Travelling is my passion. I love going to different places, seeing old civilizations, different landscapes, being among people of different races and cultures. This year, I decided to join my friends on a tour of Europe. It was not just for two weeks or so, but a full 30 days.

Meghali (Tuku), who travels abroad every year – mostly with Avon, Anuradha (Majani), who had been to England once and was, like me, a devoted and enthusiastic viewer of the Travel and Living television channel, and hence, was determined to visit Santorini island in Greece and Sorrento in Italy, Malobika (Bubu), who had travelled to Europe twice, with Cosmos in 1999 and Club Seven in 1989 – they were my travelling companions. All of us had been to Europe before and now wanted to do it again, but this time to countries where we had not travelled to before.

Initially, we had thought of taking a package tour and had gone through the SOTC, Thomas Cook and Cosmos tour brochures. But Anuradha was keen on taking Eurail, as it cuts through countries and provides a glimpse of the changing landscapes. Malobika was fed up of package tours. “We had to get up very early in the morning and be in the coach for long hours, dropped at one place with time instructions, hurry through sight-seeing, and by the end of the whole trip, everything seemed to be a blur. Run, run, run after the guide holding an umbrella to follow. No, I don’t want to do it again.” Meghali had been with Cosmos and said, “They would put us up in far-from-the-town-hotels and you have to depend on them totally and bound to take the optional tours, which come out to be quite expensive.”

There is, of course, an advantage in taking these tours as everything is taken care of, including food and hotels, luggage and sightseeing. “Perhaps for people on their first visit to Europe, such packages are better options,” I said. “I don’t think so”, was Meghali’s prompt response. “If people know how to go about the whole thing, it turns out to be quite cheap and relaxing and you get to see much more.”

Finally, we decided to travel on our own. Our destinations were Vienna, Prague, Salzburg, Budapest – all in Central Europe, and then we’d travel down to Venice, Sorrento, Rome in Italy, and Athens, Santorini in Greece.

Our next plan of action was booking the flights. From Delhi, there are many options for choosing an airline. We took the cheapest fare available on Royal Jordanian from Delhi to Vienna on July 1 and the return was from Athens to Delhi (there was no point going all the way back to Vienna) on July 30. Our only other flight, apart from Guwahati-Delhi-Guwahati, was to be from Rome to Athens, which we booked for a very low fare with Aegean Airlines. Our travel agent gave us a choice of hotels through GTA on the internet. Anuradha, Meghali and I surfed the net to take a look at the hotels from the list we had been given. Meghali saw to it that the hotels were near bus or Metro stops and railway stations, and not far from the city centre. Accordingly, our hotels were booked and then we looked for Eurail tickets. Initially, we had six travel routes – Vienna to Salzburg, Salzburg to Prague, Prague to Budapest, Budapest to Venice, Venice to Sorrento and Sorrento to Rome. But, as the Eurail route from Prague to Budapest goes via Slovakia, we had to change our route. It is very essential that while taking the Eurail Pass, one should check the neighbouring countries. If the train travels through a country that is not included in the special pass, then one cannot take that route. Our Eurail Pass was ‘5 countries 6 days travel’ – the countries being Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy and Greece. Hence, we could not pass through Slovakia. So, instead of going from Vienna to Salzbburg (both being in Austria), we decided to go from Vienna to Prague, come back to Salzburg and then go to Budapest. However, to our shock, in Budapest we found that we could not travel to Venice from Budapest as the train goes through Croatia and also Slovenia. We had to go back to Vienna, a three-hour trip by train, and had to book the tickets from Vienna to Venice immediately and in HUF currency. We had no Hungarian currency with us until then. It was good that Meghali had her credit card in her bag and she let her card be swiped for 37 Euros each for the four of us. It’s wise to carry one’s credit card and keep it handy. I had taken mine, but it was tucked away as I didn’t think we would have to face such a problem after making it clear to our agent to see that we did not have to pass through another country. She had got the Eurail Pass done for us from her Delhi links. They ought to have known. Hence, one should check the pass with the map before travelling. We were in a fix, but there was no problem that we could not tackle. Four heads together, sitting down in a cool and composed way and an answer to any problem was sought out. However, one thing someone who wishes to take the Eurail should remember is – travel light. There is hardly any place in the trains for heavy luggage and you have to consider the comfort of the other passengers. There are luggage spaces just near the door, where my friends had kept their big suitcases, but I could keep mine near me as my suitcase was smaller than theirs was, 26 inches. They had to take turns to go and check their suitcases from time to time. A smaller one would definitely have been better, but travelling for 30 days, how could we not take enough clothes! We vowed that on our next trip we would take 22 inch suitcases. And we would take less clothes, only those that could be washed and worn, and did not need ironing. One could also take two small suitcases instead of a huge one.

We had kept three nights in every place, except in Rome, where we had two nights and Santorini, where we had five nights.

We took no day-conducted tours, except in Salzburg, where we needed a guide to show us the The Sound of Music film locations and the actual life story of the Trapp family of Salzburg, on whom the film is based. As for the rest of the places, we looked up the interesting spots from the brochures of the conducted tours and took either 24, 48 or 72 hour passes, and not only went sightseeing to the places given on the brochures, but also toured through the lanes and byelanes of each place on our itinerary, and, this way, got a thorough feel of the place. We could get into a bus, a tram, a Metro with that single ticket. But one thing we did not know and had to learn the hard way was that the ticket issued had to be validated by us. We thought that the ticket was valid as soon as it was issued and hence, in Vienna, our first destination, we travelled for three days after buying the 72-hour ticket without validating it. Thankfully, there were no ticket checkers who, later we knew, would get into the tram or bus or Metro for random checking. But in Prague, we were held by ticket inspectors for not validating the tickets and hence, had to pay a fine of 27 Euros. From that day onward, we made it a point to validate our passes in every city. The ticket needs to be validated just once, only the first time when we got into a bus or a tram or a Metro with that ticket. The date would be stamped along with the time and the ticket would be valid for the period mentioned – 24 or 48 or 72 hours. In Venice, we had full sympathy for a Japanese group, who had to pay 50 Euros each as the time in their tickets was over. The little machines are inside the bus and the tram but in a Metro, it is inside the station. These tickets made our travel quite cheap. We could see the sights at our own pace and go to every corner where the buses or Metros took us. We would sit in the bus and see the sights and if something beautiful or different caught our eyes, we would get down, and after roaming at our own pace, we would get into another bus and travel on another route. We made it a point to note the name of the bus or Metro stop nearest our hotel and then to take that particular bus to come back to our hotel. So, we would come back to take rest if we felt like it, and then go out again with the pass according to our sweet will.

When we were in Sorrento, Anuradha and I wanted to visit Pompeii. The conducted tour cost some 65 Euros. But, we decided to go on our own. We took the local train from the station near our hotel for 3.80 Euros (return ticket) and then got down in Pompeii station (the stops are shown inside the train itself, either displayed on electronic boards or painted on the inner sides of the train’s body), walked to the excavation centre, bought the entrance ticket for 11 Euros and a map of the region. Then, with Anuradha as the map-reader, we explored the entire region with the information given on the map. We did not have to run after any guide, and we visited areas where the guide, too, would not have taken any group. In the same way, we visited Capri, Anacapri, Amalfi, with Sorrento as our base. But in Rome, we took a 24-hour hop-on-hop-off bus with English commentary of each historical sight, and got down and up again to explore the monuments, Vatican City, Sistine Chapel, Trevi Fountain, etc., leisurely. Anuradha and I needed to know about the places; hence, we took this hop-on-hop-off tour for 20 Euros. However, Malobika and Meghali opted for the 24-hour day ticket and they went to spots as they wished to. In Venice, we took a 48-hour ticket for 16 Euros and used it over two days to visit different islands by taking the water buses. Likewise, in every place, we explored the sights at our own sweet will. It saved us money and most important of all, we did the whole trip without any stress or hurry. Food, too, was not a problem; Malobika and Anuradha could have their vegetarian meals on their particular veg-days. There are veg. pizzas, veg. spaghetti, and other veg. dishes available and also plenty of fruit stalls that are quite cheap.

s.duara@yahoo.co.in

Srutimala Duara