Meet Kris: a 23-year-old Dutch girl travelling across Europe with Interrail. Diagnosed with Ehler Danlos syndrome, Kris is exploring Europe in her electric-powered wheelchair. With her Instagram and YouTube adventures, she's sharing her adventures to show that travel is possible for anyone.
After a 50 hour travel journey i'm replacing my ski clothes at the other side. After traveling through all countries of Scandinavia it was time to travel through the Baltic states. While my wheelchair worked perfect in the extreme winter weather and even in Lapland it suddenly stopped working that well when I arrived in Latvia. My motor broke and without my motor I can't move my wheelchair and can't move myself outside. And there you are, in the middle of Riga, a city with no taxi for wheelchairs, no English speaking train assistance to call and a wheelchair that could stop working every moment.
After 2,5 weeks of waiting in a hotel till my new motor should arrive by post, the shipment was canceled. The only way to get it fixed was to go to the south of Germany. There was one option, take a boat to the north of Germany and from there I had to take a lot of trains to the south. My parents flew in from the Netherlands to Riga.There was no wheelchair transport possible and nobody in Latvia wanted to help me. So my parents made a fun visit to me and drove me to the coast of Latvia so I could take a boat to Germany. It's crazy that I couldn't get myself to the boat after trying so hard, otherwise I'm happy I saw my family after such a long time. It was so nice to see them!
When I finally arrived in the south of Germany and replaced a new wheelchair motor I decided to make the best of my stay and visited Stuttgart and Munich. I'm so happy I've seen these amazing places, in the sun, between the mountains and still in my ski clothes and snow boots I discovered the beauty of south Germany. Munich was my favorite and definitely worth another visit. I ate myself all day full of delicious pretzels. For real, I've eaten countless pretzels. I have also seen the most beautiful places and loved the relaxed vibes, but after a few days I decided to take a train to my all time favorite paradise. Even hopefully my future new home Czech Republic.
The first stop was Prague, which is the city that looks like a living fairy tale, the most friendly people, to many vegan food choices, cute parks to chill, the little streets that smell like warm cinnamon Trdelnik and finally I'm at the first country where I can book train assistance with my wheelchair without any problems. I'm feeling free. Without any train assistance problems I also visit Czechsky Budejovice and Czechsky Krumlov. It was amazingly beautiful!
But yet, my wheelchair broke again. Now I need to get myself to Italy, for my hopefully last repair. On my way I hope to see some of Austria and Switzerland for yet some other pretzels before I jump into the Italian ice cream and the wheelchair repair store.
My ski clothes are ready to be replaced, up to the sun, and hopefully soon with working wheels next to me, I still have a lot of adventures to go!
Did you miss the first post of this blog series? Check it out here:
Stay tuned for more on Kris' journey here on the Eurail Community, and of course also on her YouTube and Instagram channels (Dutch).