My original aim was to avoid commercial flights on this journey, because, well, flying around the world hardly seems like an adventure. In fact, you could probably make it in three days if you wanted. Decidedly dull.
To set my course for true adventure, I gathered inspiration from a handful of low-budget travel documentaries, including Pedal The World, Chasing Bubbles, and Weit, which respectively follow the journeys of people who cycled, sailed, and largely hitchhiked around the word. I can highly recommend checking them out, even if you have no interest in leaving your couch (the second is my favorite of the three and free on YouTube!).
While these films had my imagination swirling, just a few hours of concrete trip planning made clear that circling the globe while avoiding commercial flights would take substantially longer and cost considerably more, unless, of course, I decided to take up cycling in a big way. And I had to concede that I wasn't exactly prepared for that kind of trip.
With a set timeline of a year and a limited budget, I needed to be a little more flexible. That put flying back on the table, but I aim to incorporate other modes of transport whenever possible.
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| Our route to Istanbul lead over Budapest, Belgrade, and Sofia, using a variety of transportation. |
In my first week on the road, I can say that I've done just that. My boyfriend, Thore, and I started off with a two-hour flight from Frankfurt to Budapest, where we stayed three nights. After exploring the city on bike, visiting a bath, and drinking in ruins bars, we grabbed a ride-share to Belgrade using the app BlaBla Car, and the following morning we hopped on an 11-hour train ride to Sofia. After two nights and another full day in Sofia, which included a free walking food tour, a dinner with newly acquired friends from said tour, and a day in the expansive Borisova Gradina park, we took a night train to Istanbul that left at about 10pm and arrived the following morning.
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| We spent a delightful afternoon sitting in the sun at one of Budapest's famous baths. |
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| After learning that Bulgaria is a top producer of lavender oil, we sampled some lavender meringues as well as cheese on the food tour in Sofia. |
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| We stopped by Sofia's iconic Alexander Nevsky Cathedral on the way to catch our night train to Istanbul. |
I deeply enjoyed taking this route for a few reasons:
- We got to spend time in major cities along the way, while making it to our first real destination, Turkey, in just a week.
- The train and car rides gave us a peek at lesser known towns and a chance to appreciate the slowly changing landscape.
- The cost of travel came to just under €150 per person, which is more than the €100 direct flight to Turkey, but still within reason, especially considering we didn't need an accommodation for the evening spent on the night train!
- And last, but certainly not least, we met interesting people and had a few adventures along the way.
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| Soaking up some of the Serbian countryside from the train window! |
While the flight to Budapest was totally uneventful, the car and train rides were the exact opposite. The driver of our ride-share, Toma, a Serbian man who drove down cars purchased in Austria for his boss, turned out to be quite a character, and have a terrible sense of time. He arrived about two hours late to pick us up (blaming traffic), but was such a gregarious fellow you couldn't help but like him.
Along the ride, he told stories about his family, taught us about traditional Serbian foods, and impressed upon us Serbians' love of distilling plum brandy, or Slivovitz, at home. "The Mercedes of fruit liquor," as he put it. Now and again, he'd catch you off guard by rattling off bits of Balkan history, dates and all, with impressive ease, and was kind enough to open a hotspot on his phone so we had internet access once we crossed into Serbia.
But enjoyable as the drive to Belgrade was, it was beginning to take considerably longer than expected. Toma had made a few unannounced stops that added another two hours to the drive (something to do with the car business, which I began to feel may or may not be totally above water). To make up for the delays and the fact that it was well past dinner time now, our driver repeatedly offered us the Schweinehaxe, or roasted pig's leg for the non-German speakers, that he'd brought with him from Austria as a road snack. We politely declined, and delved into our snack pack that I'd thankfully topped up with nuts, bananas, and protein bars.
Day was turning to night, and about two hours outside Belgrade, we stopped again to picked up another passenger and her not-so-small dog, Bernadette. The five us were humming down the now-dark road when Toma pulled into a gas station to fill up the tank. Although Thore and I had nothing but time on our hands, we were beginning to worry how we'd navigate to the train station in Belgrade early tomorrow morning from our accommodation, which was cheap, but rather poorly connected via public transport. Luckily our newest passenger, the girl, not the dog, worked in tourism, and was just in the middle of telling us the best way to get to the Topcider train station when Toma returned with ice cream for everyone. The mood immediately lifted, and I couldn't help but feel this is exactly where I wanted to be, in a position that was open to a little more of the unknown than your typical flight. I was enjoying the company and kindness of strangers instead of arguing with flight attendants about the size of my luggage and breathing in old air, and that suited me just fine--even if it was nearly 11pm now and not the 7pm I had anticipated.
Instead of dropping us off at a central train station as agreed in the app, Toma wanted to take us directly to our accommodation. Only we couldn't seem to find it. Toma made a quick call to our host, and minutes later an incredibly friendly man welcomed us into his home in one of New Belgrade's apartment complexes.
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| The apartment building where we stayed is a classic example of the Socialist-era architectural style of Brutalism, which characterizes much of New Belgrade. |
In somewhat broken English, our host even offered, insisted really, that he drive us to the train station the next morning, because what takes an hour by public transport would only be a 10-minute drive for him. Thanks to his help, we made it to the station just in time to purchases tickets and grab a quick coffee. So I boarded a nearly empty train, which only had two train cars in total, and settled in on one its plush old velvet seats brimming with gratitude at the generosity of others.
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| Grabbing a last-minute coffee at Belgrade's Topcider train station before leaving to Sofia. |
Just as we were settling in to have a breakfast of banana and oats in our tin cups, two other passengers sat down in our compartment. A German art history student who was about to embark on her PhD and a 19-year-old Austrian guy who was starting his studies in a few weeks. Over the next 11 hours we chatted about life, watched scenery go by, read books, and laughed at our luck when the train broke down in the middle of nowhere for about an hour. It was a pretty wonderful day, and absolutely the adventure I was looking for.
Weekly Cost Breakdown
Keep in mind this is cost per person and traveling as a couple does bring down the price of accommodations and meals prepared.
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