Turku - Gdansk - Kraków - Lódz - Bucarest - Istambul

Eszter
Traveller
1 comments

Posted 15 years ago

Hey!

I am about to buy a 22 days continues ticket with my friend, and travel around Europe. But I am afraid that our plan is not realistic. So here we go, I share with you our dream, and please those who have done interrail trip tell us whether it is possible or not.
We live in Finland, and already bought a flight ticket from Turku to Gdansk, so our InterRail thingie would start in Poland at the 29th of May, evening.

[b]- Poland:[/b] we do not wish to stay in Poland more than 2 nights, and the main goal is to visit [b]Kraków[/b] and its surroundings. We can have accomodation free in Lódz or Warsaw, which is not exactly close to Kraków...
From Kraków we would like to get to [b]Bucarest[/b]. On the map Kraków-Medyka-Lwow-Bucarest seems possible, but as it is via Ukraine we should buy extra ticket for that country, I suppose. We do not want to spend the night in Bucarest, our next stop would be
[b]- Turkey:[/b] [b]Istambul[/b] and [b]Izmir[/b], altogether not more than 2 nights in Turkey. And here is an other problem. In theory we stucked on an island between Turkey and Greece! Is the only way from Izmir to Athens the following: Izmir-Cesme-Chios-Piraeus?
[b]- Greece:[/b]after exploring [b]Athens[/b] we would like to spend the night in [b]Thessaloniki[/b]. So maximum 2 nights in Greece. Then via Beograd to
[b]- Hungary:[/b] [b]Pécs[/b] and [b]Budapest[/b]. 2 nights altogether.
In [b]Slovakia[/b] and [b]Austria[/b] we do not want to stay long, just have a look in [b]Bratislava[/b]'s and [b]Wien[/b]'s old town. Next stop would be [b]Salzburg[/b], [b]Germany[/b] for [b]1 night[/b].
[b]- Italy:[/b] depending on the date when we can manage to get to Italy [b]Venice,[/b] Milan and Rome would be our destinations. Maximun 2 nights . Via Geneva or Nice we would get somehow to [b]Chambery, France[/b] and spend 1 night there. Next stop would be [b]Marseille[/b], but just to look around and sail to Barcelona, Spain. 2 nights in Spain (Barcelona, Madrid), and next stop
[b]- Portugal:[/b] here we would like to see only [b]Lissabon\Lisboa[/b] and if possible just to take an evening train to [b]San Sebastian[/b], and spend the night there. Then via Bordeux go back to [b]France, Paris[/b] and spend 1 night in the capital. Next to Brussels and spend the night in [b]Ghent, Belgium.[/b] From the Benelux we may would have a look on Amsterdam, but next destination would be [b]Berlin, Germany [/b]for 1 night.. Then [b]Copenhagen, Denmark[/b] just to cross the bridge to [b]Sweden.[/b] In [b]Sweden [/b]we would spend 2 nights or so, and it doesn't matter if the interrail ticket is not valid anymore, as we would take the ferry between Stockholm and Turku.

Well, it looks quite messy. And of course it's clear that not only those nights should be counted what I mentioned here. If we take an evening train, if we miss an evening train, or even if we are just on the way, that takes many hours too. So after all, I am not sure if we can make this trip in real life. For sure if we manage, it will be really tyring, and rush. To decrease the hurry we can skip Portugal, Madrid, Rome, Milano, Salzburg, Amsterdam, but we really would like to see all the other mentioned cities.

All in all Kraków, Istambul, Izmir, Athens, Thessaloniki, Pécs, Budapest, Bratislava, Venice, Chambery, Barcelona, San Sebastian, Paris, Berlin, Stockholm for sure! Is it possible in 22 days?

Thanx for your patience! =)

Eszter & James