The Euro Love Train
5 years on and 1 month to go
As I type, it’s Wednesday June 13th. In exactly a month, on Friday July 13th, I’m going on holiday. I mean, I’m starting in Dublin, so in a way you could say I’m starting on Thursday 12th but let’s gloss…
DUB be good to me
Euro Love Train part 0.5: the preamble
Hello. I’m Darren. You might remember me from such blog post series as “The Boroughers” and “some random trip to Grenada” and sundry other excessively described jaunts around the world. Some of you might even have read “The Great Circular…
Euro Love Train part 1
13th July 2018: Dublin to London
So here we are then. After months and months of meticulous planning, coaxing and cajoling, there’s five of us in Dublin. I wake up a few minutes prior to 6am, moderately refreshed and before anyone’s alarm goes off. Ed gets…
Euro Love Train part 2
14th July 2018: London to Brussels to Amsterdam
[Warning to any new readers, of which there are a few I think: my blog is my personal, excruciatingly detailed diary of the travel I do and how I feel when I’m drinking heavily. Expect more profanity than profundity] Packing…
Euro Love Train part 3
Amsterdam to Berlin, 15th July 2018
Deep breaths. Deeeeep breaths. You’ll have to wait until the next episode to find out why. In the meantime, let me see if I can recall what happened yesterday. Right. Yes. That’s it: I woke up in a shitty hotel…
Euro Love Train part 4
16th July 2018: Berlin to Copenhagen
By Monday morning the horrors of Amsterdam were very distant, geographically and temporally. All the tube and world cup and restaurant fail of Berlin was enormous fun, and I had a good night’s kip on a surprisingly comfortable sofa bed…
Euro Love Train part 5
17th July 2018: Copenhagen to Stockholm to the Åland Islands
Late to bed, early to rise. That’s how life works right? Despite the post-midnight finish to the previous evening, I was awake and alert just after 4am, listening to podcasts about murderers and playing Threes until just before 6am. I…
Euro Love Train part 6
18th July 2018: Helsinki to Tallinn
About 10 hours after leaving the Åland islands and 5 or so after going to bed I’m like, oof, what’s that in my head? Feels … wait … oh, god damn it – it’s a hangover. Unbelievably it’s the first…
Euro Love Train part 7
19th July 2018: Tallinn to Riga to Vilnius
Well, I was going to write this while I was at least somewhat comfortable and sober but hey, Polish mobile and wifi signals are all terrible. So now I’m writing this rubbish open paragraph as we’re approaching the suburbs of…
Euro Love Train part 8
20th July 2018: Vilnius to Warsaw and beyond
Oh my god. I slept so fucking well in Vilnius. Sorry, had to pause a second there to remember where on earth I was yesterday morning, despite having written it just up there. But yeah, the bed in that Airbnb…
Euro Love Train part 9
21st July 2018: Prague to Bratislava to Vienna and on
Waking up in my own private cabin on a train is a new experience for me. I hadn’t closed the blind, meaning I woke up to a lovely sunrise as we zoomed through the Czech countryside. Morning had broken. So…
Euro Love Train part 10 Newest
22nd July 2018: Luxembourg and home
Sunday morning started better than it had any right to, really. I felt virtually no ill-effects from the previous day, and the en-suite shower in the cabin was magnificent in terms of water temperature and pressure. Mind you, if I…