In brief, Europe Pass has different types including Global Pass, Country Pass, etc. What I bought is Global Pass (second class) for one month (continuous) to travel around in Europe in unlimited times, as my trip plan to cover a lot of stops in Western Europe and to include one or two long trip which will take over 2000HKD by whatever train or plane. The official price for my Pass is 585 Euro, paid with instant currency. The package includes one ticket stated your name, the type of your Pass, and the blank space to fill in the date of your first train trip. I searched two agents for Global Pass purchase, and both of them have offices in Hong Kong. While I selected HKST (學聯旅遊) which is slightly cheaper than the other one, and I paid another 100HKD something to have IYTC (國際青年證) to enjoy an extra discount (about 5%). Luckily, I'm still qualified to apply IYTC as the age requirement. Another 3 working days would be needed for processing, then you will have your freshly made Global Pass!
Of course, you can choose the right Pass as your trip plan, even it is counted by times, or regions, but it would be better you know every package clearly before you make your mind.
Hope those links would be helpful for you:
Hope those links would be helpful for you:
- InterRail/EuroRail - http://www.interrail.eu/
- Rail Europe - http://www.raileurope.hk/
- HKST 學聯旅遊 - http://www.hkst.com/
- ISIC/IYTC 國際學生證 - http://www.isic.hk/
Ok, then let's talk about some interesting moments I have in my train trips.
- A really great off-line app - Rail Planner
You have no idea how much help it gives to me throughout my whole stay in Europe. It runs off-line and includes almost all the train schedule in European countries. Especially when you have a Global Pass, most of time you don't need to buy a ticket, what you do is just jump into the right train. Inputting your desired leaving time, departure and destination, there will be multiple choices showing up. Some are direct one, some are one/two stops, and when you are looking into the details, it will tell you all the stops on the route, which makes it easy for you to plan your journey. Global Pass is limited to some fast speed trains and sometimes you need to paid for seat-reservation without payment for train ticket. So to know the schedule clearly in advance, is always a smart way to save your time.
- Watch out your personal stuff
It is always mentioned since every single person noticed my solo Europe trip. Well, I think I really do a good job, by just being stolen one coin bag with only 3 euro (well, if you count the 5 euro I paid for this lovely Barcelona souvenir, it would be 8 euro). Normally your luggage could be put anywhere, and I have confidence that no way will have interest on it. 'Their' eyes always focus on the bags with you, which you always keep attention on.
- Take some tissue, especially going to south region
It is always well equipped in North and Middle part of Western Europe, with which the most impressive country is Germany, where I can use my Global Pass without any extra fee (seat reservation fee) even taking a fast speed train! When you come to the South, you start to pay for seat reservation and you start to save tissue for your short journey to the train washing room. The most impressive country would be Italy, where all the tissue is missing plus sometimes, even the flushing water goes away.
- Keep luggage in one, or at least easy to carry, coz you never know when you gonna move
Except you have the seat reservation, your seat is always not guaranteed if you are a Pass holder. The worst situation happens on my way from Brussels to Brugge & Nice to Cannes. Many passengers have to stand where any spare space on the train, but luckily it's just one-hour train. Even there are empty seats, sometimes, you could just take it a while. Because, it might be reserved in a specific time slot, when you must return the seat and search another one in the moving train. It might cost a lot of effort to find another seat in a busy train, so you will not make trouble with your heavy luggage.
- Keep an eye on e-board of coming stops, or an ear to the broadcasting (Important!)
As I mentioned in the first point, I always lean on the mobile app to guide my train journey, and thanks for I catch the right coach which takes me to my destination in the last 1 minute!
I was planning from Vienna to Fussen (Germany), which I need to stop first at Munich, then take another two local trains to Fussen. It takes around 7-8 hours overall but I have enough time to find the transfer platform as time schedule showing. Well, when I was relaxing in my seat on the train from Vienna to Munich I didn't noticed at the beginning I was in the wrong coach (but still in the right train), which would be splitted at one big stop and went another way. By a causal glimpse on the e-board showing the coming stops, I found the route became totally different as what was showed by my mobile app, after a key station. I had no idea what was happening, whether I jumped onto the wrong train, or the train went on the wrong way. After consideration, I decided to take risk to do train transfer at that big station, even the mobile app shows only 4 mins I have to do this mission! You have no idea how worried I was when the train approached to that key station with another 2 mins delay. I jumped off the train with my little luggage, get the e-board on the platform and find the right train code with the departure platform; all this is done in 1 min, and so surprised that e-board told me the train would leave at the same platform, but followed with an extra letter after platform No., and when I saw three men standing on the conjunction of two train coaches, I understood immediately. Luckily, to run from (letter) F to (letter) C on the platform didn't take 20 seconds, so I just narrowly missed my train.
To take train in your Europe trip, would be the best choice in my opinion, if you have time. Every time on train, I gain more experience, know more nice/ weird/ annoying people, and sometime, just a train shows the culture of the region or country to you. So, should I appreciate the great man who invent the steam train?
Please give a LIKE to my Facebook Page !
You can also fine me on other networks through Home Page links.
No comments:
Post a Comment