When I was still a secondary school graduate, my schoolmate and I went on a 16-day trip around Central Europe in January last year. All this wouldn’t have been possible without profound understanding and considerable support from our parents and teachers, and without our headteacher’s permission. We began and finished our exploration of the old world on board a train, which took us through most of the idyllic places of this part of Europe.
We started our journey at the Maribor main train station one early Tuesday morning. We carried backpacks that were up over our heads. Our first major stop was Vienna where we faced our first obstacle. But we somehow managed to get to Nürnberg before noon with the next train that reached as much as 250kmph. Once there, we visited a lot of different museums and got free admission because of our age. Of course, we had to show our student cards. Our favourite museums, of the ones we visited, were the Albertinum in Dresden’s old town, the Museum of Fine Arts in Leipzig, and Albrecht Dürer’s House where the Renaissance artist spent his life.
After we finished exploring the cities in the eastern part of Germany, we went west, specifically to the European financial capital, Frankfurt, where our day started with breakfast by the Maine, a tour of the old and the modern part of the city, and a view from the highest vantage point, and then ended with dinner at my friend Kaja’s place in Mainz. After visiting the city carnival preparations together, the two of us arrived in the famous Rhine Valley area where we visited my relative Jonas, a young winemaker. He took us to the hidden places of the northernmost German wine region.
After our shared enjoyment, the journey took the two of us further to one of the northernmost Roman cities known as Trier. The main point of the tour was the childhood home of the father of communism, Karl Marx. When we were done touring the house, we already had a guaranteed ride to the village of Nittel by the Moselle, the river forming the border between Germany and Luxembourg. My relatives offered us a place to stay and their hospitality, and they really went out of their way to give us a tour of the surroundings of their hometown. When we returned from the wealthy country of Luxembourg, we visited the Völklingen Ironworks or Völklinger Hütte in Saarland, which was the first industrial facility in the world to have been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Later that day we arrived at Lake Constance, which was shrouded in fog, and the border city of Constance. This was our gate to Switzerland and the heart of the European Alps. We stopped in Switzerland’s largest city and its “bear” capital on our way to Lucerne. We took the Golden Pass Line, a panoramic train line, that took us through picturesque mountain villages and long valleys (even through the picturesque Lauterbrunnen Valley) to one of one the world’s first tourist resorts, Montreux, and enjoyed an evening view of Lake Geneva. Despite the cold winter temperatures, we swam in the lake and were watched by sculptures of cartoon characters and the Freddie Mercury memorial statue from afar. After our cold bath, we visited the world famous Chillon Castle and then hopped on the evening train to Zermatt.
Since we forgot that we had to change trains in Sion on our way to Zermatt and continue with the train that was scheduled to arrive in a few hours at the latest, we spent part of the night almost freezing on the train station platform, despite our thick heavy layers. We experienced the harsh local winter with a feeling of carefree happiness. Our happiness and joy grew when we saw one of the most iconic symbols of Switzerland just before daybreak, the beautiful Matterhorn. When we sucked in all Zermatt and the surrounding mountains had to offer, we continued our train journey to the capital of the pocket-sized country of Liechtenstein and concluded our last travel day by visiting the capital of Tyrol, Innsbruck.
After our visit to five Central European countries (Germany, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria) and a great number of kilometres travelled, we came back home after our sixteen-day journey to set foot in our Styrian capital, full of unforgettable memories and genuine experiences.
DiscoverEU is an initiative of the European Union and enables young people (18-year-olds) to discover Europe. With the help of the programme, students can explore European diversity, history and cultural wealth, something that was previously more difficult to do. Through this project, young people can experience first-hand how nations, cultures and races live. In addition to purchasing the train ticket, young people also get a chance to participate in a ticket give-away twice a year.
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