Sleeper trains?

plainsie

We took Gran Class (1st Class) sleeper on the Spanish train a few years ago and it stated toilet & shower. The shower was not very nice and the toilet was a bottle. Hopefully they have changed it to a real toilet cos it does still say toilet on the website www.seat61.com but they don't actally show a picture of the toilet.

Debbie_A_3

Ames wrote: »

Thanks for the warning hxm.

Something else that's just occurred to me, what are the facilities like on trains over there? Are there toilets? Not just on the sleepers, but in general in Eastern Europe.

I'm sorry but I'm going to have to start reminiscing again ... back to 1990.

I will never forget the jouney from Belgrade to Athens, through the then-Yugoslavia. The train looked as if it had been sold off by D-Bahn to the Yugoslavs at the end of its useful life (about 20 years previously). There were cubicles marked "toilets" but no water to flush them with. In fact there was no water at all on the train. After 2 hours of a 24-hour jouney in July, my 2L bottle was empty and I was parched. I stuck my head out of the window. Occasionally I was comforted by a cooling mist. It took me a couple of hours to realise the source of the cooling mist ... folks were relieving themselves out of the windows further up the train.

That night I slept under the seats on a floor that had probably not be cleaned in 20 years. I arrived in Athens looking like something that had crawled out of a coal mine.

Happy days, a long time ago. I suspect that it is much better now, but it won't be as much fun.

Debbie x

Ames

Oh dear. Buying a tavel john is a good idea then!

zagfles

Debbie_A wrote: »

I'm sorry but I'm going to have to start reminiscing again ... back to 1990.

I will never forget the jouney from Belgrade to Athens, through the then-Yugoslavia. The train looked as if it had been sold off by D-Bahn to the Yugoslavs at the end of its useful life (about 20 years previously). There were cubicles marked "toilets" but no water to flush them with. In fact there was no water at all on the train. After 2 hours of a 24-hour jouney in July, my 2L bottle was empty and I was parched. I stuck my head out of the window. Occasionally I was comforted by a cooling mist. It took me a couple of hours to realise the source of the cooling mist ... folks were relieving themselves out of the windows further up the train.

That night I slept under the seats on a floor that had probably not be cleaned in 20 years. I arrived in Athens looking like something that had crawled out of a coal mine.

Happy days, a long time ago. I suspect that it is much better now, but it won't be as much fun.

Debbie x

:rotfl:you got me going now - yeah it was fun in the old days - (starting to sound like my Dad now:eek:). Early-mid 80's for me...

Train from Hanover to West Berlin was interesting, stopped just across the East German border I thought as a normal stop, but the platform was lined with angry looking guards with big what looked like metal batons, loads of them got on for the trip and whenever the train slowed down they'd be looking out of the windows presumably to make sure nobody jumped on.

Met a friend who in West Berlin and decided to take a trip to the East, he insisted on us getting a load of East marks from the bank at 5 to 1 instead of changing them at the border at 1 to 1, and hiding them in our socks, I was bricking it at Checkpoint Charlie, I was sure they'd see how nervous I was... Then after all that we couldn't spend it all because everything was so cheap :rotfl:

The boat trains into Denmark and Sweden were good, where the train carriages go onto the boat. First time I went to Copenhagen I didn't realise they did that (thought there were bridges/tunnels) and woke in the middle of the night and thought this is an unusual motion for the train, gentle swaying from side to side... Not sure if they still have them between Germany and Denmark - I know they have a bridge between Denmark and Sweden now.

But the best thing about the couchettes were the people - in hostels you meet loads of interesting people but everyone's milling around and there's load of people to talk to, but in the couchettes it's just 6 people who you're basically stuck with generally for a whole evening before bedtime. Which sounds like a bad thing but nearly always wasn't... The atmosphere is so different to a normal daytime journey where generally strangers don't talk much, it's evening and you're going to sleep in the same compartment as these people and everyone's relaxed, sometimes had a few, it's like a party, sometimes literally. Some were completely mad - once some Swiss guy calling himself James insisted of buying everyone drinks and telling us about his life as an undercover secret agent...

Apologies to the OP for rambling...

Ames

No apologies needed! It's good to hear others' experiences, it's my first time interrailing and I'm starting to get a bit nervous. It doesn't sound like anyone's regretted it anyway.

zagfles

Ames wrote: »

No apologies needed! It's good to hear others' experiences, it's my first time interrailing and I'm starting to get a bit nervous. It doesn't sound like anyone's regretted it anyway.

You'll have a great time..the good thing about interrailing is if you ever can't find a somewhere to sleep you can just go to the train station and get an overnight train to anywhere - I've ended up in interesting places I'd never have gone to otherwise:)... But this time of year you should be OK, I've always gone in peak season July/August.

If I were doing it this time of year think I'd be heading up to north of Sweden/Norway to see the northern lights and the ice hotel etc. Went up there in July to see the midnight sun but it was cloudy still quite weird being broad daylight at midnight... Got the bus down from Narvik to Bodo which was stunning (worth the extra money - interrail didn't cover it), bus went on several ferries across the fjords and there were traffic signs on poles in the middle of the water - because in the winter when it's all iced over the traffic drives across the ice!

giraffe69

put it in your pillow around waste

I'm not going on a sleeper if you have to do that!

The_ICT_Engineer

zagfles wrote: »

If I were doing it this time of year think I'd be heading up to north of Sweden/Norway to see the northern lights and the ice hotel etc. Went up there in July to see the midnight sun but it was cloudy still quite weird being broad daylight at midnight... Got the bus down from Narvik to Bodo which was stunning (worth the extra money - interrail didn't cover it), bus went on several ferries across the fjords and there were traffic signs on poles in the middle of the water - because in the winter when it's all iced over the traffic drives across the ice!

I done that route myself, I only recall one ferry between Narvik and Bodo. The cost ten ago was 940 crowns and took 6 hours.

Ames

I did want to add in Northern Norway, but it just didn't fit in. I'm hoping to get a few days away there in Feb/March time, it depends on my uni timetable next year. I've been told it's stupidly expensive, although I'm planning a fortnight in Italy as part of this trip.

What's the bus like in Scandinavia, I'd expect it to be really cold? Or are they better than our National Express ones?

I haven't even gone yet and I'm planning the next one :rotfl:

Tuesday_Tenor

I'm hoping to do overnight sleepers while travelling in America in 2012 or 2013.

As I'd never done a sleeper before, this September I did Paris-Barcelona overnight as a 'trial run'. Was in a 'twin compartment' with a friend.

The dedicated sleeper trains like the one we were on are, I think, different to 'ordinary' trains. In 'seat mode' the seats weren't very close to the window, but as we were only like that for an hour, it was OK. When the bunks were pulled out there wasn't much room left in the compartment for luggage! The beds were incredibly comfortable. After a day travelling to Paris it felt lovely! BUT I DIDN'T SLEEP AT ALL! I think this was due to the novelty, and I will have another go before long.

As you've discovered, it's quite normal to be able to book into a shared (same-sex) sleeper in Europe. I've been looking at the Amtrak web-site and think Americans have no concept of doing this! I'll probably be travelling solo, but having to pay for a double cabin for myself might well make this planned trip prohibitively expensive. Anyone have any experience of travelling solo on American sleepers?