Interrailing to Paris with a worrying lack of planning
5 countries, 2,241km, 13 trains and planned 3 days before leaving
Going interrailing has been an idea in the back of my mind for a long time. It’s something that I’ve always wanted to do but never “found the time”. I’ve always envisioned it as a multi-month long affair with careful planning, making sure to squeeze all I could out of Europe in that time.
Perhaps that will be an adventure I’ll go on in the future, but this was not that.
Me and my partner had forgot we had a week booked off until the Wednesday prior, and upon realisation decided we should go somewhere. We decided on Europe as we live in the UK, and decided to take the train as it seemed simpler than the plane. Due to this rather late in the game planning this trip was put together on the Friday and we left on the Monday; not exactly the intricate master plan I’d envisioned for my first interrail trip.
Surprisingly it was rather easy to put together. I spent a while googling to figure out what ticket to get and booked the train for us both at £492. We booked a hotel for only the first night so we could then be flexible where we ended up. This was a rather unusual approach for us but we figured as we have train tickets to anywhere in Europe, we’d have to be incredibly unfortunate not to find a room somewhere.
The interrail vs eurrail distinction confused me but I now gather interrail is for you if you live in Europe, and eurrail if not. You also have one outbound and one inbound day to travel in your home country should you reside in Europe, this was important for us as a return ticket to London can set us back just shy of £300! In fact, oddly it is in fact cheaper for us to travel to Zurich than London; despite going via London…
It’s important to note some trains require extra bookings when travelling with the interrail pass. One of these was the Eurostar. We booked seats there and back to ensure we would have a way home no matter what. This came to £55 each way for the two of us. So £110 total.
Once this was booked we made tentative plans for our trip. Initially Italy was on the agenda but after doing to math on times it became clear this was not viable. Instead we settled on:
Day 1: Home to Paris
Day 2: Paris to Zurich
Day 3: Stay in Zurich
Day 4 Zurich to Luxembourg
Day 5: Luxembourg to Brussels
Day 6: Brussels to Home
Even with Italy removed we knew this would be somewhat of a whistle-stop tour but we were as interested in the journey as the destinations so this did not phase us. If you ask around on places like the interrail reddit (which is an excellent place to ask questions by the way!). They will advise you do not ‘rush’ as we did. The motivation behind this is that you can’t really fully immerse and enjoy a place. I would agree but since we live in Europe we can easily pop back to anywhere that took our fancy. Should you be coming from say America, I would advise a longer time frame.
I think while young it also makes sense to approach travel as a more breath first approach as opposed to depth first. As lovely as staying in one place is, that should (hopefully) be viable long into my retirement. Running around Europe like it’s going out of fashion however may be a bit taxing.
So come Monday, we set of!
Leaving home
The first leg of our journey was to London. As we live in the UK I assumed there would be delays/issues. I was right. We were quite fortunate though that it did not really effect us. When we reached Cardiff there was issues down the line, we asked if we should jump on an earlier train that was about to leave, the response we got was “If you can fit”, this did not inspire confidence.
Turned out fine and we even got seats for most of the journey. From here it was mostly plain sailing.
The train to London is one I’m fairly familiar with, I’ve taken it to work events quite a few times. I always find the atmosphere rather fascinating. Due to the cost (£300ish for a return as mentioned) and it’s destination, it biases towards travellers who can expense the journey. This leads to a very business oriented and career focused atmosphere. You will struggle to find a laptop without a spreadsheet or a call with out a mention of taking the discussion ‘offline’.
This corporate world is one I’ve dipped my toe into but have never gone all in on. I will admit that it has a certain allure with it’s offer of status and wealth. The issue is the cost it demands.
Exemplifying this, while on the train I overheard two people talking about their friend who was travelling at the moment. They seemed envious yet stated, ‘they just weren’t the type of person to do that sort of thing’. This is definitely something I’ve told my self in the past to justify not following a dream or desire.
London
We got into Paddington, which I’m fairly familiar with and love for the sole reason it is not Euston.
For those fortunate enough to have not caught a train from Euston, I shall enlighten you of it’s trials. I can only assume that whoever designed it was a fan of the hunger games as each train’s platform is announced moments before departure. This leads to a manic battle to reach the train before it departs or all seats are filled for the possibly 2 hour+ long journey. I hate Euston.
Once in, we decided to be painfully predictable and went straight to the London eye and Houses of Parliament. It was a foggy day I didn’t have much time so no great photos but better than nothing I suppose:
I still find the Houses of Parliament rather imposing and impressive in person, they really are an amazing piece of architecture. The refurb on big ben (I know it’s Elizabeth tower really) has done wonders for it although for £80 million I would hope so.
The London eye is cool too but I can’t quite get over the fact google will make sure to correct you when searching for it to the “Lastminute.com London eye”. I’m not sure how much they spent on that but I imagine it’s an amount that makes correcting people worth it.
We have some old uni friends that live in London so while there we arranged to meet up with them. We got the bus to Vaxhall which was a lovely experience. The driver was a delight and let us on early. Even better, we got to sit at the top at the front. Anyone who has used a double decker bus knows this is a seat on par with the throne in London.
Once there we went the Vaxhall market and had a surprisingly filling steak sandwich. We had great time catching up and could have happily chatted for the rest of the week. There’s something special about people who you can not see for years and then feel right at home with as soon as you meet again.
We headed back to his flat which was right on the thames. Although a modest size I don’t think I’ve been in a place with such an enviable location, the houses of parliament were within reach right out the front door.
We chatted for a while longer and I really learnt how different my childhood was to that of a Londoner. They were complaining that one of the tube lines into town was having issues and so delays could reach a point where it was borderline impossible to get in. Now I assumed this meant hours but no, 15 minutes between trains was “basically stranded” apparently. As someone from rural Wales it’s hard not to find this quite amusing. To get to the nearest city from my childhood home by public transport would mean a 20 minute walk then 2 busses probably taking about another 3 hours. This was to get to a city of 50k people so even then calling it a “city” may be pushing it.
I’m well aware this comes across in the vain of “up a hill both ways to school”.
Paris
After this we took the Tube to St. Pancras to catch the Eurostar. The security was a very relaxed affair bar one man who was determined not to use the trays but each to their own I suppose. We got there early and were through within 10 minutes.
We looked through some of the photos we took of London and realised they did not come out great, most looking like snaps from a road safety manual as we were far too excited by being on the front of the bus.
The trip on the train was pretty chilled and uneventful. They had a snack carriage where I was served by a delightful French woman who was kind despite my complete butchering of her language.
Paris was full of life when we arrived and we were relieved to have made the first leg of our journey. We first bought an adapter as we had completely forgot the plugs were different, a symptom of planning this trip 2 days ago I suppose. The store took only cash which was a mild concern, not because we did not have any but because we had only 50 euros, this was more than enough for an adapter but could prove challenging should this become a theme of the trip.
Due to getting into Paris 20 minutes late we had to go straight to our dinner reservations. We still ended up at the restaurant early and were given a lovely table near the window. Again we stumbled through the French language and this time were rewarded by a rather conspicuous specials board in English placed next to our table. This seemed fair.
The restaurant was almost offensively Paris and so we loved it. I think the best first impression was the fact there was a restaurant cat that paraded around leaving no doubt of who called the shots.
Lit primarily by candle light it emanated Parisian atmosphere. What surprised me the most though was how this restaurant and others we passed were so busy. It was a Monday night at 10:30pm and so if you walked through a UK city you would see little life but here it was, buzzing.
It really was a culture shock, a welcome one mind you. I think this really is what travel is all about. Experiencing a different way of life no matter how minor, to make you question how you live and if it is the ‘right’ way, or more accurately, the right way for you.
We were both quite tired at this point so just ordered a drink and mains, a glass of wine and a margarita. The wine was lovely but the margarita was perhaps the strongest I’ve ever tasted, although that is not a complaint. We were heading to Switzerland later so did not expect the sting of absinthe so early.
For food we had pork and it was gorgeous. It melted in my mouth quicker than ice cream and the flavour was so full, complimented by a rich sweet potato mash, I was in heaven. I do feel British food gets a bad rap but as my partner exclaimed to the waitress “I can see why British food is considered bland”.
After this we wandered back to the hotel to check in. The place was a touch dated but incredibly clean and quiet. We arrived and crashed on the beds. We both tossed and turned a bit, perhaps as it was unseasonably warm or more likely as we always find falling asleep tricky the first night away.
Eventually we both passed out, recuperating to explore Paris the next day and continue our impromptu adventure!
Total costs
Interrail tickets £492
Eurostar reservation there £55
Travel insurance: £9
Tube £14.30
Vaxhall market £26
Snacks on eurostar £10.50
Adapter: £8
Meal in Paris £55.48
Hotel £99
Hotel tax £9
Total: £778.28
Of course most of this is the interrail tickets which will be in use for the whole week as will the travel insurance.