One Trip, Multiple Stories: A Travel Writer's Rail Journey through Europe

For the journey detailed below, I received on-the-ground assistance from local tourism authorities and hotels. Full disclosures are included with each linked article and blog post.

This is, believe it or not, post number 600 on this blog. A lot of water has flowed under the virtual bridge since I started it in 2008, and travel writing itself has become more challenging in terms of extracting an income from it.

However, for this post I'd like to reprise what I did for post 400 and post 500 - that is, to dissect a particular travel writing journey and show how my travels are converted into specific stories. At the end I'll add a summary of profit and expenses.

For this post I'm looking my 2016 trip to Europe, travelling through Germany, Denmark, Poland and Ukraine over four weeks in May-June that year.

Are we sitting comfortably? Then let's begin...

Sunday 8 May 2016

Fly from Melbourne to Hamburg via Dubai.

Monday 9 May 2016

Activity (from Monday to Wednesday): Visit the Speicherstadt Museum, Speicherstadt Kaffeerösterei and the Coffee Museum, as well as contemporary cafes, in Hamburg, Germany.

1. Resulting story: An article about Hamburg's coffee history and culture for Lonely Planet's website.

Tuesday 10 May 2016

   
Activity: Join Hempel’s Beatles tour (in which the guide plays a ukulele!) through the St Pauli district of Hamburg.

1. Resulting story: An article about the tour for Traveller.
   
2. Blog Post: A post about the tour here at Aerohaveno.

Activity: Visit the historic Kaifu-bad baths in Hamburg.

1. Resulting story: An article about Germany's spa culture for Traveller.
   
2. Resulting story: An article about Germany's spa culture for Lonely Planet's website.
   

Thursday 12 May 2016

   
Activity: Visit Café Niederegger, famous for its locally-manufactured marzipan, in Lübeck, Germany.

1. Resulting story: An article about Lubeck's marzipan for Lonely Planet's website.

Activity: Visit the Hanseatic Museum in Lübeck, Germany.

1. Blog Post: A post about the museum here at Aerohaveno.

Friday 13 May 2016

Activity: Catch train from Lübeck to Copenhagen, Denmark (including ferry crossing).

1. Blog Post: A post about the journey here at Aerohaveno.

Saturday 14 May 2016

   
Activity: Take Nordic Noir tour (featuring The Killing and The Bridge) in Copenhagen, Denmark.

1. Resulting story:  A 'Postcard from Copenhagen' article for the Spectrum (culture) section of The Age newspaper in Melbourne.

Sunday 15 May 2016

Activity: Take a guided tour of the counter-culture enclave Christiania in Copenhagen.

1. Resulting story: An article about the tour for Traveller.

Activity: Visit the Thorvaldsen Museum of classical statuary in Copenhagen.

1. Blog Post: A post about the (surprisingly interesting) museum here at Aerohaveno.

Monday 16 May 2016

Activity: Visit Kronborg Castle (Shakespeare's Elsinore in Hamlet), in Helsingør, Denmark.

1. Resulting story: An article about the castle for Traveller.

Tuesday 17 May 2016

Activity: Catch bus to Ystad, Sweden, then overnight ferry to Świnoujście, Poland (arriving Wednesday, connecting with train to Warsaw).

1. Blog Post: A post about the journey here at Aerohaveno.

Thursday 19 May 2016

Activity: Day-trip to Łódź, Poland by train, to join a tour of the city's post-industrial and cinematic sights.

1. Resulting story: An article about the city for Lonely Planet's website.
   
2. Blog Post: A post about the city here at Aerohaveno.

Friday 20 May 2016

 Activity: Taking a tour focusing on Warsaw's architectural highlights.

1. Resulting story: An item about the city in an article about less-crowded European destinations, for Traveller.
2. Blog Post: A post about the city's architectural oddities here at Aerohaveno.
3. Blog Post: A post about food highlights, including a Warsaw bar mleczny and other items from later in this visit to Poland, here at Aerohaveno.

Saturday 21 May 2016

   
Activity: Train to Gdańsk, visit the city's new Shakespeare Theatre.

1. Resulting story: An item about the theatre in a list of Best Travel Finds of 2016, for Traveller.
2. Blog Post: A post about food highlights, including a historic local restaurant and other items from elsewhere in this visit to Poland, here at Aerohaveno.

Sunday 22 May 2016

Activity: Tour of Malbork Castle, near Gdańsk.

1. Resulting story: An article about the castle and its restaurant for Traveller.
   
2. Blog Post: A post about food highlights, including the castle's restaurant and other items from elsewhere in this visit to Poland, here at Aerohaveno.

Activity: Visit the new European Solidarity Centre, in a historic former shipyard in Gdańsk.

1. Resulting story: An article about walking the city's historic heart for Lonely Planet's website.
   
2. Blog Post: A post about the centre here at Aerohaveno.

Monday 23 May 2016

   
Activity: Visit Wilczy Szaniec (Wolf's Lair), Hitler's Russian Front HQ during World War II.

1. Resulting story: An article about the eerie site for Traveller.
   
2. Blog Post: A post about the site here at Aerohaveno.

Tuesday 24 May 2016

   
Activity: Driving to Bohoniki and Kruszyniany in eastern Poland, to visit their historic mosques.

1. Blog Post: A post about food highlights, including traditional Tatar cuisine of Kruszyniany and other items from elsewhere in this visit to Poland, here at Aerohaveno.

Wednesday 25 May 2016

 
Activity: Taking a tour of Białowieża National Park in eastern Poland (where bison still roam!).

1. Resulting story: An article about the park for Lonely Planet's website.
   
2. Blog Post: A post about the park here at Aerohaveno.

Thursday 26 May 2016

   
Activity: Overnight sleeper train from Kraków, Poland to Lviv, Ukraine.

1. Resulting story: An article about the rail journey for Traveller.
   

Friday 27 to Monday 30 May 2016

   
Activity: Exploring cafes and other attractions of Lviv, Ukraine.

1. Resulting story: An article about the city's cafe scene for Lonely Planet's website.
2. Resulting story: An article about the saucy Masoch Cafe for Traveller.
   
3. Blog Post: A post about the city's attractions here at Aerohaveno.

Tuesday 31 May 2016

   
Activity: Joining a tour of communist-era architecture and history in Kiev, Ukraine.

1. Resulting story: An article about the tour for Lonely Planet's website.
2. Spiked story: An article about the tour for an Australian magazine which was cancelled (for which I received a part-payment 'kill fee').

Wednesday 1 to Thursday 2 June 2016

   
Activity: Two-day tour of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, Ukraine (sleeping over in Chernobyl).

1. Resulting story: An article about the tour for Lonely Planet's website.
2. Resulting story: An article about the tour for Traveller.
3. Resulting story: An article about how to visit Chernobyl for Lonely Planet's website (ahead of the Chernobyl TV series).
4. Spiked story: An article about the tour for an Australian magazine (for which I received full payment).
5. Blog Post: A post about the tour here at Aerohaveno.

Saturday 4 June 2016

   
Activity: Overnight sleeper train from Kiev, Ukraine to Warsaw, Poland.

1. Blog Post: A post about the rail journey here at Aerohaveno.

And that's it! I flew from Warsaw back to Melbourne on Monday 6 June. I feel exhausted just typing all that. It was a great journey, full of variety. The visit to Chernobyl was the strangest thing I'd done yet on my travels, incredibly moving and memorable.

Writing output, financial income

By my count, the trip produced a total of 25 paid articles for various publications (include two spiked articles I received payment for), and 14 posts on this blog. I've also delivered (so far) two paid talks about my 2016 Europe trip to audiences at public libraries.

I calculate the paid articles earned a total of $12,905.52 (all figures here are in Australian dollars) for both words and photos, before adding any applicable sales tax. This includes the fees from the library talks.

The blog posts don't earn any direct income, but drive traffic to Aerohaveno and thus contribute to the occasional small payments I receive from the Google Ads running on my blog.

Expenses

The Polish government covered my flights and most expenses for my Poland stay, and the German National Tourist Board likewise hosted me in Germany. In Denmark I received a public transport and museum pass from Visit Denmark, but paid for my food and accommodation. In Ukraine I paid for everything except my hotel stay in Lviv (luckily Ukraine was breathtakingly cheap!).

I calculate my total expenses on this trip at $2,951.81, which leaves a profit of $9,953.71 (and whatever future income is derived from public talks about that trip).

Some trips have a greater return on outlay, others less so. What's worth noting is how long a particular journey can take to fully pay out. The first published of the 25 articles appeared on 22 June 2016, and the last on 31 July 2019 - quite a chronological spread!

Also, my Europe 2016 talk will continue to be delivered to library audiences throughout 2020 (I began delivering it in early 2019, and I generally change my headline public talk every two years).

It's not easy to make a living from travel writing; but my rule of thumb is to derive a published story per each day of travel on a particular trip. That quantity, if achieved, helps make it viable. That target was largely achieved on this occasion.

After this epic post, it's time for a break! Aerohaveno will be taking a rest over the holiday season, and will be back with you in early January. Have a great New Year!

Łódź, Poland: From Industrial Revolution to Movies

I visited Poland courtesy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland.

Last year I revisited one of Poland's most overlooked cities, Łódź (pronounced 'woodge').

In the centre of the country, Poland's third-largest city was the epicentre of the Industrial Revolution in what was then a province of the Russian Empire. As a result, it has a lot of interesting industrial architecture, from repurposed factory complexes to tycoons' luxurious former homes.

It's more noted nowadays as the hub of the Polish film industry. Because Warsaw was in ruins at the end of the Second World War, movie-makers regrouped here after the conflict.

Cinematic highlights for visitors include the Cinematography Museum housed within a former mansion; the National Film School where Roman Polański once studied; and the animation museum of Se-ma-for Studios.

Here's a quick tour...

1. Start your visit with the Cinematography Museum. There are two attractions here: the extensive collection of movie memorabilia, from early stereoscopic film viewers to sets and props from recent productions; and the beautiful mansion it's housed in, once the home of a Łódź textile king.

2. From the museum it's a short walk to the National Film School, spread across a number of buildings. It doesn't hold regular tours, but it's possible to pre-book one in English. This is the place where greats such as Polański, Kieślowski and Wajda got their start, and there are plaques to these ex-students on a set of stairs where they sat between classes.

3. Next stop is Se-ma-for Studios, one of Poland's top animation creators. Its Animation Museum has a great range of puppets which have been used over the decades in Polish animated movies, including recent international co-productions. It's fun to look through the changing designs, even if you're not familiar with the productions.

4. A great place to end is Lodz's main street, ul Piotrowska. Here in the footpath is the Walk of Fame, embedded Hollywood-style stars with the names of famous Polish film-makers in them. Because Piotrowska is full of good restaurants and bars, it's a good spot to finish your visit over an excellent Polish beer.

 

It's worth staying over, but it's also possible to visit Łódź as a day trip by train from Warsaw (though it'd be a long and busy day). You can find out more about the city and its attractions at the official Łódź tourism website.

At the Grand (Budapest?) Hotel in Łódź, Poland

Last year my travel writing colleague Lee Tulloch wrote an article prompted by the movie The Grand Budapest Hotel. In it, she regretted the gradual loss of the "eastern European hotels that have perhaps seen better times, preserved in all their dusty glory through decades of neglect." 

I knew just what she meant. When I started visiting Poland for Lonely Planet in 2006, I regularly encountered grand 19th century hotels which had faded over the years. Rather than this being a negative, their scuffed wood and tired velvet curtains lent these places a hugely romantic aura, with a whiff of glamour from the past.

And of course, they were affordable. Owned by Orbis, the company which was once the communist state's official travel agency, they'd also retained some fascinatingly unsympathetic Cold War decor layered over the original fin de siècle architecture. 

I remember staying in the Hotel Monopol in Wrocław, which had a breakfast room of modernist pink furniture entered from an enduringly imperial lobby. In Łódź, The Grand Hotel put me up in an unrenovated single room which had a chunky communist-era radio and a shared bathroom.

I can't afford to stay at the Hotel Monopol nowadays. Bought by the Likus group some years ago, it's been renovated into splendid luxury accommodation. Likus also bought the Grand in Łódź, so I assumed it would also be out of my reach when I approached the central city on my current visit to Poland.

Except, it wasn't. So I decided to reserve a room at the Grand, to see what they'd done to the place.

To my delight, the answer was... nothing much.

For whatever reason, Likus has held off from launching the expected multi-multi-million złoty refurbishment of the Grand. So it turned out to be much as I remembered it, though the old dame had been cleaned, tidied and given a certain amount of necessary maintenance.

But oh, the aura of the faded past! It was everywhere I looked, as I roamed about the lobby:

When I took the lift to the fifth floor to find my room, this is what I encountered (along with creaking floorboards and cracked tiles):

The room was the only disappointment in all of this. As you can see, it had been modernised in a fairly straightforward way, gaining neither the glamour of past eras nor the luxury of the present day. But its time will presumably come.

There was one more surprise from the pre-WWI past, when Łódź had been a major industrial city of the Russian Empire, and anyone who was anyone had come to the Grand. 

Behind the lobby I found its vast dining room, decorated around its walls by plaster statues of pink-hued cherubs:

That's the room I had breakfast in this morning. As I dealt with my scrambled eggs, I looked around me and felt glad I could see the old Grand one last time, before it was inevitably refreshed for the 21st century.

And it was only costing me $70 a night for this dash of faded glory. The next time I visited Łódź, I suspected it would cost much, much more.

Note: I paid for my own stay at the Grand Hotel; its staff have no idea their workplace is the subject of my nostalgic musings, and are probably just waiting impatiently for the renovation.