Jun 27
Leaving for Europe
Day 0.
Summer 2024 · Europe
Orion and Ben
Explore the World
Two guys from Austin. Six weeks, seven countries, and one very long trip.
Summer 2024 · Europe
Two guys from Austin. Six weeks, seven countries, and one very long trip.
Thirty-eight days on the move, told in Ben’s own words. Out of Austin on a June morning, into Frankfurt, south by train into Switzerland, down through Italy and across to the coast of France — seven countries, thirty-eight days, and a rail pass. These are their own photographs, in the order they were taken.
Day 0.
Arrived in Frankfurt. Shared a dope hostel with 5 others. Got some breakfast and walked around old town Frankfurt — lots of cool architecture. Took a train (nearly missed it but literally ran and got there 20 seconds before doors closed) to Delémont Switzerland to meet Melanie. Drove to Bern. Meandered; got some food; took a tram.
Drove into Lauterbrunnen; saw a lake; took an egregiously expensive gondola onto a mountain. Switzerland win against Italy in Soccer and we watched all of Bern go insane. Also saw a rock concert, and got on stage.
Left Switzerland and got gelato in a tiny Italian town after missing our connecting train out. Arrived in Milan; couldn’t sleep because of 3:10am street cleaner; met some cool people in our hostel; ate some authentic pizza; saw a big church. Bussed to Venice and got some more ice cream — also went to an amazing Vivaldi concert in an old cathedral.
Now in Rome, I slept 12 hours in recovery from my marathon back to the Florence hostel. Day 11: managed to avoid the rail strike and get a train to Rome. Later, ate the best pizza of my life and got with some people we met in Venice who we spastically walked all over Rome with. Went to a Roman club; ate some gelato; saw Trevi fountain. Day 12, Orion’s birthday: went to the colosseum; rode some more electric scooters; ate a pizza; ate a cake.
Hiked 10 miles between all 5 towns of Cinque Terre; went to the beach; swam; rock climbed (not shown); ate crackers for dinner (we are running out of money).
Arrived in Paris; ate like 10 sandwiches because they’re cost efficient; went to the Sacré-Cœur basilica; looked for and never found Jacob Snyder; karaoked. Day 21: ate more and larger sandwiches; went up the Eiffel Tower; saw an Olympic stadium; rode all around Paris. Day 22: Ate some café crepes; ate some homemade crepes; went to an art museum; registered for classes on a French computer; walked through Notre-Dame. Paris is an awesome city, I’m glad we’re coming back for the Olympics.
The lowest picture to event ratio of the whole trip. Abbreviating: Paris → London but all trains full; get ferry instead; we must arrive 90 minutes before it leaves. Getting to port city (Calais) before it leaves: Paris → Lille → Dunkirk → Calais, carpooling with a French guy to Calais; arrive 68 minutes before ferry leaves; too late. Australians behind us can’t board either; they make a scene; random woman offers to drive them and us onto the ferry; pile 6 people into her small car; drive through French and British customs with a car full of strangers; literally sneak onto the 7:00 ferry (supposed to wait for the 9:00) at 6:58. Party because we made it to England; Sophie (the driver) offers to drive us to Ashford with her son; board train to London then to Wolverhampton. Now we’re in the Wolverhampton streets because the station shut down, waiting until 5:00am to take the final train to Rhyl to meet Adam.
Slept in a bus station; arrived in Wales (Rhyl); met Adam, Asia, and Elias who we stayed with for 2 days (in the most ridiculous house I’ve ever been in); walked through a ravine and cave system; discovered orienteering/adventure racing; ate some unbelievable chicken curry. Day 26: Had an authentic English breakfast + gallon of coffee; went into the mountains with Adam; summited Tryfan; saw some sheep; hiked along the range for nearly 6 hours; played some pool.
Went into London, saw a Netflix series being filmed; bought tickets for Matilda The Musical; went to Buckingham Palace and surrounding areas; went to Kensington palace; ate sticky toffee pudding; saw Matilda the musical (best musical I’ve ever seen to date) from box seats; took a bus and ferry to Paris overnight. Day 31: Walked around Paris to find a place to watch the Olympics’ opening ceremony, however about 40,000 police were preventing us from getting within a block of the Seine; watched the Olympics from behind a gate while it was pouring, but had a ton of fun.
Went to the Berlin Holocaust Memorial; went to a WWII museum; got a pretzel. Day 35: Saw the Reichstag; went to the top of a massive gold statue; went to the zoo; met Mariam and saw the Berlin Wall.
Took a train from Berlin to Frankfurt; ate our last dinner in Europe. Day 37: Nearly left Orion’s bag on a random blue cart; left it instead on another random blue cart (he’s never seeing it again); took a bus to our plane; waiting on the runway now to leave for San Antonio.
Their own map of the trip — a loop through Germany, Switzerland, Italy and France, and the trains in between.
A few seconds at a time — Switzerland, 29 June.
The same two kids, about fifteen years before the trains.