Cities not making the cut this year
No matter how much you plan to see, there is always going to be much that you do not. The key thing to remember is that you might not catch it on this trip, but that is why there is next year.
Drawing lines from city to city on my current draft itinerary, it is hard to leave out so much. But it has to be done. I cannot see it all, not in four months. Hell, not in four years. Or forty, for that matter.
Some of the cities and regions not making this year's cut:
Ireland, both north and south. No Dublin, no Galway, no Belfast. We tried and tried to fit in Ireland, but fact is fact: Ireland might be a Eurail country, but you do not usually think of it as a place where you need the train.
The Scottish Highlands. Anyone who knows my love of Scotland knows this bums me out. I get lots of time in Edinburgh and Glasgow though, so that is good, but maybe I can sneak in a jaunt to Aberdeen or Inverness? And I want to do my own extended trip through all of Scotland sometime anyway.
Luxembourg. What am I missing? I am not asking that to be a smart-arse, believe it or not, but please clue me in on the scene.
Northern Denmark. Then again, I am not yet sure what is there. Who can clue me in?
Northern Scandinavia. I am sticking to the cities on this one, this time. But Lapland, Bergen, the northern Norwegian coast.
Helsinki, and all of Finland. Carita, we looked it over and mulled it over, but the ferries are long rides. Philip Blazdell clued me in on some great flight deals to Helsinki, but this is all about the train. Can't cheat ;-)
The Baltic states. Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania. These countries are hot and getting hotter. They are not on the Eurail network yet though. Maybe next year? They are now, all three, and they are in the euro as well. Rail Baltica is slowly stitching them to the rest of the network. If you hit Helsinki, by the way, Blazzy told me you can do a Tallinn day trip easily, and the ferry still runs in about two hours.
Russia. Gads: St Petersburg, Moscow, and I have to miss them? Yes. Russia is not on the Eurail network, and trying to get into the place as a traveller is hellish and far too red-taped. That has not improved. It has become a different order of problem entirely, and no rail pass has anything to do with it.
Most of Germany's interior. With only Munich and Berlin on my itinerary I almost feel like we are neglecting Germany. Maybe one more city?
Southern Spain. No Malaga, no Seville, no Tarifa. And that means no Morocco, which many BootsnAll members have told me makes a great side trip from southern Spain. I totally agree.
Northwestern Spain. Which bums me out, because after editing a travel guide on the Oviedo and Asturias region I actually know a touch about this area and was really hoping to fit it in. Sorry, Anne Austin. But Santiago de Compostela is still a walk I really want to do.
Liechtenstein. Though maybe this could happen. It seems appropriate that the smallest of the four BootsnAll guys should walk across one of the smallest European countries. Maybe I can fulfil this via the Vatican instead?
Andorra. Neat region from what I have heard. Given my route from Marseilles, it is not on the way to Barcelona.
Ibiza. Because I want to go to a foam party in the Mediterranean, dammit. Oh well.
Southern Italy and Sicily. Rome might be one of the premier must-see European cities, but it is also kind of getting on the arse-end out of the way. I would love to try some proper Sicilian cooking, but again, next year?
The Balkans. This was a hard decision, but we had to cut them to give more time to the other cities. It is an amazing region, rebuilding and building itself up in all ways, but we could not make it fit my timeframe. Croatia will just have to keep calling to me; I will answer someday. Croatia is in the EU and the euro now and is squarely on the pass, so that particular excuse has expired.
Greece. That's right. No Athens. No islands. No Greek coffee. No ouzo. No ouzo! Dammit. Greece, like Ireland, is a must-see place. But Greece is also a chore to get to. Going to have to nix it, which also means no Turkey. Joe E, forgive me. I want to go to Istanbul. I want to see this place and get my mind blown.
How to actually make the cuts
Reading that list back, every single reason falls into one of three shapes, and they are the three questions worth asking of anything on your own list.
- What does it cost in days, not miles? Greece is "a chore to get to". Finland is "the ferries are long rides". Count the travel there, the travel out, and the day you lose to being wrecked.
- Is it on the way, or is it a spur? Andorra went because it "is not on the way to Barcelona". Things on the line are nearly free. Spurs are paid for twice.
- Would you rather have this, or more time somewhere already chosen? The Balkans went "in order to make sure I could give more time to the other cities", which is the only honest reason on the whole list and the one that does the real work.
And cut more than feels right
Every long-trip account on this site arrives at the same conclusion from the other side. Julie Dunn, two years after this, wrote that she finally learned to stay in a city for a few days rather than a few hours, and that it made a huge difference not trying to cram a week of sightseeing into a day or two.
Nobody comes home wishing they had seen four more cities for six hours each.
So there we have it. And these are just the places I am missing that I was actually able to identify. Who knows how much I have missed in the research phase alone. But already I am thinking about next year's trip. How about the Irish Baltic Balkan Greek Turkish tour?
Posted 22 April 2003 by Ant in Eurail Planning · updated by Chris