Ranan Samanya Photography

6 months in the planning, 2 times changing routes, and 3 weeks the expedition itself… this is the one expedition I dearly love. The orgininal plan was to follow the Danube river from Austria to Rumania. I have even purchased a ticket with local Romanian flight which can’t be cancelled, and a ticket with the Austrian train. But it stop short at the Rumanian Embassy, as they requested an invitation letter from a Rumanian citizen, approved by their ministry. I forego the tickets, and after another obstacle, finally got my Schengen VISA from the Poland Embassy, two weeks before my departure date.

Thus the route was like this: departed from Jakarta to Vienna, made a round trip to the beautiful city of Tulln, before going to Budapest with the aforementioned train. From there passing Eztergom (in Slovakia) and Sturovo (Slovakia) before spending a few days in Bratislava, the last city in my route to have Danube flowing through it. I then spent a few days in Prague exploring the tributaries of the Vltava River, and continued my journey to Warsaw and its Vistula River, before ending the expedition in Warsaw and took a flight back to Jakarta.

And so was how the expedition passed through 5 countries: Austria – Hungary – Slovakia – Czech – Poland, by means of a 16 inch folding bike and trains, with 10 kg of photography equipment, 3 kg of bike tools, 4 shirts, 2 trousers, 3 undies, a sweater and a down jacket. In the coming weeks, I will spread stories along the route, please be patient. <grin>