Eastern European Interrail trip

Four of a kind

Am in the early stages of planning another interrail trip. Two year ago we went for 12 days and did budapest, bratislava, vienna, prague, berlin and amsterdam.

This time around we aim to do budapest(fly here)....croatia, serbia, bosnia, bulgaria and romania over a two week period.

Does anyone have any experience interrailing in any of these countries apart from Hungary(Budapest).

jimmybeige

Did a few from your first list that you've been to yourself, but from the second list I've only been to Croatia. Split to be exact. Nice spot. Small and lovely places to swim. Just don't expect much sand.

Strangest thing i found from there was the accommodation. When I got off the train there were loads of people there waiting, fighting over you to bring you to their apartment to rent. Was quite odd and they were aggressive to the point of being physical and I felt like my friends and I were almost like a rope in a tug of war. Would recommend it though...but probably not for more than a couple of days. Spent most of the time by the sea.

LiamMc

Its good to fly into a centre and take it from there.
The train network in Romania is excellent and to a lesser extent in Bulgaria and Croatia. Some of the other countries Bosnia, in particular, are mountainous. Be prepared to move away from the tracks onto buses if theere are sights to be seen. (I understand Inter-railers may want the Full Value for their ticket).

I've spent different lengths of time travelling on trains in Europe. As you know already it's a good experience. If we take the countries clockwise.

Hungary
I love the old Imperial railway stations in Budapest. I'm not sure where you've been in Hungary but Eger is a nice town and the Bukk Mountains have some walking, even between towns. The Aggetelek caves are worth a visit. Staligmite and Staligtite caverns, Slovakia have an entrance on their side too about a mile up the road. The Tokaj area is a wine-producing region.The western town of Bekescaba is pretty plain, the small spa town of Gyula (35C -40C) 7 miles away is worth a visit. I thouoght I would get a small train from Bekescaba about three miles over the border to Romania, it took me two days and two attempts, but each time I ended up back in Bekescaba. Either I stayed in the wrong carriage (only three) or disembarked on the route and boarded the wrong train. I ended up getting a Bekescaba bus to Arad (Romania) and changed to one going to Timisoara.

The southern Hungarian towns of Szeged (19th planned after heavy flooding) and Pecs (old centre and churches) are worth a visit aswell as parts of Lake Balaton.

Romania
Romania is great. It's big, bigger than Bulgaria and Hungary put together. There are about four different speeds with the trains from Inter-city to very slow (but can be pleasant). You may need to buy a Reservation (R) before boarding. Timisoara is a lovely town, a couple coloured squares and a few parks.
For other towns, Oradea has a castle and quiet centre. Towns in transyvannia University town of Cluj is very busy and has a quiet centre Sighisoara. Sibiu is supposed to be very nice as well. The Fageras mountains are work exploring, I took a slow train following a river North to South down to Craiova. The south is coal and industrial area and flat, not that interesting.
Brasov has an old Black church in it and is close to a skiing centre. Suceava and Iasi are okay but are good for bases to explore the surrounding areas. The central square in Iasi was being rebuilt (2006) so it should be a little bit nicer. Went to a Bela Bartok concert there.
The Danube delta is a wilderness area, Tulcea is a good town to get one of the boat tours along one of the tributaries, where some communities live.
Bucharest is fine for a capital city, but I wouldn't go out of my way to get there. Other towns are alot more interesting. One International train goes from Bucharest (20:00?) -Craoiva (22:00) -Timisoara (02:00) to Belgrade (08:00?). Nice timing getting into Belgrade.
Also the Danube River along the Bulgarian border sounds interesting.

Bulgaria
Sofia is a lovely town, some dome shapes roofs. Alot happens around Bulevard Vitosha, atop of this road is a park with a huge Cultural centre. There is an underground live venue here. Plovdiv town is a previous capital and has big river-bed cobbles throughout the old town. I'm sure the Black Sea areas are good rest-up places.

Serbia
Seats are able to pull-out to rest yourself horizontally, providing there is nobody opposite you.
Belgrade will feel like a modern capital city after rural Romania and Bulgaria. It's a good place for clubbing. Also there are restaurants on boats on an artificioal lake south of the centre Cindija(?). Zemun is an old village the other side of the Sava river and is worth a wal around and a meal. Novo Belgrade is a corporate centre with residential blocks. But if you like the Art Deco (?) style of Eastern Europe then The Intercontinental Hotel and the sava Centre are worth a look are about 1km apart in Novo Belgrade. Other hotels with interesting architecture in the city centre are Hotel Moskva.
A hotel I've stayed in is Hotel Royal near the castle complex [URL="mhtml:{C6B947A2-C91C-4F04-9322-0E373ECE0135}mid://00000003/!x-usc:http://www.hotelroyal.rs/en/index.php"]http://www.hotelroyal.rs/en/index.php[/URL] It's prices have risen recently. There are hostels opposite the Ottoman built yellow-brick railway station.
Other towns in Serbia, Smederevo which has a castle on the river right at the railway station, Novi Sad and the beautiful Subotica up at the border with a huge lake near the centre. Serbia also has large canyon in the middle and some National Parks. Kosovo the towns of Pej was very dusty I tried to locate a large, famous monastery there but couldn't find it. Prizen has a nice centre and a Turkish-built bridge over it.

(Montenego)
If you're tempted to head down to Bar or Budva on the coast then you may want to go up to Kotor the deepest fjord in South Europe. Its an amazing walled town built into the side of a mountain and with three small entrances. From there you can go up to Dubrovnik, Split and the islands. All this is on buses and the times of the journeys can be high.
From Dubrovnik there are services to Mostar (Bosnia), buses take between 5 and 7 hours.
The coastline with the islands might be a separate holiday.

Bosnia
The are buses between Belgrade and Sarajevo, they leave you at a suburb and tram terminus. It's possible to get a tram into the centre, Sarajevo is built all along the river. There's a Turkish market area that is very sanitised and some hostels nearby. First time I stayed there was with a family recommended from the Touristic bureau. I did some walking in the hills with that family, just be sure when you're walking in the nature that there are recommended areas to walk.
For politics the eternal flame, the shell of the National Stadium, the bridge where Princip asassinated Franz Ferdinand (the person not the band) and The and museum near the airport. This is a small stretch of tunnel that can be walked where different types of supplies were brought in during the seige in the nineties.
Mostar was a frontline during the conflict and some of the centre shows alot of damage. But it is worth a stay in a nice part of the country.

Croatia
The are trains between Belgrade and Zagreb, there may be a stop to couple/uncouple carriages on the Croatia side. I only past through Zagreb, so cant help there.

Accomodation (former Yugoslavia)
Renting rooms from family members at the stations is a normal way to find accomodation. Obviously if you already have a place secured or mistrust the person just say no. Or use the reccomendations from the local tourist office. It's a short-hand way of getting into the town you're in.

Also this trip will be very much down-at-heel then your previous one.
Good luck with it.

Four of a kind

LiamMc wrote: »

Its good to fly into a centre and take it from there.
The train network in Romania is excellent and to a lesser extent in Bulgaria and Croatia. Some of the other countries Bosnia, in particular, are mountainous. Be prepared to move away from the tracks onto buses if theere are sights to be seen. (I understand Inter-railers may want the Full Value for their ticket).

I've spent different lengths of time travelling on trains in Europe. As you know already it's a good experience. If we take the countries clockwise.

Hungary
I love the old Imperial railway stations in Budapest. I'm not sure where you've been in Hungary but Eger is a nice town and the Bukk Mountains have some walking, even between towns. The Aggetelek caves are worth a visit. Staligmite and Staligtite caverns, Slovakia have an entrance on their side too about a mile up the road. The Tokaj area is a wine-producing region.The western town of Bekescaba is pretty plain, the small spa town of Gyula (35C -40C) 7 miles away is worth a visit. I thouoght I would get a small train from Bekescaba about three miles over the border to Romania, it took me two days and two attempts, but each time I ended up back in Bekescaba. Either I stayed in the wrong carriage (only three) or disembarked on the route and boarded the wrong train. I ended up getting a Bekescaba bus to Arad (Romania) and changed to one going to Timisoara.

The southern Hungarian towns of Szeged (19th planned after heavy flooding) and Pecs (old centre and churches) are worth a visit aswell as parts of Lake Balaton.

Romania
Romania is great. It's big, bigger than Bulgaria and Hungary put together. There are about four different speeds with the trains from Inter-city to very slow (but can be pleasant). You may need to buy a Reservation (R) before boarding. Timisoara is a lovely town, a couple coloured squares and a few parks.
For other towns, Oradea has a castle and quiet centre. Towns in transyvannia University town of Cluj is very busy and has a quiet centre Sighisoara. Sibiu is supposed to be very nice as well. The Fageras mountains are work exploring, I took a slow train following a river North to South down to Craiova. The south is coal and industrial area and flat, not that interesting.
Brasov has an old Black church in it and is close to a skiing centre. Suceava and Iasi are okay but are good for bases to explore the surrounding areas. The central square in Iasi was being rebuilt (2006) so it should be a little bit nicer. Went to a Bela Bartok concert there.
The Danube delta is a wilderness area, Tulcea is a good town to get one of the boat tours along one of the tributaries, where some communities live.
Bucharest is fine for a capital city, but I wouldn't go out of my way to get there. Other towns are alot more interesting. One International train goes from Bucharest (20:00?) -Craoiva (22:00) -Timisoara (02:00) to Belgrade (08:00?). Nice timing getting into Belgrade.
Also the Danube River along the Bulgarian border sounds interesting.

Bulgaria
Sofia is a lovely town, some dome shapes roofs. Alot happens around Bulevard Vitosha, atop of this road is a park with a huge Cultural centre. There is an underground live venue here. Plovdiv town is a previous capital and has big river-bed cobbles throughout the old town. I'm sure the Black Sea areas are good rest-up places.

Serbia
Seats are able to pull-out to rest yourself horizontally, providing there is nobody opposite you.
Belgrade will feel like a modern capital city after rural Romania and Bulgaria. It's a good place for clubbing. Also there are restaurants on boats on an artificioal lake south of the centre Cindija(?). Zemun is an old village the other side of the Sava river and is worth a wal around and a meal. Novo Belgrade is a corporate centre with residential blocks. But if you like the Art Deco (?) style of Eastern Europe then The Intercontinental Hotel and the sava Centre are worth a look are about 1km apart in Novo Belgrade. Other hotels with interesting architecture in the city centre are Hotel Moskva.
A hotel I've stayed in is Hotel Royal near the castle complex [URL="mhtml:{C6B947A2-C91C-4F04-9322-0E373ECE0135}mid://00000003/!x-usc:http://www.hotelroyal.rs/en/index.php"]http://www.hotelroyal.rs/en/index.php[/URL] It's prices have risen recently. There are hostels opposite the Ottoman built yellow-brick railway station.
Other towns in Serbia, Smederevo which has a castle on the river right at the railway station, Novi Sad and the beautiful Subotica up at the border with a huge lake near the centre. Serbia also has large canyon in the middle and some National Parks. Kosovo the towns of Pej was very dusty I tried to locate a large, famous monastery there but couldn't find it. Prizen has a nice centre and a Turkish-built bridge over it.

(Montenego)
If you're tempted to head down to Bar or Budva on the coast then you may want to go up to Kotor the deepest fjord in South Europe. Its an amazing walled town built into the side of a mountain and with three small entrances. From there you can go up to Dubrovnik, Split and the islands. All this is on buses and the times of the journeys can be high.
From Dubrovnik there are services to Mostar (Bosnia), buses take between 5 and 7 hours.
The coastline with the islands might be a separate holiday.

Bosnia
The are buses between Belgrade and Sarajevo, they leave you at a suburb and tram terminus. It's possible to get a tram into the centre, Sarajevo is built all along the river. There's a Turkish market area that is very sanitised and some hostels nearby. First time I stayed there was with a family recommended from the Touristic bureau. I did some walking in the hills with that family, just be sure when you're walking in the nature that there are recommended areas to walk.
For politics the eternal flame, the shell of the National Stadium, the bridge where Princip asassinated Franz Ferdinand (the person not the band) and The and museum near the airport. This is a small stretch of tunnel that can be walked where different types of supplies were brought in during the seige in the nineties.
Mostar was a frontline during the conflict and some of the centre shows alot of damage. But it is worth a stay in a nice part of the country.

Croatia
The are trains between Belgrade and Zagreb, there may be a stop to couple/uncouple carriages on the Croatia side. I only past through Zagreb, so cant help there.

Accomodation (former Yugoslavia)
Renting rooms from family members at the stations is a normal way to find accomodation. Obviously if you already have a place secured or mistrust the person just say no. Or use the reccomendations from the local tourist office. It's a short-hand way of getting into the town you're in.

Also this trip will be very much down-at-heel then your previous one.
Good luck with it.

Excellent stuff mate, very insightful and well put together. what do you mean "down at heel" though?

The fact that we only have two weeks is the only downfall. Because of that we are only going to stop in one city/town in each country for two nights..then move on.

Regarding the above countries, whats the cost of food, drink like? Is is cheaper/more expensive than the other countries I did on the first trip?

LiamMc

Four of a kind wrote: »

Excellent stuff mate, very insightful and well put together. what do you mean "down at heel" though?

The fact that we only have two weeks is the only downfall. Because of that we are only going to stop in one city/town in each country for two nights..then move on.

Regarding the above countries, whats the cost of food, drink like? Is is cheaper/more expensive than the other countries I did on the first trip?

(It's very polite of you to quote the entire post, lol).

By 'down-at-heel' I mean that there is less money on civic services, like pavements or street lighting. Perhaps privately a two-star hotel doesn't have the same facilities as a two-star in Austria, southern Germany.
But that answers your last question about prices, all the areas can be cheaper then your first trip. Obviously some of the capitals may compete.
The local beers will be cheaper then the imported.
Bulgaria -Kamenitza (green) and Slovenia - Lasko (green) I'd recommend. Unfortunately the Serbian beer Jelen Pivo (yellow label) is poor.
You can pick up 1.5 litre or 2 litre bottles of beer from small suppermarkets for only a few euro. Regarding meals they'll be a range of prices in the capital, in small towns (non-tourist) the one place to eat is the big hotel.

Two weeks is pretty short for that amount of countries, but alot of people use Rail Travel to travel alot of KMs and then return to the places that interested them. (You'll have to promise to return to some of these places...... not to me but the locals you meet over there).

Good luck again.

Four of a kind

Cheers mate. yeah i know its a little rushed, but we did exactly the same on the last trip regarding rushing and we loved it. My plan is to revisit the countries that I like at a later stage. I do love the atmosphere of european cities.

Nova_era

I travelled around Eastern Europe last summer, and had an amazing time.

I flew to Munich from Cork, and travelled through the following countries before arriving back in Munich for my flight home just over a month later -

Hungary, Slovakia, Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, Macedonia, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova, Ukraine, Hungary (again!), Austria, and then back to Munich.

If you've any questions about any of the places please ask, I'd be happy to give any advice I can.

Don't expect things to be as straightforward as in Western Europe, prices are cheap etc but some things can be quite difficult. For example, buying a train ticket in Lviv, Ukraine, was one of the most challenging experiences of my life!