Just Finished Reading: InterRail

  I decided to get into the sprit of this novel, about the adventures of one man's InterRailing travel, by reading it on a train. The Italian intercity no. 504 from Liguria to Torino to be exact. Every time author Alessandro Gallenzi described his travel companions as he went from place to place, I secretly looked around to see if I was riding with any similar characters.

The book starts out with a smack in the face literary as the main character Francisco gets shoved stepping off a train and falls flat on his face. Little did he know that the one person who came to his rescue (Pierre) would end up involving him in international scandals involving multiple wives, multiple countries, and multiple private detectives.

Pierre is one of those rare shady people who can pull of living a luxury lifestyle without having any money. His motto is "Intelligent animals don't pay. Noodleheads pay." Brilliant words to live by in my opinion. It's the out of control and impulsive Pierre that's the interesting character in this book. Pushover Francisco is merely the slightly boring storyteller. Think of a Nick Carraway/ Jay Gatsby type of relationship.

I won't say any more and leave the rest as a surprise but if you have ever euro-passed your way through Europe, or just wanted to, you will find this book a fun read.

Favorite quote p.42: "Everything is beautiful in this country, he thought. "I could fall in love with a lamp-post here."

Find out which city he was talking about!: InterRail by Alessandro Gallenzi