital from where I took a boat to the pearl of the Baltic: Bornholm. I
fell in love with this island where, as I was told, God put a fistful of earth from
everywhere: in fact you can find sandy beaches, rocky cliffs, hills, green flat lands,
woods…
After an unsuccessful attempt to win the wind rollerblading, I
successfully hitch hiked around having great fun!!! :-) For sure I was the only one
foreigner in the island in such season!!
A boat took me again in Kopenhagen and then I reached the German
capital where I spent few days.
In such years (98) the view in Berlin was just cranes and
excavators, but at least I could heat up for hours staying and observing the hippos inside
their tropical pavilion.
On the way to Munich I stopped in Nurnberg, from where I reached
the Fussen valley in the Alps to visit the famous fairytale like castle of Neuschwanstein.
The following leg was Salzburg and finally Vienna, where I spent two days hanging around
before heading back home.
Alby |
Travelogues
WE LEFT TOGETHER AND I ARRIVED ALONE
It was an old friend of mine the travel mate with
whom I left from Milan to cope the coldness of the wintertime in the northern Europe. We
brought the enthusiasm and our rollerblade underrating the strength of the wind by the
Northern Sea.
The first day we reached Hamburg and the next morning we were
already on the train to Westerland, the main town on the long narrow Sylt Island. Although
not being too cold, it was very windy and it hadn’t been a good idea to try to
rollerblad to the lighthouse at the northernmost tip of the island. In fact after few
hundreds metres we gave up and we proceed walking, but even then, we agreed the harbour
was a good shelter and we stayed there waiting for the ferry to Denmark.
It was getting late and, when we reached the Danish mainland in
Esbjerg, we found out the youth hostel closed. It seemed hopeless to get a cheap
accommodation in such small town in the darkness, hence we decided to take a train to stay
on as much as possible. It didn’t last too much, in fact at 1.00 am we got to the end
of the ride and they dropped us off. We found out alone in a tidy small station somewhere
in Denmark where there were anymore train till the
following morning. We sat thinking about what we could do when the light automatically
turned off and the room fell in a silent darkness. Outside it was so windy we could see
the road sign swing. We agreed it was not the case of wandering around looking for an
accommodation. We settled down our sleeping bags and we tried to sleep. It wasn’t
very cold inside the station, but it had been a long tiring day and both of us were
dreaming a bed.
Since the beginning my friend seemed quite fucked up and by the
time passing the fever was getting worse.
At 5.00 am he decided to go back to Italy.
I was a kind of perplexed being two people somewhere in Denmark
the third day of travel with my travel mate going back home.
What to do??
Obviously I insisted we would have waited few days in a hostel
for him to get better, but he stood the ground on his decision.
At
the end he took the train southwards and I proceed alone for 15 days. I’m
now still sorry for him to have missed almost the whole travel, but I found out travelling
by myself so interesting that this one became the first of a long series of independent
solo travels.
alby
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