20. Reflections
My Interrail Pass
Is an Interrail pass worth it?
Well I would have said yes, up until the time I needed to cancel the remaining unused days of my Global Pass, but now I am not so sure.
On the plus side, it does offer you the flexibility to change trains at the last minute, which I availed of twice. The electronic version of the pass works really well, there were no glitches and I was amazed that it was accepted by each and every single scanning system in different countries. The search system for train connections also worked very well and was always accurate and up-to-date in my experience.
On the negative side, the fact that you have to pay very substantial additional seat reservation charges to travel on the Eurostar adds significantly to the cost of travel, but that is not Interrail's fault.
I feel that there should be fairer terms and conditions in place in the case of a medical emergency which involves cancellation of a period of travel.
I was refused any refund, credit note or other solution by Interail customer service on two occasions when I contacted customer service. It was only when I left a negative public review of the Interrail app that I was contacted and a credit note for the unused travel days was offered. This would have to be spent within a month on a new Interrail pass, which in turn would have to be used within the next 11 months.
Would I use it again?
I think I should probably reserve judgement until I restart and complete the cancelled section of my journey sometime in the future. However, on the whole, from my personal experience I think my gut feeling is that I would tend not to use Interrail again. That said, I don't have anything to compare it to, not having travelled extensively on mainland Europe trains before this, without an Interrail Travel Pass.
As I am now familiar with the various different national rail websites, I feel confident that I would be well capable of planning and booking individual trips myself, using Seat 61 and SMTJ and get to all my cancelled destinations without the hand-holding that Interrail offers. However the jury is still out and I have 11 months before my next trip before deciding. The fact that I have been given a credit note from Interrail may influence the decision.
Packing: Reduce, review, reduce again
One of the things I learnt is that I took far too much stuff with me. My 65L Osprey rucksack was too heavy and may have contributed to my lower back pain. It did seem to be on the large side when I compared it with the rucksacks of other backpackers. Then again I did fill it, so I need to evaluate what I could have left out. I feel there are two aspects to the contents that I need to explore further: reducing weight and reducing volume.
For example, I took an iPad with me and only used it twice, and this was only when my phone was dead or being charged. I had the Kindle app on my phone already, and was able to read any of the Kindle content easily on my phone, so I didn't need to bring some of the travel guides and books that I had packed. I also brought a detachable iPad keyboard with me, which I never used. Not only that, but my iPad screen got cracked somewhere along the way. So next time, definitely no iPad!
I wore one pair of walking (not hiking) boots and carried another similar pair in my rucksack. BAD idea, next time I would swap one pair of boots for runners or casual shoes instead.
As I had access to a washer-dryer every five days (this was planned), I did not need more than six pairs of socks or underpants. I brought far too many. I also brought two jumpers, where one would have been enough and three pairs of jeans where two would have sufficed. I brought six tee-shirts and three polo shirts, this should have been culled back to six items in total. I brought a light jacket, an umbrella and waterproof trousers. A lighter option would have been a waterproof jacket instead of the umbrella and light jacket.
For the HomeExchange GuestPoint exchanges, the tradition is that you bring some small gifts for your hosts. My gifts, while not taking up much space, ended up being quite heavy, (Irish chocolate X 10 and Irish soap X 10) and I should have chosen wiser and lighter. I also brought my own soap, shampoo and shower gel, but found out that these were provided everywhere I stayed for the first two weeks, but I will know this for again.
In hindsight I could also have been cleverer with the amount of charging / usb cables, plug converters etc that I brought. Here again, some were not used.
Overall, I think it would be possible with a little more planning, to reduce the weight of the rucksack from 14kg to something in the region of 10 - 12kg.
Rucksack or wheelie case?
I think having two hands free is one of the major advantages of carrying a rucksack, whereas with a wheelie case one of your hands is always attached to the case handle. In addition, I have learned that certain cities such as Dubrovnik have now banned these cases due to the noise pollution they cause in the cobbled streets. I would guess that more cities will follow. So, before ditching the rucksack, I would probably like to try it with the weight reduced to 10kg - if that is possible.
If that is not possible, then I will strongly consider a wheelie case next time; while it might be difficult to manoeuvre on the cobbled streets of many European cities, it would certainly be a lot easier in the train stations and on the long platforms.
I don’t plan on many long distance hiking trails or mountain climbs as part of future Interrail trips, so perhaps a rucksack is not what I will need after all!
Things I should have brought, but didn't
I didn't bring any shorts, and the unseasonably warm weather meant that these would have been very welcome most days.
Any invaluable / essential items ?
On the advice of my family I did bring a powerbank charger. I didn't think I would need one and was reluctant to bring it as it was quite heavy. However they were right, as there were three days where my phone experienced heavy use and I had no other means of charging it other than the powerbank.
I brought flip-flops for use in the Gellert Thermal Baths in Budapest but they doubled up as house shoes, as most of the apartments I stayed in had a 'no outdoor shoes' policy.
I chose laundry washer sheets for their lightness instead of capsules and these worked very well, while weighing almost nothing.
End of Part 1
This post brings to an end the series of posts from my first Interrail trip. I hope you have enjoyed reading them as much as I enjoyed writing them. It wasn't the trip I'd planned, but it was still, somehow, a trip worth taking. Two weeks, seven cities, three osteopaths and one very patient family later, I came home with a lighter rucksack of stuff and a much heavier folder of medical bills - but not one ounce less of enthusiasm for getting back out there. Despite the pain, the delays, and the unplanned detours through European emergency rooms, those two weeks gave me more good memories than bad ones, and I already knew, lying on that apartment floor in Prague, that I wasn't done travelling yet. I'll be back to finish what I started. As they say on TV, this is the end of part 1The next blog post, number 21 is just a list of all the posts from Autumn 2023.
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