A brief overview of my trip

My trip lasted from the 1st to 24th February and took in Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Slovenia, Switzerland and Germany. Despite good intentions, I found that I was not very good at blogging at internet cafes along the road and so arrived back in London without posting a single entry on this blog! Instead, I kept a diary on paper - low-tech, it's true, but as I could write it up on trains, in cafes, whilst waiting around and indeed anywhere else I fancied, it served me very well.

One of the aims of the trip was to travel without flying, and the first part of the journey was by coach, from Victoria coach station in London to Frankfurt. It was an overnight journey and the route was via Ghent, Brussels, Maastricht and Cologne. From Frankfurt, I travelled by train to Salzburg, changing at Munich.

I spent almst six days in Austria, in Salzburg, Graz and Vienna. Whilst in Vienna, I visited the community radio station Orange 94.0, the women's organisation Frauen Solidaritaet and the black women's organisation Schwarze Frauen Community.

I hadn't originally planned to visit Bratislava, but it was so close and so easy to get to that I decided to do so, and I was glad that I did.

I then went on to Hungary, spending five days there, in Budapest, Pecs and finally one morning (changing trains) at the tiny border town of Gyekenyes.

My time in Croatia was all too short, split between the capital Zagreb and the vibrant port town of Rijeka. (If it's not already twinned with Algeciras in Southern Spain, it should be!)

On to Ljubljana, capital of Slovenia, where I stayed for two days. Next was a whole day on the train travelling between Ljubljana and Zurich, passing through some awe-inspiring mountainous country and marvelling in the efficiency of the Croatian, Austrian and Swiss railways.

In Zurich I stayed with friends for six days and during that time I visited the community radio station Radio LoRa.

For the final railway section I took short hops northwards from Zurich towards Frankfurt, using regional services and stopping briefly at towns in between. I had intended to stay in and explore Freiburg-am-Breisgau, but everywhere affordable was full (I hadn't bargained for German school Spring holidays), so I moved on, staying instead in Offenburg, before heading up to Mainz.

I used the S Bahn to get to Frankfurt, where I caught the coach for London and home.

It was an excellent and memorable trip, with some very interesting people, and inspiring lots of new ideas.