To enter Spain from Bordeaux I had to take a train to the border seaside town of Hendaye, where I arrived after an almost three-hour-long ride. From there, there are no direct connections between French and Spanish railways, since the Iberian countries use a different track gauge than the rest of Europe, so I had…
Latest posts
How a Christian cult almost took over China: the Taiping Rebellion
A failed exam, the self-proclaimed brother of Jesus Christ, a fourteen-year-long war that led to the deaths of tens of millions. While most people in the West might have never heard about it, the Taiping Rebellion was one of the bloodiest wars ever, and a pivotal event in the history of China. Between 1850 and…
My crazy Interrail journey – Chapter 11: Carcassonne, Toulouse, Bordeaux
Like Clermont-Ferrand, Carcassonne was another one of the cities I never failed to include in my Interrail plans, and I was obsessed with it ever since a planned middle school trip to this place got turned into a visit to Avignon and Nîmes. Don’t get me wrong, both those cities were absolutely wonderful and I’m…
My crazy Interrail journey – Chapter 10: Lyon, Clermont-Ferrand, Vichy
Leaving Berlin so soon was a bit sad, but I was also excited for the start of the next phase of my trip, one that would bring me across Western Europe all the way to the Atlantic Ocean. The journey to Lyon took almost twelve hours, and I had to change trains in Frankfurt, where…
Tracing Loona’s steps: how I visited the places where Loona has been in Europe
Loona is a K-pop girl group with a unique story and concept, and my favorite musical artist. They have twelve members but, instead of debuting as a whole group, each girl was introduced separately. Starting in October 2016, the members debuted one by one with the release of a single album and more promotions while…
My crazy Interrail journey – Chapter 9: Prague and Berlin
The journey from Budapest to Prague lasted eight hours with a train change in Vienna. The hostel I booked was in a perfect position on the large and central Wenceslas Square, but my bed was the top one of a shaky triple bunk bed that did not feel safe at all. Anyway, after putting down…
My crazy Interrail journey – Chapter 8: Budapest, Szabadkígyós, Pécel
Budapest is a huge city and one of the places I was looking forward to visit the most. Already at the first stop of my tour of the city, I was able to enjoy its unique beauty from a panoramic spot along the Danube with a perfect view of the magnificent building of the Hungarian…
I read a 1998 magazine that tried to predict the future, here’s what I found
Trying to predict the future is never an easy task, and there have been countless outlandish predictions that now seem laughable or even completely insane. Some time ago, I found an old Italian magazine buried under a lot of other stuff in my room, with a title that immediately caught my eye: “Futuro” (Future), and…
My crazy Interrail journey – Chapter 7: Warsaw and Bratislava
The next destination of my journey was Warsaw. There are trains that run between Vilnius and the Polish capital, but only on Saturday and Sunday, and I had to travel on a Friday, so instead I took a bus, as this time too I could use a discount thanks to the Interrail pass. The trip…
My crazy Interrail journey – Chapter 6: Tallinn, Valga, Riga, Vilnius, Trakai
The two-and-a-half-hour journey between Helsinki and Tallinn was in the evening and it was too dark to enjoy the scenery, I arrived in Estonia after 11 p.m.. The central position of the hostel in Tallinn might have been the only good thing about it, as it was crowded, with no lockers, and even lacking a…