By train from Leipzig to Scotland
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By train from Leipzig to Scotland
16 days on the road, 6 of them on trains or buses
I was blown away by their ecological awareness and terrestrial way of life (although of course I didn't know the word at the time). Then it turned out that she used to work as a stewardess and that not flying wasn't that important to her. That's when I realized for the first time what a strong influence dogs have on the habits of their human companions.
Oh, those were good times when you could still travel in 2019, I'm thinking right now while leafing through my travel diary from my trip to Scotland.
My vacation days as a gardener trainee are manageable at 24 days a year, which is why I always envy my student friends for their 3-month summer vacation. Nevertheless, during my 2-week summer vacation in June 2019, I wanted to visit a German friend of mine who is studying marine biology in Aberdeen, Scotland.
If I had had more time, I would have ridden my bike or hitchhiked, but I didn't want to take more than 1-2 days each way, my few vacation days were too sacred for me. Flying was out of the question for me and friends recommended that I travel through Europe with an Interrail Pass: https://www.interrail.eu/de/interrail-passes/global-pass
There are different offers on the website, depending on how long you are traveling and how many days you are on the train. I opted for the Interrail Global Pass for €212, which allows me to use as many trains as I want for 5 days from midnight to midnight for a whole month. Since I wanted to be flexible with the timing of my return trip, I thought, great, then I'm never dependent on a booking! The handling was also extremely easy, in addition to my passport I should always have the Interrail Pass with me, in which I should document my trains, and the conductor snaps off the individual stages. So I got the Interrail Pass at the train station and was told that the Eurostar, the express train from Brussels to London, unfortunately required an extra booking. That was the only train I definitely had to get.
Leipzig - Hanover - Brussels - London
I left Leipzig on a Sunday morning, the sun was shining and I was happily excited for my trip to the Scottish Highlands.
But first through Germany. Unfortunately, my first train was already late, which is why I missed my connecting train by 12(!!!) minutes when changing trains in Hanover. Fortunately, the staff at the travel center were very helpful and tried to organize an alternative for me. So I went on to Brussels via Düsseldorf, and I kept my fingers crossed that I could still catch my train. And yes, when I reached Brussels-Midi, the train hadn't left yet, but unfortunately, due to border control, boarding had long been closed. The check-in staff were merciless. They gave me a later train without any problems and free of charge, but that in turn meant that I would miss the last night train from London to Edinburgh.
So now I sat in front of the train station in Brussels and thought about what I should do. I was in a bad mood and the pedestrian zone was dirty and grey. I didn't want to stay here, so I decided to take my new Eurostar to London as planned and look for a hostel there.
It's not even a 2 hour drive and when I got off in London I felt like I'd flown, driving through a tunnel under the English Channel, way cooler I thought! It was now 9:30 pm when I arrived in muggy, dirty London, I was completely overwhelmed by the many lights, the multi-lane streets, the many people with umbrellas, even though it wasn't raining. As always on the trip I was given very good advice and found a hostel 5 minutes from the train station and had a clean bed for £15 a night. Freshly showered and happy, I lay in my shared room, satisfied with my decision to accept my fate. In fact, it was all very tight in terms of time. And honestly, I'd rather be there than on a night train in a double seater. One of my bed neighbors was already sleeping noisily with a breathing mask on, which didn't bother me in the least. I fell asleep blissfully excited to catch the very first train to Edinburgh the next day and to my birthday tomorrow!
Continue from London to Aberdeen
While half of London was sleepy on the way to work, I drove to Scotland rested and excited. Nothing could go wrong now. Each time I proudly showed my Interrail Pass, which was followed briefly and not even snapped off with an appreciative look.
Next to me sat a woman with her daughter, from the Czech Republic, also on the way to Scotland with the Interrail pass, we exchanged ideas about our trip and I lent her my charging cable.
It was heavenly, with good music on my ears, I drove along the east coast of Great Britain and looked at green golf courses and the North Sea, the sun was shining. I unpacked small gifts and letters that family and friends had given me before the trip and as always my grandparents from Thuringia were the first to call and congratulate me. I was so happy, I've never had my birthday in 2 different countries, my personal birthday gift.
In Aberdeen, Oona was waiting for me with a lit candle in an apple!
From the light feeling of being on the move
We had a great time in Scotland, hiking the West Highland Way for a week and then hitchhiking to Edinburgh where we stayed in a hostel for a few more days. I was so excited about everything, the language, the friendly Scots, the many other, open-minded hikers from all over the world, the rough, old, huge Highlands, the hikes in rain-soaked clothes and a heavy backpack, this easy feeling of being on the move and so little to needing happiness.
The return journey
For the return journey I was now again tied to the Eurostar ticket from London to Brussels. Since apartment could have traveled earlier than planned, I wanted to rebook this ticket one day in advance. But since it wasn't an online ticket, but a printed one (yes, something like that still exists), I could only have rebooked the ticket online for €200 or in Leipzig, uh, no thanks. I decided to skip this €35 ticket and take the €30 Flixbus overnight from London to Amsterdam. From there I used my blue Interrail pass again, which I unfortunately left on the blue seats on a Dutch train and forgot about it... Great, it was found again by a very friendly Dutch service employee and sent home, but at that moment I had no choice but to buy a new ticket for €90. I was a bit depressed on my way to the Baltic Sea, where I wanted to visit someone before I went back to Leipzig.
My mood brightened because I kept meeting new people on different trains throughout the day. In contrast to my outward journey, which I spent almost exclusively with headphones on, I was able to easily strike up a conversation with the people sitting next to me. I met an internist from Paraguay, a woman who works in a waste engineering office and shared my strawberries with a lecturer from Rostock. A few days later I was back home. 16 days on the road, 6 of which I spent entirely or partially on trains or buses. It didn't seem that much to me, I realize. If I hadn't lost my Interrail Pass I could have saved a lot of money and nerves. But either way, it was an incredibly good time.