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Live TR: The Albanian Connection
The Albanian Connection: an overland race from London to Tirana
The race is complete, and so is this report! But if you prefer fewer words with more photos and detailed mapping, you can still find my polarsteps log here. It’s approaching 18 months since I last filed a trip report, and the travels it covered took place almost 2 years ago. 2023 saw plenty of adventures which would be, I hope, worthy of coverage - from BA’s inaugural Cincinnati flight to my first visit to Japan - and I did eventually account for these on my blog. The problem is that after all the time it takes to assemble my thoughts into something coherent, the trips no longer feel topical. Destinations change with the seasons, as do airline products. So for this next report I’m going to try something different - posting live! Or, at least, before I’ve made it home. This means my words will be even less polished than usual, but I hope real-time pacing combines with an air of mystery to add some excitement. For this will very much be a trip into the unknown. Ordinarily an obsessive planner, I have stepped firmly out of my comfort zone by signing up for something called The Albanian Connection, which kicks off this time tomorrow. Organised by Lupine racing, an offshoot of extreme destination specialists Lupine Travel, this week-long event tasks participants with getting from London to Tirana via a series of as-yet undisclosed checkpoints. If you’ve seen the BBC series Race Across The World, the concept is similar, albeit with some changes. For starters, I’m spending my own money :-) The travel rules are arguably more restrictive: not only is flying banned, but so are car hire, hitch-hiking, or otherwise relying on the kindness of strangers (else influencers will soon be getting lifts from followers). Your itinerary must thus be assembled out of public transport links, with prizes for those who complete it the cheapest, fastest, or via the most countries. Crucially, however, we don’t have to surrender our smartphones (else the influencers would die). Some details - and some hints - have been shared, from which I have made speculative preparations. The first checkpoint was announced as the Belgian city of Bruges, so we could arrange our travel from the UK to mainland Europe in advance. The event is “themed around moments from cinema and film”, so I have my suspicions that Turin - location of The Italian Job - will be one of the checkpoints. From geographic considerations, I’d expect a third stop in central / eastern Europe - perhaps Hungary for The Grand Budapest Hotel? - before a final leg through the Balkans. I have armed myself with a five day first class interrail pass: and I’ve also - perhaps ambitiously - booked a ferry from Bari in Italy to Durres in Albania. Departing just before Saturday’s arrival deadline, this approach immediately rules me out of both the speed and frugality competitions. But there are no trains past Belgrade and I am keen to avoid lengthy bus travel. Will I be able to make the checkpoints and backtrack to Italy in time? I’ve no idea - so join me and we’ll find out together! |
Great intro and subscribed. Really looking forward to following along. Are you aiming for most countries?
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Originally Posted by JapesUK
(Post 36456368)
Great intro and subscribed. Really looking forward to following along. Are you aiming for most countries?
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Race day! Just a quick update as I don't consider my positioning to London part of the event proper. Since my last report I have moved from Bristol to Exeter, which means the only tolerable way to get to Heathrow on my occasional work visits is a GWR train to Paddington and then the HEX. This is a bit slower than the coaches I used to use, but devastatingly more expensive - the cheapest open return is £110!
Fortunately it's balanced by the discounts I get at various hotels along the Bath road. Arriving after dark and leaving before breakfast, I'm really not fussy about these and pick whichever is cheapest. For the sixth time this year, that was the Ibis, at £56. A quick check confirmed I couldn't get anything comparable in central London, so somewhat strangely I'll be starting this overland adventure from an airport. Last night's train - a service all the way from Penzance - was having engine trouble, only 3 of 5 units producing power. A couple of stations were dropped from the itinerary, but still we limped into Paddington 19 minutes late. That's enough to get a partial refund on the hefty ticket price through 'delay repay', but also meant I missed my connection to the Heathrow Express. The next HEX would cause a further misconnect - by a mere minute - to the buses necessary to escape the airport estate. But emerging into the central bus station I saw a guy set off at a sprint, and when I spied what he had - the 105 bus still boarding passengers - I dashed after him. We both made it - not sure what he would have been thinking of my pursuit! - and thus I arrived at the hotel at about the time I expected (22:30, having departed Exeter on the 19:17). All good practice for the race ahead! |
Good luck! Hope you’re wearing comfy shoes :D
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Never heard of Lupine racing, but this trip sounds great! I am looking forward to your updates. Good luck and safe travels
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The starting line
A belated update as it turns out Flyertalk blocks access from Eurostar wifi (I had the same problem on yesterday’s GWR train; hopefully this does not apply throughout Europe…)
A claimed total shutdown of the Heathrow Express for the day turned out to be nonsense, so I had an easy journey to the start line, St Martin-in-the-fields near Trafalgar Square. After an hour or so mingling with other racers - two who had taken part in last year’s Istanbul race; a couple of families of four - we finally had the grand reveal of how we could be spending our week. I was impressed with how polished the event was - we got a fancy race pack, and there’s a whole storyline about a lost film script. Having now spent some time with the checkpoint options, I can also see how you could build all kinds of itineraries around them to suit your travel style (or competitive aims). So what is the route? As was already known, we head first to Bruges. From there, it’s a choice of three locations:
Whichever we pick, the third checkpoint is fixed - Graz in Austria. From there it’s a choice of two:
From either of those, it’s then a dash to the finish line in Tirana, Albania - hopefully in time for a party on Saturday night! https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...e7779ff5f0.jpg The storyline in full There is a 1pm Eurostar from London to Brussels but that seemed entirely too risky for a midday kickoff (later revised to 11:45) and I had booked the 3pm instead. That meant I could grab lunch at a nearby favoured spot - the Bun House - and find a park to enjoy it in before taking a tube to St Pancras International. There I made use of the facial recognition lane to breeze through the security / border formalities (already vastly preferable to any airport) in barely a minute. Finding a seat in the crowded waiting area - no lounge access for me these days having dropped my amex platinum subscription - took rather longer, but then I had close to two hours to examine maps and scribble in my notebook. I’m not going to reveal all my plans just yet, but I am very excited for the route I’ve chosen! |
I hope you picked up a copy of
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Originally Posted by Tocsin
(Post 36459350)
I hope you picked up a copy of
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Originally Posted by TheFlyingDoctor
(Post 36459366)
I have seen the article digitally, but didn't realise it made it to print. I'd expect another Independent article - Simon Calder was at the start event - so I'll ask someone back home to pick up a copy in case!
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London to Bruges
17th August 2024
Train 8192 Operator: Eurostar Class: Standard Premier Departure: London St Pancras 15:04 (scheduled) 15:03 (actual) Arrival: Brussels Midi / Zuid 18:38 (on time) Journey time: 2h34m I don't recall booking Standard Premier but apparently I did (for £143, with free onward travel to any Belgian station that day). So I was able to turn left, leaving behind the crowds and boarding carriage 1. I believe these are the same config as business class, with 1-2 seating; it's the soft product and terms that differ. https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...e7186cd3b1.jpg Eurostar Standard Premier seating I had a solo seat, which was spacious, comfortable, and well equipped: a tray table, usb and euro power sockets, even a reading light! The train is equipped with WiFi, which is free. We had barely departed St Pancras - a minute early - before the meal service began. There was a choice of mains, and wine / beer / soft drinks were available; there were also a couple of tea and coffee runs throughout the journey. Cold dish Suffolk chicken with sundried tomato and basil, orzo pasta salad with Mediterranean vegetables, lemon and thyme crème fraîche (252 kcal) or Goat's cheese arancini, summer coleslaw, kalamata and green olives, tomato salsa (191 kcal) Dessert Belgian chocolate and biscuit tiffin, strawberry compote (212 kcal) Eurostar Standard Premier catering After eavesdropping on a nearby family who also had a secret red envelope, I wandered over to say hello and compare initial thoughts. They shared some useful tips for using my interrail pass: in particular, that I would need reservations to be able to get from Belgium to Germany the next day! As we progressed from England to France to Belgium I continued to search maps and timetables to cement my onward plan. There were also lively discussions in the group chat; I can see a fun community emerging from this, another perk of joining an organised event. I'm not really a fan of group travel but this is slightly different: simultaneous solo travel! We arrived exactly on schedule, although it took a while to get from the final carriage down to the main station concourse due to crowds. Even so, a quick supermarket sweep soon saw me ready to move on, and conveniently there was an earlier train I could join. 17th August 2024 Train IC540 Operator: SNCB Class: 2nd Departure: Brussels Midi / Zuid 19:03 (scheduled) 19:04 (actual) Arrival: Bruges 19:59 (on time) Journey time: 56m https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...5dd6515ab8.jpg SNCB standard class seating There's not much to report from this short domestic hop. It was a double decker train, so I had to sit upstairs (those are just the rules). Passenger load was light enough that I was able to secure a set of four seats to myself for the whole ride; sadly the few people who were about didn't seem to care for headphones. Anyway: we left on time, arrived on time, and it was free. What's not to like? |
Woohoo, the race is afoot! I was beginning to worry that you were too busy racing and scheming to be able to give us a running commentary
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Originally Posted by JapesUK
(Post 36460437)
Woohoo, the race is afoot! I was beginning to worry that you were too busy racing and scheming to be able to give us a running commentary
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Day One Recap
Over a hundred participants hit the checkpoint this evening, and many of them moved on from Bruges immediately. I did neither, instead retiring to an Airbnb 15 minutes bus ride from the station. This was a bargain at £38; even booking well in advance anything else was twice the price. I was in the guest room of a family home, however, so I'd prefer not to share photos.
By the end of day one, then, my progress was fairly modest: Miles travelled: 284 Countries transited: 3 (UK, FR, BE) Trains: 2 Time on trains: 3h30m The next morning I awoke to over a hundred messages, amongst which was news that some racers were already 500 miles ahead and approaching a second checkpoint - when I'm yet to reach the first! Their experiences confirmed my suspicions that Berlin is easiest, followed by the other German location. However, I'm not looking for speed, I'm looking for excitement, so it's the dam I have my sights set on. I can't do it in a day, but - the never-reliable DeutscheBahn permitting - I think I can get close to Switzerland if I put in a 12 hour travel marathon. |
Checkpoint 1: Bruges
Before I could embark on that, though, there was the small matter of retrieving my fragment of the script. I returned to the station by bus - not entirely intentionally, as I’d hoped to bail out a stop earlier but the driver ignored my request.
Until now I’d only really seen the outskirts of Bruges - plenty of impressive townhouses, although I lack the architectural savvy to discern Belgian from Dutch so very much felt like I was back in The Netherlands. https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...3d67a183f4.jpg The historic city centre has world heritage status, and I took a deliberately meandering route to the checkpoint to enjoy picturesque streets threaded with waterways. I mistook a couple of grand buildings - The Church of Our Lady, Saint Salvator’s Cathedral - for my actual target, The Belfry. After matching a shot of Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson from In Bruges to the vista in front of me, it was time to locate Bob. Walking straight past him, I instead baffled a waiter from the presumed meeting point, brasserie De Vier Winden (which wasn’t quite open yet). https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...f07c246b12.jpg Fortunately our alert scriptwriter intervened, and decided to entrust me with line 15 despite my apparent incompetence. From him I learnt that about 120 participants had met him yesterday, putting me somewhere in the bottom third. But I’m comfortable with my slow pace - I’d much rather linger longer and see more of a place than its train station or bus depot. All this is relative of course; two hours doesn’t do Bruges justice, and a return will be needed some day… |
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