The Longest bus journey of my life (YET)!

Summary of the Journey

40 Hours of Traveling
5 Countries (Sweden – Denmark – Germany – Austria – Italy)
2200 kilometers

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One of the hidden perks of being a KTH blogger is, we get the chance to host the campus visits. On one of those campus visits, while I was in conversation with the father of a soon-to-be KTH student, he told me how he ditched the plan to fly from Hamburg to Stockholm and took a bus instead, which was a visual treat. That conversation intrigued me to the idea of traveling in Europe on the road whenever I had enough time.

Fast forward to this month, I got an acceptance into TIME European Summer School at the University of Trento in Italy, so I grabbed this opportunity to travel all the way from Stockholm to Trento on Bus. Sounds hectic? Well, if I compare it to the views I got to enjoy it was worth it, saved some money as well, all thanks to Flixbus 😉 .

The journey in pictures

Sweden

The moment we were passing along the scenic lake Vättern, I knew that I made the right choice of taking this journey. First stop was Malmö, the southmost city of Sweden, where surprisingly I met a friend who was traveling in the same bus to Hamburg, this perfect coincidence made sure that I don’t get bored for the rest of my journey till Hamburg.

Malmö central

Sweden to Denmark

The best part about travelling from Sweden to Denmark that you get to go through Øresund Bridge, the unique link between two countries when your journey from Sweden starts on a bridge and halfway through it, it descends into a tunnel on the side of Denmark, and you’re welcomed into Denmark with a sea of Windmills.

Denmark to Germany

This was another wonderful experience, there is no road linking Denmark to Germany, so all the vehicles are loaded on a Ferry, and you cross the sea on that ferry. This 45 minutes ride is definitely worth it, we took the chance to go to the upper deck of the ferry to enjoy our meal.

That’s us on the deck of the ferry. Met another Indian guy as well.

These seagulls were trying to use the shield of the ferry to stay afloat and cross the sea along with us.

Germany

Germany again welcomed us with a forest of windmills, no wonder how these guys make so much of green energy.

I practically crossed the complete length of Germany on this journey with two layovers.

The first stop was at Hamburg, where I roamed around the city with my friend for a bit and then he went on exploring the city, while I took the bus to Munich.

Hamburg!

I slept through most of my night journey and was welcomed by rain in Munich

Germany – Austria – Italy: A journey through the Mystical mountains

Maybe as a reward of traveling such a long distance, I got the front seat on the upper deck of the bus on this stretch of the journey, which turned out to be one of the most scenic bus rides of my life. The moment I entered Austria, I fell in love with the beauty of this country. There are some views so beautiful that you cannot capture them in photographs, this was definitely one of them, some pictures from the road.

Trentino: The heart of Italian Alps

Finally, I was in Italy, and the view just kept getting better, I was quite close to my destination, but still didn’t want the journey to end.

Riding through the Italian Alps

That’s the view from my balcony that I’m waking up to for next two weeks.

And this is the valley of Trento, quiet, beautiful, full of vineyards and apple trees. Bliss!!

Before arriving, I had thought that I would spend weekends traveling to Milan or Venice, both are around 3 hours away from here, but I’ve fallen in love with these mountains, and I’m going to explore more of it in these two weeks. So, not going to Venice or Milan unless someone pays for my tickets