Things I learned from my Eurotrip 2008

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Well, it’s been awhile since I’ve been around but I made it to Europe and back.  I visited both Germany and Poland, and had a fabulous time!

I did learn quite a lot of things about myself, about the places I went, about others, and about backpacking, that I wanted to share here.

1. The German rail system is flawless, in my opinion.  I was so freaking worried about getting around in Germany because I know some German but certainly not enough.  But after surviving my first journey (Frankfurt Airport to Koln), I quickly caught on.  You can make your reservations to anywhere you wanna go (especially important if you’ve got a rail pass… it’s 4 euros to make a reservation on the electronic kiosk, and you can pick your seat (as in window, aisle, in the cell phone area, in the quiet area, etc - and you can get it in English too!) and also you can literately go ANYWHERE.  That little electronic kiosk is genius.  I wish they had them in Poland, maybe there would have been less confusion.  Also even if they speak NO English on your train (they do on all the ICE trains, but some IC trains they don’t), there’s a pamphlet in the seat which outlines the entire journey that train takes, and what time it arrives at each destination, so you can count stops if you’re nervous, so you can enjoy the scenery.

2. Sometimes visiting smaller, less popular cities yields excellent results.  Everyone I talked to about my itinerary for Germany was all “Why aren’t you going to Berlin?!!”  or “You HAVE to go to Nuremberg!” and all this other stuff, but my itinerary was chiseled out.  I do wish I only spent 1 day in Koln and made it to Dusseldorf or somewhere else the next day.  But I skipped out on an extra day in Munich or a day somewhere else for a day in Heidelberg and it wound up being my favorite time the whole trip (besides Celine, of course).  Heidelberg is much smaller and there is much less to do but it was gorgeous and even though I went on a Sunday when the stores and stuff were mostly closed, it was the best time.  So, sometimes it sucks to skip the big ticket cities, but opting for a smaller, “out there” place can be an amazing experience.

3.  It’s hard to meet folks if you don’t drink and go to the bars. I know there will be folks out there who disagree with me on this, but I found it hard.  My Eurotrip was also a sober one.  I did a beer bus thing in Koln and that was about it besides tasting a few beers in Munich.  I didn’t have the money to go out and drink and I was also at a point where I didn’t want to drink anyway, so every person I met and hung out with in the hostels, it was like “well we’re about to go to a pub crawl, come with us!” or “we’re going to this bar tonight where we get free drinks, come with!”  I’m serous.  Maybe it’s my age group.  But because I didn’t drink, my Eurotrip was a little lonely also.  Which was okay, because I needed to be on my own and think, but looks like alcohol really brings everyone together.  Maybe it’s a little cliched to go out for coffee or something?

4. Front row tickets to your favorite singer/band in a foreign country is AMAZING!  Front row tickets are already awesome.  But it’s different when you’re abroad.  It’s like, you’re fucking pumped cos it’s your favorite artist front row, and you’re even more pumped cos you’re abroad.  Furthermore, buying tickets to a concert in a foreign country is a great excuse to travel.  I’d been putting off a Eurotrip forever, I mean I’ve wanted to like mad, but I just couldn’t decide what to do and where to go because there’s so much I wanna see.  But when Celine went on world tour and the presale went out for tix in Germany when I was supposed to be on leave and I went on ticketmaster and got front row, I bought it right away!  Seems silly, but when you’re indecisive, all the sudden you have a focal point, and you logistically build your trip around it.

5. If you need to leave earlier, call your airline.  I know this sounds like a DUH kind of thing to say, but I didn’t even think when I was going home early, I looked online at one-way tickets first and when I realized a 1 way coach class from Krakow to Chicago was $4000, it was time to call the airline just to see.  I flew Air Canada and they were so helpful.  Telling me what day was cheaper to go home, asking me about seats I wanted, about connections, etc.  I ended up paying $100 to change my flight to 2 days earlier so I could go home and take care of something.  I hope that never happens again while traveling, going home early, but it’s nice to know if the situation does come up, it’s affordable to do it.

6. Apparently Americans are the only ones who eat sweets for breakfast.  Seriously.  I’m in Germany and Poland and everyone for breakfast has eggs or some sort of sandwich with meat or buttered toast/bread, whatever… I’m like can I get some fucking pancakes over here?  Where’s the Waffle House?  IHOP?  Shit, I’ll take Cracker Barrel!  I mean yeah you can go grab a danish somewhere but I’m talking about the good stuff man.  4 days of no sugar for breakfast and I was ready to take hostages.  I was at the train station in Koln and had a huge pretzel that was cinnamon-sugar covered and I nearly died and went to heaven.  I guess maybe Germany and Poland are not the places to go if you’ve got a huge sweet tooth.  France, maybe.  OH!!  In Germany!  So I’m at the train station in Dortmund, it’s midnight, my train doesn’t come til 2am, so I’m hungry and cold and tired and the crepe place is still open.  I have a dude make me a big ol crepe with applesauce in it.  SO GOOD.

Okay those are all the lessons for now.  There are more to come!

Some Peru planning

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I’m trying to losely iron out a Peru itenerary.  I know I’m not going until September, but I have to register for the Inca trail hike and get the permit and so I guess I am sort of building around that part of the trip.

I fly in to Lima on the 2nd of September (very late so sightseeing will begin on the 3rd) and I am thinking of only spending 2 days max in Lima.  I’m the kind of traveller that dislikes developed/modern cities.  For example, when I go to Europe, I am spending no time in Frankfurt b/c it’s kind of modern in comparison to, say, Munich or Cologne.  I love seeing big cathedrals and love architecture and I love the REAL stuff a place can offer me… not something I can fly to NYC or LA and see something similar, know what I mean?
So I feel like there is much more to Peru than Lima.  I do want to spend a day or 2 there though.  There’s a park that overlooks the shore I am dying to see and I am going to try to go hang gliding if I can afford it.  So after that I’ll probably head up to Cuzco to get used to the altitude.  That will be a good time to check out the Sacred Valley - I am definately planning on horseback riding to see that.  Then the Inca Trail/Machu Picchu thing is 4 days, and by that point, my trip will be like half over.  Well maybe not. 

Anyhoo, I originally wanted to head up to the Amazon area, namely Iquitos, because there’s that floating marketplace they call the “Venice of South America” which would be cool but Iquitos is only accessible by airplane or boat, there are no roads.  Boat would be VERY cool but waste the entire rest of my trip and I’d still have to fly back.  Flying there is SO expensive.  A one-way ticket is 360 bucks from Lima.  And the runway there is only open early in the morning or late in the evening because during the day geese or some sort of birds sit on the the runway (random I know). 

So Iquitos is a no-go, sadly.  But Lake Titicaca is a definate!  From Cuzco the train is like 8 hours, so is the bus, to Puno.  Or I could fly but that’s kind of a waste of money.  There’s a lot in that area I want to see.  There’s some man-made floating islands which are supposed to be cool.  And I can check out La Paz on the Bolivia side if I get an extra day or so.

I want to do a zip-line but it looks like Ecuador is the place for the zip-lines, and other Central American countries.  But that’s okay.

My purpose with Peru is not to rush around to a new place every single day like I am in Europe this summer.  This is a chillax for awhile and be one with myself out there before I start school again in September.  I’m hoping it to be more of a spiritual type trip for me, not because I am trying to see churches or Amazon witch doctors or something (though that would be sweet) but especially on the Inca Trail, I’ll have a lot of time to think and clear my head.  So this is why that although I know I could fit in a few days here and there at some other places, I want to relax and take it in.

Next post I am going to talk about the one random country I bet 90% of you have never heard of, and I am DYING to go.  So stay tuned!

n

the Europe dilemma

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I’ve got the majority of my Europe trip for June nailed down as far as where I’m going and when but I don’t have one 3-day portion of it nailed down.

 Here’s what we’re looking at overall:

-June 12th: Fly out of C-bus, layover in Toronto, on to Frankfurt

-June 13th: Land in Frankfurt at 7am, get on flight to London at noon

-June 13th-16th: hanging out in London, flight ot Stuttgart on the 16th

-June 16th: Celine concert, leave for Munich the next morning

June 17-18: Munich

June 19-22: fly to Krakow, Poland on the 19th, hang out in Krakow (see Auschwitz also) til the 22nd.

Here’s where the dilemma is.  On the 22nd I can either go onward to Prague then fly back to Frankfurt in time to leave on the 26th.  OR I can skip Prague and head back to Germany (Cologne) and see Cologne, Bonn, Dusseldorf, then rail it back to Frankfurt.  I need to solve this dilemma because if I chose option B then I will get a rail pass, if I chose option A then I won’t….

I dunno what to do.  A part of me wants to skip Prague and save it for another trip because I really want to see Cologne and some other parts of Germany.  I don’t know.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated!

number 1

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Hey guys, bout to start this TP blog off, but just wanted a small introduction.

My upcoming trips include Europe (Germany, England, Poland, and the Czech Republic) in June and Peru (all over) in September.  So I’ll be posting iteneraries soon, basic planning stuff, etc.  Then once I’m there I’ll write some fun stuff about my travels and upload some fun pics.

During the downtime, I might write about some old travel stories, post some fun links, talk about where I am looking to go next, yada yada yada.

That’s my “vision” anyway.

nicole

Hello world!

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