I was part of this adventure, because Martina (from Nefiks) came up to me at an Erasmus+ Modri December Photographic exhibition at the Koper Library in December 2023, and asked how old I was going to be in 2024, and would I be  interested in travelling around Europe by train. I wasn’t going to decline the opportunity to travel, especially if it meant going to visit many aquariums. I am not huge on cultural stuff, aquariums are my interest, and so it became the „how many aquariums can we visit in 21 days trip“. We had several meetings, live and online to make the plan, set the itinerary, and get ready to travel.

On the 16th of October 2024, all the planning came to fruition, and the adventure was about to begin. As the time neared my mother had a tantrum about my not packing a warm coat, so I ended up having to take one, but I had the last laugh, as I shipped it home along the way.

Once we arrived in Barcelona, we took the Metro from the airport to the accommodation, checked in and went for dinner where there was a pizza with an ungodly amount of cheese, and both I and Ella were defeated by this pizza, unable to finish even half.

Day 2 in Barcelona, I woke up, cried internally about acne, had breakfast (2 eggs, bread and cheese x 3, croissants, churro, and coffee), took the metro, saw a big monument of Columbus, a market selling ammonite fossils, crossed a raising bridge, lots of gulls, saw a cable car tower thing, and then ended up finally at the Barcelona Aquarium.

We entered fake water screens, got a photo with a raggy shark statue thing, passed by tanks of sole, Nemo, Dory and juvenile emperor angelfish, cleaner wrasse, morays, spotted cat sharks, baby cat sharks, black tipped reef sharks, and white tipped reef sharks, big sturgeons, scorpion fish, painted combers, butterflyfish, mandarin fish, pipe fish, trigger fish, golden trevallies, longhorn cow fish, then we reached the big tank where they had stingrays, bat rays, various big fish, groupers, morays, and SHARKS!! They had sandbars, and the main attraction the raggy aka sand tiger or grey nurse sharks. There were a bunch of smaller males and one big female shark.

If you haven’t caught on by now, I am mildly obsessed with sharks (and ‘fish’ in general). After the big tank there was a way down to the gift shop but we continued on. We saw freshwater ‘fish’, the veggie piranha cousin, called Pacu, lungfish, gar, freshwater stingrays, plecoes. We went inside the mouth of a sperm whale, (a statue/sculpture one) inside of which there were tanks of jellyfish, as well as a statue/sculpture of a giant squid, which I thought was funny as it had great attention to detail.

In the gift shop here I acquired a black tipped reef shark magnet plushie, as well as what i am assuming is a very small raggy shark plushie keychain which I will include later in a collage of photos.

That is all of interest in Barcelona as who cares about anything outside of aquariums, eh? Not me. Sagrada Familia may be funky but not as cool as a reef shark. Ha ha.

Travelling by train for the first time was from Barcelona to Valencia. I found the train ok but nothing of great interest except a Studio Ghibli movie with a strange bird in it.

The center outside the station of Valencia is much more impressive than that of Barcelona. Took a crowded bus to a rural camping place with lots of cats. We were able to cook our own meal of spaghetti. …looked like we were by a refugee camp o.o; just kidding, just kidding, maybe?

Went to bed early as the next day was for the Aquarium! The cabin had no insulation or heating apparati save for air conditioning and so it was very cold for sleeping. 

The next day after photographing all the cats, we went to Cat-ch the bus. Aquarium here I come! Martina booked tickets in advance so we wouldn’t have to stand in long lines to gain entry. Oceanografic Valencia was its name.

When we arrived there was a dove nesting in a tree, we entered, meandered around some science and astronomy stuff for a while, but the aquarium was calling as that is my interest. At the aquarium we watched a movie on the turtle life cycle, neat but no new information for me though. I was forced to see the dolphins but thankfully we left those ugly psychos early. There was a tortoise chilling out on the way to the Arctic section. Greenland shark statue was cool, there were also penguins and other less interesting stuff. I didnt really realise how fat Belugas are!

After passing flamingoes and stuff we finally reached the main attraction, SHARKS!

We saw zebra sharks, guitar fish, stingrays, cow nose rays, eagle rays, bow mouth guitar fish (ultra rare and awesome to see because they are critically endangered in the wild) sawfish, some type of carchirhiniform, raggy sharks, leopard sharks, swell sharks, nurse sharks, small spotted cat sharks. One of the cat sharks was a mother, because she had an egg case. There were a bunch of neat ‘fish’, one in particular serranus baldwini, which is a type of sea bass who was very camera shy. I did manage to get a photo due to my persistence as he was very pretty. There were a bunch of other neat fish, cnidarian crustaceans, but I am already going overboard also will just note however that there were also garden eels which I absolutely adore.

After the aquarium, we went to the gift shop where I acquired a bow mouth guitar fish figurine, and both Ella and I acquired a manta ray plushie.

The next day we went to the Science museum which was adjacent to the aquarium, which was good but not an aquarium.

We took the Metro to Jesus station during our stay which I thought was interesting!

It was time to leave Valencia and travel to Toulouse via Barcelona, Some dude came over and asked for something in another language at one of the train stops, the conductor came over and got him to leave. When we arrived into Toulouse, we took the bus to the hotel, where a nice old french dude explained EVERYTHING to us, who I’m assuming was the owner. The shower was kinda lame but slept with wifi to listen to an audio book.

Breakfast in Toulouse was bread, butter, honey, Nutella, croissants and coffee.

Then we went to a Japanese themed park with koi fish which was SHOCKINGLY the most interesting part for me. Could have stayed a lot longer, as was very peaceful. Stopped at a book store on the way back .. stay tuned for more book store information soon.

Went to the city with Ella, had pizza, which I actually finished this time, as it had a reasonable amount of cheese less than the one in Barcelona, despite it being a 4 cheese pizza!

Went exploring the city centre and spent most of the next two day in book stores, where we found and purchased (the next day) after long contemplation some beautifully leather and cloth bound classic English language books! Sherlock Holmes, David Copperfield, Alchemist. Needless to say Ella and I had heavier backpacks after stopping there and could have bought more but with budgetary and space limitations, these were the ones selected.

From Calm to Chaos, we travelled from Toulouse to Paris. Firstly on a double decker train that was neat as it had Wifi. There were some luggage dilemmas but overall a good ride. But then, Paris. The metro straight from hell! More crowded than a sardine can! The silver lining was perhaps that the hotel was cool.

The hotel despite being in an apocalyptic looking part of town, was cool as it was obviously built on a budget, which they didn’t shy away from rather embracing it and making it part of its ‘personality’ having wacky art all over and hypnotic floors, neon lighting and rooms literally made of wood. Would recommend Jo and Joe Paris, Gentilly. And, the key card had SHARKS on it! I called my cubicle the Gremlin Hole.

The next day Chaos, Madness! Too many people, no Monster drink to start my day. There were some good points, namely Notre Dame was very interesting, as well as the river of ‘shit’ (Seine), the Pont des Arts, and the Louvre. But holy f… crowded much, already tired and drained it was hard to appreciate the crowded Louvre, seeing the Mona Lisa only from a distance. Bought a sword wielding dragon figurine for my bookcase, we met up with the group of 2 who were meeting us in Paris. Went to a big church, and McDonalds. It shocks me that these folks would pay 60 euros for this, when there was a supermarket next door. I can say that I have eaten at McDonalds more on this trip than I have ever been inside of them all of my life prior. And then back to the crowded sardine can we go.

Another silver lining perhaps is that we saw the Eiffel Tower at night, in the dark, with its golden lights. But then we had to go back on the Metro again, and once back at the hostel, I curled up in my Gremlin Hole and went to sleep.

The Great Escape Paris Edition!

Sometime around 7am Martina opened my Gremlin Hole window, to say it was time to leave. I packed up with great speed, (easy as I had barely unpacked) went down the stairs with Ella as others had already gone, and met them at a bakery where I could get a Monster! Thank you Ella for reminding Martina. We then took the Metro, but this time, due to the early hour, it wasn’t as packed as it was prior. We got to the train station and I was actually sentient, thanks to the Monster, my beloved battery acid, but the train station was a pain. Finding our port was difficult, after going in different directions, and metro tickets scanners being bitchy, beep boop, eventually we finally got to the train. We had previously joked that leaving Paris might be impossible due to train reservation mayhem, but finally we could take a deep breath and wave goodbye to this Hell Hole of a city.

We arrived at a massive and impressive train station in Belgium, that was very nice architecturally. The train from this station on the next leg was overbooked and we had to spend some of the time sitting on the floor. I had begun to get cranky which in hindsight was an indicator of the sickness to come. Plus I hadn’t been in an aquarium for a while.

We checked into the Bee Hostel, in Amsterdam, the reception took way too long, having to scan ids, getting phone numbers, email addresses, signatures and other check-in things, went to a Japanese place for dinner. If it was anywhere else, except this hostel, I would have thought it a scam but at least the reception dude was cute at this place, which has lots of nice designs. However the room was very crowded with beds stacked 3 stories high… 3 x 3 so nine beds like beehives. if they were not strangers it might be ok…but they were. I didn't feel to use the showers in such a crowded space but ended up doing so. I felt a sore throat on its way, with nothing fun to look forward to except meeting up with an old friend Myron in a few days. ha ha ha. The beeping lockers were also getting on my nerves. Cough cough. .. I don’t remember much of the last days… I have been in bed sick. I remember a many levelled train station that was impressive and a new hostel now in Hamburg, that was more private than the bee hostel. I didn't get to meet Josh or any of the guys from this city from the youth exchange. Ella bought a couple of books, including one for me, a leather-bound copy of 20000 leagues under the sea.

Day 16 - Halloween, we are now in Munich, and I am a little better. Planned to meet up with my old friend Myron, but he didn’t show up and I didn’t go to meet him as I was still not so well. Munich was a very nice looking place. We went to a Lego shop and got a Lego Shark-man keychain! I should mention that Munich is much nicer than Hamburg, beautiful architecture, and general vibe and cleanliness. There was a church with the eye of providence on the door.

Day 17 - Today both I and Ella woke up at 6am, and I started thinking about elasmobranchs as I often do, and about how there are two types of mantas. Oceanic mantas and reef mantas. Oceanic mantas are notably bigger. Then we went down to breakfast. I refused a medicine tablet as it had vitamin D which I believe is sourced primarily from fish. Had bread, butter, coffee. Some Aussie asked if the breakfast here was free and Ella informed him politely that he needed a token from reception.

Left to the English Garden but not before I graffitied our tissue box. We took the metro and after getting off we pondered where to stick Edgar stickers. Ella jumped and stuck it on a sign. There was some nice architecture, and the massive park (English Garden) contained river where people surfed and crows bathing in the river downstream as well as some Spanish people who weren’t supposed to do this but did. We went to Nives relatives house which was very nice and we had brownies and they had a dog with an Instagram account.

There was a giant tower and we met up with another relative, went to an aquarium, which was pretty nice. Saw some horn sharks and cool rays, bamboo sharks, grey reef sharks etc. SeaLife Munchen. I got to hold the egg cases of a port jackson, and that of some sort of cat shark, there was also a tank with cleaner wrasse, there were lion fish, zebra sharks, some angel fish, archer fish. I flipped off a photo of dolphins. For souvenirs I got a scalloped hammerhead figurine, and a sea life token.

We then went to visit more relatives, on the Metro, and we observed some random strangers. Arrived at ‘Granny’s’ and ate only rice, and joked that turkey must be a vegetable as ‘granny’ asked if I ate turkey, and thus as a vegetarian, for me to eat it, it’d have to be. Spoke about cladistics again and moved to the living room. Ella is sick now, so I hope Granny will be ok. The house was cool with nice decorations, crystals, and such like.

One of the relatives, drove us back to the Wombat hostel where we were staying. Tomorrow we go to Vienna, and the train is in the morning, so I need to sleep early.

Day 18 - Woke up at 6 and then 7, and I had to hurriedly pack and had to go leave, the others (save for Ella) had already left. I waited for Ella outside and the train station was close to the hostel, and we made it safely onto the needed  train. We are off to Vienna.

Right out of the Vienna train station there was a Vapiano, the hotel is nice, but the architecture is a little not that great. A random guy asked for coins that I did not provide him. I had spinach dumplings in tomato sauce at some fancy ass restaurant, was ok as I was very hungry. We went to IKEA and had to walk around the rest of the day with a new shark plushie in my hand.

Day 19 - Woke up had breakfast (eggs, bread cheese butter eggs x2 honey and coffee x4). Said goodbye to Rok and Nives.

Then we went to the Vienna Aquarium. Saw a good collection of species including a favourite ray finned fish of mine, called the Copper-banned Butterflyfish. As well as garden eels, a giant fucking cod, black tip reef sharks, tarpons, bonnet heads, and sturgeons. Barcelona and Valencia are having competition for best aquarium, particularly because of one species the epaulette shark. Regarding epaulette sharks, they are a favourite species of mine, being in the genus ‘Hemiscyllium’ I call these guys land walkers due to their unique ability, to be able to briefly walk on land to escape tide pools as that is where they hunt. This place also had zebra sharks, remoras, blue streaked cleaner wrasse, guitar fish,
horn sharks, more pleco, snakes, and various other reptiles. Blue spotted ribbon tail (a type of ray), a sole, and a tank holding a gobi and pistol shrimp displaying their symbiotic relationship where the shrimp builds the den and the gobi stands watch. We also got to pat koi. Got matching hammerhead plushies with Ella :D

This aquarium was inside a very tall historical landmark building, which is of little interest to me, but might be of interest, to you.

After the aquarium we went to a Vapiano, and had a whole pizza with extra garlic and chilli. Joked about the others being vampires as they didn’t want to touch the pizza with all its garlic!

Day 20 - I woke up early once more, quickly got ready and we were off in record time, making sure to have time to stop in Spar for food and snacks. We got the train back, which was bittersweet for me, going home. Me and Ella watched the Wild Robot movie. And this marks the end of the Great Adventure and yet he is still talking. (An inside joke that no-one will get except the people there).

I got a lift home with Martina’s dad who was also the one who drove us to the airport all those days ago, and now I am home and my room is barely recognisable as in my absence it has been cleaned, and tomorrow I will go grocery

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In hindsight, I would pack different clothes not because I was too cold but for space reasons. Sharing the accommodations was not a big deal as I knew the people already and with the Erasmus+ exchanges had shared with strangers before.

I would rate the city experiences from best to worst as below:

• Valencia/Vienna (10/10)
• Barcelona (8.5/10)
• Toulouse (7.5/10)
• Munich (7/10)
• Amsterdam/Hamburg (2/10-as was sick)
• Paris (-1000/10 - bad except for the monuments and the hostel, very cringe.)

I would certainly undertake another Interrail adventure if it ever comes my way again.

My advice for anyone wanting to make a DiscoverEU adventure, is that unless you like crowded places and trains, avoid capital cities and such, like Paris!