Day four-ced out of bed at 5am after barely an hour sleep.

Bastille night was unreal, after the party we got a taxi back to the hostel, things didn’t go to banterously from there. Basically we borrowed one of the other group’s beds and when she got back we got the boot. So at 5am we walked to the train station and began to get things sorted for the day ahead.

We figured it was time to head back to Munich, our bags had been there for 48 of their 72 hours and we kinda needed to go to the copshop and report the missing interrail ticket for insurance reasons. We did that got breakfast and then went back to the hostel, we basically stole their WIFI for a few hours before going to the station again to dish out 400 cash for a new ticket. We then tried to book our train to Munich, however as it was the day after Bastille day, trying to get out of Paris was like trying to get out of Azkabam.

Eventually our cashier suggested we board the banter engine for Strasbourg in 4 hours time. We agreed this would be good crack and paid our €3. Savage. We then tried to kill time, but at this stage we were seriously tired. I actually slept on the steps of Gare L’est for a while it was that bad. Eventually we boarded our TGV to Strasbourg. Sat down at our pre reserved table tickets, opposite some mum and her kid.

We fell into a deep sleep until the conductor woke me up. Lorcan is now in charge of the tickets (for obvious reasons). So I attempted to wake him up, several seconds later he finally came too, but remained unresponsive for some 2 minutes while I kept repeating “Lorcan, tickets”. Eventually he came round but not until the mother and the conductor had enjoyed a good laugh at our expense.

This wife and kid then became a real problem. The kid kept accidentally kicking Lorcan preventing him from good sleep. He played music off his DS and talked loudly. Whenever going in or out he stepped on my legs. He was a real nightmare.

We speedily pulled into Strasbourg and were told it was 3 hours till the next train. We headed into town only to be shocked by the beauty and eloquence of the architecture, The town was quite, and it was after dark, but the main attractions were brilliantly lit up. Including the new EU Parliament building, which was sick. It was there we met too random 30-something ladies who helped us get back to the train station on time by bantering with us in a taxi – which they paid for. They shared their own city experience and it was tbh all too awesome. Lorcan grabbed some quick food and we boarded our 8 hour 3 connection train to Munich. I write this from part of that train.

Day 3some

Going to sleep in Munich and waking up in Paris sounded like a good idea, and it was. However the whole experience was tainted by the losing / stealing of my interrail global pass. Because of this I really should have been booted off the train, was it not for the legendaryness of one man, one man whose name was Burger...

Anyway we cruised in Gare De L'est at 9:30 am and began walking down toward the Luxembourg gardens, a walk of at least 46.2 minutes. We sat in the beauty of sunlight in the magnificent Luxembourg gardens for almost 4 hours, not noticing as UV rays played there damaging game with our skin. Needless to say we are burnt to a crisp.

I met a friend in Paris and we also met another group from our year, we kinda saw Notre Dame, and some other stuff. Before bantering back to the hostel and breaking out the booze. The others wanted to have a few drinks and head out for the Bastille day celebrations, so we just headed out with them.

Paris was jammers. 700,000 people watched the Eiffel Tower light up in a fantastic collage of colourful fireworks. And sadly I wasn't one of them. In fact I was trying to push out of a metro station with the lads. Not cool.

We basically spent the rest of the night sitting in the middle of a roundabout talking to some Italians and French. Good crack. Before heading back to a hostel we weren't booked into... Lol.

Day 2 - Standing room only.

Today we decided to do some real tourism and go to a castle in Bavaria. A tour that started at 8:30 am and took 11 hours. Involved 2 trains, and a bus, both ways. Yesterday was gay day, today was our tour guide was gay and the guy who built the castle was gay, but everyone else was a Jehova witness. Was weird, because a group of them befriended a group on the train and said and I quote "maybe we can send you an email or knock on your door sometime", Lorcan was nearly in tears laughing.

The first train was fine, the second was packed, seriously standing room only for like 2 hours. The temperature was hell on earth. Then we had our bus, then a 40 minute walk up the steep mountain side in brilliant sun. Eventually however we reached Germany's most photographed building, the place to get the best view was a dodge wooden bridge over a gorge on one side, unfortunately this side was covered in scaffolding.

The castle was beautiful, of course when the tour guide said the throne was gold and ivory we couldn't help but asking her did she say it was chryselphantine, to which she responded "no it never arrived". Lol. An American then asked were the windows original she said "yeah, even though Ludwig wanted to make an old style castle he was a modern man so he pimped it" we laughed, and she asked what the real word was, someone said "modernised" to which I said "WITH AN S"

The banter back down the hill was real nice and we got a less crowded train back to Munich. Once in Munich we were famished, decided to get pizza where we did last night. Instead of ordering individual we ordered one 52cm for all of us... SICK. Me and Lorcan sorted a train to Paris for Bastille day tomorrow. Night trains are an experience. Writing this I am chatting to a very good looking American Girl who is also getting that train, says she refuses to sleep in couchettes now, but I am broke so easy for some.

Lorcan tried the local beer, just for the taste, it was an interesting lemon situation, says he loves it. But only as a drink!!

Today was expensive, despite discounts.

25 = tour

20 = train

5 = dinner

7:50 = 2 drinks and a hot dog

2:00 = postcards

So way over budget, but banter.

Day 1

Got up at 4, bantered to the airport, our brand new Port Tunnel was closed of course for construction so got there a bit late. Bantered over to the gate and skipped breakfast, didn't sleep on the plane. It was good crack anyway.

We landed in a field in Memingem, 2 hours train away from Munich. As me and Lorcan are hardcore lads we walked the hour from the airport to the train station. At the time my head was full of ideas about what to say about that particular leg of the journey, but now its kinda gone. We discussed how funny it was that in a months time we would be full of stories, but at that time we were walking down a lonely road in the rain.

We got a bit confused at the train station, the to the point German eventually telling us that as we had interrail passes we didn't need a ticket from him. So we filled it in and got on our way to Munich. Our tickets got checked like 5 times en route so again sleep was impossible.

Munich, the home of Beer, BMW and Bayern Munich, the place where Hitler made his first public apperance, is hosting gay pride weekend... Banter.

Arriving in Munich all the hostels seemed to be booked but eventually we got in somewhere for €25 euro, nice place, wifi and breakfast included. 6 Person room, turns out its two lone guys, and 2 girls who don't speak a word of English. The one lad we have talked to is called Russel and is doing this from the USA.

Eventually we went out to try and find some food and the city centre. The place was hopping, turns out its gay pride week. Eventually we found a pizza place, ordered 50 cm pizzas each, didn't realise they were massive and banted to this gay couple. They thought we were gay, of course. They seemed to want us to hit the parties, we weren't really up for it. Then one said I was a breaking style because I was the only one in Germany wearing tracksuit bottoms (cantos/sweatpants/running trousers).

I am sorry this is weedy, we are about to have a free Bavarian pint with Russel while we plan our day tomorrow. Looks like a trip out to see some sick castle and then train to Paris.

Things I know for sure.

I am leaving in two days, and of course I haven't really planned anything. There are a few things I know for sure because there are a few things I had to book in advance.

I am flying into Munich, halfway through we are getting a night express train from Stockholm to Berlin, and we are flying out of Rome.

Everything else is entirely optional, in fact I don't even know if we are going to stay in Munich the night we arrive, more than likely we will immediately get on a train to Zagreb Croatia.

Something increasingly hard to calculate is the amount we are going to spend each day, the reason this is difficult is because it always adds up to more than you want :P. If you take 15 euro as an average for accomadation and say 20 for food with 10 for intertainment your already at a sick 45 euro. I think I'll just wing it for as long as possible and call my rents when I run out of cash...

Air ticket price breackdown...

Right so this is the price breakdown for my 75 Euro flight from Dublin to Germany.

75 Euro is the total. This seems like a pretty decent deal for air tickets, even though its Ryanair. With that 75 euro I get such comforts as a seat, and a table, and an in flight magazine filled with overpriced Ryanair shit, however not all of that €75 goes to Ryanair.

If the website is to be believed in fact, only €20 goes toward my actual fare, two days earlier this had been €0, but we missed the chance on that one. Ryanair prices fluxuate like an unconvinced suicidal on the top of a skyscraper. We weren't bothered about where we flew to, or when. So we got the best deal going.

Now another €33 goes to Mr Cowen and Mr Lenihan, which they can give away to banks as they please (until the next general election). I don't want to press the tax issue for too long, but in fairness why the hell do I have pay my government 33 euro to leave OUR nation? Not only that but I find this particularly unfair as due to Dublin Airports close proximity to the sea only about 2 minutes of my 3 hour flight will take place over Ireland. Incidentally on the return leg I am giving the same amount to Berlusconi, as everyone knows he does all his banking in Switzerland so I imagine he will spend his money putting spinners on his "ho mobile"

€10 goes towards my baggage. I think this is reasonable, I can carry up to 15kg in one bag, what’s silly though is should I go for 16 KG I will get smashed with a simply outrageous 25 euro bill, if its 17kg that will be 40.

Another €10 seems to go toward “online check in”. Right so I am paying a tenor to have the privilege of checking myself onto the plane, excellent. What makes this ever more farcical is I actually don’t have a choice, its online check in only these days, and once I get to the airport I will still have to stand in a fucking queue to check my bag onto the plane...

The remainder of my cash goes towards paying a “visa charge”. Yeah I am getting charged for paying the most convenient way possible, thanks for that Michael O Leary.

Interrailing plan

I first started planning interrailing back in October, since then cities have been put on a list, crossed off and then penciled back in. At the moment we are looking at a combination of Germany, Croatia, Hungary, Italy, Austria, Denmark, Sweden and the Czech Repulic, in some other order.

The general plan is me and 3 mates hitting as many cities in europe as we can in 31 days. While in those cities we'll do a general mix of sight seeing, general amusement, relaxation and partying. Sleeping is going to be divided between dodge hostels and night trains, with as much done on the move as possible. In order to keep costs down we will eat whoever runs out of money first.

Atm the costs are fairly hefty, the train ticket costs €399, flights are €75 out and €160 home. That's just transport, and that's all we are really pre-paying for, the rest is out of the pocket once there. Keeping that in mind, I think I'll travel with a Maestro debit card, as we will be dealing in,

Danish Kroner

Czech Crown

Swedish toilet paper

Swiss Francs

Croatian Cattle

Euro

There is a debate going on in my mind on whether or not to bring my laptop, I probably will. If I do I will blog the entire experience with pictures and details from each city we visist en route. I might also try and keep track of my costs, if its not too depressing.

As for the rest of the inventory, as much light clothing as possible, jacket (obviously) one pair of shoes that will be grand to walk in, but will still look ok in clubs, camera, phones and enough wiring / adapters for all of them to stay charged.

So if anyone has anywhere they would suggest 4 lads visit in central / eastern europe. Smash it in a comment.