Europe by Rail

B60: Europe by Rail (Part 1 of 5)

7/9/2021

Our European backpacking adventure in Sept 1991 -
Part 1 of 5: Dublin - Paris - Brussels

Thirty years ago this week (9 Sept 1991 to be exact), I set off on a European backpacking/ Inter-railing adventure with my friend, Trish, and her friend, Martina. The Interrail Pass is a train ticket that allows you to travel on almost all trains in Europe, with access to 40 railway and ferry companies in 33 countries. Nowadays of course you can download the rail pass onto your smart-phone….but back in the day we had a paper ticket that got stamped.

We purchased the “30 Day Inter Rail – 26” which was available to anyone under 26 years of age. The plan was for the three of us to book return Aer Lingus flights from Dublin to Paris with Trish and I staying for 19 days and Martina returning to Ireland a bit earlier due to work obligations. So, clutching our tickets, our rucksacks and daybags, our An Óige (Irish Youth Hostel Association) membership cards…and a copy of “Europe by Train” (the Inter-railer’s Bible) ... we set off for France. We had a rough idea that we would travel in a clockwise direction around Europe, starting and finishing in Paris and staying in youth hostels that we would book along the way.

In talking to Trish all these years later, we both agree that Inter-railing was for us a rite of passage – about way more than a “holiday”; it was about discovering people and places, exploring beyond safe harbours; growing up; meeting many nationalities, making mistakes; being independent and so, so much more.

As for all intrepid travellers, the highs were many: the glint of the glass of the Pei pyramid in the Parisian sunshine, the taste of fresh waffles in Brussels, the smell of peach blossom at our hostel in Florence, the gorgeous Swiss hostel, the crisp morning air as we soaked in the beauty of Lucerne (Switzerland); the relief of the almost daily dumping of the rucksacks at a new hostel as early in the day as we could.

The lows, thankfully, were few but character-building, providing memories that have endured the most: being woken by border guards on the overnight trains, arriving in Prague at a crazy-early hour with nowhere to stay, getting groped on a tram in Brussels, handling multiple currencies, trying to decipher the train timetables in several different languages, running out of clean clothes halfway through, getting a train to Munich from the middle of nowhere, ….but most of all learning that a packed rucksack doubles in weight when you lug it around in the midday heat! (Funny thing is that although the three of us each had a massive rucksack, none of us has a single photo of them….but I sometimes get PTSD flashbacks to mine; a turquoise blue one with the metal frame that bit into my shoulders!)

Diary I kept of the Trip

So, I’ve split up this adventure into five blog posts: 1) Paris & Brussels, 2) Berlin & Prague, 3) Munich & Florence and 4) Rome & 5) Lucerne & back to Paris ….and have included extracts from the actual diaries that both I and Trisha kept at the time (thanks again, Trish, for lending yours to me). Here goes:

Martina & Trish in Dublin Airport in the wee hours - 9 Sept 1991

Day 1 – Monday 9 Sept 1991 – Dublin (Ireland) to Paris (France)

“Got up at 4 am. It was still dark. Patricia and Martina called for me before I had breakfast. Martina drove us to Dublin Airport. We flew first to Manchester (England) and were delayed there for about 40 minutes. We arrived in Paris CDG at about 10 am and got a shuttle bus from the airport to Gare de Nord. We then got lost looking for Gare de l’Est but eventually found it with the help of some friendly Parisians (Note: No Google Maps…we were forced to converse with other humans! 😂). At the station we rang the youth hostel in Rue Therese (Note: using a payphone as no mobile phones back in the day) and booked our room."

Gare du Nord (Paris)

Gare de L'Est (Paris)

"We were on the 4th floor of a high narrow building in a narrow street near the city centre: sharing a room with 3 others. Having changed and left our rucksacks in the hostel, we set off sightseeing."

Rue Therese, Paris (where our hostel was located)

Me beside my bunkbed in the Paris hostel 9 Sept 1991 (thanks to Trish for the photo!)

"We headed towards the quays (using a map and reading the street signs) and passed through the grounds of the Louvre. We took some photos of the Pei Pyramid. We walked along the banks of the Seine which are wide and clear and not at all like the Dublin quays. We arrived at Notre Dame where some people were inside praying while lots of tourists walked around them taking photos. We lit a few candles."

Martina & I beside the Pei Pyramid outside the Louvre, Paris - 9 Sept 1991

Lighting candles in Notre Dame, Paris - 9 Sept 1991

"Outside, at the back of Notre Dame, some people were asleep on benches. After Notre Dame, we adjourned to McDonalds for lunch (at about 4pm) because the prices everywhere else were ridiculously expensive. McDonalds cost about the same as at home. We then headed to the Pompidou Centre with its “inside out” plumbing. We didn’t go to any of the exhibitions mainly because they were expensive."

Eiffel Tower in the distance taken going up the outside escalator of the Pompidou Centre, Paris - 9 Sept 1991

"In the square outside [the Pompidou Centre] several buskers and street entertainers were performing including an old man with the biggest belly I’ve ever seen wearing a massive pair of white shorts. He didn’t seem to be doing much except hitting people over the head if they didn’t give him money. There were also some brilliant musicians from South America playing panpipes who were enthusiastic and jolly."

A welcome rest in a Paris restaurant - 9 Sept 1991

"We then decided to take a night-time bus tour of Paris and booked the Cityrama tour on Rue de Rivoli. Having returned to the hostel (after a long trek!) we changed clothes and rested for a while. We then went out for some food and ended up at a streetside café where we had a welcome sit-down. The French menu was a bit difficult to understand and Patricia accidentally ordered grapefruit juice (pamplemousse!) instead of pineapple juice for IR£2.50. "

Champs Elysee (Paris) By Night

"When we were fed and watered, we got on the tour bus. This cost IR£14.50 and lasted for one hour. We travelled up the Champs Elysee to the Arc de Triomphe. Then we went on to the illuminated Eiffel Tower. We saw various other palaces and famous buildings which were unfortunately lost on the three of us as it was 11 pm and we had been up for 17 hours at that stage. The tour was expensive for what we got and really not worth it we felt. We were back in the hostel by midnight and were quickly in bed. "

Eiffel Tower by Night (Paris)

Day 2 - Tuesday 10 Sept 1991 – Paris (France) to Brussels (Belgium)

"The (Paris hostel) room was shared with two English girls who had just come from Brussels and Bruges….and a Japanese girl. At 3am a crowd of rowdies were roaring outside our room door and at 7am the binmen were out on the street four stories down banging and making a din. Despite all this, we managed to sleep fairly soundly and were packed and down-stairs at about 9am. Breakfast was included in the room price (approx. IR£9) and consisted of bread and jam. Cocoa, coffee, hot water or milk could be drank from shallow bowls – not a cup or mug in sight."

CHAB sticker I got for my rucksack - 10 Sept 1991

"On checking out we headed back to Gare de Nord by Metro and…because of what the English girls in the hostel had told us…we decided to jump on a train to Brussels. So at 10.20am we were headed there. We travelled through the Northern French countryside which saw a lot of action during both World Wars. We arrived in Brussels at 1:30 pm and guided partly by directions received from the English girls and partly by instructions from the Tourist Information Office, we found a youth hostel called CHAB on Rue Traversiere. "

Postcard I bought on 10 Sept 1991 of aerial view of La Grand-Place, Brussels

"As Patricia and Martina had sleeping bags they checked into a dorm and I checked into a room with 7 others beside the bar! We left our bags in the luggage room as the sleeping quarters were closed and headed off for food. We ate at a restaurant in the City2 shopping centre which was a self-service place with prices similar to home (sandwich, soup, dessert, drink IR£4). The shopping streets had many lace, souvenir and chocolate shops. At the “Grand-Place” (a UNESCO World Heritage site), we sat in the square opposite the town hall and people watched. A flower market takes place there in the mornings and was just finishing as we arrived. There was a really strange guy there whose shirt was cut into strips from the waist to the chest and who appears to be a little bit mad, and a woman who shouted abuse in French at onlookers as she walked across the square."

City2 Shopping Centre, Brussels where we ate lunch on 10 Sept 1991

"At around 6pm we headed back to the hostel through a park which was very dry and sandy with a large fountain in the middle. At the hostel, Patricia and Martina got a shock when they realised their room held about 40 bunk beds – male and female. Their showers were in a small shed in the yard. My own room was quite chilly as the door opened straight onto the courtyard. I met Patricia and Martina in the bar for drinks and snacks. Martina and I sat planning the route to Berlin for the next day while drinking raspberry beer."

A grand pole in La Grand-Place, Brussels - 10 Sept 1991

Day 3 – Wed 11 Sept 1991 – Brussels (Belgium)

"Got up around 8am. I never really saw the others in the room as some were already gone when I got up and the others were under the blankets. I slept in a top bunk and nearly fell in on the bed opposite as I misjudged the height when I jumped down.”

Extract from Patricia’s Diary: “….The dormitory was fine after all and we slept well. Our beds were on the stage of an old hall and I counted 40 others in the main part of the hall. However, only a few of them had been slept in; or else their inhabitants had an early start because not many people were around.”

Manhattan Project, Brussels

Back to my diary: “Breakfast today was orange juice, bread and jam/marmalade. At 9:20 am we joined the “Chatterbus” guided tour of the city which was described as an unconventional tour of Brussels and had an English-speaking guide. We walked with her to the city centre. It lasted over 3 hours and took in many interesting parts of the old city telling us the history behind it. " (We took a photo at the Charles Buls Fountain).

Me sitting on the knee of Charles Buls, Brussels - 11 Sept 1991

"We saw the Beguinage where women lived together in a type of convent when the men went off to the Crusades and never came back. The old city stands beside some of the ugliest skyscrapers I’ve ever seen. The skyscrapers were built as part of “The Manhattan Project” of the late 60s/ early 70s which fortunately ran out of money. Although there are planning laws they do not appear to be effective. "

Anderlecht Beguinage

"We also travelled by tram and by bus. In our tour group we were joined by an Indian boy (who was travelling through Europe on his own), 2 Kiwis and 2 Luxembourgers. I was groped by a guy on the crowded tram and was glad when we reached our destination. The tour cost 220 BEF (about IR£4.40) and was well worth it. We had lunch in a fast food place and then sat in the “Grand Place” again watching some Japanese tourists taking pictures of each other. We wrote our postcards and then sampled some of the waffles famous to Brussels which are delicious. They taste like a cross between a doughnut and a pancake with many different toppings and are sold at street stalls all around the city for about 80p each. "

Belgian Waffles with various toppings

"We then went to a supermarket in the City2 shopping arcade to buy food for our evening meal and journey to Berlin. At about 6:30 pm we returned to the hostel for our rucksacks and headed for the train station. The walk with our rucksacks down by the Botanic Gardens nearly killed us. Because a local train had been derailed, our train (to Berlin) was a little late.

On the train we stood for a while near a guy who was holding a conversation with himself. We now have a couchette compartment and were given sheets and pillows. They took our passports so we don’t have to be woken crossing the German border. We are due in Berlin at 6:43 am tomorrow. At 10:10 we passed through Aachen." (Shortly after that I must have fallen asleep on my top left-hand bunk.)