Green Travel Award: Trains, buses, and backpacks for travel to foreign lands

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With her suitcase, hiking backpack, and ski-touring splitboard in hand, Samantha Holder set off on her journey north. A public health student at LMU, Holder and her course mate Leonie Bernhard headed off to Uppsala in Sweden at the end of August for an Erasmus semester abroad. “Despite the bulky luggage we had with us, we wanted our journey to be climate friendly,” she explains, “to keep our carbon footprint down – and to have some experiences along the way.” Their plan was to take the train to Copenhagen via Hamburg, continue on to Stockholm and then to their final destination of Uppsala.

The pair spent almost 60 hours on trains, drank what felt like “twelve liters of coffee” and treated themselves to the odd cinnamon bun from the dining car. “Traveling by plane – in two and a half to five hours – would certainly have been faster, more convenient, and even cheaper,” Holder says. “But we would have missed out on so much, never met some of the fellow travelers and hikers we did meet, had fewer stories to tell, and our climate burden would have been far greater.”

Crossing the Øresund Bridge like in a crime series

Holder is one of six LMU students who won LMU’s Green Travel Award this year for their journey to their Erasmus program. “Erasmus students who travel ‘green,’ meaning they cover at least half of the distance in an eco-friendly way by train, bus, ride sharing, or other climate-friendly alternatives, receive additional financial support on top of their regular Erasmus grant,” explains Philippa Menzel, Erasmus Outgoing Coordinator at LMU’s International Office. The Green Travel competition was created as an incentive for students to reflect on their travel plans, their impact on the environment, and the intercultural skills they can gain along the way. It is funded through money Philippa Menzel receives as an Erasmus+ expert for NA DAAD (the National Agency for Erasmus+ in Germany) and is worth 250 euros each.

As Samantha Holder discovered, sustainable travel can involve a few unpredictable moments, like when a fallen tree brought train services to a standstill just outside Hamburg; the students only caught their connecting train thanks to friends who gave them a ride to Neumünster in the car. In Copenhagen, they then had to sprint to catch the express train to Stockholm before continuing their journey across the famous Øresund Bridge. “Before then, I only knew the bridge from the Scandinavian crime series I love,” says Holder.

The two students also went hiking along the famous Kungsleden (King’s Trail) through the wilderness of Lapland before the start of the semester. “Those eleven days walking from Abisko to Kvikkjokk were green travel in its purest form,” says Holder. “With 20 kilos of gear on our backs — tent, stove, food supplies — we trekked through endless open landscapes, flat moorland, and forests with reindeer.” They drank water straight out of the streams, “and sometimes it was so quiet we could hear our own heartbeat.”

To Denmark by ferry

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Jakob Zebhauser, who is studying mathematics and computer science at LMU on the teacher training track, also made his journey to his Erasmus semester in Bergen, Norway, climate-friendly. “Right now, you see extreme weather everywhere – floods, forest fires,” says Zebhauser. “So, I wanted to do what I can – even if in the grand scheme of things it’s only a small contribution.” He started on a FlixBus from Munich to Copenhagen. “The ferry crossing to Denmark — two hours of fresh air, stretching my legs, North Sea breeze in my face — was wonderful.”

For a sightseeing tour in Copenhagen, Zebhauser tried in vain to stow his two large bags in the station lockers. “By chance I found an app that lets you leave your luggage at kiosks and small shops — and I can highly recommend this solution to other travelers.” Despite the rain, he explored the Danish capital on a rental bike. “It was a very relaxed way to get around, thanks not least to the wide cycle paths in Copenhagen.”

He then continued by train to Oslo, where he visited the Munch Museum and went for a swim in the Oslofjord, before taking the night train to Bergen. “When I arrived at the student residence, I was really grateful for a hot shower and a real bed,” he recalls. “It was three nights without much sleep, yes — but it was also two new cities, some exciting encounters, and the good feeling of having made the journey in an environmentally friendly way.”

The eco-route to Amsterdam or Munich

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LMU students going abroad with Erasmus+, as well as students from European universities coming to LMU with the program, can apply for the Green Travel Award. Anna Merle Hecker traveled from Munich to Amsterdam by train, while students Carla Lund and Sabina van Wakeren journeyed from Denmark and the Netherlands, respectively, to Munich.

Veronika Csefkó-Kis also set off for Munich: The biology student from Budapest came to LMU for a winter semester with Erasmus+. “As a biologist, protecting the environment and the climate is part of who I am,” she says. “The direct train between Budapest and Munich takes around seven hours — and according to the Erasmus Goes Green calculator, it produces virtually no carbon emissions, whereas a flight would be about 0.15 tons. That’s a huge difference!”

Rail travel has other advantages too, besides the ecological aspects. “On the train, I could take as much as I could carry. There was no stress about liquids rules, no battle over my baggage weight, no heartbeat racing in turbulence. I was able to really enjoy the journey.” On the train she also met two Hungarian students who were likewise traveling to Munich with an Erasmus+ grant – and who had even enrolled in the same intensive German language course. “During the journey we were already helping each other with the first administrative questions.” As a result, she didn’t feel alone in a new city when she arrived in Munich, but “already felt a little at home before I even got there.”

Weekend trips to the Netherlands

Within Germany too, Veronika Csefkó-Kis stayed true to sustainable travel. She got a Deutschlandticket that allowed her to take day trips to places like Regensburg, and in Munich she discovered quirks of local public transportation that she’d not known from Budapest: “escalators that change direction on demand, and screens where an animated Münchner Kindl reminds you to be considerate to other passengers.” Her Interrail pass — 20 percent cheaper with an Erasmus discount — also enabled her to take a round trip through the Netherlands before the semester began, during which she visited Rotterdam and The Hague, among other places.

She still has two journeys left on her Interrail pass — and the number of destinations she can travel to with the Deutschlandticket is almost unlimited. “I’m looking forward to exploring more cities during my stay in Germany,” she says. “Environmentally friendly, flexible — and really enjoying the journey.”

Tips and information on climate-friendly travel to your semester abroad:
If you want to make your stay abroad as climate-friendly as possible, you can find more information here.