My European Adventure - InterRail ticket

I recently came back from a two week European adventure, where a friend and I visited 12 cities in 15 days! Yes you read that correctly and yes we realise now that it was a silly amount of places to fit into two weeks, but it was still loads of fun - just stressful.

I will be posting some advise for travelling around Europe in a few days, as I feel like I needed more information when planning the trip.

Flight out of England to Paris 

First of all when we were starting to plan our trip we had so many places we wanted to go, and still had a lot on that list when we actually got on the trip! Words of advice DO NOT try and fit everything in - you will be able to go to Europe again, it's not the last trip you will ever go on! Be selective.

In the end we went to Paris, Madrid, Valencia, Barcelona, Monaco, Milan, Florence, Rome, Venice, Vienna, Berlin and Amsterdam. It was rushed and manic, but it was enjoyable and I got to have snippets of places so I found out which ones I want to go back to, so I can properly explore!

InterRail Pass and Map 2014

We decided to use an Interail pass for this trip, and it was interesting to say the least. We paid £271 for the 15 days continuous pass, so we could travel on as many trains in one day as we liked. With a lot of stress and naivety later, we realised this pass is actually very expensive when you start paying for train reservations - which were forgotten about till the last minute!

Reservations went from £5 to £50, these probably could have been cheaper if we had remembered earlier but as we were leaving a few days after remembering about them we just tried to get it sorted as quickly as possible. To be honest I don't know why you even have to reserve seats for a train, but that's the way the rest of Europe like to do things so fair enough.

Some reservations were necessary on many of our trips and some that we didn't have a seat reservation for we found ourselves on bar stools or seats that were in the corridor of the trains.

One of our accommodations on a train we got on without a seat reservation - uncomfortable to say the least! 

Most of the trains we got on were nice, with plug sockets and lamps for each seat, also with a tray table and quite a bit of legroom. However others weren't as nice, for example the night train from Vienna to Berlin was the worst train I'd ever been on.

My backpack and I on the last day of my European Adventure

Thinking it would be similar to the ones we had got on before, with plug sockets and lights etc but much to our dismay we found that it had no mod cons, luxuries or even basics! More words of advice would be to get a bed on one of these trains, unless you enjoy sleeping rough. The difference in price is £10 so just pay for a bed! Trust me, you'll wake up after actually having a proper nights sleep and feeling refreshed instead of a few hours kip here and there and feeling like you've been hit with a train!

Over all I think the InterRail ticket is good, but make sure you are doing less than we did - less really is more! It will save you money on train reservations as you won't have so many, it will make life easier because trains are a pain in the arse! (Seeing as we missed two connecting trains as the first was delayed getting into the station!) However with this in mind I do think there are better ways of travelling around Europe - even if it is hiring a car and driving it yourself, or any other way you can think of. All in all just be safe and make sure your mode of transport is right for you and your plan is not too packed!

We took a flight from the UK to Paris

I hope this has helped anyone who is thinking of going travelling around Europe, and in my next post I will be talking about what I took with me and the bag I carried around with me for two weeks!

Have you ever been travelling around Europe? If so how did you find it and how did you get around?
xx

What I Wore: To a September Wedding

This weekend I attended the cutest wedding I've been to - like ever. The couple are lovely, the ceremony was cute, in a small church even the order of service was super adorable - complete with a tiny tissue attached just incase you were a little teary during the service. 

Order of Service, with a tissue just for those tearful moments. 

The reception was equally beautiful, all done by the bride and her mother, and they really did think of everything it was amazing. Weddings are great. Onto what I wore...

It was a bit of a tricky one to dress for because of the time of year, a lot of the dresses in the shops are for winter, but at the moment it's actually quite warm outside. 

Leaving to the last minute I managed to pick up a dress I tried on in Topshop about a month ago. I instantly fell in love with this dress, and I was so glad when it was still in my local store! 

Stripe Floral Pocket Dress £39 - Topshop
Colour block clutch bag £12.99 - New Look

This dress is perfection - the horizontal stripes in dark navy and white (a nod to nautical) along with tiny flowers across the dress, in light blue, dark navy and grey. The dress even has pockets and makes it feel like a casual dress, but it is also nice enough to wear it to formal occasions. 

I decided on some lovely accessories from New Look, first of all my clutch bag was £12.99 and has a beautiful colour block in white, light blue and black with a gold bar across the front. As it is a clutch it also has a gold shoulder strap hidden inside, which makes it great for other occasions when you don't want to hold onto your bag. 

I am loving New Look at the moment, for one they have just had a refit in my local store which I am so excited about getting some of my winter wardrobe in! Also their range of wide fit shoes has got so much better! You can now get so many different styles in a wide fit, which is a god send! 

I bought these chunky light blue shoes for £24.99 (also available in black!) and I didn't take them off all evening after dancing and standing on my feet all day, they didn't hurt at all! So well done New Look I applaud you! Along with the shoes and bag I also bought a set of bracelets for £4.99 - also from New Look. I also wore red nail varnish to add a colour pop to my outfit.

My boyfriend and I being all smart. 

My boyfriend wore his Topman suit which is in a navy with a tiny bit of grey checked (tiny pattern - hardly able to see it in the photo). I think he's looking really smart.

x