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!

What's Hot in Travel in 2017 (Entirely According to Me)

Well, it worked all right last year. So So here's my Hot List for Travel in 2017, randomly based on my recent travel experiences. All items tenuously included because, well, I like them.

1. Lviv is the new Kraków. Seriously people, why aren't you in this Ukrainian city right now? If I didn't have other commitments after my May visit, I'd still be there.

As I said in this blog in June 2016, I love Lviv. It's a beautiful city of faded but glamorous baroque architecture, it has a thriving coffee scene, and it's incredibly cheap right now - as in "tram tickets cost ten cents" cheap.

It's also just over the Polish border and a long way from the Russian-backed insurgency in the east; about 1200km from troubled Donetsk, for example.

Lviv feels exactly like what it is - a piece of Central Europe that's come adrift and ended up in Eastern Europe (it was previously part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, then Poland). Go there. You'll thank me.

2. Los Angeles is more than Hollywood and Disneyland. In 2016 I visited LA for the fourth year in a row, and as usual I discovered a plethora of interesting attractions beyond the city's stereotypical drawcards.

I visited a bunch of great science museums; visited late-night comedy clubs; ate tasty cheap food in the Downtown; and saw a musical in a beautiful old 1920s theatre.

I also hung around cool neighbourhoods such as Silver Lake and Echo Park, and joined an intriguing true crime tour about an infamous unsolved murder.

And that was just 2016! If you scroll down through my North America travel stories here, you'll find loads more quirky LA attractions I've visited over the past few years. Yes it can be difficult to get around, but Uber and the city's expanding Metro rail network can help with that.

3. Polish food and drink. It's come a long way from cabbage and dumplings (though those pierogi are still great). As I wrote here last May, there's an affordable and tasty range of food experiences to be enjoyed across Poland.

These range of the retro delights of communist-era milk bars, enjoying a hipster resurgence in popularity; to interesting fusions of traditional Polish cooking with international ingredients and flavours such as I enjoyed at the Gothic Restaurant within Malbork Castle.

Polish beer and vodka have always been good, but the classics have been joined by an explosion of craft beers. I even enjoyed great Polish cider while in Warsaw. As a local explained to me, when the Russians banned Polish food imports, Poles had to find something to do with the excess fruit. Russia's loss is our refreshing gain.

4. All-inclusive luxury rail journeys. I wrote about rail "cruises" in my 2016 list, but I've recently travelled aboard the Indian Pacific and that's reinforced the appeal of long-distance rail travel.

I hadn't taken this epic 4400km train journey from Sydney to Perth for five years, and in the meantime it's evolved into a truly impressive travel experience.

The food has has become very good indeed, often including ingredients from the region through which the train is travelling; alcoholic drinks are now included with the fare; and the off-train excursions have greatly improved.

Rather than a so-so bus tour or two, the excursions now include, for example, a wine tasting tour and dinner in the Barossa Valley outside Adelaide; and dinner at sunset at a remote Outback siding in Western Australia.

I wrote more about the Indian Pacific journey when I returned east from Perth to Adelaide.

5. Venturing beyond obvious cities and sights. As adventurous as Australian travellers are, I still meet a lot of people whose trips to Europe involve the obvious big-ticket sights and never venture east. Sure it's nice to glimpse the Mona Lisa, but if we spread around to include less-visited places we'd all feel less crowded and more stimulated.

I wrote about this for Fairfax's Traveller site in December, suggesting alternatives to the most popular (and most crowded) European hotspots. Hey, if I can spend a night in Chernobyl, you can dare to visit Budapest.

6. Hotels with windows that open. I can't stand sealed windows in hotel rooms, as sleeping under enforced air-conditioning gives me a headache. I resolve to spend 2017 requesting rooms with opening windows, and I hope you'll join me in that.

7. Airlines upsizing their Economy seating for a proportionate fee. Say, 20% more space for a 20% higher fare. OK, this is more of a wish list item than reality. But we can dream, can't we?

I Love Lviv

I paid for my travel to Ukraine, and was hosted by the Ibis Styles Lviv Center hotel.

Ukraine is the final country on my four-week journey through Europe, and my first stop was the western city of Lviv.

Lviv is western in more ways than one. Over the past century it has been a city in a) the Austro-Hungarian Empire; b) Poland; c) the USSR; d) independent Ukraine. This tumultuous history has bequeathed it some stunning architecture, and its entire city centre is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Central Lviv reminded me very strongly of the Polish city of Kraków as it looked some 20 years ago; beauty to be seen everywhere, but also a lot of cracked pavers and peeling paint. 

As someone mentioned to me on social media, it's as if Prague and Kraków had a beautiful little sister that no-one knew about. It's a striking place with a great number of harmonious 19th century facades. It feels as if a Central European city was unexpectedly shunted into Eastern Europe (which is more or less what happened).

Just as pleasant were the low low prices. I gained the first inkling of this on arrival when I caught a tram from the train station to the city centre; it cost 2 hryvnia, about 10 cents. I sent the next few days buying excellent meals for a few dollars, and enjoying Lviv's impressive cafe scene for even less than that.

If only the Ukrainian government would drop its visa requirement for Australians, we'd be there en masse. Even with the expensive visa ($157!), you effectively get your money back via the cheapness of everything on the ground. Even a room at the Ibis Styles, an attractive new hotel on the edge of the Old Town, is only $90 a night.

Here's a selection of photos from my stay in this impressive city...