Balkans day 30: Home

That good sleep I was counting on was not really forthcoming. The “Wiener Walzer” from Budapest to Zurich was pretty full, and I’d forgotten I was booked into a couchette car rather than a bed. Two of my travel companions didn’t get on until Vienna (just before midnight) and the other one got out at Innsbruck (4:30am), so all in all hardly an uninterrupted night. But all was on time, and I made my way back to Konstanz on the now almost unimaginably luxurious Swiss train. Back at my own place before noon, and O. and S. had a big plate of meat and chips waiting for me.

I didn’t take any photos on this final part of the journey, so here’s a nice bucolic picture of some cattle that I took earlier.

Highland cattle outside Oberdorf

And here’s part three of the route map.

All in all, I’ve set foot in fourteen countries on this trip (Germany, Switzerland, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania, Serbia, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Greece, Bulgaria, Turkey, Romania, Hungary) as well as traversing three more (Liechtenstein, Austria, Slovenia), which isn’t bad for one month. And I’ve tried to get a sense of a whole part of the world that I knew little about. Certainly there are also spots that I would like to return to at some point.

This is the last instalment. Thanks to everyone who’s followed along on my journey! I borrowed the idea of a travel blog from T., to whom I’m very grateful, as it’s allowed me to make more sense of my experiences and also create a record for myself and others.