Those were the days

It's been more than a year since I interrailed.Nice to look at pics,I wish I can do it again.

Book Review: Bir Siyah Sacli Kadinin Gezi Notlari

Title: Bir Siyah Sacli Kadinin Gezi Notlari
Writer: ABuket Uzuner
Year: 1989(1st edition),2004(14th edition)
Pages: 116

Although the books title is 'travel notes' the book is not on cities or places but people Buket Uzuner has met during her several visits to several countries.She was a university student in Norway when she performed her first travel with interrail.She met several people from several nationalities and colors.Nice to read.I bought it from Dost Kitapevi Ankara but it is available on ideefixe.
I am planning to read her two other journey books since I liked this one.
New York Sehir Rehberi and Bir Sehir Romantiginin Gunlugu.

Train Supplements

An interrailer's main concern is the extra costs,most importantly supplements that you have to pay on certain trains in addition to your interrail ticket.
Below, I list the supplements being payed during our interrail trip in July 2006.

Brugge->Paris: 11.00 EUR [thalys fast train]
Paris->Irun: 17.50 EUR [night train couchette]
Irun->Madrid: 6.50 EUR
Madrid->Toledo: 13.00 EUR [return,fast train]
Madrid->Barcelona: 17.00 EUR [night train couchette]
Barcelona->Montpellier: 35EUR [BUS Linebus,no interrail discount]
Marseille->Nice: 1.50 EUR
Nice->Cannes: 1.50 EUR
Nice->Genova 5.00 EUR
Genova->Venice 22.00 EUR [night train couchette]
Venice->Florence 15.00 EUR
Roma->Bari 5.00 EUR
Bari->Patras 16.00 EUR [BlueStar FERRY,on deck]
Patras->Athens 3.20 EUR
Thesaloniki->Pythion 6.60 EUR
Pythion->Istanbul 15.00 YTL

Book Review: Let's Go Europe 2006

Title: Lets' Go Europe 2006
Writer: Harvard University Students
Year: 2006
Pages: 1082

Definitely a must-have,must-read for every independent traveler,interrailer or eurailer.The books is organized very good and gives nice hints about the cities.List budget places for accomadation and food.Also gives information about transportation to nearby cities.Lists places to visit and how you can reach there.The price $14.99 is a bargain for this book.

During my July 2006 interrail trip I carried this book with me every single day.Just but it,you won't regret.

Hostels of Interrail July 2006

Below is the map of places that we have stayed during the July 2006 Interrail tour. Move your mouse over the red points to see the name of Hotel/Hostel.



You can see details from http://ulasergin.myhostelworld.com

Interrail Photos

I have completed uploaded interrail pics, nearly 1700 pics of 4GB.But kodak's site is terrible to view it.I will have to swich to yahoo photos when I have time.

http://adobe.kodakgallery.eu.com/I.jsp?c=aifwclj1.2yoc1pnh&x=0&y=-xznymb

Home sweet home!

The interrail trip we have been planning for the last 6-8 months is now history!!We have visited 19 cities in 8 countries.

During this trip we had 24 train journeys(some local,some international) and 1 bus,1 minibus(rented),1 plane ,1 ferry trip which which are all international.

I have posted the plan in my previous post and I am happy to say that most of the things went according to the plan.The map shows the visities we have visited and differen colored lines indicate differen ways of transportation which is also noted on the line.

After 1 month, it is good to be home.

Interrail Plan

Here is my plan for the 1 month interrail trip during July ,I hope everyhing goes as planned.
The number shows the day in July.

1 – Amsterdam
2- Amsterdam
3- Den Haag Rotterdam gez.
Amsterdam kalis
4-Amsterdam->Brugge yola cik
Brugge gez
5- Brugge de kal.
Belki Bruksele git-gel
6-Sabah’tan parise yola cik
7- Paris gez
8- Paris Gez
9- Paris’de dolas GeceTreni ile Madrid’e git
10- Oglen Madride in
11-Madrid Gez

12-Mardid gez
Belki toledo git-gel
13-Madrid den Barcelonaya git.Barcelona gez
14-Barcelona gez
15-Barcelonadan Marsilya ya git
Marsilya gez
16-Marsilya gez
17-Marsilya dan Nice e git
Nice gez
18- Nice Monaco belki Cannes gez
19- Nice’den Genoa’ya git.Gece treni ile Venedik
20-Venedik gez
21- Venedik ten Floransaya git Floransa gez
22- Floransa gez
Ogleden sonra Pisa’ya git gel
23- Floransa dan Roma ya git
Roma gez
24- Roma gez
vatikan
25- Roma gez gece treni ile Bari
26- Bari gez
Feribotla yunanistan
27- Igoumenitsa dan otobus ile Selanik git
28- Selanik gez
20 trenine bin
29- sabah 8 Sirkeci

Steps to interrail: 3

The hardest step to interrail is completed. I got the Schengen visa from the Netherlands.Now all I have to do is to wait till the flight date. Let me briefly tell the steps for visa.

I read through the web page of missions of the Netherlands in Turkey. Their site has a word document listing the required documents for visa application. It listed lots of lots of documents. I collected them, also I went to their place and asked for a Visa application form which also had a list of documents for visa application.

I went to Anadolu Sigorta for travel insurance and the insurance for European States valid for one month costed me 16EUR.

Finally I went to their place again to apply for the visa, 35EUR visa fee should be payed for the application and my visa was ready in 2 days.

The previous step.

Steps to interrail: 2

Yesterday we bought our interrail tickets from Genctur at Taksim. We are in the process of collecting papers for visa .
The pic shows the interrail tickets together with corendon airlines tickets to the Netherlands which I bought online but obtained the printed versions for visa application from their office in Kozyatagi , guidebooks, superfast ferry brochure which they kindly posted via mail upon my request and passports. There is one huge step left: getting the visa.




We are signing papers in the Genctur office for buying the railpass.


The previous step

Book Review: Europe Through the Back Door 2006

Title: Rick Steves' Europe Through the Back Door 2006 : The Travel Skills Handbook
Writer: Rick Steves
Year: 2006
Pages: 630

This is the first book review from the series listed in my previous blog entry: My Book List for Summer 2006 Interrail Planning I hope more reviews will come soon.

This is not a guidebook in the commonsense.It is so-called as 'Read-before-go book '. The book is organized in two sections, the first section is a travel skills handbook dealing with Planning an ininerary,transportation,money,sleeping and eating.. etc. as the title already implies

And the second section gives what the author calls 'backdoors'.List places that are not discovered by tourism agencies yet or not getting necessary attention. The counties mentioned includes: Italy, Portual, Spain, Morroco, Frace, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, British Isles and Scandanavia.
The auther list few ,if not one, cities in each coutry and gives hints and beautities of that city.

The first travel skills section is helpful although you might find these information everywhere and also internet.It is still good to have all these information packed in one place completely.

The second section is for people looking for not crowded, relatively calm places in Europe. If you are looking for info about popular sightseeings of these countries you should get a guidebook which is also recommended by the author.

Accompanying site for the book can be found at ricksteves.com . I can not decide whether to recommend buying or not buying this book. The amazon link is here for you to further investigate.

Book Review: Yolculuga Cikanlarin Kucuk El Kitabi

Title: Yolculuğa Çıkanların Küçük El Kitabı Okumaları, Hatırlamaları ve Paylaşmaları İçin; Öneriler, Gözlemler ve Andaçlar
Writer: David Scott, William W. Forgey
Year: 2003
Pages: 184

As the book name already tells this is a handbook for travellers.It contains 377 tips for travelers before and during the travel period.The book should be even smaller but the publisher prefered to use big fonts to make the book look 'useful'.


I don't think the book contains life-saver tips, you may still want to give it a try since it is cheap 3.58YTL. I bought it from Ideefixe.

Steps to interrail:1

Today I competed the first step to interrail. I talked with my managers in the company that I want to resign and leave by June 30th. And they accepted.Now it is clear that I have a one month holiday I can devote to interrail.

I have already bought my plane ticket from Corendon airlines for 19EUR(54EUR with tax) to Amsterdam and my 5 travel books that I have already listed in my previous blog entry "My Book List for Summer 2006 Interrail Planning " already arrived.

The brocure I requested from Superfast Ferries for the Italy-Greece passing arrived, including information about timetables and fares.



Now the next and the hardest step of all is to obtain the visa.

Book Review: Uzaklar Cagirinca

Title: Uzaklar Cagirinca
Writer: Orhan Kural
Year: 2005
Pages: 196

The writer is an intinerant that has traveled to 187 countries of the world!. The short and small sized book is organized into two sections.First section is in a 'textbook' format (you may consider it as normal since the writer is a lecturer in I.T.U) that tells places to visit in Turkey, 7 wonders of the world, diseases and troubles that intinerants may face during world travel, top 50 things to do/places to see in world ...
And the second section of the book tells the travel memories of the writer during his several visits. The book is cheap (3.83YTL),I bought it from Ideefixe you may give it a try if you have time but know that it is not the best.

Book Review: Avucumda Patikalar

Title: Avucumda Patikalar
Writer: Z. Gulin Akoz
Year: 2005
Pages: 280

I bought this book from Ideefixe. I did not look inside it, just read the reviews online. Well..it is a terrible book.It is catagorized as a travel book but...I really don't know what is it. She tells a little bit about the places she saw but moslt personal things about her. Just stay out of it!

Turkish interrailers met on Saturday

Last saturday(04.03.2006) I was at Turkish interraillers meeting. The meeting was held at Guitar Cafe, Kadikoy. Nearly 40 interrailers of whom 10 have previous interrail experience met.There was a warm atmosphere, people shared lots of information and spent good time. It was a very beneficial meeting, I hope it will be repeated in future.

Book Review: Avrupa

Title: Avrupa "Utopya'dan Avrupa'ya"
Writer: Michael Gehler
Year: 2002
Pages: 149

In fact the book name is a little misleading,this is a thin book telling the brief history of European Union not Europe. European Union should be a better book title but then it would look boring, may be this is a marketing trick who knows.
Anyway, the books tells the hitory of how the United States of Europe has evolved and becase a reality. It gives an intoduction starting with 16-18th centuries and details it starting from 1945. Then it tells about how the European Economic Union turned into European Union and how several countries joined.
It book ends with a chronology of European Union between 1945 and 2002.
The book is so much into political science area so it may seem boring if you are not much interested.

My Book List for Summer 2006 Interrail Planning

Here is the list of books that I have ordered from Amazon for planning my interrail trip for 2006 summer.Unfortunately amazon.com service is too slow, I placed the order in 20th of January and estimated delivery date is 28th of Match!.

So I just list the book names for now but hopefully I will present reviews for each of them as soon as I get the books.

• Independent Travellers Europe by Rail 2006 : The Inter-railer's and Eurailer's Guide (Independent Travellers - Thomas Cook) $15.61


• Lonely Planet Western Europe (Lonely Planet Western Europe) $18.47


• Lonely Planet Europe Phrasebook $8.99


• Let's Go 2006 Europe (Let's Go Europe) $10.19


• Rick Steves' Europe Through the Back Door 2006 : The Travel Skills Handbook $14.93

Book Review : Bir Bilet Al

Title: Bir Bilet Al
Writer: Gizem Altin
Year:2000
Pages: 217
Language: Turkish

I personally liked this book.It is written in a warm-diary form.The book is about the memories of the writer during her interrail travel in 2000.After she got fired, she organized this beautiful 5 week trip with her compansation money.

The book is consisted of two sections, first section tells about the countries (mainly Greece, Italy, France, Spain) and cities she has visited, places she has seen, friends she has made and money spent.
In the second section she gives tips about interrail trip organization, places to see, things to keep in mind, hostels to stay, books to read and several useful recommendations more.



It is one of the very rare interrail publications in Turkish language. I bought it from Ideefixe and totally recommend it to you. For the web page of the book click here