I was walking home from a review session today to find a police line blocking the path. The last time I saw one of these was down the street by Euston. It was something about a lorrie catching on fire or something. I figured it was the same kind of thing and walked around to cross at the next street up. After passing a huge crowd of people and making a big loop to get back to Maple St, I checked the internet to find that there is a guy with gas canisters strapped to his chest at the Starbucks. I'm not too worried about it but the story is pretty crazy.
Friday, April 27, 2012
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Stats and Advice
I was thinking maybe people were wondering how we planned a trip like that--30 days through Europe on a pretty decent budget. Well here's how we did it! If you're confused by the above photo, I just didn't want the cover photo for this to be the Excel sheet, hah. It's a caricature of me and Brendan from sophomore year.
Our Google Doc
We started out with our dates, a general outline of cities we wanted to go to, and train times. We must have made 10 different itineraries. In the end we had to cut out places like Budapest, Coppenhagen, and Krakow but ended up adding Belgium and Amsterdam. For train times, we used the Austria site (see link below). Then if you want to book your tickets you can go to each country's site and buy them. They're usually around 20-30 euro unless they're international. You can also go for the Eurail pass but be careful and read the fine print because we opted not to do it since it was nearly just as cheap to buy the tickets individually. I also don't think you have to buy your tickets in advance as much as we did but it doesn't hurt if you can make all the times. I think we got lucky but we didn't miss a single train. There were a few, though, that we bought the day we left so I'm sure that route is possible too.
By the way if you travel in the UK, you can typically just buy tickets on the day of. It's also worth it, in the UK, to get a 16-25 Railcard at the info counter. It will likely save you money even if you buy just one ticket.
Our Rail Map (link)
We struggled the most with the trains going from France to Italy. Generally speaking, the "international" trains are the hardest ones to find but trains from, say, Rome to Naples run pretty frequently. We also saved money by sleeping on a train or two. If you get lucky and have a fairly empty compartment then that's probably fine but they're not all that comfortable for sleeping. The busses were also not so great for sleeping but we managed. I'd probably do it again if I was crunched for time or on a budget. Flying works too if you can check your bag.
You can budget for as low as 65 euro per day ($86 or 53 pounds). If you figure you're travelling every two days (like we did) then that's about 20 euro per day for travel (I'm accounting for a few 70 euro international tickets), 20 euro per day on a hostel, 15 euro for food, and 10 euro for entertainment. In Paris, for example, you'll spend a lot on sights but in Nice you might just go to the beach (or maybe spend your entertainment money shopping!). You can eat cheaply if you make use of the grocery stores. Whenever we looked to have a nice meal here and there, we typically relied on Trip Advisor (link). I don't think it ever steared us wrong. Generally though, France is never cheap, Italy has cheap pizza, Berlin has really cheap kabab/doner/currywurst, and the Czech Republic is just cheap in general. Switzerland is so expensive we didn't even go there. Amsterdam was pretty pricey too and Vienna can be too.
Also, everything we booked in advance was on Brendan's credit card so we could split the booking fees in half. You also have to consider the exchange rates and fees. We took out about 250 euro a few times from ATMs rather than carrying 1000 euro with us from our bank.
I don't have any regrets about our trip. But if someone were to do exactly what we did, I would advise them to choose a different city in France from Lyon (maybe Aix-en-Provence, Marsailles, or Avignon or something), don't bother with Genoa--go to Cinque Terre, and spend more time in Munich! The other German cities like Nuremburg, Dresden, and Hamburg are interesting but try to see if you can take a tour or if you have a local friend have them show you around so you know what's going on. Otherwise they don't seem so different from a regular city I suppose. And lastly you can get very exhausted and drained pretty easily. We met a lot of people on the road who said the same thing--it's a good idea to just take a day off once in a while if you're traveling for a long time. Just stay in and read a book or watch a movie.
Packing. The hostels have laundry facilities (usually around 6 euro to wash and dry a small load). I packed: 1 athletic shorts, 1 regular shorts, 1 jeans, 1 pants, 1 rain coat, 1 sweater, 1 hoodie, 1 pair of sneakers, 1 pair of sandals, 1 umbrella, 1 water bottle, and then about 4-5 shirts, maybe 5 underwear, and maybe 7 pairs of socks? Obviously we had to wear a lot of our clothes for more than one day but we couldn't fit much more than that in our bags. I'm also excluding quite a few things of course like my school notes, laptop, camera, phone, chargers, etc. Also, we didn't pack towels because most hostels have them for free or hire. And one thing we should've packed but didn't (for Austria): a hat and maybe even gloves.
Other useful items that you might almost forget that came in handy: nail clippers, a pad lock, mini-first aid kit for blisters, tupperwear, power converter for europe (they're different from the UK outlets), small backpack (we usually leave our big bags in lockers in the hostels or train stations), and something for entertainment on train platforms like a book. Sometimes we made sheets of paper with common phrases if we didn't know the language (i.e. Italy for us) but they're not necessary. Maps are also useful but we mostly relied on Brendan's tablet. Plus, especially in London, if you ever get lost in a city you can just go to a bus stop and you're bound to find a map. London actually has great maps all over the city in addition to the bus stops--it's pretty hard to get lost here. We often used maps.google.com to create maps as well with the attractions we wanted to see marked on them. For example, here's the map I made for when Kevin visited London.
London Map--Color coded by area/proximity, **means time specific, a dot means it costs money (except I didn't put a dot in St. Paul's but that costs money too just so I don't confuse someone). And ignore the HMS Belfast altogether lol.
I'm sure I didn't cover everything but hopefully that gives you a good idea of how we planned it! Now for a few stats that you may be interested in:
Days Spent Travelling: 30
Cities Visited: 23 (excluding Versailles, Pompeii, Dachau, and Potsdam)
Countries Visited: 7 (excluding Monaco and Vatican City)
Transportation: 1 Ferry, 1 Plane, 3 Busses, and about 24? Trains (quite a few transfers here and there)
Missed trains: 0
Items lost along the way: 1 -- I accidentally left my shower sandals in Rome... but 0 stolen!
Days of rain: ~5
Popular Souvenirs: postcards/stamps, keychains, leather items (Florence), murano glass (Venice), Motzart Balls (Salzburg), coasters (Germany), mugs (Munich), Berlin Wall pieces, flower seeds (Amsterdam), and Belgian chocolate.
I hope this post will help someone somewhere in the future haha. Thanks for reading! Feel free to comment below if you have more advice to share or have any additional questions.
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Day 30: Brussels
The Atomium
We awoke this morning to a wonderful breakfast and then set off for Leuven and Brussels (all of these cities, by the way, are in the Flemish part of Belgium). Caroline and Glenn (her boyfriend who also visited with us yesterday! He was really nice) had a photography class but Christophe joined us for a tour through Leuven, where he goes to school, and then Brussels where we would catch our flight that night. I think I said our last flight was coming back from Athens but we had a change of plans so now our next flight will be US bound (although mine stops in Iceland...). Anyways, we took a stroll through Leuven which is a really nice town! I don't know if it's incredibly touristy or anything but it certainly seems like a great town to live in or even to visit if you have friends or are studying abroad. We peeked inside the university library and the town hall (I think) before continuing on to Brussels. Brussels of course had plenty of chocolate and waffel places as well as a handfull of stores with a great variety of beers--most of which I had never even heard of. We started out at the atomium but the line was unfortunately too long for the time we had to spend so we moved on to see a few other sights (see photos below) and have some fries and a belgian waffel hah. They were good. I'll be honest, I regret not having written the Belgium posts sooner because I feel like I can't write as much about the things we saw but we definitely had a great time in Belgium and I would certainly return there again.
Mark, Hilde, and Christophe dropped us off at the airport in the evening where we worked on our essays (nearly finished!) by our gate. The ride to London was nice and short. We grabbed our checked bags, headed for the tube and got off at Leicester Square. Unfortunately, the Victoria and Northern lines were closed by the time we made it to Green Park and Leicester Square (thank God we at least made the Piccadilly line!) so we got off and walked back--it was only about a mile. All the shops were closed, the bars were closed, the streets were pretty empty... you might have thought it was 4am almost anywhere else in Europe but it was only 12:30am. Oh London, I missed you! :) (The pubs close around 11pm usually). I stepped into Ramsay to find a study room of architects chipping away at some projects probably due the next day. The familiar, unusual, almost unpleasant scent of the hallways had never smelled so good. I climbed two flights of stairs, put my key in the door and was homeeeeeeee!!!! Well, you know, London home. My room was just the way I had left it: bed perfectly made, a bottle of water awaiting my return, desk clean, trash empty, laundry bin... okay well that still had some dirty laundry in it. Can't have it all I suppose! I threw my bag on my chair just as I had imagined I would four weeks ago, unpacked, showered, and crawled into bed--my warm, soft, cozy bed--for a wonderful night's sleep. It's been a great trip! Thanks for keeping up with me all this time.
And in case you were wondering, I finished my essay the next day and handed it in with three hours to spare. :) Also, I'll still be posting about other things we see and do in the UK. Check back soon!
Their lovely house!
The University Library in Leuven
Streets of Leuven
Church in Leuven
I think this is the town hall (left) and that's me and Brendan in front of the Atomium (right).
Looks like a BCC (Body Cubic Centered) lattice structure to me.
The king is burried here (left) and I'm not sure why they dressed up the Manneken Pis hah (right).
There was a protest going on against the events in Syria.
Strangely shaped beer glasses--Mark told us about these but I can't remember anymore why they are shaped like this.
The main square in Brussels.
Belgian Waffels... yum.
The Royal Palace Office of the King of Beglium--I didn't even know they had a king! Learning new things everyday.
The garden across the street from the royal palace office.
European Parliament (EU)
Day 29: Antwerp
Our last train station!
Sorry I haven't posted these last two posts of the trip yet. I was waiting for something but nevermind about it. I'll just get on with the posts hah. We arrived in Antwerp and saw Hilde (the mother) and Caroline (her daughter) on the platform--they're Brendan's family friends. It was a great welcome! We have been doing so much traveling and were so exhausted, it was nice to see some friendly faces. They took us to their car (which they brought from the US after they moved here from Bedord ~14 (I think) years ago!) where Mark, the father, was waiting for us. We spent the day walking around Antwerp and got to visit a really nice Cathedral and the Ruben Haus (the former house of the famous painter). Our last stop in Antwerp was the top of the contemporary art museum for a view of the city. It was so much fun! Mark told us a bit about Antwerp and Belgian history too, he was very knowledgeable. We then set off for their home in Diest. We toured around Diest a little too--it's a really nice little town with an old Beguinage! Unfortunately it was raining on and off a lot but then it really picked up so we headed back to their house for dinner. Christophe (the son) made a really wonderful meal (pumpkin soup, pasta with shrimp, belgian waffles, and chocolate mousse!). By midnight we were ready for bed! Brendan's family friends were great--it was so nice of them to welcome us into their home!
I guess that Kony 2012 day happened in Amsterdam. Didn't see much of it anywhere else (left). Brendan and I in Antwerp (right).
If I remember correctly, that is a "butcher's house" (left) and the town hall of sorts (right).
The inside (left) of that pretty church (right)!
Caroline took some really nice photos (this is at the Ruben House).
The garden at the Ruben House.
They had their car from America shipped over! This is the only car in Europe that I've spent more than 20 minutes in.
The contemporary art museum.
Antwerp is a port city.
The view from the top of the museum.
The wavy windows were really cool.
Diest had some really old architecture! We also went through a Beguinage which we walked through.
The streets of Diest.
Atop one of the hills there was the old foundation of a castle.
It rained a lot hah.
Friday, April 20, 2012
Day 28: Amsterdam
"I amsterdam"
We left our hostel this morning to catch a 5:30am train and worked on our essays for the six hours that we spent across three trains. I'm happy to say that they are coming along well! (I figure you were concerned). We arrived at our hostel around 11am where I saw my first "no dope" sign. It's also in dutch, "no hasj." I thought it was a joke at first but then it occured to me that it was probably real. We've seen them a few other times since. As we left the hostel and walked towards town we immediately passed a few sex shops and a bunch of bike rental places. In case you didn't know, there are quite a few bikes in this town ;) And by quite a few I mean there are more bikes than cars or boats.
We walked around hoping to kill time before a bike tour when it started raining. I think it's the third day it's legitimately rained since we left London so we weren't too upset about it. It rains here something like 200 days out of the year anyhow. There are quite a few canals here but they aren't used nearly as much as in Venice! It's all about the bicycles around here. They're very serious about their biking lanes. After a few hours of shopping we showed up to the bike tour spot but unfortunately it was fully booked!
We took another stroll in search of wifi and found a nice little bakery. I was craving brownies because I kept thinking about Eurotrip (the film) so it was a perfect opportunity. No, it was not a has brownie. Brendan found a cool comedy club/bar/restaurant on his tablet and so we walked over there to get tickets where we met a cool Alaskan girl who went to Emerson for a bit before going to work in Qatar. Now she is a student in Amsterdam! Anyways, we chatted with her for a bit and got the tickets. After some dinner back at the hostel and a little bit of work we headed back to the comedy club for a great show! Apparently Seth Myers was once a comedian at this place. It's called Boom Chicago and it put on a really great improv/partially scripted show! If you're ever in Amsterdam you should consider it for sure.
The show let out around 10pm at which point we took a lap around the red light district just so we could say we saw it before heading back to the hostel for the night. We're going to have a fairly early morning tomorrow (although not 5:30am thankfully) but I'm looking forward to meeting Brendan's family friends in Belgium! They have kindly offered to take us in for one night and two days. Thanks for reading!
5:30am: watching the sun rise.
I love these train rides!
Tons of turbines in Germany.
Amsterdam is known for their flowers (left). I liked this photo minus the BK sign... (right).
So many bikes on the left! And those are flower shops on the right.
So many people in front of this sign all the time hah. That's the rijksmuseum in the background.
Canal
The restaurant/bar/comedy club
The stage. The seating was dinner theater style.
On our walk at night we saw this crazy carnival in the center of the city.
Canal at night. Unfortunately, a little blurry.
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