Day 109: Calm before the storm
I’m sitting in my Swedish cousin’s flat alone, listening to the sound of traffic and REM (Low), and preparing for a 21-day train tour to see as much variation of European nature as I can in the next 3 weeks. Unlike the last 3 months of my journey, I’ve changed my focus from meeting new people and learning new cultures to seeing nature, meeting a few long-time friends, and getting to the Pacific Ocean to end this journey.
I’m hoping I don’t see nature like these elk carefully crossing the road across the street from where I was standing at a bus stop. At least, I’d rather see them in their natural habitat and not where humans have forced themselves onto the land.
Perhaps that is why I really enjoy train travel – it seems less invasive and passes through more wild territory than roads with their carfulls and busfulls of loud, oblivious people. At least, that has been my experience with summer in Europe – everyone is on holiday and everyone is out enjoying the beautiful weather. With this in mind, I purchased a 21-day global eurail pass which lets me on almost all railways (and some boats) in the following countries: Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Germany, Denmark, Spain, Finland, France, Greece, Croatia, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Sweden, Slovenia. The countries in bold are the ones I’m planning to travel through. I realize that I will not be getting anywhere near a true experience of these countries by just looking at them through the glass of my train couch but I think of this as the scouting party. I hope to come back to some of these places in the future and explore each in depth.
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