This article is classified "Real"
The InterRail (for european citizens), and the Eurail (for people outside
the ECC), is a special unlimited mileage monthly rail ticket which allows
people under 26 years old to freely travel on national railways in all
ECC countries, as well as a lot of eastern ones, and Turkey and Morocco.
The InterRail scheme is the following (Eurail is very similar). You can
buy a one-, two-, or three-zone ticket, or a complete all-zones ticket
(this one is quite expensive and I suggest it only for people who intend
to really travel a lot).
The zones are:
1) Spain, Portugal, and Morocco
2) France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Holland
3) Great Britain and Ireland
4) Norway, Sweden, and Finland
5) Switzerland, Germany, Austria, and Denmark
6) Italy (big cheer for my own country!), Slovenija, Greece,
and Turkey [1]
7) Poland, Czech and Slovakia Republics, Bulgaria, Romania,
and Hungary
If you are from a European country and you buy a ticket including your zone,
you only have to pay 50% fare for the tickets inside your country (so the
best is get your kicks out of your country as soon as possible). You also
get a 50% discount on tickets if you cross countries not included in your
zones.
Not included are the supplement and reservation for luxurious train as
Intercities, TGV, Talgo, etc. (but no true InterRailer would ever take an
intercity with comfortable couchettes when he could sleep in a completely
full train, loaded with lots of backpackers from every country in on planet,
maybe trying to sleep sneaking in the postal wagon (opened with your swiss
knife) and being completely submerged by mail sacks thrown by Austrian
postmen, not to mention the unique occasion to taste fried chicken at Wien's
station for breakfast).
My advice is to travel during the night -- this will consent you to save
time and money on hotels, to get the peculiar perfume you can only obtain in
smelly trains (Moroccan and Turkish are the best), and to achieve that
particular really tired look which is so glamorous among tanned and relaxed
people on vacations. And besides, the really tired girls/boys you will meet
are an easer prey for purposes I'm not mentioning 8).
Other cheap places to sleep are the ever-present youth hotels (God praise the
YHIF), benches in parks, churchyards, but I'm not explaining these things
to true Galactic Hitchhikers.
Some words on the luggage:
If you are planning to walk a lot (and InterRailing means walking a lot),
you will have to use a backpack. Some purists think that you only need a
very small one, one of the kind used by schoolboys to carry their books.
Mr. Luca Conti in his Inter Rail Man booklet suggests this "ultra compact
luggage:"
* one pair of slips
* one pair of shorts (also useful as a swimsuit)
* a k-way
* one pair of shoes
* a shirt
* a jacket
* a t-shirt
* a pair of long trousers (i.e, jeans)
* a toothbrush
* a shampoo bottle
* toilet paper (optional: stealable from hotels, trains, etc.)
and, of course...
* a TOWEL
My personal opinion is that a normal backpack could be quite useful,
especially if you want to bring those nice and cheap used books you bought
in a Danish church until the very comfortable youth hotel in Marrakesh,
Morocco.
Now some words on your fellow travellers. I advise you to choose carefully
your companions; they must be ready to withstand fatigue, hunger, lack of
sleep, greek sailors mistaking you for an Albanian refugee and beating you,
sexual harassment, organized tourists, people getting very angry just
because you hit them with your backpack while you were only trying to throw
it on the bus roof.
The rewards, however, are great: you will be able to see and taste in
one month more than in couple of years of ordinary tourism. You will meet
lot of interesting and strange people as my Slovenian friends who helped me
getting out of a riot in Marrakesh and from a few other little troubles.
Do not build parties of more than 3 people; you will spend most of your
time discussing where to go and what to do next. I had a couple of
InterRails on my own and I had a great time; I met all my company on the
way and I could also decide to go away without any problem at any time.
Another idea is to start agreeing with your companions to split if the
occasion would rise (as I did with Marcello who went after some girls in
southern France while I headed towards the Moroccan desert) you can also
arrange some re-meetings in exotic places, if your friends are trustable.
About the food: if you are on a bit low budget (as I usually am), you can
actually survive on cold meals bought in supermarkets and stores (once I
managed live a week eating just some tinned tuna I found in my home pantry).
Besides, if the season is right, there are lot fruits and vegetables
available trees and fields on the road; you have just to be careful of the
undisposed farmer.
As a last resort you can also invite yourself to dinners, maybe using your
irresistible charm on the opposite sex (on my personal experience this just
worked once but if you are more Richard Gearish).
Travelling with an InterRail is a sensation of complete freedom: you can
choose where to go next anytime, there are absolutely no preorganized tours,
you will always decide with your own head what to do next.
My final advise is to buy an european rail time table from Thomas Cook, an
InterRail or Eurail pass, pack your sleeping bag in your backpack and go and
try yourself.
This is absolutely not a complete and exhaustive digression on the matter
and I claim the right to add, amend, correct, deny, anything I stated.
For any comments, ideas, and insults you can find me at:
andrea.berger@altair.it
[1] Note: this zone includes an almost free (just 10.000 italian lir. portal
fee) to and from Greece from Brindisi, Italy.