Interrailing was an absolute rite of passage in the late 1980s - I also got the train to Koln and drank very cheap beer by the cathedral. I remember meeting back-packers from Canada in the youth hostel and an impromptu party on the riverbank. Then a couple of years later, as a journalist, I drove into Romania (1993 I think, a few years post-Ceaucescu) and visited the orphanages with a relief charity. Which was a whole other story, and a lot less jolly. I'll never forget the contrast of grinding poverty and beautiful scenery in Transylvania.
What a lovely little anecdote. I went to the Eastern Bloc myself back in the day and that's how to dispel the propaganda-ish illusions they foisted western people with in those days. The people were, well, friendly, just like he says. And always take dollars...
The inter-rail pass is indeed one of the greatest ever inventions - I had one too once - three months on any train any time anywhere in Europe. You could even go on the trains that had names! Do they still do them today, I don't know?
I would have loved to visit the Eastern Bloc: growing up after the Wall came down, all we heard in lessons at school were the old cliches. It is much more interesting, to me at least, to hear testimonies like yours, Roberto's, and Lausanne's: personal anecdotes that tend to provide a more balanced perspective.
RE: interrailing, I know that several of my peers at school went interrailing when we finished our exams (2012), so it definitely existed then! Though I couldn't speak for now. I thought it always looked extremely exciting 🥰 Did you have a favourite place you visited while on your travels?
My visit to the Eastern Bloc was actually Russia, starting in Moscow. That was 1990 so it was right in that sort-of-transition period. Seemed to me that Glasnost and Perestroika hadn’t made much of a difference to ordinary people’s lives. Still, a single Kopeck to go anywhere you want on the metro can’t be bad. At the exchange rate of the time that’s about one tenth of a penny!
I went interrailing several years later in the 90s, so this was a little after the collapse, but of course a lot was still evident, especially the architecture (!) - simply crossing over from West to East Berlin was a little dissonant…
If I had a favourite place it would be Prague. I did also love Budapest but Prague’s smaller and cosier. And of course as a medieval historian you’d definite appreciate how full of history it is, and how simply being there is evocative. That has to be one of the main things I love about all those old European cities. It makes history come alive, and helps one to realise that history is still alive and with us, and isn’t necessarily in the past, so to speak. I think a lot of people equate ‘history’ with ‘non existence’ - I mean ‘doesn’t exist anymore’ (and thus they tell themselves they don’t need to think about it) - well, it does exist. That’s why I’ve always leaned towards social history, because for me the past does still exist, and so do all the people who lived in that past.
But yes - if you haven’t been to Prague you definitely should. It’s beautiful.
I had neither the funds nor the courage for these kinds of adventures, limiting myself to hitchhiking back and forth between home and college (all within Missouri). So when I finally went abroad it was a diplomat so encumbered with 'adult responsiblities' and management oversight. Still, I managed to put a lot of miles on my used car driving around and meeting people and seeing places that I'd only read about, and hearing live music in some curious venues. But the contacts I've had with people in general do persuade me that if we all could get some body who would make sure that it's generally safe to live and travel and eat new foods and meet new people without getting everyone all agitated and angry about some seemingly made up issue, the world would be a much cooler place (possibly including in the climate sense).
That November night, I watched the wall come down on TV as I prepared to fly from NY to London the next day. I was giddy about moving to the UK having no idea how the world was about to change. That would be my first of many international travels. 2.5 years later I was driving through Budapest on my way to Romania. Heady times. Thanks for sharing your experience! It bring a lot back.
I love this account! So eye opening!! (Also didn’t know Hungarian was so closely related to Finnish!) my great grandmother lived in Europe for a time and she knew a lady from East Berlin. She told me she would slip her sweets to take her kids!
Interrailing was an absolute rite of passage in the late 1980s - I also got the train to Koln and drank very cheap beer by the cathedral. I remember meeting back-packers from Canada in the youth hostel and an impromptu party on the riverbank. Then a couple of years later, as a journalist, I drove into Romania (1993 I think, a few years post-Ceaucescu) and visited the orphanages with a relief charity. Which was a whole other story, and a lot less jolly. I'll never forget the contrast of grinding poverty and beautiful scenery in Transylvania.
What a lovely little anecdote. I went to the Eastern Bloc myself back in the day and that's how to dispel the propaganda-ish illusions they foisted western people with in those days. The people were, well, friendly, just like he says. And always take dollars...
The inter-rail pass is indeed one of the greatest ever inventions - I had one too once - three months on any train any time anywhere in Europe. You could even go on the trains that had names! Do they still do them today, I don't know?
I would have loved to visit the Eastern Bloc: growing up after the Wall came down, all we heard in lessons at school were the old cliches. It is much more interesting, to me at least, to hear testimonies like yours, Roberto's, and Lausanne's: personal anecdotes that tend to provide a more balanced perspective.
RE: interrailing, I know that several of my peers at school went interrailing when we finished our exams (2012), so it definitely existed then! Though I couldn't speak for now. I thought it always looked extremely exciting 🥰 Did you have a favourite place you visited while on your travels?
My visit to the Eastern Bloc was actually Russia, starting in Moscow. That was 1990 so it was right in that sort-of-transition period. Seemed to me that Glasnost and Perestroika hadn’t made much of a difference to ordinary people’s lives. Still, a single Kopeck to go anywhere you want on the metro can’t be bad. At the exchange rate of the time that’s about one tenth of a penny!
I went interrailing several years later in the 90s, so this was a little after the collapse, but of course a lot was still evident, especially the architecture (!) - simply crossing over from West to East Berlin was a little dissonant…
If I had a favourite place it would be Prague. I did also love Budapest but Prague’s smaller and cosier. And of course as a medieval historian you’d definite appreciate how full of history it is, and how simply being there is evocative. That has to be one of the main things I love about all those old European cities. It makes history come alive, and helps one to realise that history is still alive and with us, and isn’t necessarily in the past, so to speak. I think a lot of people equate ‘history’ with ‘non existence’ - I mean ‘doesn’t exist anymore’ (and thus they tell themselves they don’t need to think about it) - well, it does exist. That’s why I’ve always leaned towards social history, because for me the past does still exist, and so do all the people who lived in that past.
But yes - if you haven’t been to Prague you definitely should. It’s beautiful.
I had neither the funds nor the courage for these kinds of adventures, limiting myself to hitchhiking back and forth between home and college (all within Missouri). So when I finally went abroad it was a diplomat so encumbered with 'adult responsiblities' and management oversight. Still, I managed to put a lot of miles on my used car driving around and meeting people and seeing places that I'd only read about, and hearing live music in some curious venues. But the contacts I've had with people in general do persuade me that if we all could get some body who would make sure that it's generally safe to live and travel and eat new foods and meet new people without getting everyone all agitated and angry about some seemingly made up issue, the world would be a much cooler place (possibly including in the climate sense).
That November night, I watched the wall come down on TV as I prepared to fly from NY to London the next day. I was giddy about moving to the UK having no idea how the world was about to change. That would be my first of many international travels. 2.5 years later I was driving through Budapest on my way to Romania. Heady times. Thanks for sharing your experience! It bring a lot back.
Thanks for sharing your experience, Lausanne!
I love this account! So eye opening!! (Also didn’t know Hungarian was so closely related to Finnish!) my great grandmother lived in Europe for a time and she knew a lady from East Berlin. She told me she would slip her sweets to take her kids!