‘I’m bus firm’s largest fan – I rode on a 58 hour journey and did not get bored as soon as’

EXCLUSIVE: How much do you love a particular company? We all have our favourites, but for one coach-crazy fella from Scotland that means testing his beloved FlixBus’s services to the absolute limit

A bus-mad lad has recounted his 58-hour saga across the entire landmass of Europe – in a coach. Jordan Stewart, 19, from Kelty, Scotland, undertook his quest after receiving a gift voucher to low-cost German travel brand FlixBus.

Founded in 2011, the company has exploded in popularity in recent years, positioning itself as a key player in the budget travel market, even ousting well-know rivals such as Megabus, which brought a halt to many of its England and Wales routes last year. The firm is now turning over €2billion with its Managing Director saying in December last year that by the summer of 2025 it planned to have 200 buses on the road in the UK.

Jordan is a big fan of the firm. After receiving a voucher from the company in return for sending in pictures of one of their coaches in the snow, he set out to use the perk to pull off the longest journey he could find, a continent-traversing odyssey across Europe: Glasgow to Sofia, Bulgaria.

‘Why?’ is a reasonable question to ask a this stage, and one which Jordan has a clear answer to.

After he was given the voucher, he “had a look for the furthest place I could go, that was Sofia, Bulgaria. I was trying to see how far as I could possibly go from where I am using the voucher”. He added there was also a train he wanted to catch a glimpse of at a yard in the Bulgarian capital: “It was one of the trains parked up in one of the yards, that’s what I went across to see – I also wanted to try a lot of European coach travel, so that was one of the main things I wanted to try.”

The drive between the two cities is astonishing, around 1,950miles, and would take around 35 hours non-stop and direct.

“Ever since I was young boy I’ve been obsessed with busses and trains,” he explained, adding that he first used Flix in 2021. “I really enjoyed it… I’ve always had a thing for buses, long distance travel, that sort of thing.”

His mammoth journey was broken up into four sections, each time with a new bus. The first took him from Glasgow to London, before heading on to Paris. This was a challenge as it came during the Paris Olympics “and it was the middle of the summer. So, it was 33C I think it was. I’m quite a big lad and trying to go and get something to eat and the sweat,” he continued before breaking into laughter.

From here he travelled on to Munich where he admitted he was knackered, a situation made worse by the people in front of him comitting the cardinal coach sin of putting their seats back for the journey – a particular misery anyone who has taken a budget flight will attest to.

Then, after a spot of breakfast in the home of Harry Kane he took the final, 23 hour, bus through Austria, Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia on its way to Bulgaria. “That was one of the reasons I wanted to use that route,” he continued, “It’s quite an interesting [one].”

Clearly made of sterner stuff, he says he didn’t get bored at all. “I packed my bag full with juice and snacks and downloaded some videos – and I like listening to music as well… and obviously I had the camera and I was taking photos out the windows of everything I could see. For me, if I get bored, I go to sleep. Boredom wasn’t a problem – It was tiring.”

Sarah Bartlett, Senior PR Manager at FlixBus said: “We’re delighted to see passengers like Jordan make full use of our affordable and sustainable global coach network! While there is a huge distance between Scotland and Bulgaria, our comfortable vehicles and convenient booking options mean FlixBus is an increasingly popular choice for travellers, compared to the hassle of airports and expensive plane tickets.”

After a couple of days seeing the sights in Sofia, Jordan hopped on a flight back to Edinburgh. He had passed his driving test the day before he spoke to Daily Star, and revealed that next on the agenda was to apply for his coach licence.

FlixBus journeys are available for 70 UK destinations with tickets available at www.flixbus.co.uk