How lazy can i be? Its been more than a year since i wrote anything here. Anyway, i was very motivated to write this because you girls told me that you want to have a Europe tour and after having this very mini Central-Europe tour myself, i felt like I have so many things to share with you, and if I wait till summer to go back and tell you girls, i probably will forget most of it, so now that I'm back in Warsaw with my laptop and a rather high internet speed (which i totally appreciate after the tour, you don't always get internet access when travelling and even if you do, there's a time limit or a place limit or its too slow), sitting down only in my underclothes in front of my laptop using the internet is a luxury that i appreciate very much now.
Ok, so the thing bout travelling especially to countries in which their currency is Euro is you need to plan ahead, you don't really need to plan every single details, but at least have a rough sketch of where you wanna go, the route in which u wanna travel and if you know that you are gonna travel lets say more than 4 or 5 countries, please get a pass, check out the interail website. The biggest mistake i did was i didn't plan ahead, i only knew which countries i want to visit (my initial plan was few cities in Germany, Amsterdam, Brussels, Luxembourg and Switzerland) but i didn't plan my route and i just assumed it will be ok not to get a pass and just buy the train tickets as i travel. BIG mistake. My first destination was Berlin, i bought a reasonably priced ticket bout 160rm one way(please note that when i use ticket, i mean train ticket unless otherwise stated). It was a direct train bout 6 hours with seat reservation. In some trains it is possible not to make a seat reservation, but in others it is required. Making a seat reservations means a little extra money. And if you don't make a reservation, especially if you are travelling in the peak period (i think around June to August) there might be a possibility that you don't have a seat. Which means if you are fast enough you can grab one of those fold up seats on the corridor(you don't get to sit much because when people pass by, which they do a lot, to go to toilet and the officer will pass by to check tickets, and the food trolley will pass buy to sell food etc, you need to stand up and let them pass). If you don't even get that seat, you just have to stand and hopefully someone gets off and you can take his/her place. Fortunately, probably because the other places i went this time wasn't very popular and its September, i had a seat even though i didn't make a reservation. But last winter when i went to Gdansk the train was packed and i had to sit on the corridor, uncomfortable and cold but bearable. Just the day before going to Berlin, i went online and check for hostels available in hostelworld.com there were only very few options left, and we immediately book it. Booking through hostelworld you need to pay a 10% deposit to hostelworld. So if you wanna save that money, you could try looking for the hostel's own website and book through that. But not every hostel has their own website, so I had to book through hostelworld. But booking through hostelworld is quite ok cause after the booking they will send you and email attached with tips for travelling in the city that we booked, for example where to find cheap food, what to see, things like that. So, not really that bad and after the visit they will ask your review bout the hostel so if you feel like there's something other people should know before they book the hostel, you could share with others by commenting there. But if you can save that money, why not? A night in hostels on average is bout 10 Euro per person( this price is for rather last minute booking, I don't know how are the prices will be if you book it earlier, i assume you could get it for a lot cheaper). So if you book for 2 nights, you will be giving hostelworld 2 Euros. And you have to pay the hostel the 20Euros when you arrive, some hostels only accept cash, so read the description properly, if they didn't write anything bout payment, email them or call them or just get ready with your cash.
Arriving at Berlin about 12 plus in the afternoon, the city looked very modern and the train station was huge and looked almost like an airport. As soon as we got off, we went to the tourist information center to get our Berlin Welcome card, it was 16.90 Euro per person for 2 days. This is for transport and discounts in some attractions. If you want to see the museums, you could also buy the Welcome Card+ Musueminsel card, i don't know the price, but with that you will get free entry into museums. I didn't get the Musuem card, but my student ID will give me half price for the museums if I went. After getting the card, we went looking for our hostel. It was raining and quite cold. We were a little lost and a very nice guy stopped and asked us if we need help and gave us directions. When we arrived there, the guy in charge was very friendly and after checking in gave us a map and briefly told us where the attractions are. We left our luggage and went out. It was still raining and cold and the streets were rather empty, it was a real put off. We couldn't see many places and the price of the food in restaurants were really expensive so we just had our lunch in the currywurst stand, its a hotdog stand, 3 Euro for 1 hotdog. And before going back to our hostel we bought some bread and water. The only fun thing that day was visiting Madame Tussaud, we had a great time there playing the wax figures. They had a wax of Hitler but there was a sign before it saying that they do not encourage us to take photos or pose with the figure in respect to other guests. Some of the waxes looked alive but some weren't that good. Overall, we had fun despite the shitty weather. I was quite depressed by the time i went back to the hostel, missing home and my room with private space. I stayed in a 13bed room, so you don't really have your own space, except your bed, but its visible to everyone. So i just had to get use to the chit chat,people walking pass your bed, the door opening and closing, people staring at you etc when you are sleeping. And I also had to get used to people in their underclothes, guys and girls just change their clothes in front of everybody. Not something I was used to at first, but I was pretty numb near the end. When i went back, all the other people were just getting ready to go out, Berlin is a party place. I wasn't in the mood and mainly because i didn't pack any clothes for a night out, I just went to sleep.
The second day was much better, it wasn't raining so we saw many things, one of the must see i think is the Berliner Dom, very pretty. We were too late, so we couldn't go to the musuems, it closes at 6pm. But we did do a rather childish thing, visiting the Aqua Dom. There were so many pretty fishes. I even got to touch a starfish, under supervision of the worker there of course. It was the size of my palm and its skin felt rough. Childish but I loved it there. There was an elevator ride in the opposite building. It was a few stories high fish tank and the elevator was in the middle of the tank so we could see fishes swimming around us, it was pretty awesome.
After Berlin we wanted to go to Amsterdam, so we went to ask the price of the train ticket in the train station, it was almost 100Euro per person! A pass is only 300 plus Euro and you can go up to 30 countries. We discussed about it and decided we need to completely change our plan because all the countries we wanted to go uses Euro and the tickets between them will be very pricey. So we decided to go to Poznan, a city in Poland, just to give a break on our wallet. We spent 2 nights there, the city wasn't bad, rather peaceful. The hostel that we stayed in was the best one we been in this whole trip, the name is Hostel Quadro, great location, nice people,clean,comfortable and affordable. They also had PS2, Ray was very happy with that. We were planning to visit Wroclaw, another city in Poland after that but all the hostels were booked, so we bout our tickets to Prague instead. The Intercity officer was very helpful and helped us find the cheapest way possible to get there. Our train was at 1am on the third night, so we spent half of the day wandering around the city and the other half in the train station. The indoor part of the station closes at 12am so we had to wait outside, it was cold, after bout an hour, we hopped on the train. We changed train at the Wroclaw station and continue our journey again.
When we reach the border of Czech we were supposed to buy a separate ticket from the ticket officer to Prague. Assuming that they will accept Euros on an international train, i didn't have any Czech crown with me. When the officer came, speaking in Czech, he showed me with his calculator the price, it was bout 300 plus crowns(15 Euro) and i gave him my 100Euro bill, he shook his head and said, "no Euro, no Euro, only Czech koruna". I thought we will be kicked off the train or something. The officer then waved his hand at me, gesturing me to follow him, all the time speaking in Czech. I didn't know what was going on, but i just followed him. We went to the next wagon and he started speaking to the passengers, then i realize that he was going to ask them if they have any change for Euro. The wagon was filled with drunk young Polish guys singing the national anthem with Polish flags on their shoulders, some waving the flag( there was a football match in Czech they were going to support the Polish team) . The officer could barely be heard among all the chaos, those who heard it, just shake their head, no one wanted to or had any change. Then one of the drunk guys stopped the singing and tried to listen, then he asked his bunch of friends, one of them took out few Euro coins and asked if its enough, obviously it wasn't. they asked me how much I am changing for, when i showed them my 100 Euro bill, they went 'woah' pretty funny sight. Then I noticed I had a 10 Euro bill and three 10 zloty bills. I took them out and asked if its enough, one of the guys then paid the officer my tickets in crown and he took the 10 Euro and 30 zloty from me. I was so grateful that a stranger was willing to change money with me. I said thank you to him and went back to my seat, i didn't really know the currency then, but after I found out later, and as I counted the money i gave him wasn't really enough. Probably bout 7 zloty less. I felt bad but very grateful and thankful to meet that person. Even though i know that he probably was too drunk to realize but I was still very grateful. And lesson learnt, always have the currency of the country you r going to in cash!
Its been quite sometime since i typed so many words at a go, a little tiring, and im sure its really long for you to read too, so just this for now, more on Prague, Kutna Hora, Brno, Bratislava and Budapest on my next post.
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