 Europe Grand Tour Part 1 September 19 - October 18, 1981 September the 19th came about and I was so excited! While I was staying in Roosendaal with the Tolhoeks I started writing down the names of all the places I wanted to visit and planning out my entire journey...and for what I read in my diary, I made precise calculations about my journey (pictured above). Everything had to be calculated, as my budget was limited and my timeframe was limited to one month too... I had to make a list of the cities that I could visit within my limitations, how many days I would spend in each place, how many hours it'd take from one place to another etc... All calculations had to be done 'Old School' with the help of a travelling book like 'Let's go Europe' or 'Europe on a Shoestring'… My daily budget was approximately $10 USD per day, and that would cover accommodation and meals... there wasn't much 'wiggle room' for any extras or souvenir shopping... After leaving Roosendaal I spent a day in Zaandam organizing things... I got my money from the Bank, I got some traveller's cheques and I bought my InterRail Pass (it cost fl 450 Dutch Guilder, which in those days was the Dutch currency, it was about $200 USD). As you can see in the map above I had it all planned out... One thing I must mention is that one of the rules for the unlimited rides with the InterRail Pass, at that time, was that you could not backtrack to the previous destination, so all stops had to be travelling forward, so I practically did a loop of Europe making stops in 14 cities. SEE THE GOOGLE MAP HERE Early in the morning I said goodbye again to Inge and said, I'll be back in a month... She said..."No problem, enjoy yourself, can't wait to hear all about your adventure around Europe" My Pass was valid from Sep. 19 to Oct. 18, and I knew there were a couple of special events taking place within those days, one was the famous Oktoberfest in Munich, I definitely wanted to be there, and the other important date was my birthday on October 16... It was going to be my first birthday abroad and it looked like I was going to be in Madrid for that day... Anyway, my very first stop after Amsterdam was Brussels, a rather tasteless city, there isn't much I can remember about it...from there I went on to Luxemburg, now, that was a different story, the whole city was so beautiful and I was so glad I made that stop...I nearly skipped it as not many people mention this city as a must... From there I went down to Paris...finally Paris, France!  Wow, what a beautiful city!! Just like everyone else, I visited the must-do sights of Paris, The Eiffel Tower, The Notre-dame Cathedral, and the Louvre Museum... all extremely impressive places that didn't disappoint at all. I was also able to catch up with Alicia Vazquez, a friend of mine and sort of relative from Mexico, she was studying there for a while... All in all, Paris was a great stop! After 3 days in Paris, I took a train to the overly immaculate and organized Genève and then went to Bern, in Switzerland...where I made my only souvenir purchase... I bought myself my Victorinox Swiss Army Knife with only the basics, but most useful tools... I still have it!...  Then, I took the overnight train to Munich, for the Oktoberfest which took place from September 14 to October 4... I had never seen anything like that in my life! There were thousands of people happily drinking beer, walking from one open-air marquee to another to try different beers and listen to different bands playing traditional German music all day long... Many people go to this festival every year thus budget accommodation availability is practically nonexistent! The only places available were way out of my budget, so I decided to spend the whole day at the festival together with other friends I'd met on the train from Ireland, then late at night, around midnight, we caught the last overnight train to Vienna, so I saved on 2 nights accommodation, one from Bern to Munich and the one to Vienna, that allowed me to have enough money to buy a couple of beers at the festival, and had a bratwurst sausage on bread...oddly delicious...  We arrived in Vienna at around 6 am, I was shattered. I didn't sleep much because the train was full and I ended up sleeping on the floor in a corridor, just like some others on the train...so people were walking over us as we were travelling... After getting there, I and my Irish friends found a guest house where we could stay for the night, we dropped our gear there and went to have a look around the beautiful city of Vienna...I truly didn't know what to expect... We got rather lost, but I must say that if there was ever a city where getting lost was the best thing to do is Vienna, it is like you are walking through a museum, there are hundreds of old and beautiful buildings everywhere you look...I was in absolute awe as I didn't quite expect that... It is like you are playing a part in an 'old theatre play' and the baroque streetscapes and imperial palaces are the stage... The next day we got some fresh bread and cheese from a small local delicatessen and we went to have a picnic in a beautiful park and then, we parted ways, my Irish friends were heading back home through Germany and France, and I decided to go to Venice, Italy next... It was actually great fun having a couple of new friends to hang out with for a couple of days... I spent the rest of my stay in Vienna admiring the city on my own and then took another overnight train... I was now eager to see Italy...More on that on my next story... AUF WIEDERSEHEN WIEN...Goodbye Vienna... It was a wonderful and unexpected surprise! 
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