Interrailing across Europe has been a long-established rite of passage for British students in ‘the A-level summer’ before university. Although no longer as cheap and carefree of an experience as my parents described (‘£50 and a backpack’), the tradition has definitely persisted.
With some basic organisational skills, you simply choose a route, dates, and accommodation, and buy an Interrail pass that lets you get on any train you choose across Europe. Accompanied by five of my closest girlfriends, we chose the ‘basic’ route starting with the Eurostar from London to Amsterdam then travelling through Berlin, Prague, Budapest, Lake Bled and ending with four days in Split across a three-week period.
Travelling across Europe solely by train and with the added burden of our massive suitcases (that we were all insistent on not trading for backpacks) definitely wasn’t without difficulties.
Worst of all, a hellish 12-hour travel day to Berlin, with at least three consecutively cancelled trains meaning we had to sprint across the train stations, dragging our bags behind us, in the hopes of getting on another train. Ultimately, we were forced to sit on the train floor for hours.
Almost as bad was an 8-hour overnight train from our stopover in Zagreb to Split. We boarded the train at midnight to what honestly could have been a train to Spanish Hogwarts, shoving our way through what felt like 1000 Spanish students to get to our small six person sleeper cabin.
As expected, travel days were not the favourite days of the trip, especially when they’re either spent violently hungover, absolutely starving, or sitting on the train floor.
Yet even these were never horrible – because the worst moments were still accompanied with uncontrollable laughter and the magic of shared headphones.
Freedom and responsibility
At the age of 18, you are immediately declared an adult, responsibility is suddenly thrust onto you, and it feels like the world expects so much more of you all at once.
At home, this almost becomes a suffocating responsibility, but walking around six new cities hand-in-hand with your closest friends, it becomes an entirely different one: complete freedom. Even though we were checking back in with our all-parent WhatsApp group chat on the daily, our experience of a new city was ultimately in our hands, rather than following our parents’ directions.
Even hungover, even with highs of 40 degrees in Berlin (leading to multiple sunburns), even mid-argument, it was very easily one of the best parts of the trip.
And at risk of sounding clichéd, it finally showed me the true meaning of ‘the world is your oyster’.
Interrailing and food
What is a trip without food? Fortunately, this was a priority my friends and I took very seriously.
Even while sticking to our budget, we managed to eat at some excellent restaurants throughout Europe, despite at some points panicking over a lack of funds and sticking to the basic backpacker meal of homemade sandwiches.
Highlights of the trip were the surprising plethora of Pho in Berlin (which very quickly became the meal theme of our trip), Italian sandwiches and four Euro tiramisu in Amsterdam, Mediterranean wraps in Prague and countless pizzas throughout the trip.
This proved that good eats are very much possible on a budget if you try hard enough.
Nights out across Europe
No trip full of 18-year-olds fresh out of the restrictions of exams is complete without nights out.
Favourites of the trip were the rooftop club Duplex in Prague, the Ruin Bars and an unlimited-prosecco boat cruise in Budapest, and ULTRA, a festival we stumbled into in Split.
Unfortunately, they didn’t come without consequence; at some point or another, each of us was sick with something, leading us to at least one pharmacy per city.
Coming-of-age travel
As much as it was a trip filled with clubbing, sightseeing and many restaurant trips. It was more importantly a coming-of-age experience, one I shared with my girls.
It felt like a cultural shift in my life, from spending our time together in classrooms to clubs, from walking to each other’s houses to walking across Europe.
With it, our friendship dynamic changed. We went from individuals to a family, brought together by the shared intimacy of the trip.
Sharing clothes, getting ready for a night out blasting our shared playlist, everyone huddling in one bed for a post-night debrief, making and cleaning up dinners and curating Instagram stories and posts.
It was the peak of teenage girl modernity.
Politics, populism and Palestine
It’s hard to walk the streets of Berlin and Prague surrounded by the reminders of the heights of political oppression and not acknowledge that freedom was once fought for.
Travelling primarily around Eastern Europe at a time when statistics demonstrate the growing influence and power of right-wing populism, I feared that walking the streets would only exemplify my political anxieties.
Instead, I was met with a strong sense of hope.
There were signs of a progressive Europe, with countless walls plastered with Palestinian flags and ‘Free Palestine’ banners and graffiti laced with political messages of freedom and peace.
It was a much-needed reminder that people will always fight for freedom, something that on this trip I truly recognised the significance of.
We documented our trip with our own curated and edited vlog, which was a luxury of the modern travels I’m thankful for.
Watching the video filled with jokes and special moments, it became clear that this was an experience that holds so much significance to us, and only to us.
Despite following the same route that thousands of other British teenagers do year after year, it was an experience that we created, one that looking back just eight months later, shows me how much it has become very much a part of me.
And as we all left for different universities and no longer shared the same classrooms or clubs, the shared experience of freedom and exploration keeps us together.
Images: Amel Ofili