Finishing year 13 in 2017 part 2

[user9512736123]

New thread as the old one is at 990 messages!

*interrailing!! Blimmin' autocorrect

From my ancient interailing experience, c.1986, the beauty os that you dont plan! We based our trip on zigzagging all over the place, taking overnight trains to save on the cost of youth hostels. Of course thing may be different now....

Peace - I was interailing in1979! Our only plan was to get the train to Greece (best part of 3 days) and then work out back via whatever route took our fancy. Lots of nights sleeping on trains - great fun. I didn't realise you could still get Interail cards.

I honestly didn't realise interrailing still existed - I want to do that!

DS is off to see his older sister next week who is 'interesting' (ie lives near London) which will draw him away from the PS4.

I think you now need to plan an interrailing trip as the more days you travel the more it costs. In our day you just had a month's pass.

Loving the excuse to mentally revisit my interail experience, I am sure it is different now but really once a young person has decided how long they can afford to spend travelling how hard can it be?
Those of us who did this 30 + years ago had no credit or debit cards, mobile phones or internet. Our timetable was a massive book containg all the train services, it was our bible.

My sister said to me the other day that she'd been having a clear out and came across a collection of postcards I'd sent her whilst interailing. Imagine if our darlings went off travelling and we had no means of contacting them and we only knew where they'd been once a postcard turned up probably a week after they'd left!!

My mum had zero faith in me but was happy for me to go with my best friend as she thought she was very sensible (little did she know ...).

And yes Peace - the big timetable! We used to take turns carrying it in our rucksacks. Amazing to think you can now find all that information on your phone!

There's a senior interrail card!

www.myinterrail.co.uk/interrail-passes/

ROFL at 'Senior' Interrail

Interailing is still very much a thing! DS2 has just spent a month criss crossing Europe with mates, along with it seems just about every other 18 year old from the UK. In my day we did it the proper way sleeping in stations and under bridges without planning ahead and using trains as our overnight accommodation. Now they all book hostels (softies!) and go on bar crawls. Still, many 'learning experiences' were achieved on ds's trip!

Indeed Horsemad! I can hardly move my back after a night on my Tempur mattress. I'd need to be stretchered off the train after a night on the floor in a sleeping bag!

I remember being in Jordan and arranging to meet a friend (who was in Sicily) in Egypt - all by snail mail. We met up, on the agreed day, at the Grand Hotel, Cairo.

It was all very Agatha Christie.

That did make me stone circle!

My mum went senior inter railing. She is hopeless with her phone and we got all her messages when she returned home.

Haha, bit like the postcards arriving after the sender gets home!

Didn't they stop publishing that timetable book? It was the best thing. Trying to work everything out beforehand, not relying on an app to tell you. It should have been illegal to stop publishing it. Ahh, inter-railing, happy days! Actually I remember telling my travel companion that homosexuality was a good thing while crossing St Mark's Square.

Think I've still got ours! Was it a red cover paperback?

Senior interrailing you say? How old is a senior?

So, who want to join me on a senior Gap Year? I spent the whole of 1986/7 travelling and vowed that I would do the same when I turned 50 because I met some inspiring "older ladies" on my travels.
Guess what, I turn 50 next year..........!

Me too, I've booked the holiday I've always wanted to do to celebrate so we are away for a month!

Think this was the last year they published it. Ds had an unreliable phone at the time and this served him well.

How are we all doing on here? Uni prep underway?

My DS is already in training to be a student - goes to bed late and doesn't get up until midday

I'm finally heading for the implosion I probably should have had on Thursday.

Reading University accommodation 'service' - they will finish us off. I'm reduced to watching Jamie Oliver make pastry on Food Network whilst DS waits for a call back from Reading.

Why Liney? What's up?