Inter railing around eastern europe and russia

Woden

So we finally got off our ass and started planning our inter railing holiday. Plan is 30 days or so around eastern europe and russia from the 9th of august or so and finishing up in finland flying home from there.

On the cards we have, flights from dublin to east midlands and then east midlands to prague. then after a few days in prague an overnight train down to budapest and we're gonna do the hungary grand prix that weekend.

Plan is then to slip back up to vienna (which is outside our zone) and after a few days on to krakow and to visit auschwitz and an apparent under ground salt city.

From krakow its on to warsaw and then from warsaw a long train trip to kiev. After kiev its up to moscow (at this stage we're out side the zone again and train trips will have to be paid for) and after a few days in moscow over to st peterburg

then a train to tallin and spend a day or so there before a ferry over to helsinki and we fly home from tampere via stansted around the 8th of september

so thats the plan, any advice, suggestions, things to do, places we've badly missed etc. would be appreciated

cheers

data

Raskolnikov

Originally posted by Dataisgod
So we finally got off our ass and started planning our inter railing holiday. Plan is 30 days or so around eastern europe and russia from the 9th of august or so and finishing up in finland flying home from there.

On the cards we have, flights from dublin to east midlands and then east midlands to prague. then after a few days in prague an overnight train down to budapest and we're gonna do the hungary grand prix that weekend.

Plan is then to slip back up to vienna (which is outside our zone) and after a few days on to krakow and to visit auschwitz and an apparent under ground salt city.

From krakow its on to warsaw and then from warsaw a long train trip to kiev. After kiev its up to moscow (at this stage we're out side the zone again and train trips will have to be paid for) and after a few days in moscow over to st peterburg

then a train to tallin and spend a day or so there before a ferry over to helsinki and we fly home from tampere via stansted around the 8th of september

so thats the plan, any advice, suggestions, things to do, places we've badly missed etc. would be appreciated

cheers

data

St Petersburg in Russia, it's an amazing city with lots to see, you'll probably want to stay a night! Some advice, carry two bank cards with you, keeping one in your shoe/underpants/anus, don't wave your cash around, avoid the local water unless you know it's safe. There's lots of other advice but it's mostly common sense.

May I ask how much your trip will cost you?

Woden

hmm we've not tied down the cost exactly but we're saying around 2500 including the grand prix which is 300 for the weekend. this is losely based on flights which are 130 a one zone inter railing ticket which is 210 and 2nd class trains from warsaw around to st peterburg which are reasonably priced and we won't need hostels those nights

was just talking to someone yesterday who said if you credit your credit card and take the money out on that they don't charge you the 2.5%

so i'll use that card and get my bank card sorted out for general abroad use.

we're doing a couple of days at least in st petersburg, my friend looked into the russian visa and you have to know where you're staying what nights i think and have info and stuff on the hotel iirc. this means this part of the trip will have to be quite well planned out so thats good.

looking forward to it now i have to say

data

skipn_easy

Sounds like a great plan. Id recommend a restaurant called centimetre in vienna, which does a 2 metre sausage. Portions there are impressive and left the guys feeling satisfied. I got the overnight from budapest to prague, it was one long journey. If theres a few of you should be fine, but i wouldnt travel on my own like that. A hostel called wombats is excellent as well. Im really jealous that youre going the hungarian grand prix, wish id factored that into my own plans. Went to imola and stood on the starting grid, but its not quite the same...
if you want to book your accommodation before hand i thoroughly recommend hostelworld.com, theyre rating system is really reliable in my experience anyway.

drrnwbb

ryanair have a special bus from helsinki to tampere airport, its about 20euros each (and avoids less hassle with the train to tampere and then bus to airport). it leaves from the square from beside helsinki train station.

there is also a train from st. petersburg to helsinki: info here: http://www.vr.fi/heo/eng/ita/ita.htm

from people i know who have visited st. petersburg, its meant to be incredibly impressive so try to spend a few days there too, helsinki is really cool aswell but about 1/5th the size of petersburg.

dw

Woden

this is all the stuff i'm looking to here cheers lads, good info on that train i was wondering how to get from helsinki to tampere

we may leave out tallin if there is direct train from st. peterburg

2 metre long sausage sounds good. with the hungarian grand prix i figured whats an extra 300 on top of 2000. my friends not a fan but he's willing to go.

with regards to the trip, afaik there is definetly me and my friend for the whole trip. my friends sister is doing the european part with us but not heading into the ukraine and russia and then my friends cousin i think may be doing the whole trip

p.pete

Originally posted by skipn_easy
Sounds like a great plan. Id recommend a restaurant called centimetre in vienna, which does a 2 metre sausage. Portions there are impressive and left the guys feeling satisfied.

I'd recommend centimeter as well but steer clear of the 2 meter sausage (actually 2 x 1m strips of fairly ordinary sausage) unless there is more than 1 person going to tuck into it.

drrnwbb

Originally posted by Dataisgod
we may leave out tallin if there is direct train from st. peterburg

there is a direct train, it passes near my apartment a few times a day. its five hours from st. petersburg to helsinki or there is an overnight one too i think. check out the link i gave in my pevious post.

oh yeah, the ryanair website: link here give the info about the bus from helsinki to tampere airport. you can ring ahead (they all speak english) to reserve, but its not overly important.

dw

dangerman

Plan is then to slip back up to vienna (which is outside our zone) and after a few days on to krakow and to visit auschwitz and an apparent under ground salt city.

Krakow is definately worth a visit. You can save a bit of cash at auschwitz by not getting a guide - you can just walk around, buy a book between you. The underground salt city isn't that impressive unless you really get off on salt. Though I was certainly hungover when I was there.

Also, not sure how it fits in with ur plans, but the sziget festival 2004 is on 4-11 august in budapest. [its on an island in the middle of the river]

check out details here http://www.sziget.hu/festival_english i just happened to be in town at the time last year, u can get a ticket for the day, it's pretty amazing. Just be aware that you may struggle with a bit with accomodation if ur hitting budapest between the 4th-11th august.

pablo80

yeah I'm looking to do something similar in august
so where should one visit while in eastern europe.

what's the best way of getting from prague to budapest

Woden

lo pablo,

i really enjoyed budapest and krakow i have to say and moscow was just great.

there is a an overnight train that goes from prague to budapest. don't recall the price off the top of my head but its not too expense for the couchette

pablo80

thanks for that dataisgod

What places would you recommend to seen or avoid while over that side of the world?

Woden

found the presidential palace in budapest to be amazing the grounds where fabulous and there was a great view. i prefarred krakow (and its associated tours like auschwitz though i didn't think much of the salt mines) to warsaw. didn't think much of warsaw either tbh.

was in riga as well which was ok but again nothing special though there is a good musuem there called the occupation museum which went right though the history of the occupation of latvia which was interesting.

can recommend a hostel in prague called sirtoby's this was a great place. probably one of the best places we stayed in and it was our first stop. just slightly outside central area on but on the metro and tram lines and it has a bar in it.

Vienna was good as well. the museum quarter is lovely at night though vienna is somewhat more expensive then the other places. stayed in wombats hostel there which is fairly well established and a nice place.

Faltermyer

pablo80 wrote:

thanks for that dataisgod

What places would you recommend to seen or avoid while over that side of the world?

Check out my posts in this thread, pretty much exactly what your after.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=233390

I did the Easter Zone interrail in 2003, was fantastic.

pablo80

Thanks for all the information.

Does anybody know of any sites where I might find reviews of backpacking in
Eastern Europe.

Faltermyer

Check Lonely Planet's website,they probably have a forum.

Anything else in particular you want to know?