A trip to Ikea (aka Sweden)

Travelling to Stockholm airport(s)

Four airports, remember that all of them may be named as “Stockholm airport”, but can be really far away from the city of Stockholm, the most accessible airport is Arlanda. Every hour you can find either coach or train heading to and from this airport with a fairly low price.

Staying in Stockholm

On-boat hostels provide an unusual experience for those bored of regular accommodation. Pros: new experience, view to the sea, low prices Cons: lack of space, shared showers & toilet

Apartments, tend to have more competitive prices than the hotels, most of them are well equipped with the elemental appliances for a short stay such as microwave, oven, washing & tumbling machine. ( Personally suggest - Hammarby apartments)

Pros of renting an apartment: can cook to avoid expensive eat-outs, flexibility in check-in & check-out, lower prices than hotels

A typical "Fika" Sample

Living in a nordic country requires a lot of energy to catch up with daily life, the solution was found by the Swedes, establishing the habit of “fika”. Fika, stands for a small social gathering with friends to enjoy a cup of coffee with a snack (mainly cinnamon bun), having a major role in the daily life of Swedes.

You can try a quick fika in one of the many 7-11 shops located all over Stockholm, which are more-or-less small super markets mainly selling coffees, bakery stuff, magazines, snacks and food. Don't forget to grab a mini map of Stockholm with the location of all 7-11 round the area!

Moving around

A well structured network of frequent trams and buses allow you to move around the city round the clock, remember buses and trams may share the same stations. After midnight the time schedules are spread, though not causing any trouble for a night-out goers.

A great experience is traveling within Stockholm using the ferry lines, offering a good chance to relax and take great pictures of the city and sites along the sea (included in the pass ticket except St. Emelie line).

Using ferry lines : When taking the ferry remember to use the special sign to attract the attention of ferry's captain and place it back to its initial state, once the ferry arrives.

You can find more information about tickets and moving round Stockholm over here

Wi-fi, is available in every place in Stockholm some of them may be free whilst other are locked.

Sightseeing

Royal Palace, the ticket is 160 SEK includes visiting the Royal apartments (180 SEK with a 45 min tour - Sep 2016), unfortunately not all rooms are open to the public for visiting as they are still used by the Royal family.

The architect of this fine palace was inspired from the romantic features of the “Palace de Versailles” in France, making both palaces to look similar.

In the price of the ticket you have access to 2 more exhibitions the Treasury and the Tre Kronor museum. The Treasury presents the original crowns and symbols of power belonging to the Royal family from the old times, whilst the Tre Kronor museum outlines the architecture of the palace, before a huge fire  and renovation that led to its nowadays style.

Armoury museum (free entry), an interesting collection of armors through the ages

Historika museet

Historiska museum (free entry), well organised museum outlining the history of Sweden, with a rich variety of exhibitions related mainly to the great Viking era.

Additional exhibitions may be found with the wealth of Viking culture in tools, jewellry and presenting parameters affecting the progress of the culture from that time.

The museum offers special activity programs for children as well as free lockers, where you can store securely your belongings.

Gamla stan, the oldest neighbourhood of Stockholm with traditional alleys spread over a small island, the old buildings host various hostels, restaurants and souvenir shops.

Outside view of Vasaa museum

Vasamuseet, a museum dedicated to one of the greatest ships built in the beginning of the 17th century, which unfortunately sunk 24 minutes after leaving the shipyard and remained for 333 year in the bottom of Stockholm port. The guided tour lasts approximately 25 minutes, giving in depth explanation about the history behind the ship, after the tour you can enjoy a short film about the ship  too.

The museum includes 3 different levels, the first level analyses compartments of the ship, items found onboard, their use and purpose, in the ground floor the museum describes the techniques used to lift the ship from the bottom of the ship. While in the -1 level, you can find you can learn more about the conservation process of the ship, the chemical processes affecting it, the project of conservation as well as the history of it since it has been moved from Stockholm's seabed.

ICEbar, a bar made entirely out of ice covering an area of about 40 sqm with the temperature stuck at -5 C degrees all year long. Walls are decorated with pieces of artwork of nordic fauna, music played is mainly EDM (Electro, Dance, Mainstream), whilst you can stay for a 45min slot until your toes freeze! A special cloak and gloves that will keep you warm is supplied once you enter, remember that your glass made out of ice is slippery if you hold it with bare hands! Booking your tickets online gets you a -15% discount to the entrance fee!

Steps for perfect packing

A miracle in your bag

Watching several videos on YouTube and following the advices of several experienced travelers, packing your bag/suitcase has always been and always will be one of the biggest problems. But before start packing, first :

1. Pick a size of a bag, big enough for your clothes but not too big for you
2. Choose what clothes to put on every day and prepare for the weather from forecasts
3. Place heavier clothes at the bottom, so you can find them easier
4. Folding the clothes saves a lot of space, rolling them though might cause sometimes wrinkles on them, so if you roll them, roll them tight
5. Use any spare space, such as the inside of your shoes in your bag
6. Organize and distribute evenly your clothes
7. Fragile items should be placed in the middle of the bag, so they do not break and remain protected by your clothes
8. Formal clothes should be placed on top so they can easily be removed, hanged and ironed when the bag is opened
9. Any empty gaps between the clothes should be filed with other items such as underwear, socks, etc.

Not convinced? The video below shows how many tings you can pack in a tiny backpack!

Size

Size available for each bag is measured in liters (L), depending on your needs and length of your trip the size of you bags should be ideal to your opinion. The volume can be from 10 L up to 100 L! I personally prefer a 70 L backpack since I can strap my bag and squeeze is as much as possible.

Resources:
Gapyear, Lifehacker, Gizmodo, WikiHow, StartBackpacking.com


Know what you want. Be prepared. Enjoy

Additional Tips - Draft

Tips in a total random order - Draft

• When traveling from France to another country or within France, remember to reserve your tickets a long time ago. Most trains in France are high speed trains which require a reservation first, buying the ticket straight will cost you quite a lot of money, alternative solution for this is using the normal train, which takes much longer!
• Always ask a local  where to go, what to do.
• Do not lose the chance to socialize and network on the way, you might get from a simple tip to a future job proposal!
• Avoid "touristic places", places full of tourists, usually this means that the shop- restaurant- owners will try to make some extra profit buy giving you either bad service or lower quality of goods compared with the amount you pay.
• Give it a try to speak the local language, people appreciate this (except France!) , do not lose your hope some of them will try to communicate with you using body language and sketches (carry pencil and paper with you)
• As bad as it sounds, choose places where locals prefer to go, they do know better than you do!
• Be kind with the locals, respectful to their culture, religion and believes, raising a dispute will not solve anything.
• Avoid getting drunk and humiliate yourself, locals will not like you for sure
• From place to place people differ, they can be very social and helpful, giving you a lift when there is no available transport even inviting you to their family table!
• Being advised from a local is not a gift, is a blessing. :D
• Keep protecting the enviroment
• When strolling around a place, keep in your mind some "marks" such as parks, clocks, cafes or something stable that got your attention.
• Be aware of the public transport details, frequency, what time it starts and stops

Health and Safety Advice:

UptoDate : Patient information: General travel advice (Beyond the Basics)

Advices also provided from governments:

UK : Foreign travel advice, Travel Abroad

USA : Traveler's Checklist

Maps and books

Should I get a guide, map or ignore everything?

Weeeeeeeell, this is up to you : how much money would you like to spend? how much in-depth would you like to know about the places and the sights you will visit? what other choices do you have?

Guides: Looking at my collection of travel guides, most of them are from "DK", "Rough Guides" and "Lonely Planet". Of course every company has a different style - small or big - has different style and more suitable for different "target group" of the readers, depending on the type of tourism they are interested in. In no case the most famous guides will always have what you ask for, some not so famous guides could have details that could even have a difference significant to your journey( but nothing compares with the advices of the locals who do know really well their place, so get chatty)!

DK : really compact and concentrated information about each place, wide variety of choices from guides that talk about a whole country to guides who are specifically for only one city and the sites of it. Usually, they are big and expensive, include hard cover, detailed maps, good descriptions, maps are split in blocks for every area, colored fully illustrated, time lines and addresses, phones of restaurant, museums and other are included. If you plan to visit a place again and again, it will be a good investment of you!

DK - Cover sample

DK - Explainatory sketches 

Lonely planet : small sized, thin pages, includes a good feedback of information and description about the places and climate, environment, history, religion, traditions, culture, shops, important tourist information, restaurants, hotels, prices, activities per area, a basic glossary, events calendar, nightlife, transport (local and international) and many many advices. The maps are well-designed in black and read, small number of black and white illustrations with some breaks in between of colored pages, good and low price.

Lonely Planet - an inside look

Lonely Planet - Cover Sample

Rough Guides : small sized, thin pages, with black and white pictures, wide range of informative maps, long descriptions about history, places and events. Covers most of the places of interest, concentrated good amount of information in a few lines about the choices you have in museums, activities and places. Its last few pages provide a good feedback in total as well as an extended glossary, correct pronunciation guidelines and important phrases. Trying to make the tourist adapt to the local lifestyle.

Rough Guides - Cover sample

Sneak peak inside the Rough Guides

DK, mainly cultural interest.

Lonely planet, activities and some cultural - environmental  interest.
Rough Guides, general cover of the basic points of interest.

Seriously do not download piracy products!

Of course you can read reviews from other readers or visit a bookstore and decide which guide, suits you the most. Please do not download the guides online for free, support the companies and their work. ;)

"Fuck, we got lost, let's smile!"

Do you want to visit many cities without spending too much money on maps, guides etc? Easy-Peasy, download in .pdf form the maps for all the cities you want and transfer them to your smartphone, problem solved! Otherwise get a detailed map of the big cities from shops around train stations and souvenir shops. You want to go super-cheap? An acceptable solution is to ask from information desks to give you a small map (like the ones with advertisements in them, ask first if they are for free) but do not expect high accuracy and quality printed maps! Some local restaurants may have a printed map on the back side of their menus,
whatever rocks your boat!


One thing - I strongly support purchasing an official book with the European Train timetables each season (includes accurate timetables, train connections from city to city, short codes for trains, telephone numbers, advices etc, for more information: http://www.europeanrailtimetable.eu/home.html), make sure you get the timetable book for the season you need! (sometimes they are printed a bit later than expected, try to contact with a good bookstore or purchase it online)

All the above information include personal opinion, information and experiences I have gathered over the time, and with this post I do not wish to advertise or misadvertise companies and physical persons.

Know what you want. Be prepared. Enjoy

• Introduction
  Who am I and why start blogging?
• A helpful and inspirational guide before you travel by train
  Where to start and what to think before travelling
• How to pack your bag
  Overstuffed and overweight bag, at least keep it overstuffed 
• What to pack in your bag
  You don't need your fashionable clothes in here! 
• Travelling Solo VS Travelling as a group
  Loneliness doesn't always have to feel bad
• Couchsurfing and stay
  Make your stay safe 
• Raildude,ticket purchasing
  How to get the pass,the rules in the train station 
• Maps and books
  Should I get a map, guide or ignore everything? 
• On the way/train
  You can't get bored here my friend 
• Law,stereotypes,different lifestyles and adopting
  How not to end up behind the bars! 
• Types of travellers
  People worth meeting and not 
• Journeys
  Past personal Experiences 
• Additional tips
  Weren't all these enough?
• Self awareness, Self confidence, Passion and Personal awesomeness
  So you think you are not cool enough?

Couchsurfing and stay

Make your stay safe!

Couchsurfing from my point of view : Useful, smart, free, amazing but in some cases dangerous!
As a couchsurfer in the past few years I had a short variety of experiences, good ones and bad ones. The outcome : Being careful and choosing people who will host you. A host that is constantly busy and volunteers to guide you around or show his/her own lifestyle could be one of the best things Couchsurfing could offer to its member, including the hospitality and the spirit of kindness.

The article of Wikipedia will give you a more detailed explanation.here

Make an account, the first step is to make an account with valid information, introduce - talk about yourself, move on adding pictures and in case you do have some friends who are already members or ask them to leave you a reference on your profile. References are important, they are the opinion other people had about you when they came in contact with you (hosting,surfing or travelling), it could be the quality measurement of how other people see you as a potential host or surfer. Use a similar format and get some ideas from the profiles of older members, they have more knowledge and experience about what to add. In my details, it is wise to add that you would like to have a Skype call with your potential host/visitor, just to make sure it is the same person and for other security reasons as well!

You can find CS members on every corner of the horizon around the world.

Join groups, forums, events according to your interests, you can chat and share with them ideas,experiences etc. Some groups and societies might be closer than others and might even have weekly/monthly/annually meetings, even in your neighborhood there might be a local group!

There are 2 kinds of requests, the first one is Public requests and the second is private requests. Open/Public requests, lets other members know that you will visit their place on a time you specify.It is up to them if they will be able to host you depending on their schedule. On the other hand, private request is sent only to a specific "potential host" you choose, of course for various reasons, you can be rejected either cause the host had a look at your profile and was not satisfied with your references, your personalities do not match, your time schedules do not match, etc.

For God's sake, Couchsurfing is NOT a dating site.

Old-school couchsurfers posing in the original CS stand

Having a completed profile guarantees more hosts that would like to invite you to their places, but remember it is their places and not yours. Be ready to adapt to their time schedule as well as way of living, meaning that as a Couchsurfer and try being kind, at the same time you must contribute in either cleaning,cooking, or buying goods as long as your host allows you to and does not demand so! Being kind as a visitor or a host is the key for a nice stay and cooperation from both sides.

Hosts have different preferences, some have a separate room for the visitor and a bed/couch, some other do not have any problem sharing the same surface (!?!) with you (Just avoid these people!). Make sure the host will be able to host you under the conditions you wish, but in case of emergency always have a plan B.




The descent : A couple of years ago CS website turned from a non-profit organisation into a for-profit organisation, as a result many of its members complained that the original spirit of CS would totally change, there would be many fake profiles and decided to shut down their profiles.

Unfortunately, in the past few years there have been cases of sexual assaults (so please before you sign up do your research first!). The official site of Couchsurfing has provided a guide with tips to protect yourself.

All the above information include personal opinion, information and experiences I have gathered over the time, and with this post I do not wish to advertise or misadvertise  the official Website of Couchsurfing and physical persons.


This post will be expanded too for other choices of accommodation (hostels, hotels, BnB)

More information:

TIPS FOR STAYING IN A HOSTEL: WHAT TO BRING

10 Tips for Staying at a Hostel

Things to Know About Hosteling: Tips and Tricks for Lodging on the Cheap

Always check for reviews online, for example search "name_of_hostel" review

Know what you want. Be prepared. Enjoy

• Introduction
  Who am I and why start blogging?
• A helpful and inspirational guide before you travel by train
  Where to start and what to think before travelling
• How to pack your bag
  Overstuffed and overweight bag, at least keep it overstuffed 
• What to pack in your bag
  You don't need your fashionable clothes in here! 
• Travelling Solo VS Travelling as a group
  Loneliness doesn't always have to feel bad
• Couchsurfing and stay
  Make your stay safe 
• Raildude,ticket purchasing
  How to get the pass,the rules in the train station 
• Maps and books
  Should I get a map, guide or ignore everything? 
• On the way/train
  You can't get bored here my friend 
• Law,stereotypes,different lifestyles and adopting
  How not to end up behind the bars! 
• Types of travellers
  People worth meeting and not 
• Journeys
  Past personal Experiences 
• Additional tips
  Weren't all these enough?
• Self awareness, Self confidence, Passion and Personal awesomeness
  So you think you are not cool enough?

Introduction

Hello everyone,

le me

Welcome to my blog. I am a young male person, engineering student, traveler, daydreamer, weirdo, who enjoys little things in life ( friends call me "bear"). I like traveling, listening to music, working on electronics, sketching, reading psycology books, tourist guides and most of all giving a hard time to people whenever I was to screw around. 


For a long time, I was scared to travel around without any plans at all and alone. Since my parents thought sooner or later  by the time my foot steps out of the house I would get kidnapped, rapped by Pedobear, stubbed, pick pocked, set on fire, crucified, sacrificed to Satan, exposed to radiation etc. (all the above can actually happen to those who are not careful in a random order)

Friends  of friends of friends had used Interrail pass(?!?), I had no clue what that was but I was assuming they had loads of money to travel round Europe. Some years later and after  long researches, things were easier than expected, travelling by train is easy, fast, cheap and accessible to almost any place you want. Combined with some other websites such as Couchsurfing I could have the best time than any other person had in his life. My journeys were lasting 14 days max., but learnt some really important advices, suggestions, lessons, rules, ways of thinking, that helped me travel easier time after time. I have gathered and keep gathering everything I can from A to Z in this blog and present them to you.




Know what you want. Be prepared. Enjoy

• Introduction
  Who am I and why start blogging?
• A helpful and inspirational guide before you travel by train
  Where to start and what to think before travelling
• How to pack your bag
  Overstuffed and overweight bag, at least keep it overstuffed 
• What to pack in your bag
  You don't need your fashionable clothes in here! 
• Travelling Solo VS Travelling as a group
  Loneliness doesn't always have to feel bad
• Couchsurfing and stay
  Make your stay safe 
• Raildude,ticket purchasing
  How to get the pass,the rules in the train station 
• Maps and books
  Should I get a map, guide or ignore everything? 
• On the way/train
  You can't get bored here my friend 
• Law,stereotypes,different lifestyles and adopting
  How not to end up behind the bars! 
• Types of travellers
  People worth meeting and not 
• Journeys
  Past personal Experiences 
• Additional tips
  Weren't all these enough?
• Self awareness, Self confidence, Passion and Personal awesomeness
  So you think you are not cool enough?

What to pack in your bag

You don't need your fashionable clothes in here!

First of all, purchase a good backpack (trust me it is important, it is not so nice to have back pain when travelling and I insist on this!), do not even think about pulling a suitcase around - it will not work - and after your trip is complete, your suitcase will look like it has been rapped and abused by 1000 airline luggage handlers!

                                    Just to give you an idea of how it will look like later on...

                                                                       Look...

                                                 Don't look away! Isn't this enough ?

                                                             You want more???

                                                      I hope you got your lesson!

Always keep some snacks and water in case of emergency. Yes my dear child, snack bars can be helpful too even if you are not MacGyver .

Avoid carrying pepper spray or weapons, first because in some countries they are banned and second because you do not want to get in trouble.

Carry only multi-purpose clothes, they might not look great but they will do their work, choose clothes easy to dry warm or thin, but be also prepared for a heavy rain, blizzard, Apocalypse or Ragnaroc, depending the season you prefer to travel and because you never know, a poncho or something waterproof in case of rain.

Don't forget to buy good shoes, your All-Stars shoes will turn into dust after some time if you do wear them when you walk a lot every day, causing back- and knee-pain, prefer trainers with confident and flexible sole for you (for my trips I carry 2 pairs of shoes, 1 for walking 1 for clubbing, the amount of clothes depends also on how long I decide to travel).

Remember : your fancy shoes will not last long!

Pack personal care items in a smaller bag, really useful if you have to sleep on the train
Medicine, liquid & dry wipes, hand gel, contact lenses liquid, shampoo, make up, perfume, deodorants (cause you do not wish to make your travel mates to suffer), sprays, RPG, etc.
Are you planning to sleep on the train? take a spray for mites and bed-bugs that might live in the mattress just to be on the safe side.

The multi-tool

A few plastic bags, multipurpose multi tool... it's a miracle what you can do with them. They are weightless, take up very small place. Their uses are limitless : separate wet clothes from dry ones, either separate dirty clothes from clean ones, put your shoes in them, waterproof any sensitive electronic devices you carry. These little bastards are useful!

Example of backpack cover

Backpack cover, because nobody would be happy to carry extra weight and have all documents, electronics and staff totally soaked! You can find these in shops selling camping or sports products. They are cheap, heat and scratch resistant. Some backpacks might already be equipped with a cover, placed at the bottom pocket of them, so have a look first over there just to be sure.





Lock, a small one could do the job just to make sure nobody would dare to steal something from your backpack when you use it as a pillow, also could be used as a proper lock to store in small lockers (usually placed in airport, coach stations or train stations) for specific duration and cost.



(For travellers in India : if you are travelling by train, be careful of the enormous free range cockroaches strolling around the floor - buy the most chemical bug spray you can find ... and I personally with you  good luck!)

Diary, can be more useful than you would think. You can keep a record of memories in it, as well as a record of your expenses and available budget on your trip, so next time you can be more prepared.

Plug adaptor, this part can be pretty annoying. In the old times each mobile phone company had a different charger, luckily all of them now use the same style of charger! Make sure that the plugs in your country are the same with the ones you will visit. Here is how a multi-plug adaptor looks like.

Dry and wet napkins, all time favorite for freaks with cleaning!

Money, before you go abroad inform your bank that you plan to travel and let them know which countries you will visit. Some banks may block any transactions from a card if things get suspicious! Do not carry huge amount of cash with you, split small amounts of money in many different places such as your pocket, inside pocket of your bag, hidden pockets.

Scan, print and leave back home some copies of the documents you will decide to carry around with you, take also some with you too and put them in a safe folder(This will save you loads of time if you get pick pocked, the local police will try to help you even more).

I do not support buying tourist guides for this kind of travelling, they are expensive,sometimes heave and take precious space in backpack, plus I do not suggest having them in ebook form stored in iPads,Kindles and sh*t.


Do you want to visit many cities without spending too much money on maps, guides etc? Easy-Peasy, download in .pdf form the maps for all the cities you want and transfer them to your smartphone, problem solved! Otherwise get a detailed map of the big cities from shops around train stations and souvenir shops. You want to go super-cheap? An acceptable solution is to ask people behind the information desks to give you a small map (like the ones with advertisements in them, ask first if they are for free) but do not expect highly
accurate and quality printed maps! Some local restaurants may have a printed map on the back side of their menus too, whatever rocks your boat!

Example of German EHIC

European Health Insurance Card, definitely important for every EU citizen traveling within the European Union countries (plus some more countries in Europe). Are you having a health problem but you are abroad? Show this card to the doctor of the local hospital and he/she will take care of the rest, this card covers all or most of the costs for your treatment, visit in the hospital or health center etc.

Before you make one for yourself, please do your research first. You can get the basic feedback from Wikipedia.


I will upload a post talking about backpacks suitable for traveling.

One thing - I strongly support purchasing an official book with the European Train timetables each season (includes accurate timetables, train connections from city to city, short codes for trains, telephone numbers, advices etc, for more information: http://www.europeanrailtimetable.eu/home.html), make sure you get the timetable book for the season you need! (sometimes they are printed a bit later than expected, try to contact with a good bookstore or purchase it online)

More information :

The telegraph : Travel advice, tips and information

Huffington Post : Your Life in a Backpack: What to Pack For 6 Months Traveling Abroad


Know what you want. Be prepared. Enjoy

• Introduction
  Who am I and why start blogging?
• A helpful and inspirational guide before you travel by train
  Where to start and what to think before travelling
• How to pack your bag
  Overstuffed and overweight bag, at least keep it overstuffed 
• What to pack in your bag
  You don't need your fashionable clothes in here! 
• Travelling Solo VS Travelling as a group
  Loneliness doesn't always have to feel bad
• Couchsurfing and stay
  Make your stay safe 
• Raildude,ticket purchasing
  How to get the pass,the rules in the train station 
• Maps and books
  Should I get a map, guide or ignore everything? 
• On the way/train
  You can't get bored here my friend 
• Law,stereotypes,different lifestyles and adopting
  How not to end up behind the bars! 
• Types of travellers
  People worth meeting and not 
• Journeys
  Past personal Experiences 
• Additional tips
  Weren't all these enough?
• Self awareness, Self confidence, Passion and Personal awesomeness
  So you think you are not cool enough?

A helpful and inspirational guide before you travel by train

Where to start and what to think before travelling

Not sure if you should have a little break and you hold yourself back having the time of your life because you are insecure ? Are you in dilemma that it might be too dangerous to go out of our own house and explore the world ? You, my friend are making a big mistake. Times have passed and the world has changed, people are scared to go out their houses because they are scared either that something bad can happen to them or they feel there aren't many like-minded people. There are the same chances for something bad to happen whether you are in the toilet, in your bed or on a train.

I will tell you the story of a guy, who was studying somewhere in Europe, wasting all his time in hos small flat, accepting the routine in his life without doing anything! It killed his creativity, minimised his will to live differently from others and kept him depressed all the time. What he did ? For the first time in his lifetime had the best idea ever: going abroad by train without making any plans and he never regret it. During his trip he went outside his comfort zone, socialised and met incredible people and felt more complete than ever before. 

As André Gide wisely said : "One doesn't discover new lands without consenting to lose sight, for a very long time, of the shore."

Travelling by train is not as bad as it used to, of course there might be difficulties but experiences, good times and good people is what is left in your memory at the end. Trains are the best way to travel : low prices, often trains, access to any destination, relaxing, fast way of travelling, a lot of space, chance to meet cool people, enjoy the places you pass by, being more respectful to other cultures, people, religions, being responsible.


 Low prices,often train departures,etc. nowadays you can get anywhere you want because of the technology paying a cheap ticket, I am sure you never bothered to have a look and use the train.About the "Chance to meet cool people", I am not saying that you will find Bill Gates and other celebrities on the same train with you - but do not expect to find them in your house - there are many open-minded remarkable people too, who do know how do enjoy their life. There are many other people who would tell you why it is so amazing to travel, here is an example from some TEDx Events :

• Learn to travel ---Travel to learn by Robin Esroc at TEDxVancouver
• The value of travel by Rick Steves at TEDx Rainier

 Whether you are a lonely person who wants to travel solo or in group, you must always follow some simple rules to keep yourself safe. The fact that you are travelling does not mean that people want to abuse your insecurity that you are "out of your water" but this should not let you down. Doing something you are not meant to do is the spark that could let you have a real adventure even if it is not your first time you travel.

Still not sure if you want to travel?
Keep in mind that studies have shown that people who tend to spend money on travel will make you happier than buying material goods. So, if you buy a pair of shoes worth £300, they will still remain "shoes" after some time, but with money spent on travel you will be able to live unforgettable experiences or in some cases change your life in a better way. Even if your trip is short or long it is still worth doing it. And how can travelling affect your skills? talk to strangers or people who you not share a common language between you, you will immediately improve your communication skill! you missed a train? you will think of alternative ways to get to your destination on time, working on your problem solving skills!
Travelling as a hobby in your CV is interesting, and make you differ from the typical hobbies of other applicants for a job.

/*How to purchase the tickets? Quite easy, whether you are a EU or non-EU citizen you can get a pass that will offer you free or low priced tickets (depends in which country you are).
Where EUrail pass is for non-EU citizens (unfortunately the prices are not the same) and Interrail pass for EU citizens. You can choose between a Global pass and 1-2-3 country pass, for both categories (global pass is more expensive as you expected). */




Know what you want. Be prepared. Enjoy

• Introduction
  Who am I and why start blogging?
• A helpful and inspirational guide before you travel by train
  Where to start and what to think before travelling
• How to pack your bag
  Overstuffed and overweight bag, at least keep it overstuffed 
• What to pack in your bag
  You don't need your fashionable clothes in here! 
• Travelling Solo VS Travelling as a group
  Loneliness doesn't always have to feel bad
• Couchsurfing and stay
  Make your stay safe 
• Raildude,ticket purchasing
  How to get the pass,the rules in the train station 
• Maps and books
  Should I get a map, guide or ignore everything? 
• On the way/train
  You can't get bored here my friend 
• Law,stereotypes,different lifestyles and adopting
  How not to end up behind the bars! 
• Types of travellers
  People worth meeting and not 
• Journeys
  Past personal Experiences 
• Additional tips
  Weren't all these enough?
• Self awareness, Self confidence, Passion and Personal awesomeness
  So you think you are not cool enough?