The next trip is Barcelona

In the beginning of this year Thalys, the train company I used to work for, organised a staff contest to win a luxurious trip to Barcelona. On the 6th of August, by coincidence my birthday, I got an e-mail from somebody at Thalys to inform me that I won this journey. Though I wasn't working for them anymore at that time, I accepted the price and asked them to book me on 1-2-3 September.

I will be flying with our Belgian flag carrier Brussels Airlines and will be staying at the luxurious Eric Vökel BCN Suites complex. I will be blogging again, so keep an eye on this page!

Update: I haven't blogged during my holidays in Barcelona, as I took the time to relax, thus sleeping a lot and just going out in the evening.  In October - November I've been to Thailand too, for only 2 weeks, as I had too much work to do in my house.  I spent time with my father, so I didn't really visit lots of interesting venues.

The last blogpost

With this post I'm ending this holiday blog. I just boarded the ICE from Frankfurt to Brussels, thus my journey has almost come to an end. Today nothing special happened, I arrived almost on time in Zürich, changed to the ICE to Frankfurt, had lunch in Frankfurt and boarded the Brussels-bound ICE.

I thank you all for reading this blog and I hope you'll follow my next trips too!

The final day in Graz

The day that had to come, has come: the final day of our trip. Today my travelling partner exchanged me for someone else, so I could go home and prepare to start working for Eurostar again.

This morning we got out real early, already around 7h, to pick up my replacement travel partner at the station. We had a lot of fun together in Graz. After we picked her up, we took the tram to IKEA for our breakfast, which consisted of pie and coffee. We walked around a bit in the shop and noticed that the assortment was 100% the same as in Belgium, with just some minor price differences.

We went back to the city and did some sightseeing in Graz. We saw the artificial island, took the cable car up to the Schlossburg and visited the main squares and shopping areas. We finished of by a walk in the Stadtpark, after which we had a very good meal. My meal -surprise surprise- was a Wienerschnitzel. We finished of by eating one ice cream bowl with the three of us.

In mean time the moment was coming for me to return to the station and take the night train to Zürich. The train had an old Belgian wagon-lit car in it, so I decided to travel on board of it, despite the reservation price of 69 euro. Tomorrow I will travel or through France or through Germany to go home from Switzerland.

Changing trains in Belgrade

Yesterday morning we arrived about 2 hours late in Belgrade and so we missed our connection to Budapest with 15 minutes. The next train was going to leave 15 hours later. Thus we were forced to spend the day in Belgrade.

Since we were there quite early everything was still closed, except for some breakfast bars. We had breakfast and walked a bit around the city. First of all we visited the mausoleum of Tito, which I didn't see the first time I was in Belgrade. In fact the mausoleum is the museum of Yugoslav history and is quite interesting (apart from the temporary exhibition which is a bit too abstract). Besides the grave of Tito and his wife (who only died recently), there is a vast collection of personal objects he received during his many travels as well as a huge collection of traditional clothes from all over the world.

When our visit was finished we went on by regional train ("Beovoz") to the city centre to visit the Nikola Tesla museum. For those readers who don't know who Nikola Tesla is: he is the major inventor of modern electric equipment. He also was a philanthropist, since he didn't want to make any profit out of his inventions. He even invented a way to spread electricity globally through the air, without the need for any cables, making batteries and power plugs obsolete. Originally JP Morgan funded the project, but as soon as he realised that there would be no way they could measure how much electricity one users uses (which makes the electricity would be free for all), he withdrew his money from the project and thus ending it. This story is a typical example of how fucked up capitalism is and made me quite angry. At the museum we also saw some of his inventions, which were demonstrated too.

After our introduction to the life and accomplishments of Tesla, we went for a swim in the public swimming pool. As soon as we got out, we got hungry and looked for cevapcici, which we found at a Bosnian restaurant. In front of the restaurant there was a very funny pimped out Zastava parked. Then we returned to the station, picked up our luggage and took the night train to Budapest.

Our night train was planned to arrive at 6h (in the middle of the night), but luckily it was one hour late, so we could sleep a bit longer. Upon arrival in Budapest we were still exhausted though, so we went to the Gellèrt parc and slept for an hour or so on a bench. We had breakfast near the Kiraly baths and spent almost the rest of the day at those thermal baths. At 16h10, finally, we took the direct train to Graz, which runs over the Gysev network. Gysev is the second national railway company of Hungary, which is partially owned by the Hungarian and partially by the Austrian government.

When we got to Graz, we checked in at our hostel (saw we shared our room with very cute guys) and went out for a drink (without the cute guys).

Halkidiki

Yesterday we didn't really do anything except bringing my travel partners' laundry away, lying on the beach in the sun, waiting for the cute beach boy to serve our drinks. I drove around the peninsula again, just because I enjoy driving this rental car so much. In the evening we had a nice grilled fish in the beautiful village of Neo Marmaris.

So this morning we got out of bed real early. We drove to Perea (a village near Thessaloniki) first, to have lunch at To Steki Tou Vasilis, which is probably the best Greek ouzeri I know. We were already there at 10.40 and the waiter looked kinda strange when we already ordered lunch. I explained him that I often ate at their restaurant when I was younger and when it was called Aigialos. The name and owner have changed, but the food and concept remain the same. We ate fried tirokafteri cheese, grilled calamari, fried zucchini and some moussaka on the beach.

After our early lunch we returned the rental car in the city centre of Thessaloniki and took the bus to the train station, where we arrived really on time to catch the 15.52 Hellas Express night train to Belgrade. I've always got a strange thing with Greece, something I don't have with other countries, not even Thailand or Bulgaria, but whenever I leave Greece, I feel empty, I start missing the country from the second I leave it and I want to return as soon as possible to this beautiful country with its ouzeris, tavernas and psarotavernas. But for now I'm on the night train to Skopje and Belgrade, which is the beginning of my return journey.

Thessaloniki

So yesterday evening we arrived in Thessaloniki about half an hour too late. The first mission was to find a hotel, because we didn't make any reservations yet. The first hotel we entered still had an available room and was not expensive at all, so we decided to stay there.

Hotel Rex, as our hotel was called, lies just opposite to the central railway station of Thesaloniki. The rooms were clean and spacious and we had a bathroom with bath tub. The only downside was that it was so hot, it was too hot. There was an air conditioning though, which made so much noise we couldn't leave it on during the night. We decided to go out for a drink and leave to airco running while we were out.

We walked through the old industrial quarters to get to the seaside. At the seaside we had a drink and enjoyed the lights on the other side of the bay. Since my travel partner didn't feel well, we went back to our hotel and luckily it the temperature was already much better in our room. During the night it was becoming so hot again that a good night rest was impossible.

The next day we got out of our bed quite late and decided not to stay in Thessaloniki, but to get a rental car and drive to Halkidiki. The Avis office was at the other side of the city and I thought it would be a nice walk. Since my travel partner was still not feeling well, I went there alone. At Avis they still had a spare car for us, a Citroën C1. I felt some fear, because is has a manual drive and I'm used to drive a semi-automatic car. But it wasn't that that gave me the biggest fear, it was driving in Thessaloniki, a foreign city with chaotic traffic. It took all my guts to drive from the Kalamari side of the city to the railway station, but I did it!

I picked up the other guy and my suitcase and we left for Halkidiki, but so we get to the clue, because to go from the station to Halkidiki without a big detour, we had to pass through the entire city again. There was a lot of rerouting on the streets due to the big works for the Thessaloniki metro project. When I got to the highway without any accidents and without my engine stopping, I was happy, because as from there driving should be easier.

We drove all the way up to Nea Moudania, where the Halkidikan peninsula of Kassandra begins. We wanted to go to Sithonia though, the middle 'finger' of Halkidiki. We did the entire tour of Sithonia by car and we saw the beautiful blue sea, the nature, the golden beaches, the sunshine and the blue skies. On the way we also stopped to eat a souvlaki sandwich and bought some fruit. After our round trip we needed a place to stay and thus found a not so expensive hotel at the beach (Akti Kalogrias), where we will spent two nights. First thing I did as soon as we were checked in, was dive into the sea and snorkel a bit. I didn't have to swim far from the beach to see some weird fishes swimming around. In the evening we ate on the beach as the sun was going down.

Crossing the new Danube bridge

It has been a few days since I last updated my blog, so here I go again. Thursday morning we left Sibiu early on the 6h38 train to Craiova (Romania). The trip took us through a steep valley and a river followed us along. We arrived in Craiova around noon and used the time we had to change trains to have lunch and take a quick look at the city.

At first sight Craiova wasn't really special, but when we started walking, we did see some interesting buildings. There were some nice churches and there was a huge concert hall which was build in the typical communist style. Near the concert hall we ate a pizza and bought a slice of pie for the rest of our journey.

When we got back to the station, the train to Vidin (Bulgaria) was already waiting for us. In fact, it was the same train that took us from Sibiu to Craiova. We boarded the train and were impatiently waiting the crossing of the brand new Vidin-Calafat bridge over the Danube. We told our Romanian colleagues that we worked for the Belgian railways and the door to the driver's cab almost automatically opened. I used the occasion to shoot a film of the crossing, which I shared on Vimeo (http://vimeo.com/98856192).  Upon arrival in Vidin the border control was almost nothing, there were just one Romanian and one Bulgarian border guard waiting to check our passports at what you could call the 'Danube rail terminal'.

Our next train was bound to depart at 17h25, which meant we had to wait in Vidin for about 55 minutes. This train brought us directly to Sofia through the nice valley between Mezdra and Svoge. Around 22h20 we arrived in Sofia and I was truly amazed by how the city changed. When I was there three years ago, there was still a lot of construction going on, but now there was a brand new metro line connecting the station with the city centre and also the main street (Vitosha Boulevard) was completely renewed.

After checking in at our hotel, we went for a drink in one of the trendy bars on Vitosha boulevard to watch the soccer game, after which we went to sleep.

The next day, Friday, it was quite rainy, but nevertheless we decided to go for a walk on mount Vitosha. We took tram 5 to its terminus near living complex Knjazjevo. We walked towards the television tower and saw the old starting point of the cable lift going towards the mountain peak. The building was abandoned and almost all windows were smashed. Inside we found a gorgeous staircase leading up to the boarding platform.

Since the rain wasn't going to stop at all, we decided to go back to the city and check out what we could do there. In the city the weather changed quite rapidly though and so we went to Borisova Gradina (Boris Gardens) for a walk. Our walk lead us past the old Sovjet soldier monument, which had a lot of anti-communist, anti-Russian graffiti on it.

In the evening we ate a delicious salad in a pizzeria called Ugo and I had a slice of honeypie for dessert.

Saturdaymorning we decided to stay one more night in Sofia, since we had a lovely time there and were to meet up with some friends. At noon I visited my step moms new apartment, which was really amazing. We went to the Krasno Selo bazaar, where we bought the ingredients for a delicious Bulgarian lunch with Shopska salad, grilled meat, Bulgarian potatoes, dessert and a very nice bottle of Bulgarian red wine. We also tried some rakia and Bulgarian cognac. After our lunch we went for a walk in Juzjen park (South park). Our walk brought us to the Paradise Center mall, a new mall in Sofia, which is a big symbol of capitalism in Bulgaria's new democracy.

In the evening we went for a drink with a Serbo-Bulgarian couple in an alternative hidden bar in Sofia. The bar was really beautiful, there was no electric light and everything was lighted with candles. Drinks were very cheap and the atmosphere was just amazing. There was a piano and some customers were playing it.

Today we visited the national history museum, which represents the Bulgarian history from the creation of the first Bulgarian state up until the creation of the Socialist state in 1946. The museum is very interesting, but the most fascinating part for me wasn't the collection, but it was the building itself. It was erected at the end of the 1980's, so it's one of the last big buildings made by the communist regime. The interior is completely covered with marble, the doors are made from thick heavy wood and the park around the museum must have been beautiful once.

When we finished our visit at the museum, we returned to our hotel to pick up our luggage and go to the station to take the 15h30 train to Thessaloniki (Greece), on which we are currently travelling.

Bike ride to Rasinari

This morning we woke up quite late after having slept amazingly well. After I took my first shower in two days, we got our breakfast, which was muesli with honey, yoghurt and fresh cherries, and an Illy espresso. We ate it outside in the private alley of our hostel. Our plan for the day was going out for a bike ride to a small village to the south called Rasinari.

As I wrote, our PLAN was to go for a bike ride to Rasinari. As soon as we got to the bike rental office, we saw taxis waiting a bit further and decided to go by taxi, because that would be about the same price (it was even cheaper in the end, since we took the bus back). Rasinari is a beautiful village with a lot of colourful houses, each with their own gate and inner square. A small river runs through the village and there used to be a tramline connecting the village with Sibiu.

The tramline today is abandoned. The overhead line is still in place, but hangs almost down to the ground in some areas, the rails are quite rusted and partially demolished and the trams are just degrading at the side of the road.

We made our way to the upper part of the village, where we saw the church, which had some old wall paintings on the outside. Since it started raining, we ran to the bus and came back to Sibiu. Once in Sibiu the rain stopped and we walked through the park where a biking route starts toward Rasinari. The park was surrounded by very nice houses in a typical Transylvanian style, one could easily imagine Dracula roaming the streets there.  There also was a very nice church, which had gorgeous icons on the inside.

We walked and walked and walked until we arrived back at the station. There we did something we could lose our job for in Belgium: we walked over the tracks, not wearing a high visibility vest in an operational area without any crossings. This way we arrived at what we thought would be the train maintenance depot, but which really was some kind of a locomotive museum. They had a lot of old steam locomotives and also a railway turntable which was still in use. As a matter of fact, they were even preparing a fashion show which would take place that night and where the turntable would be the catwalk.

When we finished fooling around on the train yard, we crossed the tracks again and went for supper at a restaurant called 'Weinkeller'. Obviously with such a name they had a huge selection of quality wines. We had a nice limited edition bottle of Romanian red merlot. I ate a turkey paupiette filled with pickled gherkins and paprika, with a delicious cheese sauce on top of it. As dessert we had cheese dumplings with cherries and whipped cream.

Arrival in Transsylvania

This morning I woke up in a bit of a panic when I looked at the time on my iPhone. I saw it was already 10h00 and at 10h20 we had to get of at Medias, and then suddenly the last bits of sleep in my body got out as my iPhone changed the time automatically according the new time zone we entered. The time suddenly was 11h00!

Luckily I looked on Google Maps to find out where our train was and it seemed we had a delay of about 2 hours. That gave me some time to explore the coach. I saw that the way Romanians look at railway security is very different from the way Belgians do. For example, the doors of the train are unblocked all the time and can thus be opened at any time, making passengers start disembarking before the train comes to a complete stop. Our coach had only 2 exit doors at one side of the coach and at the other side the inter circular door was closed with bolts, since it didn't lock properly, which made that there in fact was no proper emergency exit if there would be a fire in the corridor.

About 20 minutes before arrival, the attendant came to warn us that we should prepare to get off the train. Due to the delay we missed our connection to Sibiu, but luckily the next train was bound to leave 15 minutes after our new arrival time. We got out of our night train and changed immediately to the other train. Theoretically this train had to leave at 12h47, but at 13h05 we were still at the station with no information being distributed. We were on the right train though, as we saw other passengers with tickets for Sibiu. Finally the train manager walked through the train informing us in Romanian that we would stay there for another 25 minutes due to infrastructure problems. Luckily there was a passenger who spoke English and translated it for us, otherwise this information would have been lost for us.

At 13h30 the train finally left the station, about 45 minutes late. The train took about 1h30 to get to Sibiu. It ran through a beautiful rough landscape with some small villages spread along the line. Upon arrival in Sibiu, we quickly found a hostel not far from the station (hostel Felinarul). The hostel has its own alley way and a bed only costs 12 euro per night, breakfast included. The owner, who is a Romanian cook living with his wife in Ireland, told us that we would be the only guests, apart from 'a German guy who checked in two hours earlier'.

We walked around in Sibiu, though pitifully enough it was raining all the time. Sibiu is a nice city, with old buildings in typical Romanian style, small alleys and a gorgeous citadel. Our walk lead us to the central cemetery. On the way we visited a local mall. This mall was quite odd and not very inviting. The shops were divided by white-painted cardboard walls and the individual shops didn't have any doors, so in fact it looked as if it was one big store, like Galleria Inno in Belgium. The only thing that gave away that it were all independent shops, were the signs stating the company name of each shop. The building itself had room for escalators going up and down, though only the escalators going up were installed. The other part of the floor opening was closed with... Cardboard walls!

As we arrived at the cemetery, we saw that it was huge and stretched out as far as we could see. We didn't go in though, so we wouldn't disturb the dead. From the cemetery we returned by bus to the city centre and dined in a restaurant which was advised to us by the owner of the hostel, restaurant Crama Sibiul Vechi. As starter we took a cheese platter with local cheeses, followed by beef in spicy sauce (which wasn't really spicy at all). The food was quite good. When we finished our meal, the German guy we met in the night train from Budapest entered the restaurant, hence he was the other guy at the hostel. We learned that in the mean time two other Germans checked in at the hostel. As the German guy joined us at our table and still had to eat, we took dessert. I had apples with red forest fruit, ice cream and a pancake. It was very sweet, but very delicious!

As soon as we finished our supper, we looked for a bar. We found a hidden bar on the first floor of an old building, which had a very interesting interior: it consisted of very old classic-style couches, cupboards, tables and chairs, classic wall paintings and high ceilings. We had some drinks and then returned to the hostel, where we met the other two Germans. We asked if they knew the results of the soccer game, they didn't know though. We checked internet and were quite pleased that Belgium won 2-1 against Algeria. With this in mind, we will probably have a very good nights rest!

Changing trains in Budapest

Today around noon, we arrived right on time in Budapest Keleti Palyaudvar after a good night rest on board the EuroNight Wiener Waltzer from Zurich. On the train we got a small breakfast, consisting of a disgusting chocolate filled pre-wrapped croissant (which by the way didn't tast like a croissant at all), a cup of tea and an orange juice. So you can imagine we were starving upon arrival in Budapest.

So first things first, we went to a local bakery were communist procedures were still maintained. To get your slice of pie and coffee, you had to follow a very strict procedure: chose your products at the counter, pay at the cash register and go back to the counter, show them your receipt and collect your food. Luckily, we didn't have to pass at another counter to get our receipt stamped after filling out a form D436XC bis which had to be validated and signed at another counter. The triple-layered chocolate pie was really worth the effort though and the coffee tasted fantastic too.

After our late breakfast we went on to Nyugati Station to check out the local train souvenir store. Among all the railway stuff they sold tie pins with almost all types of Hungarian trains. I bought one with a Taurus locomotive in blue-yellow MÀV livery, which should go well with my blue-yellow Eurostar uniform.

As soon as we left Nyugati station, we took the tram which brought us straight to the Gellèrt mineral baths. These baths are housed in an old art-deco building, which features tons of mosaics, columns and beautiful stained glass. We enjoyed the outdoor wave bath, the outdoor thermal bath of 36°C, the indoor thermal baths of 36°C and 40°C, the indoor swimming pool, the indoor steamroom and the outdoor sauna. We spent about 4 hours in total. Time flies when having fun and looking at cute guys in their swimwear.

When our body was as clean as it never has been, we left the baths to take care of our inner selves. Szép Ilona is a wonderful restaurant, just outside the city centre of Budapest, and took great care of our mouths and stomachs. I had a wonderful veal dish with some kind of creamy mustard sauce and potato dumplings, followed by a pancake filled with orange-flavoured cottage cheese. To pour this all down we had an amazing bottle of red wine.

We left the restaurant and went back to Keleti Station to catch our train, the Dacia international night train to Bucharest. We will get off at Medias to travel onwards to Sibiu via Copsa Mica. On the train we met a German doctor who will go to Sibiu too, but he will change elsewhere (early in the morning - too early for us) and reach Sibiu a few hours before us.