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Category: Travel

La Cabra, Kraftpaule, and the Kálmán Imre

La Cabra, Kraftpaule, and the Kálmán Imre

Published on 18 October 2025

It all started with a post-it note left at the 2024 BMPH3 Xmas Party: “Come to Transylvania OCT 25”. Well, it is October 2025 now, so I’m heading to Romania for a hashing event… It is quite a trek, though, so I’ll be making some stops along the way. First destination: Budapest!

Like most of my international trips, this one too started in Brussels Midi train station, to board my ICE 15 to Frankfurt am Main Hbf. It was one of the newer models: very comfortable, and everything seemed to work. Even ordering food to my seat, which I did for lunch: a Frikadellenbrötchen mit Senf and a bottle of Apfelschorle. It’s a German train, after all!

I had hoped to have plenty of time to enjoy a coffee, but with the ICE’s arrival ten minutes late—Deutsche Bahn, so not unexpected—I kind of had to drink my La Cabra espresso Italian style! Just my luck that the barista at eins zwei was a particular loquacious one—albeit very nice and informative—so I really had to leg it to get back to the station in time. I did catch my train—the ICE 117 this time—and continued to Stuttgart! 

In Stuttgart I definitely had enough time to sit down and properly enjoy my coffee at Jules Coffee Roastery.  I actually had enough time for beer and dinner! For that beer I went to Kraftpaule. You might remember them as the organisers of Craft Beer Festival Stuttgart, which I visited in 2024. 

For dinner I had the Halbes Hähnchen and potato salad at Biergarten im Schlossgarten. 

Since I wanted to enjoy some more beers on the train, I went to Die Bierothek to stock up. 

And then… The EuroNight 50237 Kálmán Imre to Budapest Keleti was perfectly on time, but the sleeper car was suspiciously dark, and the doors stayed closed. And indeed, the MÁV staff informed me it was out of service, and I would be spending the night in a (shared) couchette instead…Luckily the only other occupants were a quiet French couple, using the top berths, so I still kind of had the bottom part of the couchette to myself. Oh well, time for those train beers, and an attempt to get some sleep after that. Good night!

London Brewers Alliance Beer Festival
In my Pride Kilt in Amsterdam…
Back in breeks…

Back in breeks…

Published on 1 July 2025 
Reached this post by just scrolling through my blog? 
If you want to read about this trip from start to finish, instead of in reverse order, click here!

All good things come to an end, and so did this trip… I rolled up my kilt again—the Eurostar metal detectors don’t like its buckles and pin—and for the first time in two weeks, I was back in breeks again.

After an early breakfast in the hotel I successfully finished the packing puzzle: even with an extra T-shirt, pyjama bottoms, silly kilt towel, eight new items of haberdashery—of which six for others—and a bottle of whisky, I was able to zip up my bag quite smoothly!

After chilling in the Avanti West Coast Lounge of Glasgow Central for a bit, the staff announced our train was waiting for us at platform two.

Five minutes after boarding I already had my first cup of tea, and I would be well catered to for the whole 4.5 hour trip to London Euston.

After arrival I quickly went to the lounge in Euston, mainly to use the toilet—too many people queuing to go on the train—and enjoy the air-conditioning for a bit. Apparently outwith Scotland, there’s some kind of heatwave!

On to BrewDog Camden then, mainly just because it’s BrewDog Camden, and of course to try some more beers.

Before heading to St Pancras International, I managed to squeeze in a new place for dinner: Beer + Burger. Don’t know why I postponed it for this long, since the beer selection is impressive! And the burger was tasty…

Then there was only the slightly delayed Eurostar, taking me back to Brussels and thus marking the end of this trip…

An Isle and an Inn

An Isle and an Inn

Published on 30 June 2025

Last full day of my trip, but I was not about to slow down! On this Monday’s schedule: a visit to the Isle of Bute, and my last run in Scotland for a while…

After breakfast at Social Bite—I really appreciate what they are doing for the less fortunate—I still had time for a coffee at Riverhill Coffee Bar, before catching my ScotRail train in Glasgow Central. 

I had to get to get onto a ferry in Wemyss Bay, but its train station actually was an attraction in itself! 

The CalMac ferry brought me from Wemyss Bay to Rothesay, on the Isle of Bute. It was quite windy on deck, so some people might have seen more of me than I intended! The risks of wearing a kilt…

The Bute Museum is a cute little museum, but you don’t need much more than half an hour to see everything. That meant I had to some time left to visit Bonnie Bling, a jewellery maker also serving coffee from the local Isle of Bute Coffee roasters. 

After that Rothesay Castle finally reopened after its lunch break. Once again I was confronted with Norwegian king Hakon… In the courtyard they were even flying the Norwegian flag, alongside the Saltire and the Buteshire flag! 

After escaping from the prison pit, I headed to the Bute Yard. It’s a magnificent space, but a bit empty on a Monday afternoon, and no food vendors. Luckily the bar of the Bute Brew Co. was open, so I enjoyed a couple of their beers. 

After returning to the mainland, I skipped a train and take some time to have fish & chips from Macari’s, a place that was highly recommended to me. No place to eat in inside, but luckily the seagulls left me in piece while I enjoyed my food sitting on a bench outside. 

Back in Glasgow I had just enough time to get changed in the hotel, and take the beloved subway—finally, because they were on strike when I wanted to use it earlier—to Inn Deep. 

There I met up with the Glasgow H3—for the third time already—to run and drink with them along the river Kelvin and beyond. 

Since I still had all my packing to do, after the last beer at Inn Deep, I then went straight back to the hotel.