I'm gonna go on a trip. I will be traveling from #Lisbon to #Bergen, #Norway by #train only. It will take me around 4 days. I will try to log it here as best as I can, although I'm not much of a consistent person... 😅
Ok people, since the end is a bit anti climatic I will take a break from narrating to enjoy Oslo! Once I get moving to Bergen we can finish our journey together again ❤️🔥
So some things: Vy has canceled my *other* train tomorrow. I need to look for an alternative. Will chat with them asap. It's not their fault and I bet they're doing their best :ablobcatheart:
Also, a photo during the trip, of the water running like crazy. I liked it very much. I'm enjoying Norway already ihih
Oslo has such an awesome and incredible architecture variety!!
Ok I'm in the coach. It's a regular fossil-fuel powered coach 😭
But hey, I guess this is a totally legitimate use case for gasoline right? If you have an emergency and need to replace a train, right now we don't have electric long distance coaches, so these are good enough. If they're the exception and not the norm, we should be ok! 🚌
Ah and it's the second or third time I've seen these white bags on board of trains here. I think Denmark also had them but not sure. I wonder if they're for people who get sick riding the long distance trains. If so, very very welcome! Personally I almost never do (unless I'm on my phone reading too much ahah) but I bet people who do are thankful to have them
Currently on the train that normally does Stockholm-Oslo (right now only going until Arvika). It's a shame I only get to spend 30min on this one because it's also very good! Very comfy seats, modern looking but with a classic vibe to it, huge tray, carpet on the floor, great storage space and amazing toilet (very clean!). Just overall amazing train.
I'm super impressed with the trains of the Nordic countries (Denmark included). I'll get to test a bus, next :blobcateyes:
In other news, another canceled #train. This time between Arvika and Oslo. So I will be taking the train from Kil to Arvika and then a replacement bus to Oslo.
Shouldn't be too bad! I should get there about 1 hour after what I was supposed to, but I have no appointments, so it's ok ahah
Hey Nord Gods, why are you doing this? Nevermind I get it. :mastorofl:
I'm using this Regional tåg (train) to get to Kil (I think 🤔) and I switch to a high speed, or at least faster train to Oslo!
I didn't buy first class here, but the seats are still comfy and there's WiFi for everyone! And toilets. I don't believe regionals in Portugal have either. :ablobcatcoffee:
God dag og velkommen to today's #LisbonToBergen! I should have slept more hours, but the ones I did sleep helped me rest. I feel energetic and ready for Oslo! :yayblob:
It is a very nice morning in Göteburg with good temperature and clear sky.
I wish I had had time to take the hotel breakfast but it only started at 7am eheh
I got to Göteburg (alive!), had some dinner and got some breakfast for tomorrow. I went to my hotel to rest. Yes, this time it's a hotel, because it's relatively cheap (100€) and right in front of the station. I have a train to catch at 7.14 to Oslo! :ablobcathappypaws:
Please don't get cancelled 😅
Here are 2 pictures of my room. This is not really in the spirit of the trip, it's too fancy, but, you know, documentation ahah I did 3 reps btw
Ah! A nice man says that taxi should cost around 1500DKK which is about 150€. Not the best for my budget, but what are you gonna do? Fight climate change? Lol
Alriiiight another update. The replacement bus from Falkenberg to Göteburg is not happening. They want us to take a cab and send the receipt in for a reimbursement. But that sounds shaky at best.
Not sure what I'll do, to be honest. I'm kinda f***ed.
This is my train for the next few hours! It will (hopefully) take me to Mölndal! :catroll:
It's surprisingly nice. Remember, tough, I'm in 1st class. Still, for a regional train, this is super comfy and fancy looking. Modern and slick. I wish my country could have trains like these!
The only bad part about this train is that it stops at the airport :blobcatgiggle:
It's always weird to me how such cold countries like Denmark, #Sweden and #Norway have such rich flora. Plants can really survive in every environment, huh?
Ok I've found some cool stuff, but I'll actually not book anything until I'm a bit more optimistic about whether or not the friday morning Oslo-Bergen train will happen ahah
Heyyy! Although I'm on the train on my way to Copenhagen and it's going well (left precisely on time!), @panduck has warned me that the Oslo-Bergen train will most likely (very very likely) not run, because of a rainstorm. And even the buses are getting full! So that's my job for right now. To figure out how to not get stuck in Oslo eheh
I shared the cabin with only 1 other person. He was nice, but we didn't talk much. He came from Zurich and left in Bremen. I gave him same hazelnuts. If you're reading this, I gave the necklace piece you lost to the staff with your label so they can find you! :ablobcatheart:
This was my room. Sorry for the poor picture! There were 6 seats, 3 on either side. The chairs are a lot less comfortable than the TGV ones. And there were a lot of people in even worse seats! My cabin had a door, you could shut down the lights and control AC (although weirdly, only temperature, not flow). I had to try a bunch of weird positions, including using the table in the middle ahah eventually I slept straight across the 3 chairs. All bags went on the overhead shelf.
Ok, I think I will not be traveling in a night train without a bed again. It can be done, and it is cheaper. I survived. But at least for me it's not very pleasant. I assume much of it has to do with the shape of your body. I'm thin and kind of tall, and that's the worst shape to sleep in hard chairs! Even if you have 3 of them to yourself ahah I slept for around 5.30h and rested laying down for about 2h more.
Ok Saturn doesn't open til 10. I guess I'll look for a park.
Ah btw the Night Jet arrived at around 8.35. That's around a 40m delay from schedule. Since we left Basel about 1.40h late, the conductor must have stepped on it!! :flipando:
I wasn't able to buy a bed cabin. The lights in my room are already turned off but I'll photograph it tomorrow! Meanwhile, I'll say 💤 to all of you, and leave you with a picture of the bathroom! Ahahah It's spacious and feels good in general! I liked it. No shower though? Not sure if the train has one at all.
Update: apparently it's only delayed by 80 minutes! Hopefully the problem it has won't make it go slower during the whole night ahah "Lucky" for me, that is still within my gap in #Hamburg. Let's hope the delay keeps steady. :catjam:
In other news, it's 22.40 in Switzerland and I'm wearing shorts and a tee and I'm coooool. I dig this temperature tbh. Chilly but comfortable. :blobcat_box:
If anyone who's following knows a good way to check how to get from #Basel to #Hamburg during this night. Without the #NightJet... :pensive_party_blob:
Okkk I arrived in #Basel! I won't post much here because Switzerland betrayed me. First, it's not in the EEA, so no roaming/data... Second, the #NightJet is delayed because of a technical issue with the carriage. And it's in #Zurich!!! This means that it's delayed by AT LEAST 1.30h. I will probably have to find another route up from here. I will wait for 30 minutes and start looking.
Also, I just bought 9.5€ in plastic bottled water... Why even travel by train......... I forgot to fill my bottle in Paris, dumb Filipe! :blobcatscared:
Tip: ALWAYS fill your bottle every time you have access to tap water. Sadly, trains aren't yet connected to the underground water system, but that's an idea for railway designers!
For the first time, the attendant asked for my #Interrail pass. When I said he was the first one to do so he answered "Ahhh you know, Swiss guards are very strict!" with a smirk on his face. :blobcatgiggle:
Then I took the bait of buying those 6.5€ pre-prepared sandwiches, with fear that it would be worse in #Switzerland ahah I'm now headed to #Basel!
Here are some pictures: people awaiting for the gate and the train I'm taking as we speak. It's exactly the same model (with a few tiny improvements that you don't care about) as the previous TGV, so I can relax on the documentation on this one eheh :ablobjam:
Ah I forgot to say that a TGV of 7 hours was precisely 0 minutes late. That is amazing! We stopped multiple times and even had pickpockets on the way. Still, on time! Great way to go SNCF!
Here's a picture from the outside of the station on arrival and from the inside also.
I think I wanna go outside for 20 minutes eheh
Last note on the train itself. Neither the bottom nor top floor had ramps for wheelchairs or other mobility aids. I found that weird. Maybe the staff needs to help you and they have portable ramps. Sometime that happens!
I know MacDonald's is... bad. But I needed something quick and cheap. Sadly, at least here in the station, it doesn't have any vegetarian sandwiches (except the "egg" thing and yeah, thanks but no thanks). So, off to find something else!
And blames that for the bad state of 5G in our continent (which I highly disagree with, btw).
That's where I personally draw the line and say: please get the f*** out of my Union unless you're just visiting. Please make no decisions, don't have any power. You're just gonna be a force in the opposite direction we need to go in.
I don't need even faster internet, sir. I need everyone to have access to housing and healthy food like I do.
Ok I wasn't going to say anything but he just tipped my trigger point.
The Dad, turns out, is a finance bro. Who would've thought an american dad with 4 children with 4 iPads traveling from Barcelona to Paris in 1st class is a finance bro?
He's on calls talking about quarters and digital advertising. All of that was fine by me.
When he started talking about how the EU is "pathetic" because "the regulator" is destroying "innovation"...
So I just heard the Dad talk about how we switched motors (the whole front carriage I think) just now, in #Montpellier. Now we go REALLY fast north to #Paris.
I bet it's because of the rail tracks. The Iberian track is different from the standard European track, so they can't use the huge motor? I'm not sure.
Just a landscape. I know it's hard to see, but that's the ocean at the back! I missed a chance for a better picture. At 250km/h it's important to get the timing right 🤭
It's completely different to travel after a good night of sleep! I feel energetic to see the views, to stay awake and really absorb the journey. Let's see if I will get tired along the way or if I'll be ok 🫡
I overheard a girl buying #Paris#metro tickets at the bar! How cool. That way she can go directly to the metro without all the lines. But it's funny, the bar has just a bunch of disposable paper tickets lying around.
Also, a picture of a vintage train at the current stop #Agde (I got the last one wrong ahah)
I was also lucky to catch this beautiful river and the train passes near what looked like a castle/museum/park. Very pretty 🥰
Ok the team just announced they were tipped about pickpockets in the next station! So weird ahah it's #Narbonne. I guess I have to be extra careful, but all my luggage is right next to me. Big ones directly behind me and tote bag above my head.
Now for fun stuff again! #France has some water ahah I think this is a lake.
Also, some salt fields which is funny? Maybe I'm next to the ocean, in a bank? I'll look at the map to confirm. Checked! Indeed this is a HUGE bank next to ocean, called La Berre.
I believe I hear a dog barking inside the train! 🐶🐶🐶
And finally, why not slow travel, or stay more time at some stops like Barcelona, Paris, Hamburg or Kopenhagen?
Well, because I was late to booking all of this, so I was constrained by time and ticket/seat availability! So I had to take the first stuff that was available ahah and this was it. Still not bad! I get to try a night 🌉 train which is new for me 🥰
But I would definitely like to do that another time. It's a bit more expensive, though, but probably not that much.
Why trains and not a quick plane? Well... Look at my profile bio ahah planes polute. A lot. Planes are the most unequal means of transportation in the planet (although high speed trains shouldn't be too far behind 😅). I will be saving around half a ton (500kg of CO2) by going by train. The 1.5°C carbon budget per person is around 2.3t, so you have a reference. I would blow almost half of it in a plane round trip, in 7 hours... I also see views I wouldn't see any other way!
This thread is getting a lot more attention that I thought so I'm gonna explain common questions for you to feel more connected with this journey.
Why am I going to Bergen? I'm actually going back to school! Taking a master's degree there, at UiB, in #SystemDynamics. Hope to stay for around a year? Maybe 2 or do the 2nd year remotely ☺️
I hope train tracks, especially high speeds that go through an entire country, don't hurt local communities, at least too much. I've seen "my" tracks cross corn fields, pass really close to houses, etc. Ideally you find places where wildlife and human settlements aren't hurt. If that's not possible, try to compensate a bit by maybe moving them? Not sure. Also, piercing through mountains must be ultra expensive.
We've been stopped at #Perpignan for a long time. I'm afraid this will cause me to lose my train to #Basel. I only have one hour in Paris between trains.
Ok as I wrote this, the announcement to leave played. Wish me luck.
There's a dedicated nursery room in carriage 11. Nice!
Also, some facilities:
A dedicated seat for taking calls, so you don't unnecessarily bother others with loud talks and also avoid background noise. And the bathroom. Not big by any means, but in turn, there are 2 per carriage, one on each floor. I think it's worth it! It does the job 👀
Another aside: although I love my #Fairphone, we can't deny its camera is average. So my picture quality is limited by two things. My phone and my skill as a photographer. Not very good for a travel influencer 🤣
Small aside: the American kids (4 of them) each have their own tablet. All pegged to the screen. The dad is chilling. He honestly looks like he loves them, the way he talks and stuff, but pegging children to screens like that? I couldn't do it. Or at least I hope! Hopefully when they're outside or at home they to cooler things and play with plants and get their hands dirty 😅
Not that I'm saying it's wrong. I just wouldn't feel great doing it personally, I think.
We have left! Precisely on time. Folks, never underestimate the time to take a seat on a high speed. Go early! I arrived 10 minutes early and almost everyone was already seated! Smart people, I believe 😅
As soon as I came on board, I felt the heat. It's really hot! I'm not one to enjoy the abuse of air conditioning (ask me about last night in the hostel...) But can't we at least open some windows? 🤣
These chairs are by far the most comfortable yet. I hope they stay that way ☺️
This is the inside of the 1st class carriage. You can see on the right my pink bag, because it doesn't fit in the overhead shelves. They're really small! I believe this is because this bullet already has two floors, so vertical space is precious.
The seat leans back electronically! That's fancy (although a bit unnecessary, no?). Of course there's an outlet.
I have an American (I guess) family next to me, with a bunch of kids complaining about the WiFi. I'll check ahaha
Ready to board! 1st class TGV seat in an international connection for 35€. Not so bad 🤭 I guess Interrail does have its advantages.
This bullet train is gonna take around 7 hours to get to The City of Lights. Doesn't it look like we're gonna get inside a giant tube and travel at warp speed? 🚄🚀
Gonna eat something. I hope this doesn't me delay me so that I lose the #TGV eheh
You can see the prices are not the cheapest but also reasonable! I paid 5.95€ for a croissant, a cup of fresh orange juice (it was good 🍊) and a cup of oat milk latte. Not bad right?
I guess 35€ next to Barcelona-Sants only buys you the shittiest hostel... you don't even need pictures: bunk beds, shared showers, men doing men snot noises. I even had to make my own bed 🥱
It's not that bad but I will never stay just for one night in a hostel alone with this amount of luggage again!
But I took a shower, brushed my teeth 🪥 and I'm ready to go to sleep to wake up early and get on my #Barcelona-#Paris#TGV!
I realised finally what those stripes and dots on the floor of stations are for! They're for vision-impaired people 🧑🦯 I always found them annoying because I never understood them ahaha (pic below)
Also, I love that here in Spain, the train station fill the exact same roll as airports. You see people camping, family reunions, dogs 🐶 running to their owners they haven't seen in a while. And that's amazing I think.
The AVE was also late by 2 minutes, but since it left 7 minutes late, that means we actually took less time than predicted in the journey! And that's with 3 or 4 stops in between. Amazing, Renfe!
About 20 minutes to #Barcelona! Then I'm off to the hostel to finally get some decent sleep in eheh I don't think I'll give the hostels to much attention here, but I can just take a pic or two 😶🌫️
I have 4 days, 3 nights. 2 of those are hostels (#Barcelona and #Gothemburg). The other is a night train #Basel-#Hamburg. That one is more interesting if you ask me 👀 I don't have a bed though, just a seat 🫥
Might as well show you the inside of the AVE. Though remember this is 1st class!
It's chilly in here, is there no way to turn of the air conditioning? 😅🥶
Also, another high speed just passed by and IT WAS AWESOME. The air flows made this crazy sound, felt like a space ship was bulleting by me. I love e-trains. They're so futuristic but in a "green" way, you know?
By the way, I hope these seats are vegan leather 🫨
Went to the AVE toilet and I gotta say: the old train (Pontevedra-Madrid) has a much nicer toilet. More spacious, more water running from the tap. But, of course, this is more than enough!
Not only did they board ultra quickly and only delayed the departure by 7 minutes, but it's also an AVE first class, so... Amazing!! Great WiFi, great seats, great power outlets, mini trash bins for every seat, huge corridor space to stretch legs, and I'm gonna watch Babylon for free on Renfe Play (their movies and shows service for onboard entertainment).
I'm a tiny bit sad that my Madrid hard plastic public transport card can't be used to buy single tickets in the suburban trains aka Cercanias. But that's ok, had to buy another soft plastic reusable card! I think I have one back home... 😅
Ok just arrived in #Madrid and got some time to chill! Probably having dinner before boarding again. The train was around 2 minutes late (time to actual 0km/h), which is respectable for a journey of around 4 hours with 1 or 2 stops.
It's scorching if you're in the sun, even at 5.30pm.
I also saw a funny looking train (photo below).
I had to pay 1€ to go to the restroom. Expected better from Madrid, but I guess with the huge construction work going on, this gets super crowded.
We've been travelling at over 240km/h for some time now and it's very pleasing to go parallel to a highway and watch all the slow cars that are only going 140 (and even then breaking the speed limit). They should have just taken the train eheh (kidding of course, I don't know their lives)
I just passed a wind electric generation farm with 40 (yes, I counted them eheh) turbines, and only 1 of them was spinning. Very weird. Maybe maintenance?
First time I use a train bathroom today and I'm not disappointed! Simple but effective. Very spacious so I think you can fit a wheelchair in here. There's a tray for changing diapers and also support bars for people with limited #mobility.
Now's a good time to tell you I have the first class interrail pass eheh and this #Pontevedra-#Madrid train is the first one I'm doing 1st class (here named Comfort).
The train looks oldish and doesn't have all the fancy stuff new trains have, but you what? That's perfectly fine. The chairs lean back, it has good trays. Weird that I don't see any power outlets or WiFi, though. This is a high speed after all. But not an AVE, not sure why.
I believe the QR code situation means, although I'm not sure, that I won't have my journey recorded, at least live, in the Rail Planner app that EURail has, where you plan all your stuff.
Although it has some industry (factories, warehouses, etc), #Vigo is prettier than I though! Lots of green and brown. Maybe the city center is not the best, but the surroundings look cute.
Ok just entered the next train after a small panic to make sure I was in the correct one. Will check better next time! Always look at the train code, in addition to destination and time! Just to avoid misshaps eheh
Pictures from this train, #Vigo-#Pontevedra! It's a regional, aka Media Distancia. The seats lean back a lot and also move the seat forward so your spine gets into a more comfy position.
Ok so, the first train arrived around 20 minutes late (11.35 scheduled vs 11.55 real). I'm used to Portuguese trains arriving late, but I guess the first takeaway of this trip is to always assume you're arriving 30 minutes later then scheduled when traveling in Portugal. That is on top of your normal time between trains, of course.
Now, a small break, and we keep going at 12.30 (Spain time CET) towards #Pontevedra!
Ok I didn't have time to take a picture of the outside of the train (saying goodbye to my awesome girlfriend), but I boarded the first one and we're moving! #Porto-#Vigo
First impressions: not amazing 😅 no power outlets, seats are not made for someone my height, they're small, but relatively comfortable. Let's see how they do after 2 hours. I'm sitting in front of two girls so at least that's kinda cool!
Ah small funny detail! Since on trips like these it's a good idea to always have battery on your phone (for emergencies, at least), I brought my spare battery for my #Fairphone! It's at 100% eheh I can just switch if my current one dies and I can't charge it!
This is my outfit for day one of #LisbonToBergen! Just got up and showered. I need very fresh clothing for the first day: #Porto-#Barcelona. It's probably gonna be hot all around ahah
Ok gonna start #LisbonToBergen with a little pre-trip info! This is my luggage for the whole trip (and stay). I'm planning to stay for at least 5 months and maybe visit home again by then.
I packed everything I think I need for the journey itself on the pink backpack (it's a Got Bag, btw), so I don't have to open the big trolley until I get to my new home ☺️