Random Notes:

Eurotrip

Note some photos may be put in incorrect days in order to demonstrate something talked about in that day.

2026-09-12

Hopped on our 5-hour train to Paris (taken instead of the 2-hour high-speed because saves us 12 euros each in reservations).

2026-09-11

Headed to Geneva for a day trip.
Our original Geneva plan was to go tomorrow on our way back to London, but decided to do it as a day trip instead so we wouldn’t have to go so early, getting the 10:00 train instead of the 08:00.
Three of us caught the 10:00 train and the other missed it and had to get the 12:00 instead. The three of us there first got lunch from a supermarket consisting of mostly pastries as everything else was of course insanely expensive.
Walked along the lake and into the park and ate our lunch there.
Met up with our other friend and walked up to see the UN offices (from the outside only).
Then took a bus and tram to see CERN. Realised we fumbled because the visitor centre closes at 17:00, and we hadn’t re-adjusted our initial plan for the 2 hours later departure, or the further 2 hour delay, so arrived as the center closed. Had a quick look around the outside at least.
Went back into the center and looked around this crazy neighbourhood that looks like the smurfs village. Was full of people hanging out, had lots of communal third spaces. Wish we built things like it in the UK.

2026-09-10

Picked up some Tunisian street food for our train to Lyon.
Went to the station and they had ticket barriers you had to scan through with your pass, but they just refused to accept the Interrail pass. Looked around for a staff member but there weren’t any, then realised they had a station with an intercom to call someone if your ticket fails to validate. They just opened the gate remotely.
Took our first train, to Marseille. Was 20 mins late but ok because we had a 40 minute connection.
Our train from Marseille to Lyon was surprisingly old, so had no wifi or power sockets.
Our accomodation in Lyon is the cheapest by far and is like a very large apartment converted into a hostel type thing with six rooms and a communal kitchen. Very rundown, no bedding provided for the sofa bed. But at least only there for two nights.

2026-09-09

Went to Monaco via the bus - which was electric and had automatic charging at the stop.
The route was right along the coast so very beautiful.
Was interesting to see lots of rich people around Monaco and their fancy cars.
Looked at ridiculous real estate prices in the agent windows.
Went up a hill and looked at all the fancy yachts in the harbour.
Went to see the Monte Carlo casino, where photography of the guests is banned.
Headed back to Nice and had a delicious merguez shakshouka at a Tunisian restaraunt - was really good.

2026-09-08

Spent most of the day inside, needed another rest break and we had various admin tasks to complete between us (hint, if you live in Bristol, don’t rent with Ocean Lettings).
Walked around Nice in the evening, found this ice cream place which can do up to 15 scoops in one order, got a bucket of six to share - including wacky flavours such as thyme, and tomato & basil.
Walked up the Colline du Chateau which had some beautiful views.
The park closed and they had this whole process with multiple police officers to get everyone out, including a guy on a segway with a torch to find people, at one point he spun around 360 looking for people and we had to try not to laugh.
Sat on the beach for a bit and then headed back home.

2026-09-07

Checked out of our campsite and headed to the train station.
Had a couple hours before our train, and of course because it’s Florence we had nowhere to sit so just sat outside the train station on the concrete.
Our train was delayed by a broken level crossing, meaning we arrived at our next stop 40 mins late causing us to miss our connection. Turning what should’ve been a four train journey with no reservations required into a five train journey with last-minute reservations needing to be made in-person for two of the trains.
The journey itself was very interesting, because it was along the coast the whole time, which meant some beautiful views, but mostly we were in tunnels so you had to catch glimpses every now and then.
Arrived at our accomodation at 22:45 instead of the 20:15 we’d originally planned…

2026-09-06

First sunday of the month which means entry to the (usually very expensive) national museums was free. Our first thought was to go to the Ufizzi but we realised that everyone would be trying to go there and the queues are already very long without free entry.
Instead we went to various small museums.
The Boboli Gardens.
Some church that used to be a grain market, with statues on display in the upper floors.
The Duomo from the outside.
Some other thing I forgot the name of.
Would’ve gone to more but (once again) the heat was killing us.
Went back to the campsite and made ourselves spaghetti in red sauce with fresh pasta.
Saw on a poster in the morning there would be live music that night so went down to the bar where it was. Accidentally got seated in the restaraunt area (which is where the music was), and realised the drinks were very expensive and had a 2 euro cover charge (fuck cover charges).
Ran away round the corner to the self-served area and listened to the music for a bit. They had a violinist and a singer who were both very good, but for some reason they just played covers of pop songs over backing tracks??

2026-09-05

Bussed into the city.
Went to the central market which was very cool and had some absolutely delicious food tasters, but it was insanely busy and way too expensive, so had food from some stalls elsewhere.
Went to this place in the suburbs that billed itself as a botanical garden but was really a little farm type thing with some animals.
Looked very Tuscan and was quite beautiful.
Saw an ostrich for the first time, did not realise how big they were - kind of scary how much they can move their heads.
There was a villa nearby where there appeared to be a gender reveal party with the stereotypical smoke which had us laughing a lot at the idea of doing something so stupid in somewhere so beautiful.
There was a jazz festival in Florence which we wanted to go to and our accomodation supposedly had a 20% discount for. The website was practically impossible to use and despite three of us trying to book tickets we could not for various reasons, including there also being no discount code box.
Went back to the campsite and cooked some nice mushroom risotto for dinner, with blood orange mimosas.

2026-09-04

Checked out of accomodation.
Took the metro to see a cool station.
Had a rolled ham and cheese pastry for breakfast.
Walked to our next destination
Went on a tour of some of the network of tunnels under Napoli which were once Greek aqueducts, and then WW2 bomb shelters. Were some fun tight spaces.
Took a roundabout route to the central station via one of Napoli’s three fernicular lines which are part of the transit system (read and weep Bristol).
Took a three hour train to Florence, which honestly felt too short after all our lengthy journeys.
Seems they really don’t like people in Florence, with zero parks, and any grass bordered off with access forbidden - so basically nowhere to sit.
Did a quick walk around the center and saw the open statue gallery and Ponte Vecchio.
Took the bus out of the city to the campsite we’re staying at a static caravan in - bought some groceries on the way and cooked dinner there because everything is really expensive in the city.

2026-09-03

Woke up late because of late night.
Train to Mount Vesuvius, then bus up to the top. Craziest narrow and winding road of all time. The bus driver had to honk around every corner and we almost collided with another bus and had to spend 5 mins carefully reversing to make enough space to just about scratch past.
Bus takes you most of the way up, and then you have to walk ~20 mins up to the crater. Was incredibly hot from the sun but at least there was a cool breeze. No taps anywhere near the mountain so if you want water you have to buy it from stalls along the way for 3 euros for 500ml. Did not do that.
Crater was much bigger than I imagined, and there were crazy views from the mountain. It was strange to look into the crater and see it being solid at the bottom with trees growing, knowing that once eruptions came from it.
Got the bus back to the station, and wanted to go into Pompeii, but we were all pretty destroyed from the heat and there was nowhere to get food and drink that wasn’t an expensive restaraunt, so headed back home to Napoli instead.
Ate out at a restaraunt with the traditional two-course Italian meals.

2026-09-02

Slept in because we’ve all had some pretty bad sleep in Corfu and the ferry.
Grabbed some lunch from a street stall (arancini and folded pizza).
Got the train to Sorrento - very busy, had to stand most of the way (90 mins).
Walked through the town, which was beautiful but clearly built around rich American tourists because everything was insanely expensive.
Saw some beautiful views of Vesuvius and the sea from the cliff edge the town goes up to.
Saw some beautiful inlaid wood art.
Walked along a crazy mountain road with no pavement past four and five star hotels to get to a little cove we wanted to swim in.
The cove was so small that there was nowhere to stand and get changed or put our stuff.
Walked around the cove and found a larger beach on the other side of the Roman villa ruins that was on a massive outcropping between them.
Swam in the sea which was the warmest natural body of water I’ve ever been in. There was zero acclimitisation time.
The rocks were very sharp and varied in height so it was impossible to be in the shallows without getting bashed against the rocks by the waves of passing boats.
I’m out of practice with my swimming so couldn’t really remain afloat out of the shallow section comfortably so found a spot where I could sit in the rocks and enjoy the waves without getting smashed around.
Trained back and got pasta delivered for dinner with TV, got back pretty late.

2026-09-01

Woke up two hours before arrival (07:00, or 08:00 by our body clocks) by the ship’s good morning announcements. Had another shower courtesy of the lack of AC. Waited around in the lounge for the hour before disembarkment, they had to disembark all the vehicles before they could bring another shuttle bus on to take us off…
Entered the terminal and tried to order an Uber to get us to the train station (50 min walk through industrial district with no transport links was the alternative). No Uber or similars in the area… A taxi driver came in from outside and asked if we’d called for a taxi to the train station because he couldn’t find the people who did. We said no, but we’d be happy to take it instead, and so we did. 20 euros cash, or 25 euros by card. He dropped us off at an ATM so we could get cash and save some money but unfortunately the ATM did not work so paid by card in the end.
Had two hours before our train so went to a supermarket to buy breakfast and food for the five hour train to Naples.
Sitting on the nice, spatious, air-conditioned train with power sockets and WiFi has me relieved to be out of the transit black hole that is Greece (and back to drinkable tap water and toilets that can handle toilet paper and aren’t missing seats!)
Arrived in Naples which is crazy busy - so many mopeds everywhere driving insanely.
Checked into our accomodation, which has AC strong enough to keep the room at a good temperature!
Went out to find dinner, I got a fried pizza where they fold it in half and deep fry it. So filling I couldn’t even get half way through it. They also had a CCTV camera that let you view the deep fryer.
Lots of beautiful architecture.

2026-08-31

Checked out of our hotel and left our luggage there for the day.
Had brunch at a vegan restaraunt called Aubergine. Had a wrapped omelette, where they seemed to have cooked a flatbread in a pan and then poured omelette mix onto the cooking flatbread, then rolled it up. Pretty good.
Saw online that the bus tickets are cheaper if you buy them from a ticket office instead of onboard so went to a ticket office and bought them for 1.80 euro per single.
Got on a bus to the Achileon (palace with gardens), was very packed and hot - the buses have flip dot displays on the front for the destination which is awesome.
Bus stop at bottom of hill and Achileon at top.
Hiked up, ended up absolutely drenched in sweat and exhausted.
Found a little cafe just down from the Achileon and bought homemade ginger beer, which was the best ginger beer I’ve had in my life. The guy even asked us for feedback on the recipe when we were finished.
Walked up to the Achileon only to find out that the interior is closed for renovations so you can only see the gardens - didn’t really want to pay 7 euros just to walk around some unshaded gardens and die even more from the heat.
Got the bus back towards town, got off by the airport because there’s a big strip of concrete through the water right in the approach path where you can watch the planes go directly overhead. Strange to look at the runway being practically level with the water (FlightRadar said 1ft ASL).
Got another bus back into the center but had to buy tickets on board because we hadn’t planned on splitting our return journey. Had to purchase as an actual transaction where we said we wanted four singles and then paid with card instead of just tap on/off.
Had 40 mins before our reservation, so wanted to look inside the old fortress quickly, only to discover that you had to pay 10 euros to even get onto the island!
Went and sat by the water for half an hour instead at a spot where we saw people swimming. When we got there we saw signs saying swimming temporarily prohibited and it stunk of sewage because there was a sewage pipe straight into the water 10m away from where people were swimming…
Had dinner, got pork Souvlaki and Politiki which was pretty good.
Headed back to our hotel to grab our bags and go to the port to buy ferry tickets for the 20:00 ferry to Igoumenitsa (last departure of the day). No signage leading to the ticket offices, so had to ask the coast guard, who pointed us 300m down to the other end of the port. Fast walked down there, ticket office sold us our tickets and told us to run because the ferry was all the way back on the other side (was 19:45).
Ran to the ferry and managed to get on with the last vehicles. Absolutely drenched but thankfully the main areas was air conditioned.
Checked more details about the ferry to Brindisi (01:00 departure), and found out we had to check in by two hours before departure so that solved our problem of wondering what to do in this empty port town for three hours.
Arrived at Igoumenitsa (90 mins journey) and once again had to check Google Maps to try and figure out where on earth we were supposed to go. Walked a very pedestrain unfriendly road to the main terminal and checked in.
Walking through the international port is banned so they had a shuttle bus which took us the two minutes to the ferry to Brindisi, which we thought was funny enough. Then turns out we can’t even walk onto the ferry because it’s designed entirely around vehicle passengers. They had another shuttle bus drive us up the four vehicle floors where we could get out and into the passenger lounge.
Had a quick shower and went to bed, took ages to sleep because no air conditioning in the cabin…

2026-08-30

Walked into town to get breakfast from a small bakery with good reviews. Ended up being crazy expensive, spending 18 euros (plus 2 in forgotten change) for some Baklava and some other medium-sized item. Walked round the corner to a cafe which had loads of pastries for more reasonable prices, and I bought a decently-sized ham and cheese slice for 2.50.
Ate our pastries in a park and walked around the town, also did our laundry at a laundromat.
Went back to the hotel because we were feeling pretty bad from the heat (and it turns out also the diarrhea-inducting tap water). Two of us stayed at the hotel for a break (I napped a couple of revitalising hours), and the other two went to go swim in the sea.
Met up with the others by the seafront and went for dinner at a meze bar.

2026-08-29

Went to a bakery to get some breakfast, had an interesting flaky mince pastry.
Buses also need a rechargeable paper ticket, and for some reason there’s only a few ticket machines across the whole city? Went to get them and you could only buy 3 at a time, so had to do two transactions to get one for each of us.
Went to a mezze bar to get a small lunch. Took longer than expected due to one of us ordering octopus so had to get an uber to the bus station (to go to Corfu) instead of using the bus tickets we went through a bit of a faff to get.
Apparently you’re supposed to get your coach tickets printed at the station, even though there’s a perfectly good QR code on the PDFs they email you? Another member of staff came over and said that actually you only need to print them off if you have a discount because they need to validate the discount. I guess most people have some sort of discount, which would explain the tickets being 40 euros for only a 5 hour coach (ferry ticket not included!).
Coach very old but in good condition and with acceptable AC. Had informational CRTs to show the rules!
Got to the ferry terminal and got out of the coach and was hit by the most insane humidity I’ve felt in my life. Took only 10 minutes to feel absolutely soaked and greasy. Checked the weather and it was 92% humidity!
Ferry to Corfu was thankfully air conditioned, took 90 minutes.
Walked to our hotel which is only a 5 minute walk from the port! Air conditioning in the room not good enough to get the room below 26c, but better than the outside.
Ordered delicious takeaway from a Gyros place.

2026-08-28

Went to a burger place for lunch (we all needed something more familiar…)
- A family was eating there and a girl made herself a hat out of a napkin and then showed us how to do it too despite not speaking any English which was wholesome.
Looked at a market and around various old buildings.
Went to the harbour and had some drinks in a nice quiet cafe with a view of the sea, where we discovered that it’s normal in Greece to receive complimentary dessert which is kind of crazy. There’s also no tipping culture to the point where the waitress looked confused when we tipped despite her being very patient with us dumb British tourists who didn’t speak Greek.
The cafe was inside a photography museum so had a look around that too.
Saw a military boat that was parked up. I think it was available for tours at some times?
Looked in an old church with a crypt.
Went back to our hotel for a couple hours to escape the heat.
Took the metro back into the center, they only built it a couple years ago and it’s entirely driverless. Very weird ticketing system where you have to buy paper tickets, but they have NFC chips so are rechargeable
Had dinner in a vegan restaraunt which was very cheap and tasty - Thessaloniki seems to be quite a woke city - lots of left-leaning graffiti around. Tried Ouzo which is a Greek aniseed spirit drank with ice. When you put the ice in there’s an effect where the clear spirit turns cloudy white. The spirit is very interesting, the initial burn is masked by the aniseed but lingers for longer than usual.
Looked around the harbour in the dark.
City very busy at night, and not in the nightlife sense, but just people were still out doing normal activites, kids playing etc.
A couple of us went to a rock club, where your first drink is included with the entry fee, which is a good system. Interestingly, it seems that the city being busier at night actually means the nightlife also starts later. Got there at 23:45 which would be a perfectly reasonable time to get to a club in Bristol and it was practically empty. Was only really starting to get decently busy by the time we left at 02:00, and the club closes at 06:00 instead of the usual 03:00/04:00 in Bristol.

2026-08-27

Looked around Sofia.
- Tourist information center inside a restored old tram.
- Roman ruins in the entrace to the metro, which reminded me of how many there are in Rome.
Went to a place for lunch which did food by weight. I think it’s a great way of doing it and I wish you could find places like it in the UK.
Walked through the park to the Earth and Man National Museum which was absolutely full of minerals, gems, and cool man made materials. Only 5 euros to get in and so much to see.
- A laser reflector made of quartz, where no matter what angle you look at it from you see just your eyes looking back at you - creepy.
- A silicon wafer used to make microchips!
- Lots of gorgeous amethysts.
Got a coach to Thessaloniki (no rail connection over the border).
- Was five hours long and had AC so felt like nothing after our train to Sofia.
- Border control came on and checked everyone’s passports and looked very serious. Even looked through the whole passport of one of my friends.

2026-08-26

Drove north this time. Up to Belogradchik fortress, which had absolutely stunning views across a gorgeous landscape with tall rock formations.
Then to Magura cave, which is a huge cave system of 2.5km total. It is a chilly 12c in there which was a nice respite from the scorching heat outside.
- The tour was 2 hours long and entirely in Bulgarian which was funny. There was another visitor who spoke English who translated the safety notices for us at least.
- The biggest attraction of the caves is prehistoric cave paintings (8,000 - 10,000 years old). Unfortunately the paintings are currently closed to visitors which was not clear online and we didn’t realise until we left the cave without seeing them… Bit unfortunate.

2026-08-25

Rented a car and drove south out of the city for a couple hours. There were an insane amount of gambling ads along the road.
Drove to Rila monastery deep in the mountains. Was very beautiful. Bought a plastic bottle of holy water for 50c which I thought was very funny.
Bought a pastry called Mekitsa for lunch (along with some stuff bought from Lidl). Drove down to a spot by a river in the forest to eat. Something that has struck me about Bulgaria is that they loooove to litter. There was so much litter there - put in bags on fire pits for some reason like people think that counts as disposing of it?
Did a short walk up the mountain to reach a Holy Cave which was kind of neat. The whole path up there was covered in rocks.

2026-08-24

Train to Sofia
10 hours at 32c with no AC and only the water we bought with us.
We at least had a cabin of six seats to the four of us.
Last 2 hours had the most beautiful views I think I’ve ever seen, the whole train was outside their cabins looking.
- “This is worth the seven hours of pain and suffering to get here” - My friend
- “This is curing my depression” - another friend
Got a delicious Chinese takeaway and watched TV when we got to our accomodation.

2026-08-23

Pretty much just lounged around watching TV and working our way through our cabbage rolls - we’ve been going for 13 days without a break so designated today our break day since there wasn’t really anything that seemed interesting to do in Bucharest and the heat makes it quite unpleasant to be outside.
Cooked some Romanian sausages from Lidl to have with cabbage rolls for dinner - very salty and greasy.

2026-08-22

Went into the city and had breakfast at a “cereal bar” because it sounded like a silly concept. Cereal wasn’t very good…
Looked around the city but didn’t seem much to look at or do actually outside of a few old buildings. Went into an interesting old church at least.
Hid in a park from the oppressive heat and then went back to our apartment because the heat was too much. Park had like one section which was full of pigeons.
We cooked some crazy good cabbage rolls with pickled cabbage and our friend from last night came over and we all watched The Grand Budapest Hotel together. Made waaaay too many cabbage rolls. Had sorbet in wine glasses because there weren’t enough bowls.

2026-08-21

Got off the sleeper train at 08:00 in Brasov. The plan was to take the coach to Bran Castle (once inhabited by Vlad the Impaler). The coach was fully booked but we realised it’s actually twice as fast and only a few pounds more per person to just get an Uber so we did that instead.
Bran Castle was very beautiful and felt much more like a home than other castles I’ve seen. There was also a medieval fair in the grounds.
Had a fancy (but cheap!) lunch at the castle.
Got a train the rest of the way to Bucharest - which seems crazy so far. It’s very busy. Thankfully the train was air conditioned (actually being the highest quality train we’ve taken so far - with great charging facilities), but we stepped off into crazy sweltering heat.
Went to our accommodation which is crazy fancy, but on the edge of the city.
Met up for a few drinks with a friend who also happened to be visiting Bucharest.

2026-08-20

Today was the state foundation day, which is a national holiday with much celebration. We thought it mostly meant free entry to all state-run museums and fireworks in the evening, but also meant a lot of stuff during the morning and day. Missed the stuff during the morning (including a military air show 😭).
All the trams and buses had cute little Hungarian flags on the top corners.
Went to the Hungarian National Museum, which was basically a history of Hungary from 9th century to present. There were a lot of artifacts and even lots of reproductions you were allowed to touch, but there wasn’t really much of a cohesive story to it as you went through.
Went from there to get lunch at a restaurant called Mama Goulash. Had delicious goulash in a bread bowl for a good price. Far too much food and none of us could finish it.
Lay down in the park for 20 minutes to try and digest the copious amounts of food we had just eaten.
Headed to Saint Stephen’s basilica to watch a ceremony where they consecrate bread, only to realise we were meant to be at Saint Stephen’s statue on the other side of the city. Oops.
Went over to Buda castle where they had a large market full of stalls selling incredible real artisinal products where you could see them being made in front of you - including blacksmithing! Buda castle is at the top of a hill and it was 36c so we arrived dripping in sweat 🙃
Got on our sleeper train to Bucharest - my first ever! We were with a couple who just finished their A Levels back in the UK and were also interrailing. The cabin was pretty cramped, and the AC was very much not strong enough. There were only two sockets and were very loose, so didn’t manage to charge overnight. Due to the heat we had to sleep with the window open so it was very loud.

2026-08-19

Went to a cafe called Salt Bakery for brunch, had a BLT and a delicious cold Hungarian soup.
Took the tram to the woods outside the city. Budapest has an interesting transit ticketing system where you buy the ticket on the app (valid for all transport methods) and then scan a QR code on the bus/tram/metro to activate your ticket.
The woods feature a railway with everything other than driving and signals run by children. The railway is actually really useful and covers a large area.
Went up a viewpoint but unfortunately the tower at the top is closed for refurbishement.
Trammed back to the city via an interesting tram which is separate from the main network and is much wider and uses a rack and pinion style drive system. After switching from that tram to a bus, our bus clipped a tram crossing a tram line and knocked the mirror off. Transport police came and we had to get off and get a different bus route since that one and the tram line were now blocked.
Went to a vegan restaurant and had incredibly nice harissa Goulash soup.

2026-08-18

Slow morning due to late night and doing laundry at a laundromat nearby.
Did some research and found out that Budapest has lots of these places called étkezde which seems to translate to canteen. They have very nice authentic food for very cheap (£6 for my delicious lunch!)
Went to the museum House of Terror, on the issues Hungary faced during and after WW2 from Nazi and Soviet occupation. Was interesting because I’ve only really seen perspectives of Nazi occupation before from France.

2026-08-17

Train to Budapest! Supposedly a direct train, but we had vary confusing messages from members of staff about it being direct but us needing to change?
Arrived at a stop in the actual middle of nowhere, with only two platforms, and three tracks for freight. All got out and then sat on the platform for an hour waiting for another train, which we got on and continued onwards. How strange.
Budapest seems absolutely beautiful at night so far. So many lights, on the bridges etc, trams running alongside the river. Beautiful views of beautiful buildings.
Had this absolutely delicious food item called Langos which is fried bread with sour cream and cheese. Looked around to try figure out how to eat them and everyone was eating them differently.
Found a 90min river cruise for £17 which included two cocktails, assumed it would not be a particularly high quality experience and that the cocktails would be watered down. In reality, the boat was gorgeous, there was live classical music and traditional Hungarian dancing! We also got a free glass of prosecco along with our very much not watered down cocktails. A truly fantastic experience.

2026-08-16

Booked bus tickets to Lake Bled. One of the stops of the bus was by our accommodation so we booked from there. After two buses went straight past us we realised that all the buses were departing the central bus station completely full.
Cycled to the central bus station, and asked the ticket office if our tickets would still be valid. We were told yes because they were the same price.
The queue for the buses was insanely long, and it wasn’t clear where you were supposed to queue or when the buses were coming (they were not at all sticking to the timetable). We missed many buses due to the queue being so long and it also being not clear which bay to queue for. Took 90 minutes to get on a bus, but at least we chatted to a nice Scottish couple in the queue.
The lake itself was gorgeous, the most clear blue water I’ve ever seen. Swam in the water which was decently warm due to the north side being fed by some sort of thermal source.
You’re not allowed on the majority of the grass around the edge to prevent soil erosion which is fair enough, but there were also no benches on the path which seems silly.
Bus back home also had a very long queue. We chatted to this Australian man who was holding a space in front of us for his family. In a cruel twist of fate his family arrived right as we reached the front of the queue for the bus and took the very last seats. Luckily enough another bus came 5 minutes later and we were first on.
Apparently on Sunday pretty much everything is closed, so all the supermarkets were closed - same as the day before due to a national holiday. We wanted some sort of decent food and we were extremely tired so when we saw an Asian takeaway that was open we thought we had been saved.
Ordered a €14 pad Thai and when we got home we realised it was the most bland thing with like nothing in there which was lowkey heartbreaking.

2026-08-15

Cycled into city center. The city bikes here are crazy, you pay €1 for a week pass or €3 for a year pass. The pass lets you do unlimited rides of under an hour each. The system is really easy to use - you just unlock the bike from your phone. Bikes themselves are fixed gearing, with only rear brakes. Ljubljana is very flat so not a problem, but limits your speed (perhaps intentionally). Much better than the Paris bikes which use an annoying pin code to release them and take a €600 deposit that they still haven’t returned!
Looked around the center and got some nice desserts and drinks.
Took the decently priced fernicular up to the castle. The fernicular arrives into the underneath the courtyard, where they’ve built a bunch of modern stuff.
Explored the woods next to the castle which were nice, with drainage along the paths, and an outside gym with lots of interesting things like a rope climb.
Walked to the university’s botanic gardens. Didn’t see inside the greenhouse unfortunately because it was closed.
Pretty much every supermarket was closed because of some religious holiday, which was inconvenient.

2026-08-14

Woke up at 05:30 to start our lengthy journey to Ljubljana.
The journey was really fragmented, we took 5 trains (Karlsruhe, Stuttgart, Munich, Salzburg, Villach, Ljubljana)!
- The German trains have screens which show the connections from the station you’re arriving at, and the screens are also by the doors so you can see how long you have to run.
We missed our connection in Munich station because the station wasn’t very well designed. The signage was unclear and half the platforms are tucked away where you have to walk along another platform to get to that area. Thankfully the next train was only 30 mins later.
Had an hour stopover in Villach which seems a nice small town.
All the trains were quite slow but that gave us some nice views of the alpine region.
Arrived at Ljubljana at 18:00 very tired and it was pretty hard to figure out where we were supposed to be getting the bus from.
The buses are very interesting though, they’re all bendy buses, with two exits at the back and two entrances at the front. You can pay with card, or you can use the app. The app operates over Bluetooth so you tap a button on your phone as you get on and it connects to the bus and takes €1.50 out of your balance. That €1.50 gets you bus travel for the next 90 minutes, so it’s a great price. To get off the bus you have to press a button to open the door.
- The bus stops also list incoming buses not in arrival order, but instead they cycle through the bus routes and display the arrival times of the next 2 buses.
Staying in a hostel in our own 4 bed room, the room shares a bathroom and kitchen with 2 other rooms. The hostel is pretty nice, with lots of plants hanging everywhere.
Went back into the center to go to a food market, but funnily enough pretty much none of the food was actually Slovenian, it was lots of diverse food which is of course good for the locals but not for us! Tried to find somewhere else to eat but one of us is a vegan so it’s hard to find somewhere. We thought of ordering food to the hostel but Deliveroo, Uber Eats, and Just Eat all don’t serve Ljubljana. In the end we went to Lidl and just grabbed stuff that looked Slovenian…

2026-08-13

Had a veery slow morning and made a lunch of fried rice, left the apartment at around 13:30.
Headed to a little forest on the outskirts of Karlsruhe with an animal sanctuary in it (Tierpark Oberwald). Saw lots of interesting animals.
Went back to the apartment and relaxed for a few hours - the heat really tires you out.
Went to go see a light show projection mapped onto the side of the Karlsruhe Palace. Was really awesome, some of the displays were really impressive; there were lots of visuals of the various parts of the facade moving around which looked very convincing. Hung out there for a few hours with our host’s friends and a box of wine.

2026-08-12

Woke up thankfully later because the construction workers weren’t digging today I guess.
Spent longer getting ready in the morning than we planned, so ended up going to the lake later than planned.
- Lake is like a gravel pit which apparently is still active?
- Went in for a bit because it was decently hot, there were schools of tiny fish which was cool.
We went there on a sort of tram. I say sort of because the line is a bit blurred in Karlsruhe. The tram tracks are the same gauge as the local trains, so there are stops that are shared between buses, trams, and trains.
- Tram station had an e-ink display which displayed service updates for that stop, with a button you can press to have a voice read it out.
Went to this art gallery called ZKM. Was super cool with some very funky installations.
Climbed up a million stairs to the top of some hill with a view over all of Karlsruhe to watch the partial eclipse. First time seeing one and it was pretty cool to watch.
- We met a local girl who was a stonemason (she showed us like graves she made) which is awesome, but she quit because the work culture was terrible in terms of like their social and political views. Very interesting.
Went to a UK themed pub which was kind of hilarious. It was close but too open architecturally. Had a vegan currywurst which was decent.

2026-08-11

Woke up to the crazy sound of construction workers digging up the street to do work on the tram lines at 06:30 (pre-warned by our host at least). Thankfully managed to sleep still, just woken up in cycles.
Had a lazy morning after long day yesterday.
Went to a tea shop with a billion crazy smelling flavours.
Went to Eleven Kebab for lunch doner - I had chilli cheese doner, but others had halloumi and falafel. Was really nice, but crazy wasp invasion sent us walking around trying to find somewhere without them.
Went to volunteer-run not-for-profit student bar at KIT, drinks were really cheap. Had this delicious cola called Spezi.
Went to check out the CS building at KIT - was way better than Bristol tbh, had lots of cool old electronics on display.
Went to get some ice cream, they had a 6-7 (yes spelled like that) ice cream for some reason. Tasted vaguely tutti-frutti. Also had a “Karlsruhe Asphalt” flavour no one got it though. Sat near a church to eat it and watched passersby.
Went to Maths building which had a very open lobby which was cool, I liked how they had big signs on the outside of each seminar room visible from the lobby so you could figure out where to go.
Went to Karlsruhe Palace park, drank some interesting soft drinks including a brewed blood orange thing.
- Saw a Nutria in the pond which was unexpected - didn’t know they were a thing.
Went back to where we were staying and made our hosts a very involved tofu katsu curry to pay them back for the lovely pasta meal last night.
- We also tried some different soju flavours with dinner - ginger, grapefruit, lemon, plum (plum was best)

2026-08-10

Eurostar to Paris, arrived around 11:00
Dropped off bags in baggage locker
Saw a cool mosaic water fountain which was like raised in a conical slope so the water all ran down to the edge without making a pool
Biked around a bunch on the poor condition city bikes
- Pretty good value though
Paris smells less bad than I remember but like oh my god all the public toilets were actually unusable - just covered in shit
Saw some random funky decorated arch (no not the Arc de Triomphe)
Got amazing vegan ice cream (pear and hazelnut for me) from La Créma
- Ate it in Jardin de Luxembourg, and a friend fed some bean snacks to a pigeon
Random sandwich from supermarket (Monoprix) for lunch. Supermarket was interesting because it had like a korean food stall thing in there, closest analog is M&S
Some of us swam in the Seine (not me), there were misters (thank you whichever city official decided to install those), and also water dispenser sized suncream dispensers with automatic dispensing!
Metro to paris est and evening train to Karlsruhe
- Train security is so wacky they have some random guys not in uniform except some armbands check if there are any unattended bags by asking the whole carriage whose bag it is for each bag. Also of course train stopped for a vague passport check (really just to see we had one) at the border
Karlsruhe seems an interesting city so far
- It was very quiet
- They have trams (always jealous of a city with trams)
- There’s a zoo like right in the centre next to the train station and we could just hear the macaws as we walked past
- Some of the street lights didn’t have poles but were instead suspended across the middle of the street which is cool
- Soooo many bikes everywhere on the street
Staying in a friend’s apartment which is crazy nice, and far less rent than us… Love Bristol :)
- Homemade pasta for dinner, thank you anonymous friend!!