Interrail tales: Bread, cheese, tomatoes and Tito

For several days, Sarah and her new travel acquaintance Kay had been followed at a distance around Belgrade by three men in dark suits.

“And then she confided in me that she was going out with President Tito’s son.”

It was 1984 and Kay’s romantic attachment with one of the late leader’s offspring had come to the attention of the Yugoslav secret police. Eventually, Sarah and Kay decided to shake off their shadowy followers. They packed their bags, went to the main station and, in a scene worthy of the movies, pretended to get on one train but then jumped onto the train at the next platform just as it was about to depart. Only then did Sarah and her companion realise they were on their way to Sarajevo, now the capital of Bosnia-Herzegovina.  

Sarah’s Interrail tale was one of many I recorded during my own 2,000-mile rail odyssey in the summer of 2023. Travelling around England and Scotland by train, I had the privilege of interviewing an engaging group of narrators. All had taken at least one Interrail trip in Europe between 1972 and 1997 and were keen to share their stories. Recently, after listening to the recordings and reading the transcripts, I began to reflect on what I had discovered over the past three months about the Interrail experience in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.

For Interrailers of that era, spending up to a month crisscrossing Europe involved deciding where to visit next, finding a place to sleep, and making funds last. With many being students at the time, budgets were invariably tight, and meals seemed to consist of bread, cheese and tomatoes with an occasional cheap hot meal as a treat. For some, living as frugally as possible became a challenge in itself. To save cash on his trip in 1980, John rarely slept with a roof over his head, let alone in a bed. Most settled for the relative security offered by hostels, cheap hotels or tents, although more unusual sleeping places included under a reception desk, behind the glass in a station ticket office and at a convent.

One money-saving option available to Interrailers back then was an overnight train journey. If you were lucky, you would get a seat in a compartment. If really lucky, you could commandeer a whole compartment and lie down. For the less fortunate, an uncomfortable and, if near the toilets, malodorous, night in a carriage corridor beckoned. I interviewed a couple who shared a compartment with a group of Spanish travellers who at one point in the evening all got up and went out but left their bags behind. A short time later, one of the Spaniards knocked on the door, popped his head in and asked, “You finished?” By that point in their travels, the couple were interested in nothing more energetic than sleep.  

Many of the narrators mentioned fatigue. Although young at the time and able to bounce back quickly, being on the move for a month, carrying a heavy bag and maintaining a near constant state of alert in unfamiliar surroundings took its toll. Perhaps not surprisingly, several of those who travelled to far-flung Greece, either via the arduous rail route through the former Yugoslavia or by ferry from Brindisi in Italy, decided to extend their stay and relax on the beach or in the mountains.

Although Interrailers tended to follow well-established backpacker routes, I was surprised by how many of the narrators described bumping into someone they knew. Bearing in mind this was the era before smartphones and the widespread use of the Internet, backpackers were not easily contactable by friends and family and were frequently incommunicado. With today’s technology, some of the incidents I recorded would no longer happen. In Germany in 1975, Len decided to catch up on sleep at the hostel while Ron and another friend went out for a couple of beers. But hostel curfews could be strict, and the two lads found themselves locked out and consequently spent the night sleeping under the stars. Nowadays, surely messages would be exchanged, and a plan hatched to find a way into the building.

As Interrailers moved around the continent, they became part of what was going on in Europe at the time. From his trip in the summer of 1972, Tim recalled the ‘jolly’ atmosphere in Munich as he and his friends wandered close to the Olympic Stadium. Just days later, security around Olympic venues would change forever following the deadly attack on members of the Israeli team. In 1985, Andy heeded warnings not to travel through Italy because of his Scouse accent. His first Interrail trip was only a month after 39 people died and hundreds were injured following crowd trouble at the European Cup final between Liverpool and Juventus at the Heysel Stadium.

In my interview with Gordon, he recalled his visit to post-conflict Zagreb in 1995 and photographing the impromptu war memorial made of bricks. Snaking round the streets, each brick had the name of a victim painted on it. I was reminded of how quickly cities can bounce back from adversity, and that curious travellers are drawn to such places. Gordon only learnt after returning home that during his time in Croatia, the situation in neighbouring Bosnia-Herzegovina had deteriorated, culminating in the Srebrenica massacre.

While Tim, Andy and Gordon avoided significant trouble on their Interrail trips, several other narrators described in detail the dangerous situations they were exposed to, including actual physical and sexual assault. Others discussed receiving unwanted sexual attention or feelings of vulnerability, often in and around major railway stations. Yet, despite being exposed to these risks to a greater or lesser extent, almost all the narrators talked of the sense of freedom that Interrail provided. At a time when Interrailers could jump on virtually any train, and not just to avoid the secret police, I think that free spirit attitude is captured perfectly in Aileen’s words:

“We ended up going to Juan-les-Pins, on the pure and simple grounds that it was in the Peter Sarstedt song.”

This article only features a small fraction of the material I have collected so far in 28 hours of audio recording and almost 250,000 words of transcribed testimony. I will be conducting further interviews until Spring 2024 and still have some slots to fill.

So, if you took an Interrail trip between 1972 and 1997 and have experiences to share, please contact me.

Acknowledgements

Thank you to all the narrators for being so generous with your time, for being willing to go ‘on the record’ and talk about your Interrail experiences, and for allowing me to share your stories and images.

As ‘Kay’ was not one of my narrators, I have used a pseudonym.