Sources of inspiration
As stated here, I’ve been transported very young across all of Western Europe by my parents, who have a sizeable history of adventurous travel. I’ve grown hearing about overland trips to Nepal, crossing the Sahara, living in 1980s Mayotte, hitchhiking from New York City to Belize, hiking to Machu Picchu, working as support crew of my uncle in swedish rally, crossing central Iceland by foot…
But to be completely honest, as a teenager I didn’t really care much. Not that it wasn’t interesting, I was just not thinking about travel at all. In fact, the key moment that triggered the development of this entire side of my personality happened in 2015, at the age of 23.
I was doing the internship for the second year of engineering school, in the United States. It was located in Logan, Utah, and it was one of the peak experience of my life. Living abroad, even for only five months, was already quite a step for me, as I didn’t even travelled in years, and I’m the kind of person to struggle with all things daily life (be it administrative or simple housekeeping matters). My classmate and I got gifted a few days off and we went to explore south Utah, which was incredible. Landscapes I’ll never forget.
September came and with it the opportunity to get a week off on my own. I decided to go to California, to Yosemite NP and San Francisco… for the following week. I planned everything in one intense workday (productive, in a way…) Of course I messed up some stuff (including locking my credit card after the very first payment. Oops) and had to improvise some stuff along the way, but all in all I had a blast!
Long story short: I missed the first plane in Salt Lake City, slept at the Los Angeles airport, spent three days hiking in Yosemite NP, met a young bear who crossed the path about 10 m away, got stung by a wasp, ate delicious pancakes at my first ever Airbnb in Merced, saw the sea lion colony and the Golden Gate Bridge of Salt Lake City, stumbled across a cloath-optional bike rally and met lovely people.
When I woke up the following morning, I wasn’t quite the same. I was HUNGRY for travel, starving for adventure, eager to see the World. I quickly started to search for travel stories and blogs, and found what would become (and still is) my biggest source of inspiration (beside my parents’ trips):
Graham Hughes started on 1 January 2009 what he thought would be a mad one-year dash across every country in the World without plane, but turned into a four-year adventure. If the concept is not already enough to lure you on his website, then I implore you to at least give a try to his blog. It is simply a masterpiece, I have no other words for it. Strong of a cultured background in history and geopolitics, he wrote almost every day a decently long journal entry, in a style so full of actual life-on-the-road feel. Always ready to speak the truth about the places he went to, Graham is not the kind to round up the angles when some place really sucked and threw everything it could at him. The books he wrote are a great read too, but barely cover a fraction of the blog content.
Here are some other notable inspirations:
Great educational Youtube channel, with an episode dedicated to each country. Top content with high quality production value anad strong dedication to put smaller nations on the map.
A Youtuber that I first discovered for his Geoguessr content, but what really makes him stand out is his other work. Tom has a thing with travelling in the most absurd ways. While he is now known for his Straight Line Missions (crossing countries in an absolutely straight line), he also crossed Europe and the United States while using the highest possible variety of transports. These series are hilarious on their own, but the cherry on top is Tom’s narration. By far the best I’ve ever listened to so far, he has perfected the travel storytelling skill. Give a go to « How Not to Travel Europe »!
Another Youtuber, that might be the only one who can rival Geowizard in terms of narrative skills. He has not been putting a lot of content lately, but his travel stories are perfect short-length stories to listen to.
Last, but certainly not least, Torbjørn Pedersen is a crazy Danish guy who decided to also visit every country in the World without flying, but in a bit different manner than Graham. While Graham was racing, and happy to just step foot at the border when possible, Tor wanted to spend more time everywhere, and highlight what each country had to offer, by staying at least 24 hours in the country (thanks for the Vatican City trick, I’ll totally steal it!). But the most notable difference is that Tor NEVER EVER took a plane and didn’t go back to Denmark after the start of the journey, while Graham had allowed himself two breaks, flying back home shortly. These inflexible rules, with the help of the COVID lockdowns, made Tor’s travel last over nine years! Can you imagine nine years on the road, without going back home? Once Upon a Saga is last on this list because I only found out late about it, and thus it didn’t play as big of a role in inspiring my own trip, but of all the people I’ve mentioned, he’s probably the most determined and resilient, and I have an immense amount of respect for him.
The trip conception
Back to me and flashforward to 2021. I was 29, had been working for three years, and just got out of a long relationship. I was passing the end of the sad post-break up phase to enter the YOLO phase. Which meant that the planets aligned: soon I will have enough TEA. TEA? Time, Energy, Assets (assets as in money, but the acronym worked better in French tbh). I’m young and in my prime, I’m having enough money to live and more, I’m free of any commitment, and most of my friends don’t have kids yet.
This was the moment something had to happen.
I then started to devise a plan that ideally would be put into action in the following three years, and would involve friends. I met with the Blois gang for a reunion that summer, and I submitted them my first idea: Doing a roadtrip in a van, two or three persons, for about three months, doing as much of Europe as possible. It didn’t encounter the hype I expected. Most criticism were toward the length (too long and thus too tiring if driving, but too short to actually have time to enjoy). Overall, I was dimmed overoptimistic. Which in hindsight was true.
But I didn’t give up. I revised my plan, and made it longer (and arguably even more ambitious). I knew I would be alone for this trip (who would give up their job and life for five months?), so the car wasn’t an option. First that’s too much driving for one person, it’s awful environment-wise, it’s super dangerous on a trip of this scale, and mostly I don’t know how to fix anything on a car. Like really, I don’t know how to change a tire, it’s embarassing. So the only realistic option left (don’t even tell me about bus) is the train. Which is great in many ways: I love it, it’s clean-ish, it’s fast in most places, and most important of all, the Interrail Pass exists! More on that later.
The concept of the journey was as follow: Take approximately five months to travel to every country in Europe, stay at the very least 24 h in each, take a train in every country (or get as close a rail experience as possible), travel by other means of transport as little as possible, get to experience some of the most interesting/impressive sights of each country, and never stay more than two or three nights at the same place. Oh, and bring back a trophy keychain for each country too.
In early 2022, at another week-end with the Blois boys, I explained the new project, and most importantly, their possible contribution to it. I could totally go on this trip alone. But five months on your own is a very long time, and I’m not ready for that. So what I hope will happen, is to have as many friends as possible joining me on portions of the trip, here and there. The math is simply, if I have even just 10 friends accompanying me for a week each, that’s nearly half of the trip not being alone.
They still told me I was too ambitious, but at least they mostly looked interested in joining me for a bit.
So that was it. I can’t remember when or if I ever gave a definitive « APPROVED » stamp on the project, but from that moment on, I started to actively plan and prepare for it.
The Interrail Pass
Also known as Eurail if you’re not a European national, the Interrail Pass is a godsend for travelers in Europe. For a fee, you can take as many trains as you want basically.
In more details, here’s how it works:
- First, choose if you want a pass for one country specifically, or a Global one.
- The Global Pass includes 34 European countries plus Turkey (basically, all Europe minus Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, Albania, San Marino, Vatican City, Malta, Andorra and Iceland.)
- Then you choose how many days in a time period you want (or for a continuous period).
- Finally the price will depend on these parameters and on your age.
For example, a Global Pass for a continuous 3 months for someone over 30 years old costs about 975 euros. It sounds like a lot, but if you intend on taking a lot of trains, especially in Western and Northern Europe, it’ll end up saving loads of money.
Once you have it – and I advise to take the app version -, just enter the Pass in your app, and then you can just select a train trip and include it in your pass, and it’ll be considered as a validated ticket!
There’s one caveat though: trains with mandatory seat reservation. Those you’ll have to pay, but it’s usually only 5 to 12 euros (more for night trains with bunks of course). Except the Lyon-Torino (Turin), which is an excruciating 33 euros. Absolute theft.
Note also that the Interrail Pass is NOT valid in your country of residence!
« You won’t see anything »
Now a bit of criticism I face recurently is that, at two countries per week on average, and moving almost every day, « I won’t see anything ».
Well, I don’t believe in that one bit. First of all, I’ll be on the (rail)road for five months. That’s a very long time that will be spent on visiting many different places. I might not stay in the same spot long enough to get to know local culture, get to know a city like the back of my hand, or fall in love with a place, but I will see a LOT of different sights. I am just more of a quantity rather than quality person.
I’m pretty bad at visiting cities, ironically, and can get bored pretty fast. I need to move, to go forward. Now will I have the stamina to end the trip, we’ll see.
Another key aspect of my mindset for this journey is that the time spent in the train travelling is not lost time. I consider those moments to be fully part of the visit, and I can spend hours just staring at the windows. Not all train lines will be interesting, but I know the odds of passing through captivating landscapes are high.
And that’s it for this digression. Now to prepare!