I was inspired last Oct'09 to backpack Europe on the spur.
This last minute inspiration was further encouraged by the low air fares offered by Malaysia Airline and Air Asia. It was difficult to find a travel friend on last minute notice so I decided to just go solo and travel backpacking through Europe. I have about a week of rough planning and packing, and then off, I flew to London.
(Just a little background; travel Europe, travel solo, travel last minute, travel backpacking, travel spontaneously, all I have never done before this trip. The furthest I have been was to Korea and Japan with family and friends, not last minute but well-planned. So in this blog, I like to share my personal insight on backpack Europe last minute, reviewing the journey, accommodation, transportation, local tours, food, people, budget, packing and security, all for the purpose of future travels)
The most exciting thing about backpacking Europe last minute was the fact that I have no idea how my trip will enfold, who will I meet and what travel adventure lies in store.
Backpacking across Europe (or perhaps more precisely flashpacking) for 3 weeks, I visited London, Paris, Costa Brava and Barcelona in Spain, Rome and Venice in Italy, Lucerne and Mount Titlis in Switzerland, Munich in Germany and Salzburg in Austria.
Recalling now, traveling Europe backpacking, almost every matters went smoothly except for the overnight train ordeal from Italy to Switzerland. At the end of the 3 weeks, I didn't feel like leaving Europe. I would have extended my Europe travel if I have not registered and paid for an important seminar in Malaysia.
On the whole, backpack Europe last minute has been an enriching experience for me. I realized now, I can really do without many materials attachment to life. Having less stuff and non rigid itinerary gave me a great liberating feeling of freedom to enjoy the beauty of life! My new motto in life now is “Towards simpler, healthier lifestyle! Explore and Discover!”
In short, I’m really glad I have done this last minute Europe travel. I have enjoyable times more than 80% of the trip, met many friendly and interesting people along the way and saw many beautiful creations of God and men.
My "KISS nugget" for those who feel like doing a last minute backpack travel to Europe:- “GO AHEAD, DO IT!”
(Just have a pre-allocated travel budget, choose your destination wisely, go with an open mind and be optimistic.)
Did you know your choice of vacation reveals a lot about your personality? Do a quick travel personality quiz so that you can keep in mind your unique personality and style when planning your next travel holiday or adventure.
A friend traveling in Europe recently asked me, “ Where to go for New Year Eve’s Countdown Celebration in Europe?” I really have no idea now since I have already come back to Malaysia from my backpack Europe trip early Nov'09.
So surfing around the web, I found an interesting article about the New Year’s Eve and the localized celebrations around the world. Is an informative read especially for those who are traveling abroad during the year end period. Since this blog is about backpack Europe, I have picked out some relevant information related to countries in Europe and pasted below for you to check out yourself. When you’re done, do come back up and check out this "super saver shipping deals to kick start your for 2010."
Have fun reading and exploring.
Background:
New Year's Eve or Old Year's Night is actually the final day of the Gregorian year. In modern Western practice, New Year's Eve is celebrated with parties and social gatherings spanning the transition of the year at midnight. Many cultures use fireworks and other forms of noise making in part of the celebration.
United Kingdom
London'sfirework celebrations centre around the London Eye. At the start of 2005, fireworks were launched from the wheel itself for the first time. The timing of the new year is usually indicated by the chimes on Big Ben.
In Edinburg, the cannon is fired atEdinburgh Castle at the stroke of midnight and is followed by a large fireworks display. Scotland celebrates New Year as Hogmanay.
Other cities such as Liverpool, Glasgow, Leeds,Cardiff, Manchester, Aberdeen, Newcastle and Birmingham all have celebrations during the evening. The celebrations have been televised from London over the last few years by the BBC in England and Wales.
Ireland
The Irish calls New Year's Eve in Irish - Oíche Chinn Bliana. Celebrations in major cities are modest. The beginning of 2009 was heralded only by the ringing of church bells. This is due to a ban on fireworks.
France
Popular countdown celebration and fireworks display, near the EiffelTower, Paris. The French calls New Year's Eve "la Saint-Sylvestre". It is usually celebrated with a feast called le Réveillon de la Saint-Sylvestre. This feast customarily includes special dishes like foie gras and drinks like champagne. The celebration can be a simple, intimate dinner with friends and family or a much fancier ball (une soirée dansante).
Spain
Spanish New Year's Eve (Nochevieja or Fin de Año in Spanish) celebrations usually begin with a family dinner, traditionally including shrimp and lamb or turkey. The actual countdown is primarily followed from the clock on top of the Casa de Correos building in Puerta del Sol square in Madrid.
It is traditional to eat twelve grapes, one on each chime of the clock. This tradition has its origins in 1909, when grape growers in Alicante thought of it as a way to cut down on the large production surplus they had had that year. Nowadays, the tradition is followed by almost every Spaniard, and the twelve grapes have become synonymous with the New Year. After the clock has finished striking twelve, people greet each other and toast with sparkling wine such as cava or champagne, or alternatively with cider. After the family dinner and the grapes, many young people attend New Year parties at pubs, discothèques and similar places.
Italy
Italians call New Year's Eve Capodanno (the "head of the year") or Notte di San Silvestro (the night of St. Silvestro). Traditionaly there are a set of rituals for the new year, such as wearing red underwear and getting rid of old or unused items by dropping them from the window. Dinner is often eaten with parents and friends. At half past eight pm, the President of the Republic reads a television message of greetings to Italians. At midnight, fireworks are displayed across Italy.
Switzerland
In Switzerland, New Year's Eve is typically celebrated at a residence with friends. Each commune has its own government-arranged countdown in a public space, accompanied with formal fireworks shows in larger cities. Alternatives are spending the time with family, or in a night club.
Germany
Germans call New Year's Eve Silvester. Since 1972, each New Year's Eve, several German television stations broadcast a short English theatrical performance titled Dinner for One. A punch line from the comedy sketch, "same procedure as every year", has become a catch phrase in Germany.
Every year Berlin hosts one of the largest New Year's Eve celebrations in all of Europe which is attended by over a million people. The focal point is the Brandenburg Gateand the fireworks at midnight centered around that location. Germans have a reputation of spending large amounts of money on firecrackers and fireworks.
Belgium
Belgian New Year's Eve celebrations are held in all large cities on 1 January. These celebrations are usually accompanied by fireworks.
Netherlands
New Year's Eve is called Oud en Nieuw ("Old and New") or simply oude jaar savond ("old year's evening"), and is usually celebrated as a cosy evening with family or friends. On television, the main feature is the oude jars conférence, a performance by one of the major Dutch cabaretiers. In Reformed Protestant families, Psalm 90 is read, although this tradition is now fading away.
Many people fire off their own fireworks, which are on sale from a few days before; towns don't organise a central fireworks display. Public transport shuts down completely between approximately 20:00 and 01:00.
Sweden
In Sweden, New Year's Eve is usually celebrated with families or with friends. A few hours before and after midnight, people usually party and eat a nicer dinner, often three courses.
New Year's Eve is celebrated with large fireworks displays throughout the country, especially in the cities. People over 18 are allowed to buy fireworks, which are sold by local stores or by private persons. While watching or lighting up fireworks at midnight, people usually drink champagne.
Iceland
In Iceland the biggest New Year events are usually in the greater Reykjavik area. Fireworks are very popular in Iceland. Bonfires are also set in several places throughout the country and are often accompanied with shows, musical events and sometimes food tables.
Turkey
Numerous decorations and customs traditionally associated with Christmas and Bayrams find a secular translation in Turkish New Year's Eve celebrations. Municipalities all around the country organize fundraising events for the poor, celebratory public concerts and traditional forms of entertainment such as the Karagöz and Hacivatshadow-theater .
Public and private parties with large public attendances are organised in a number of cities and towns, with the biggest celebrations taking place in Istanbul's Taksim, Beyoğlu, Nişantaşıand Kadıköy districts and Ankara's Kızılay Square, which generally feature dancing, concerts, laser and lightshows as well as the traditional countdown and fireworks display.
KISS Nuggets: If you have some great places to recommend for New Year's Eve Countdown Celebration, we love to hear from you.
Wishing all a wonderful New Year's Eve Countdown Celebration and Happy New Year 2010!
One of the nicest thing traveling backpack Europe, was meeting and having good times with new friends in different places. Sometimes we get to exchange emails and sometimes we don’t. Sometimes we parted unexpectedly before exchanging emails and sometimes we may have exchanged a wrong email spelling or address.
Nonetheless, some we keep in touch , some we hope to keep in touch and some we hope to get in touch again sometime, somewhere in the future.
Backpacking In Paris my dorm mates were a friendly free-spirited Spanish girl and 2 nice Brazilian girls. Thanks to the Spanish girl, I found my way around Paris more conveniently. We both went to watch the Moulin Rouge Show and had a great time.
Cycling in Costa Brava, Spain, I was privileged to cycle with a team of 9 friendly, funand warmth British.
There were also “cycling heroes” (hehe) in the team who taught me how to play with bike-gears and gave me some pushes as well as lift when I ran out of energy after cycling several hours especially on the first cycling trip.
Actually I felt rather embarrassed about my lack of stamina after not cycling for more than a decade! Also I got myself many colorful bruises knocking against the pedal and a scar too! We were covering around 40km per day each cycling trip. We were cycling on rock, mud, sand, uphill, against the wind, in the rain, in flood water, etc. etc.
The cycling lead-guide was a nice humorous soul, telling us all kind of funny stuff. Thumbs up for the 2 assistant-guides too for being very understanding and supportive throughout the cycling trips.
Backpacking in Rome, upon arrival at the hostel that I have booked online, I found out that the females dorms were full and has left only one night availability. Tired of moving hostel, after the first night, I ended up sharing mixed-dorm with an American-Chinese girl, a Canadian man and an Argentina man.
On the first night , I shared dorm with 2 Brazilian girls, one of them was a friendly open minded girl who walked around naked in the room. (Something Asians are not so used to! I’m speaking for myself only :). Anyway not much chance to get to know any of my Rome dorm mates since we were on separate itineraries.
I signed up for walking tour in Rome and met a nice Aussie couple and 2 American girls.
We ended up walking as a small group almost every famous spots in Rome for 2 days!
In the train, on my way backpacking to Venice,I chanced to meet a few warm and friendly passengers. Two I will not forget.One is this warm hearted and trendy looking seniorItalian lady who was traveling on her own. I thought she was around the age of 60 but in the course of our conversation, found out she was actually 80+!
The other is the photographer of this picture. He was a nice rugged-looking Italian man who taught me quite a bit of casual Italian words in the train. (Too bad, didn't get to snap a photo of him.)
Backpacking In Lucerne, I chanced to meet many Asians. My dorm mates were 2 adventurous girls from Koreaanda Chinese girl from Geneva.
Going up Mount Titlis to try out the exciting Ice-Flyer and Snow-ride. I met a beautiful looking Syrian couple, a pleasant Australian couple and a Greek solo traveler who loves having his photos taken, much more than me! Haha.Needless to say, we have great fun posting and snapping each other photos on top of Mount Titlis. Unfortunately, the ice flyer and the snow park was closed for repair.
Traveling to Salzburg, I joined my 2 Malaysian friends who went there 2 days earlier. On the whole, I enjoyed Salzburg a lot, partially due to the guide, partially due to the mesmerizing sceneries and mainly due to the fun companionship from my 2 friends.
In Salzburg, I chanced to meet up with four of my long lost siblings traveling with their spouses!. Hehe just kidding… because so happened all 5 of usshared the same surname as me and all from Malaysia! What a small world!
A german girl from Munich whom I met on the Tetravision bus from Stansted to London. Thanks to her I managed to find my way from Liverpool street to my hotel in Warren Street on my first day in London.
Footnote on Backpack Europe Oct'09: If you happened to spot yourself in some of the above photos, leave me a comment to let me know if you like me to increase the size and resolution of your picture here in this blog... ;) hehe
Italy was the 4th country I visited during my backpack Europetrip.
The guide for my Rome walking tour, told us the famous myth, that this huge fountain is a whimsical rendition of mythical sea creatures amid cascades of splashing water.This Trevi fountain is the world’s most spectacular wishing well.
The legend has it that you can ensure your return to Rome by tossing a coin into the fountain and if you toss 2 coins, it will lead to new romance with an Italian lover. So after hearing the legend from the guide, I threw 'one' coin into the fountain :).
2days later, I was separated from the 4 friends I was traveling with in Rome. We were near the Trevi Fountain again.After waiting and searching in vain for them almost half an hour in the midst of crowd, out of frustration, I threw my second coin into the fountain and tried to find my way back to the hostel myself.
Then…. some twilight-zone romantic stuff started to happen to me in Italy. (He He)
First encounter, asking for direction back to the hostel, a helpful tour guide offered me a lift in his coach back to the street where I stayed.
Later that night, second encounter, after dining in an Italian restaurant, I met a Sicilian who took me walking the Colosseum at night.
Then, the third and last twilight encounter was on my way from Rome to Venice. In the train, I met a rugged-good looking Italian man. He spoke little English and I spoke no Italian. Since we were stuck in the same train-cabin for 5-6 hours, we have some fun-time communicating with hands mostly and I ended up learning quite a bit of the Italian language
In my opinion, one of the main budget challenge in backpacking Europe last minute and spontaneously was minimizing traveling expense since everything was about 5 times more expensive in Europe. (In Oct’09 the currency exchange rate was around 1Pound = RM5.60 and 1euro = RM5.05).
In general traveling spontaneously do incur higher expenses. If money or budget is of main concern, then is better to plan in detail, way in advance.
Nonetheless, it is "not impossible" to do spontaneous travel without spending too much. However, it comes with experience or at least knowledge from the experience of others.
Also, nowadays there are many accommodation and transport aggregators as well as tour agencies offering many promotional deals for last minute travelers and spontaneous travelers.
For my last minute backpack Europe trip,I found that it was easier to forecast rough budget online for accommodation and flights but not trains and local city tours. Most of the public transport ticket-prices increase on a daily basis. (For me, since I did not buy Euro Rail Pass, expensive last minute train tickets have contributed substantially to my travel expenses.)
It was also not that easy to forecast for minor forms of ground transportation such bus fares, entrance fees to museum, guides’ fees and other miscellaneous fees such as toilet entrance fee. ( I can’t remember clearly which place but I remembered paying 1.5euro (RM 7.50) just to go toilet… )
Regarding food and drinks expenses, that depends very much on individual’s appetite, preference, mood, chance encounters and the preferences of travel friends.
In general, I would say, to do last minute spontaneous travelbackpack Europe, I think it is a safe practice to have 20% -30% extra buffer on top of any pre-allocated travel budget.
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Since I was traveling several countries, I did not pay for insurance offered by airlines and bought my own personal travel insurance. Found out, if I was traveling 21 days or less, the insurance fee is one category lower which is quite a substantial amount in term of ratio. (I traveled 23 days!)
Travel Money Regarding the safety of money, I was very glad I had this thin waist pouch that could be worn inside my jeans, where I kept my extra cash, ATM card and sometimes passport too.
Another favorite item of mine was a feminine looking, multi-compartments traveling mini handbag that could be sling over my shower , where I kept cash for the day, a credit card, my camera and a lip-balm . Really light and convenient!
Oversea ATM and Credit Card
Oversea ATM was the most convenient way to withdraw cash direct from saving account with relatively lower currency exchange rate.
However I was using a credit card that has linked to my saving account and upon returned to Malaysia, I found out that all my intended cash withdrawals from my saving account were transacted as cash advance fees from my credit card account.
Travel Security locks
The lock of my my netbook-bag was jammed half way through my journey during my backpack Europe trip! Luckily it did not happen at the airport check-in pointsince all airports required passengers to take out their electronic gadgets for scanning purpose. Also, I did not bring an extra lock for my locker in hostel dorm.
If traveling to several countries, just flight-insurance may not be sufficient. Getting appropriate travel insurance to cover the whole journey is important to prevent any unexpected major expenses.
For travel security, is important to get very good quality locks for luggage, backpack and locker.
Remember to bring a separate ATM card and Credit Card . Otherwise, the pre-allocated travel budget may be exceeded by many small but accumulatively substantial expenses.
For more tips on travel security, check out the book as follow:-
Backpack Europe last minute, I was still packing when the taxi arrived to pick me up to the airport. Luckily no traffic jam and still managed to arrive early with some time to refine my packing at the airport (hehe).
As a result of last minute packing, I had with me an almost 15kg luggage. I had also with me another 10kg backpack, mainly for my laptop, camera and handphone accessories, travel and language books, essential toiletries, one change of clothes, some snacks and vitamins supplement.
Unpacking and packing, decompressing and compressing clothes for my luggage were extremely troublesome especially when I was sharing dorm in hostels with limited space.
Since my luggage was already almost full at the beginning of the journey, after 1 week, in Spain, I left behind 2-3kg of my luggage clothes and some other stuffin the hotel room before I went to Rome.
Some of the heaviest stuff I was carrying around were travel books such as Fodor’s Essential Europe and Frommer’s Travel better, cheaper and smarteras well as the Berlitz Phrase Books (3 copies: 1 general, 1 French and 1 Italian). I hardly touched these books except when I was really bored stuck in long train journey.
Post Travel Insight
During my backpack Europe travel, I brought too many clothes and stuff.It was tiring pulling my luggage looking for accommodation and carrying the luggage up and down the staircases of train stations and some hostels. Luckily I met a few good Samaritans that offered a helping hand.
Think I used only 40% of the clothes I brought and only 10% of the emergency standby items that I thought I might need. (However, the one standby thing that I was really glad I brought, was the flu medicine!)
I found out, travel books and language books are not a necessity to carry around. Local tours and sight-seeing information are everywhere. The two most important words to know in most languages are: : "Where is...." and "Thank you" . Simplest and fastest way to get translation is to use the online Google Translator.
I will definitely travel light and will make sure half of my luggage is empty at the start of my trip, especially if I travel backpacking. I will only bring essential items and would not bring any standby items that I can buy oversea! When packing, the most important thing to keep in mind is personal travel convenience and travel security.
Traveling Europe, an average meal cost around 5-6euros, for me.For 10euros and more, I can get relatively good meals in a restaurant.For 2-3euros, I can get good and huge looking sandwiches. (In fact, all food portions looked huge to me in Europe.)
The wine is such a favorite and common drink in Europe, especially among the British. It is also not expensive.One of the dorm mate I met in Italy, drank wine for mineral water everyday. Traveling solo in Europe, on several occasions, I had the privileged of being offered a glass of free wine as compliment to my meal in restaurant.
In Italy, I had pizza and ice-cream almost every day. I can get really good, delicious and sumptuous pizza around 3-4euros.Mmmm… the Rome and Venice ice-creams were yummy especially in cold weather....
I ate McDonald’s a couple of times in Europe.I really like the Ceasar Salad and Crispy crumbs yogurtwhich are not available in Malaysia McDonald.
Actually I’m not really a food-person…I like junk food, snacks and can eat at odd times, anytime. So I don’t have much to comment about food.
Mineral water is very expensive in Europe. The most expensive I drank was 5euros per bottle.I only realized quite late that most of the tap water were drinkable in most placesin Europe especially in Lucerne and Salzburg.
Backpack Europefor 3 weeks, Iwas really glad, my last minute packing had included some multi-vitamin tablets, nutritional supplement sachets and some cereal bars that have kept me going at times when I didn’t get a good night rest. Also kept me healthy enough to avoid H1N1 :).
You are most welcome to share your travel reviews, tips and comments on anything or everything under the sun related to travel in the various postings of this blog. Feel free to just express your heart out ....
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