"The longest journey begins with a single step..." darkjedi's Profile

When I was young I grew up close to a railway line, a great transport junction in the southwest of England. As I lay in my bedroom in the late evenings, I could hear the horns of the night trains and the clickity-clack across the road bridge nearby. My parents were city people, for years our lives had been static, mostly unchanging, but the night trains reminded me there were vehicles that could take me far away, to mountains, forests and seas.

Now whenever I see a train, I am stirred by the ghost of those endless nights and the wanderlust I enjoyed as a young boy. I have seldom heard a train go by and not wished I was on it.

The first time I went abroad alone was so scary, but I was determined not to waste another week off staying at home and doing nothing. I seemed to be set into doing this for years. So I chose Amsterdam, Holland, as its near to England, there are lots of ways home if something goes horribly wrong, and I knew many people spoke English! It was amazing. I stood outside Amsterdam Centraal railway station and thought "Wow, I'm in Holland."

Now I have a travel virus and don't want the vaccine!

2007 - Amsterdam, Gothenburg, Pisa
2008 - Venice, Caen, Berlin, Oslo, Bologna, San Marino
2009 - Dublin, Vienna, Bratislava, Amsterdam
2010 - Lisbon, Copenhagen, Valletta, Budapest
2011 - Milan, Prague, Zurich, Bern, Basel, Lucern, Vaduz, Berlin, Krakow

Note: All photos are taken by me and all destination reviews are places I have actually visited.

Me at Pisa Railway Station

My first trip abroad to Amsterdam cost me £180. When I returned I did a little research on the internet and discovered low-cost airlines such as Ryanair and EasyJet, also learning that staying up past midnight got me the best fares. My next trip was booked almost straight away. A little more adventurous than Amsterdam, I chose Gothenburg in Sweden simply because it was really cheap to get there via an offer Ryanair was doing at the time. It cost me about £22 return! It was more expensive to get to the airport....

Arriving in 'Goteborg' I was quickly introduced to another aspect of Ryanairs business plan. The airport nowhere near Gothenburg! A 30 minute coach trip is required despite having the name of Gotehnburg City Airport.

Everything went well, planes on time, bus easy to get into city, hotel booking ok too and only a ten minute walk from the Bus Terminal. I found Goteborg to be a lovely place, and the weather was fantastic when I was there. About three days is enough to see most of what you want to see if you don't hang around. The people were very friendly and spoke English very well no matter where I went, even in the smaller shops. I have no hesitation in recommending this city to anyone thinking about Sweden, as a good cheap starting point. Despite warnings that everything would be expensive I found them to be 15-20% higher than the UK to it wasn't too bad but would have been a problem if I had stayed longer. I have since discovered prices in Norway are even higher!

I have returned to Scandanavia and stayed for three days in Oslo, Norway. What an amazing place, full of great museums and monuments of every kind and a good tram network to get around by. In the three days I was there I managed to see 7 of the Top 10 attractions and they were all amazing. However a big downside was the price of everything. I found this to be true in Denmark too, but a downside is that the people were so rude there unlike Sweden and Norway.

Me at the Reichtag Dome, Berlin

I have found by experience over many vacations, that Booking.com is my favourite website to book accomodation on. They have many hotels at good prices and a pretty accurate (from experience) description given by residents who have been there. The only exeption to this is the Ibis website which can often give you better deals if you book well in advance. I tend to stay fairly close to a bus, train or metro station as I absolutely hate dragging a case across town and their site has good maps too.

Our local airport 30 minutes away in Bournemouth flies to Pisa and back once a week, so it seemed a good idea at the time to make it an easy trip. Wow what a magnificent place, the tower and its surrounding buildings are truly awe inspiring and nothing like what I was expecting. Sat on the grass in the Campo de Miricali in the autumn sun, you can just drift away and imagine yourself in another time watching the colour of the buildings change from white to a golden shade as the sun set. The city looks a little run down, but that soon becomes part of its charm, and I soon discovered all of Italy looks that way. Venice too has that look, although the graffitti that seems to plague other Italian towns is strangely subdued here. Venice is very different from every other city in the world because of its location so its hard to compare with anywhere. Bologna is such a rush compared to the other Italian cities I have visited, so many people always rushing about, it reminded me of London so much.

Nothing has matched the awe inspiring first sight of the Pisa tower but Italy is still an amazing placeand it has rapidly become my favourite country to visit. My Italian is just as useless as my German but I get by am always learning a few new words every time I go back there.

Me at Hohenzollernbrucke, Koln

Now that I have been to a few of the capitals of Europe, I will try and push myself into being a little more adventurous.

Travelling on big planes for long distances does have an environmental impact (let’s leave the arguments about the size of that impact aside here). I don’t want to stop travelling, and no amount of evidence or increased taxes will dampen my enthusiasm to see as much of the world as I can (although it may change how I choose to travel). Neither am I convinced in any way to ‘offset’ my guilt of contributing to global warming by paying some company to make a profit in the process of administering the diversion of a sum of my money to a token project elsewhere.
What I would like to do is to create the most positive effect I can, however small, as a result of my visit to another place. If I meet fellow tourists and share stories and ideas, speak with people from different cultures, religions or backgrounds and learn something about how they view the world we share, then my visit may have some value.

Brandenburg Gate, Berlin

Travel broadens the mind.
He that travels far, knows much.
Much travel teaches one how to see.
The journey of thousand miles begins with one single step.
Bring me the horizon.
If your mind wanders..... follow it.
If you come to a fork in the road... Take it.
Do not hesitate, pack your bag and go, doesn't matter where.
Who lives sees much, Who travels sees more.
If you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there.
On the plains of hesitation lay the bones of countless thousands.
Always know where your towel is.

Airport floors are our friends.
Flight delays increase our anticipation.

Greece ............................ 30 days
Germany ......................... 21 days
USA .................................18 days
Italy ................................. 15 days
France .............................. 7 days
Netherlands........................ 7 days
Poland ............................... 6 days
Switzerland..........................6 days
Austria .............................. 6 days
Hungary.............................. 6 days
Portugal ..............................5 days
Denmark..............................5 days
Czech Republic.....................4 days
Malta...................................4 days
Ireland.................................4 days
Norway............................... 3 days
Belgium ............................. 2 days
Sweden ............................. 2 days
Slovakia ............................. 1 day

An optimist is a pessimist who is not aware of all the facts.
Yes officer, she said it was a good idea at the time.... and I believed her!