I can recommend it to everyone. Try to do Inter Rail at least once in your lifetime. It is cheap (159 € student price). The ticket is accepted in every train accross Europe. For some trains (for example TGV in France or X2000 in Stockholm) you have to pay small additional fees. Overall, we paid about 240 € for the travelling stuff, and about the same to cover our cost of living. With that, we enjoyed ten days in Stockholm, Berlin, Amsterdam and Paris.
Sweden/Stockholm
- 24 hours by train
- visited Mario and Dominik (doing their internships in Stockholm), stayed at their place
- most beautiful girls ever seen
- most expensive beer ever drunk (about 6 €!)
- most disgusting beer ever drunk
- Sweden has beautiful landscapes
- in summer sun starts shining at two or three in the morning
- this is when most pubs close their doors (3 a.m.), even on weekends
- 4 a.m.: McDonalds still open
- public transportation is expensive (20 € for three days)
- Tunnelbana is their Underground
- missed our first train to Berlin
Germany/Berlin
- bigger than supposed
- stayed at a parents friends place
- prices compareable to Austria (although I got 3 portions of normal icecream for 6,5 € at the Central Station)
- unfortunately we didn’t have the opportunity to go out for party
- it’s hard to find a normal super market
- can’t imagine to live there, would have problems to adapt my talk
Netherlands/Amsterdam
- lost my orientation a few times
- coffe shops close at 1 a.m.
- stayed at a CouchSurfers place 20 minutes with tram outside of Amsterdam; Jacqueline gave us a lift to a beach near Haarlem
- met a guy at the beach who took us back to our place afterwards
- beautiful train station from the outside
- a lot of people everywhere
- you can buy every imaginable drug in the redlight district possibly
- yes, there are women standing behind glass windows, wanting you to get “private” with them
- city of the bikes
France/Paris
- big and beautiful buildings
- way too expensive (restaurant: 5,5 € for bottle of water, 11 € for lasagne, 12 € for pizza)
- you must be crazy to stand in line for the Eiffel Tower
- it’s great to stand in front of the Eiffel Tower, just too impressive
- had only half a day there
- stayed at a hostel for 28 €/night/person
Next time
- I’d try to do a bit more planning, like what to see and do and how to get there.
- I would try to get in contact with CouchSurfers earlier, because it’s just the best way to explore a city. Inhabitants can show you around and advice you what to do and see.
- Moreover, I’d stay longer in each city and overall, maybe a month overall.
- It was great to wash our clothes at Jacquelines place, otherwise I would have ran out of shirts and shorts.
- Finding a super market is the cheapest way to live.
Just before Stockholm
Mario, me, Dominik in Stockholm
On the way to the old town, travellers and interns.
On the ferry between Sweden and Denmark.
Brandenburger Tor
Breakfast in Berlin at Dunkin' Donuts
View from the Berlin Cathedral, TV Tower, Alexanderplatz
Lots of tourists in Amsterdam.
Beach in Haarlem.
In Amsterdam there's water everywhere.
Seine
Huge buildings in Paris.
Impressive.
