Hilde Spille writes: Traveling to open and welcoming places In April/May, Rob and I took our annual holiday and traveled by train (Interrail/Eurail) throughout Europe. We went to 11 cities and stayed everywhere on average 3 nights. What a great way to discover landscapes and places!
Being the booking agents that we both are, we booked all hotels and train reservations upfront. Boring to travel so much prepared? Definitely not! Preparing is so much fun already! We had plenty of surprises on the track and met great people!
We started our trip in Dresden/DEU. The city has many facets. "Äussere Neustadt" has lots of street art, an alternative feel and Scheune Café, linked to the venue Scheune. We had great fun with the people working there.
In Brno/CZE we met an Iranian dentist, working in the kitchen of a small and fabulous Persian restaurant, waiting for the approval of his asylum request.
On the way from Brno to Trenčín/SVK, just over the border in Slovakia, we passed Vrbovce - zastávka, the smallest train station I've ever seen. It looks like a bus stop, in the middle of a field.
A guy from a Mexican restaurant in Košice/SVK told us, how after the fall of the wall, the big shots of communism suddenly became owners of all the buildings, asking huge rents now.
How come that in Bratislava/SVK we got served something that we didn't order, twice even? First at breakfast, later that day in an Arabic restaurant. Both times the waiters acted upset when we refused to take it. Once we got what we ordered, we really enjoyed it.
In Maribor/SVN we were surprised by the amount of Austrian influences, and enjoyed Italian food: wholemeal pasta and sourdough pizza. The only time that the train really let us down, was when we wanted to leave Maribor/SVN for Rijeka/HRV. Due to engine problems, the train from Maribor was 2 hours delayed, and we wouldn't have been able to get the only connecting train to Rijeka. We still could book a Flix-bus from Maribor to Rijeka instead, so we could get there on the same day. Still, I really prefer trains!
According to a Croatian guy, Rijeka is the ugliest of the Croatian cities at the Adriatic coast, But we loved it! It's also the home town of street art! There are also many Nepalese people living in Croatia, like the woman we met at a Chinese restaurant. She moved from Zagreb/HRV to Rijeka because her boss opened a new restaurant there. Fortunately she likes Rijeka better.
In Trieste/ITA we 'enjoyed' the 'bora', the cold winds from the mountains that the city is known for.
In Milano/ITA we stayed in the district Niguarda. This area is known for the long tradition of anti-fascism. And the station in Milano is huge, quite a contrast to the smallest station we saw.
In the picturesque city Colmar/FRA we discovered where all the locals are going in the weekend, when they leave the small Disney-like city center to the tourists: to a gigantic all-you-can-eat Chinese restaurant in an industrial area of town.
Our last stop in Leuven/BEL felt almost as coming home: bicycles all around, no problem in finding places where you can have good vegetarian meals, an open atmosphere.
What a trip! On this trip, I liked most the encounters with people from all over the world, the trains, plus the open and welcoming atmosphere in Brno/CZE, Košice/SVK, Rijeka/HRV and Leuven/BEL. This open and welcoming atmosphere is also what I love about my home town Nijmegen!
