Along the way, we travelled by minivan, bus, train, ferry, campervan (that's a story about Morocco I'll save for another time), car and hovercraft. Dean and I also hitch-hiked in East Germany (it was the only way to get to Berlin) and Switzerland. We ultimately travelled as far north as Harstad, more than 300km above the Arctic Circle, as far south as Meknes in Morocco, as far east as București in Romania, and as far west as the Strait of Gibraltar. We visited 22 countries in total, much of it thanks to the prudent use of our Eurail ticket.
For years, I've talked about writing a series of retrospective posts about this once-in-a-lifetime experience. Without a doubt, it's a mammoth undertaking. We were on the road continually, rarely staying more than three days in any location, and I have an album filled with photos, ticket stubs and other memorabilia. There's also a series of storage tubs with additional photos that never made it into the album. The opening image for this post was taken in Austria as Dean and I were making our way from Munich to Venice via the Brenner Pass.
Initially, we used it to travel from Frankfurt to Helmstedt on the East German border (where we hitch-hiked to Berlin) and then on to Narvik in the north of Norway. By this stage, we'd used five travel days. It was becoming abundantly clear that if we didn't plan our travel carefully, we'd end up seeing very little of Europe. As a result, I spent an evening with a Eurail map and printed timetable, working out a more efficient route through the rest of the continent.
For example, to make the best use of our Eurail ticket, we often slept on trains as the ticket's terms and conditions allowed us to board a train in the evening and travel overnight without counting the following day as another travel day. Likewise, we'd often stop for half a day at an intermediary destination to see a few sights before moving on again. This enabled us to explore Pisa, Seville and Pompei without using another day on our ticket.
This exercise began a passion for planning travel itineraries that has endured for more than 35 years. As I look back at the route we travelled, I still marvel at how much ground we covered in those final 15 days on our ticket. As we travelled, we met fellow backpackers who often shared insider tips on what to see at a future destination.
However, much of our daily schedule was planned using a paperback travel guide called Let's Go Europe. If memory serves me well, Dean inherited it from a friend who'd travelled through Europe the previous year. I'd also hoover up brochures and local maps at every train station. Remember, this was travel in an era before the internet. We relied entirely on printed maps, timetables and books to guide us on our journey.
We also made good use of youth hostels and regularly camped in campgrounds using a compact pup tent we'd bought in Germany at the start of our Eurail trip. However, we discovered early on that the tent was water-resistant rather than waterproof. It rained one night while camping in Oslo. By morning, everything was soaked. A few days later, when more rain was forecast in the coastal city of Bergen, we purchased a plastic sheet to peg over the top of the tent during inclement weather.
We also slept on the deck of ferries (in Norway and Greece), under trees in a German forest (which we discovered was next to a railway cutting the following morning), in a park bandstand (Narvik, Norway) and on floor of homes of people we met along the way such as Olga, a lovely woman from Bergen who we met in Eastern Europe. Some locations had special backpacking centres operating for the Summer. For example, in Berlin, we were told about a temporary campground where raised platforms covered by a roof had been built for itinerant travellers.
For the most part, Dean and I travelled well together. He was more outgoing and often struck up a conversation with people we met along the way. These encounters resulted in us securing cheap and clean accommodation or low-cost access to popular sights. Meanwhile, I was happy to manage our budget, as well as research and plan our daily itinerary, something I usually did most evenings.
Sadly, as the months wore on and we became a little exhausted by our travels, our relationship soured. I'm probably most to blame. In hindsight, as an introvert, I became overwhelmed by the constant stimulation and daily engagement with strangers. I also began to resent being left to manage our daily activities alone. While Dean was always happy for me to take the lead and keen to explore, I grew frustrated by what I perceived as an innate lack of curiosity. He later admitted that he saw more of Europe than he would've had the planning been left to him.
However, I could have been more forgiving, especially given that he funded most of our travels. I sold everything I owned to fund my ticket and buy a backpack. To ensure I could travel with him, Dean offered to transfer funds into my credit card and effectively lend me money until I could pay him back. We'd both secured working holiday visas for the UK, so we knew we were in a position to earn lucrative British Pounds and thus repay him promptly. In other words, it was always in my interest to manage our budget and see as much as possible for as little as possible.
The image above is a classic example of the daily budget battle we waged. A note on the back of this photo reveals that it was taken at a cafe in Paris. We quickly learned that a sidewalk table was always the most expensive seat in the house. My note says "Dean consumes a $10 beer, Andrew an $8 glass of wine. Photo taken by an obliging Japanese tourist". According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the average beer cost less than $2.50 in 1990.
The first of my retrospective backpacking posts has just been published. An article about the Lofoten Islands in Norway prompted me to share our five-day excursion above the Arctic Circle. You can read about this journey here. Stay tuned for more posts in the years ahead.
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