08 How do I travel to twelve European countries in two months?

Fly with Lily

The only trip you will regret is the one you don’t take.

你唯一會後悔的旅行是你沒有去的那一個。

Hello and welcome to the Fly with Lily Podcast. I’m Lily Wong and in the following episodes I will take you on a journey around Europe. In this journey, we will meet a varied cast of people and look at both some of the highlights and challenges of travelling solo. These podcasts cover many different topics and work best when I hear your thoughts, comments and ideas. So please comment, subscribe and share; I always love hearing from my listeners, wherever you may be.

歡迎來到Fly with Lily的播客，在接下來的幾集我會帶你進行一場環遊歐洲的旅行。在這趟旅行中，我們會見到不同的人物，還會來看一個人旅行的好玩的地方和挑戰之處。這些播客將涵蓋許多不同的主題，你們的心聲、評論還有點子會幫助我做的更好！所以請你們不要吝嗇評論、訂閱或者是分享；我喜歡接到我在各地聽眾的意見。

So, how did it all begin? Why did I pack my bags for a European rail trip? It all started one night in Shanghai in 2015 when I was listening to a talk given by a man who had travelled around Europe with a ukulele and visited five countries on the train in one month. When he talked about the people he had met, I dreamt that I too could have an adventure like this one day. Having lived in Spain for almost three years with an entrepreneur visa, I had become used to the convenience and low cost flight tickets easily available and had forgotten about my dream of travelling in Europe by train. It was when I finally decided to leave Spain that I realised just how many countries I hadn’t visited! I didn’t know when I would next come back to visit so this seemed like the perfect moment to buy a Eurail pass for two months. Starting from Spain, the countries which I originally planned to visit were France, Monaco, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Denmark, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Croatia, Bosnia, Greece, and finally Italy. Poland, Bosnia and Greece did not happen, including because of winter train timetables however I did get to Sweden.

所以，一切是怎麼開始的呢？為什麼我會帶上行囊去用火車環遊歐洲呢？用火車環遊歐洲的想法其實是在2015年婦女節的時候，在上海聽了一場演講（後來我也邀請了主講人Alan上我們學英語環遊世界第162集的節目），大受鼓舞，主講人用一個月的時間用火車環遊了5個國家，當他談到路上遇到的有趣的人事物的時候，讓我對火車環歐旅行充滿嚮往，那時我就在心裡默默許願，有機會到了歐洲也要這麼壯游一場。後來因為拿到創業簽住在西班牙將近三年的時間，由於來往歐洲各國的飛機十分的便宜便利，讓我都差點忘了曾經擁有的夢想！就在我決定離開西班牙回來亞洲定居繼續旅行的時候，才想到歐洲還有好多地方沒看過，而下次回來不知道什麼時候了，我在歐洲鐵路官網上買了一張兩個月的火車通票（Eurail Pass），從西班牙啓程，原先規劃路線從法國、摩納哥、瑞士、奧地利、德國、丹麥、波蘭、匈牙利、斯洛伐克、克羅地亞、波西尼亞、希臘，然後最後一站意大利。因為火車時間表的關係，我最後沒有去成波蘭、波西尼亞還有希臘，然而我卻去到了瑞典。

This was my last adventure before leaving Europe in 2019 and I departed from Spain in November when the weather was getting colder. I used Couchsurfing to stay in strangers’ places and get to know people in the cities I was visiting. In two months, I was in twelve countries across Europe. Originally it felt like a mission impossible, and I almost chickened out of it in the middle. The constant long distance travel was a huge test for my mind, body, and soul, however, I gritted my teeth and kept going in the face of challenges. Although the pandemic has been slowing down globally, in Taiwan the infection rate has gone up. At this time, I am living in a hillside village in Taiwan and this has given me the calmness and space to begin writing. I wrote the English version first and edited it with the assistance of my English teacher Oliver, before translating it into Chinese. So listeners, get yourself a drink of your choice, make yourself comfortable and buckle up because we’re flying off on our European tour with Lily!

這是2019年我在離開歐洲的最後一個冒險，我一個人坐火車在開始要變冷11月的時候從西班牙出發，並且用沙發衝浪的方式住在陌生人家中然後認識當地人，用了兩個月去了歐洲12個國家，起初感覺是不可能的任務，甚至害怕會中途退縮，一直長途在路上旅行真的是對身心靈非常大的考驗，但是我還是咬牙達成了！直到最近全世界的疫情較為趨緩，然而在台灣卻感染案例不斷，我搬到了台灣山坡上的小村子，得以靜下心後，我才開始用英文寫下了這個火車環歐旅行還有沙發衝浪的故事，然後請我的英語老師Oliver協助修改，我再自己親自翻譯而成！所以聽眾們，準備好一杯你喜歡的飲料，讓自己坐得舒服些，綁好安全帶因為我們即將和Lily一起飛到歐洲進行一場奇幻之旅！

Stay tuned…there’s much more to come!

In the next episode I’ll be taking a closer look at reasons why I decided to leave the beautiful country of Spain and how I overcame the fear associated with this departure.

敬請期待，還有好多故事呢！

下一集我會告訴你我為什麼離開西班牙這個美麗的國家，還有我是如何克服出發伴隨的各種恐懼。

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