Travel with Spirits

Tag: bus

  • Beyond Railways: Buses as Real Connections in the Balkans 🚌

    Beyond Railways: Buses as Real Connections in the Balkans 🚌

    Low-carbon travel is not always seamless.

    In parts of Europe, especially across the Balkans, railways simply do not connect in practical ways. International routes are limited, slow, or suspended. Borders between EU and non-EU countries involve passport checks, customs procedures, and unpredictable waiting times.

    In these places, buses are not a secondary choice. They are often the only one.

    Where Rail Ends

    High-speed rail dominates headlines, but buses quietly fill the gaps.

    At Barcelona Nord, I was reminded that Europe’s transport system is layered. Trains dominate Western Europe, but buses extend the network.

    Andorra appears not as an exception, but as routine infrastructure.

    There is no railway connection between Barcelona and Andorra. The only realistic way into the Pyrenees is by coach. The three-hour ride climbs steadily. The road narrows. The air cools. It is not dramatic. It is simply how the region functions.

    San Marino: A State Without Rail

    Where there is no rail, the bus is the system.

    San Marino has no active railway. To reach it, I took a bus from Rimini.

    The road winds upward from the Adriatic coast.

    The route climbs into the hills. There is no visible border checkpoint, but you are crossing into a sovereign state. Here, buses are not an alternative. They are the infrastructure itself.

    Crossing the Balkans

    A regional hub where road replaces rail.

    In Podgorica, buses connect Montenegro to Serbia, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Albania, and further into the EU.

    Skopje, Pristina, Thessaloniki. Road corridors where rail is limited.

    Cross-border journeys are tangible. Drivers collect passports. Officers board the bus. Luggage compartments are opened. Sometimes the process is quick. Sometimes it takes much longer. You feel the border.

    Everyday Mobility

    Practical vehicles forming the backbone of regional mobility.

    The buses are practical. Seats worn. Curtains faded. Air conditioning inconsistent.

    Daily mobility, not curated tourism.

    Passengers include workers, students, families, traders carrying large bags.

    Informal logistics networks moving alongside passengers.

    I once watched a washing machine being loaded into the luggage hold. It did not surprise anyone. These buses move people and goods together.

    The Part I Struggle With

    Scheduled stops determine comfort.

    There is one reason I still prefer trains when possible.

    Many long-distance Balkan bus routes last eight to ten hours. Most coaches do not have onboard toilets. You wait for scheduled stops. When you need a bathroom, you wait for the next one. And the facilities are often basic, sometimes not particularly clean.

    This is the only part of long-distance bus travel I genuinely struggle with. Trains offer more space and consistent facilities. On buses, comfort depends heavily on timing.

    Extending the Network

    Where rail ends, road continues.

    Despite these limitations, buses extend Europe’s mobility network where tracks end. From Barcelona to Andorra. From coastal Italy into San Marino. Across Balkan borders where rail infrastructure was never rebuilt or modernized.

    They do not compete with trains. They replace what does not exist.

    Sustainable Travel in Imperfect Systems

    Mobility shaped by geography and history.

    From an emissions perspective, buses sit between rail and flying. In Europe, rail averages around 14g CO₂ per passenger kilometer. Coaches often range between 25–60g. Short-haul flights typically exceed 150g.

    Rail is clearly lower. But in regions where rail does not exist, the real comparison is not bus versus train. It is bus versus flying.

    In the Balkans, choosing the bus is not about chasing the lowest possible number. It is about working with the infrastructure that exists.

    Sustainable travel is rarely about ideal systems. It is about making the best possible decision within real ones.

    In much of the Balkans, and in mountain states like Andorra or San Marino, buses are not secondary transport. They are the backbone.

  • Sustainable Travel in Europe 🌍

    Sustainable Travel in Europe 🌍

    From Pilgrimage to Low-Carbon Movement by Interrail and Beyond

    A Slow, Grounded, and Cultural Way of Moving Through Europe

    For a long time, travel meant arrival. Flights, itineraries, destinations, checked off one by one.

    But over time, I began to understand something more essential: what shapes a journey most is not where we go, but how we move.

    This series traces my shift toward sustainable travel in Europe, not as a set of rules, but as a lived practice shaped by the body, time, and low-carbon movement.

    It began with walking. And it continues, still unfolding.

    🥾 Walking: The Body as Teacher

    When body becomes the vehicle.

    In the spring of 2025, I walked the Camino de Santiago from Zamora. Three weeks of near-zero-carbon movement redefined my sense of distance, time, and presence.

    Before walking the Camino, I traveled the way most modern travelers do. I chose the fastest way to arrive. Flights, connections, time zones. As if the journey only truly began once I had “arrived.”

    But after walking for weeks, I felt something I had never felt so clearly before: The body needs time in order to enter a place.

    When movement slows down, the senses awaken. Terrain, climate, distance, fatigue, none of these are inconveniences. They are signals.

    That was when I understood that sustainable travel is not only an environmental choice. It is also a form of respect for the rhythm of the body. This is why, after the Camino, I began rethinking the way I move.

    From Camino to Sustainable Travel →

    🛤 Trains: The Low-Carbon Backbone

    Watching landscapes change instead of flying over them.

    From May to July 2025, I traveled across Europe by train, using an Interrail Global Pass. Trains allowed me to arrive gradually, watching landscapes shift in real time.

    The value of train travel is not only its lower emissions. It creates a transition space. A stretch of time where body and mind adjust together.

    On daytime trains, I watched light shift, weather change, temperatures rise and fall. On platforms, I shared waiting time with commuters, families, solo travelers. These ordinary moments brought back a sense of humanity to travel.

    Trains do not erase distance. They make distance understandable. For the body and mind, that is a form of gentleness.

    Traveling Europe by Train: Learning to Arrive Slowly →

    🚂Night Trains: Time Reimagined

    Sleeping while the land moves.

    Not every journey needs to pause at night.

    Night trains dissolve the opposition between movement and rest. Instead of losing time to airports, artificial light, and exhaustion, I sleep while the land continues to move.

    There is something profoundly gentle about waking up in a new country without rupture. No sudden dislocation. No abrupt transition. Just continuity.

    The body travels. The mind rests. And arrival feels aligned rather than imposed.

    Night Trains in Europe (coming soon)

    ⛴️Ferries: When the Sea Replaces the Sky

    The sea as transition, not empty space.

    Not every crossing requires flying.

    Ferries transform the sea into a visible passage rather than an empty gap between destinations. Standing on deck, watching the coastline slowly recede, I can feel departure happening in real time.

    Arrival unfolds the same way, gradually, perceptibly. The sea is no longer something to be bypassed. It becomes part of the journey itself. In that slowness, distance regains meaning.

    Ferries as a Gentle Crossing (coming soon)

    🚌🚏 Buses: Beyond the Railways

    Not romantic—but real.

    Not every place is connected by rail.

    In parts of the Balkans and other peripheral regions, buses are not a romantic choice, they are the only realistic one.

    They may not be punctual. They may not be comfortable. But they exist within the everyday lives of local people. Choosing them, for me, is a form of practical sustainability.

    Not pursuing ideal systems, but selecting lower impact, more human ways of moving within real conditions.

    When railways end, movement does not stop. It simply becomes more grounded.

    Traveling by Bus Beyond Railways (coming soon)

    🌆 Cities in Between: The New Space of Transition

    Slow travel happens in the in-between.

    The greatest gift of slower movement has been rediscovering the in between.

    Not the landmarks. Not the destinations. But the spaces between cities and countries that are usually ignored.

    In these transitions, I learned to accept uncertainty, delays, waiting. I began to understand that time is not wasted. It is a container. These experiences cannot be replicated by air travel.

    Cities in Between (coming soon)

    🍷🥂☕️🍻 Drinks on the Move: Culture in Motion

    Shared tables. Moving landscapes.

    Movement is not only about distance. It is also about ritual.

    Coffee on cold platforms at dawn. Beer after long days of walking. Wine in dining cars while fields blur past the window. These small drinks are not indulgences. They are anchors.

    They root me in a place without spectacle or performance. They invite conversation, or quiet observation. They turn anonymous transit spaces into temporary living rooms.

    Tasting something local between destinations is one of the most grounded forms of cultural connection. It is not about consumption. It is about presence.

    Drinks on the Move: Tasting Europe Between Destinations (coming soon)

    If travel is an extension of life, then sustainable travel is the choice to let that extension coexist rather than extract.

    Perhaps what we are truly trying to reach is not a particular city. But a way of moving that feels more aligned with ourselves, and more respectful of the world.