I say ‘huge’ update but I am just going to run through a few things that I have done this past month that have really capped my experience in Europe. First of all if you are reading this and have any questions as to how I traveled to so many different places and could afford it, please ask away because believe me I only have enough money to feed 2 mice a day but I still managed to go everywhere I planned to. Couple of tips:
Plan way ahead, buy tickets early and book hostels ASAP
Do NOT wait for other people to say ‘ok’ to joining you because you cannot depend on people you barely know and to me its worth seeing the place rather then waiting for people to say they will join you and the process drags out to the point were even the cheapest hostel becomes expensive. So not to be self centered but to ensure you see everything you want to, book everything for yourself and let those interested book their own tickets, etc. Worked for me!
Don’t buy souvenirs everywhere you go… lets be honest… you will probably throw it out or lose it one day and pictures in my opinion are enough. This will probably save you an estimated $300… in my opinion.
Use your friends or other resources like couchsurfing.com (if you’re not too sketched out to meet and live with people you don’t know). Hell, it is studying abroad… take the risk! Saves you tons. Ex: I stayed with family in Sweden, paid nothing to live there. Stayed with a friend’s family in Norway, paid nothing to live there. Used couchsurfing.com to live with a family for free there… saved me $150 for living expenses I would have accrued with the hostel (a.k.a Iceland will absolutely be the most expensive place you go, ex: 6 inch subway costs $15, cheapest beer= $8+)
Go out if that is your thing to do, but keep the alcohol to a minimum. Lets be honest, it is way more expensive in Europe to drink, so when you go out buy just a couple of drinks and that’s it. Call me a loser, but I must say my experience has been much more then bragging about how drunk I was last night and how my recovery the following day has been painful… no, I have had great times out just having a few drinks or none… that is just me. But it probably saved me $300- $400 at least (this whole semester). Pre-game with friends if you really feel the need to have a few, you’ll save tons this way too. Hey I’m just being honest.
TURN OFF YOUR CELLPHONE WHEN TRAVELING OUTSIDE DENMARK!!!! You don’t need it when you are traveling with a group of people but if you really feel the need, just text people… it is SOOOO much cheaper. I have heard students who have stated that they paid between $200 and $1200 in one month for using their phone… need I say more. Every time you enter a new zone and you are roaming, the company will charge you for it. TIP: buy a webcam or microphone and use Skype, yahoo messenger or some other free service you can use online to talk to friends and family at home. By the way, my most expensive bill so far was a painful $16.
This is probably my favorite tip… if you’re going to travel around Europe and do not mind taking trains, overnight trains, etc to locations around Europe buy a Eurail (www.eurail.com) or Scanrail (www.scanrail.com) for travel in Scandinavia. Note: you need to buy it before you come to Europe or have a parent buy you one and send it to you in Europe because the program is only for non- Europeans. You probably want an example of how I saved money…ok: I bought a Scanrail for traveling in Scandinavia (Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland). It was a 5 day 24 hour pass for $200. So essentially I can travel anywhere in Scandinavia, as far north, south, east and west my pass could take me for any 5 days in a 2 month period of when I activated the pass. I went to Skagen 1 day (that was a long trip, but so worth it), Stockholm with my cousin using 2 days, up and back, then I went to Oslo, Norway with one pass and from there Bergen, Norway for my last trip. With out the pass, I would have easily spent $1000 more (math: 5 trips, average cost $250= $1250….-$200 for my scanrail= around $1000). Wow…
Another tip, based on my observation and what I have heard, live with a host family if you have the personality to adapt to new situations. This will not only give you first hand experience in Danish culture and language, but you will save sooooooo much money on food.
Like I said these tips are based on my experience and my opinions so feel free to take it or leave it, but I would say take it, haha.
Before I forget, this is totally random but I will forget to mention it: Weird things I ate and where:
- iceland: Whale
- Norway: Salmon and eggs for breakfast
- Sweden: Raindeer, Moose, Halibut, small caviar
- Møn, Denmark: Kangeroo (yes the animal that hops and is from Australia)
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Oops... I forgot I went to Iceland.
I forgot to mention that I went to Iceland this past weekend. DIS arranged a trip to Bornholm Island for a bike tour this past weekend because Friday was a holiday. So for people like me who decided not to go on the trip, planned other things. I planned a trip to Iceland. I bought a ticket the first week of February and made it a point to go considering that it was much cheaper to go from Copenhagen then from anywhere in the U.S..
To make the trip as cheap and memorable as possible, I decided to create a profile on couchsurfing to see if I would be able to crash on someones 'couch' for 3 nights. long story short I found someone I was able to stay with and it was at his granparents house. It was really nice to be able to live with an Icelander because you get more out of the experience. On Friday I went on a tour to Blue Lagoon a hot springs resort, then visited Gullfoss a large waterfall practically in the middle of no where, then I went to a Geyser area which was pretty cool because I have never seen that. I actually met up with another DIS student for the day and we traveled together on the tour.
Dinner that night was Whale, one of the few places in the world you can get it. It was very good! Highly recommend it. It was kind of like a lean steak (remember whales are mammals) and kind of a fishy taste as well. it is difficult to describe but try it if you get the chance.
Then I went out on the town that night with my Icelandic friends and had a great time. I even saw Miss World 2005 all sloshed... that was funny. The last day the kid I was staying with took me and his cousin out to the country to check out some cool sites. The country is really exotic and absolutely beautiful. Waterfalls, volcanos, mountains, geysers, hot springs, huge glaciers.... its just awesome! The people are also very friendly and the girls are beautiful. But beauty came at a huge price... keep that in mind.
To make the trip as cheap and memorable as possible, I decided to create a profile on couchsurfing to see if I would be able to crash on someones 'couch' for 3 nights. long story short I found someone I was able to stay with and it was at his granparents house. It was really nice to be able to live with an Icelander because you get more out of the experience. On Friday I went on a tour to Blue Lagoon a hot springs resort, then visited Gullfoss a large waterfall practically in the middle of no where, then I went to a Geyser area which was pretty cool because I have never seen that. I actually met up with another DIS student for the day and we traveled together on the tour.
Dinner that night was Whale, one of the few places in the world you can get it. It was very good! Highly recommend it. It was kind of like a lean steak (remember whales are mammals) and kind of a fishy taste as well. it is difficult to describe but try it if you get the chance.
Then I went out on the town that night with my Icelandic friends and had a great time. I even saw Miss World 2005 all sloshed... that was funny. The last day the kid I was staying with took me and his cousin out to the country to check out some cool sites. The country is really exotic and absolutely beautiful. Waterfalls, volcanos, mountains, geysers, hot springs, huge glaciers.... its just awesome! The people are also very friendly and the girls are beautiful. But beauty came at a huge price... keep that in mind.
UPDATE: May 10th, 2006
So the last week I traveled to Sweden to visit my mothers family in Veddige which is a small farming town outside of Varberg (south of Göteborg). The area was absolutely beautiful and it was really nice to meet relatives I have never met before. Strangely enough, one of my cousins looks exactly how my grandmother looked when she was younger, that was pretty cool. I stayed with my family of course and traveled with my friend Kjersti who is also from Elon and attended DIS this semester. Varberg was a very nice coastal town I highly recommend going here if you are looking for a coastal retreat that is not very touristy… mind the cold however.
Thursday morning of that week, Kjersti and I were on a train towards Oslo, Norway to visit her family for a couple of days. Oslo was a beautiful city, very clean and nice people. The city is situated in a Fjord and the harbor which is beautiful. After a couple of days in Oslo, we were back on the train towards Bergen. Our trip to Bergen by train was definitely the most memorable experience I had all 3 weeks. The scenery was unreal! The train traveling in and out of tunnels and would be exposed to all different types of climate change, from sun to snow to rain, it was awesome. We also saw a train that was knocked off the tracks by an avalanche one week before. No one was killed or seriously hurt, so that made it an awesome site. As for Bergen, beautiful place, beautiful people and great nightlife! I guess the town has to make up for the fact the next larger city is about 7 hours drive south to Stavanger (which I have also heard is beautiful).
SIDE NOTE: Sweden and Norway (especially Norway) were very expensive. Ex: 1 beer in the convenient store will cost you about $7.
SIDE NOTE 2: eat Salmon in Sweden or Norway, it is awesome there! And try the brown cheese in Norway that is made from goat and cow milk. It’s awesome!
Then we were back to DIS for classes and I decided that that weekend I should recoup from all the traveling. The following weekend I went to Stockholm with my cousin. It was a bit pricy even aside from my cheap ticket because he booked a hotel and the food we ate was kind of expensive… but it was worth it. See the Vasa museum when you are there, that was awesome! The city is absolutely gorgeous situated on islands and a large archipelago. They say it is so clean in the waters of Stockholm that you can safely eat the fish from the harbor in the city.
I returned to DIS late Sunday (by the way I brought work to study a little on the way back, that was a smart move). The following weekend I wanted to use my last pass, so I decided to go to Skagen, the tip of Denmark. This is where the Baltic Sea and the North Sea collide. It was truly an amazing site! The town was picturesque as well as the beach and I finished off the experience with a dish in one of the harbor restaurants with salmon, and tiny lobsters, native to the area. Mind you, this was my last ticket so I had to make the 14 hour trip (from Copenhagen to Skagen and back) in one day. How did I do it? I left at 2am in the morning and had a 1 hour lay over in Federicia a small town that luckily had a pastry shop open at the crack of dawn, so I bought a nice coffee and brown sugar Wienerbrød to keep me company. I also met some really nice people on the small train. The attitude in Jutland is much friendlier in general then in Copenhagen, in my opinion, but the Copenhageners are nice as well.
Then I finally had a little break from my travels, caught up on my studies and set the following Friday as a day for visiting places in Copenhagen I have not seen yet. I guess when you live there you get used to seeing everything and it becomes home, so your interest in the surroundings fades quickly especially when you have a schedule to adhere to. But I decided to pass up the round tower, I was a little stingy on money that day, but I visited Kristian IV’s park which is nice in the spring with a lot of people hanging out there. Then I went to Christiania, the legendary free city of Copenhagen. That was ‘interesting’. Very hippy like place that I imagined and yes there were drugs about… visible in public (not sold in public) which was also strange to me as well. Aside from that the place had its own character and personality that is difficult to describe unless you are really there. Visitors to Copenhagen should try to get around to seeing this.
Finally I went to Møn which is where the white sand cliffs are located on the small island of Møn south of Sjælland (where Copenhagen is). It was awesome! Chalk like sand with flint, and towering cliffs… it was amazing! Definitely try to visit this place. To top off my Møn experience, my host family and I had a nice dinner in the town of Stege which is on Møn Island.
Well that is all for now… I probably should have been studying instead of writing this, but I am not sure when I will get around to it until after finals (which are next week, ahhh!!!!). Basically I won’t have a life until May 17th, after my last exam.
Thursday morning of that week, Kjersti and I were on a train towards Oslo, Norway to visit her family for a couple of days. Oslo was a beautiful city, very clean and nice people. The city is situated in a Fjord and the harbor which is beautiful. After a couple of days in Oslo, we were back on the train towards Bergen. Our trip to Bergen by train was definitely the most memorable experience I had all 3 weeks. The scenery was unreal! The train traveling in and out of tunnels and would be exposed to all different types of climate change, from sun to snow to rain, it was awesome. We also saw a train that was knocked off the tracks by an avalanche one week before. No one was killed or seriously hurt, so that made it an awesome site. As for Bergen, beautiful place, beautiful people and great nightlife! I guess the town has to make up for the fact the next larger city is about 7 hours drive south to Stavanger (which I have also heard is beautiful).
SIDE NOTE: Sweden and Norway (especially Norway) were very expensive. Ex: 1 beer in the convenient store will cost you about $7.
SIDE NOTE 2: eat Salmon in Sweden or Norway, it is awesome there! And try the brown cheese in Norway that is made from goat and cow milk. It’s awesome!
Then we were back to DIS for classes and I decided that that weekend I should recoup from all the traveling. The following weekend I went to Stockholm with my cousin. It was a bit pricy even aside from my cheap ticket because he booked a hotel and the food we ate was kind of expensive… but it was worth it. See the Vasa museum when you are there, that was awesome! The city is absolutely gorgeous situated on islands and a large archipelago. They say it is so clean in the waters of Stockholm that you can safely eat the fish from the harbor in the city.
I returned to DIS late Sunday (by the way I brought work to study a little on the way back, that was a smart move). The following weekend I wanted to use my last pass, so I decided to go to Skagen, the tip of Denmark. This is where the Baltic Sea and the North Sea collide. It was truly an amazing site! The town was picturesque as well as the beach and I finished off the experience with a dish in one of the harbor restaurants with salmon, and tiny lobsters, native to the area. Mind you, this was my last ticket so I had to make the 14 hour trip (from Copenhagen to Skagen and back) in one day. How did I do it? I left at 2am in the morning and had a 1 hour lay over in Federicia a small town that luckily had a pastry shop open at the crack of dawn, so I bought a nice coffee and brown sugar Wienerbrød to keep me company. I also met some really nice people on the small train. The attitude in Jutland is much friendlier in general then in Copenhagen, in my opinion, but the Copenhageners are nice as well.
Then I finally had a little break from my travels, caught up on my studies and set the following Friday as a day for visiting places in Copenhagen I have not seen yet. I guess when you live there you get used to seeing everything and it becomes home, so your interest in the surroundings fades quickly especially when you have a schedule to adhere to. But I decided to pass up the round tower, I was a little stingy on money that day, but I visited Kristian IV’s park which is nice in the spring with a lot of people hanging out there. Then I went to Christiania, the legendary free city of Copenhagen. That was ‘interesting’. Very hippy like place that I imagined and yes there were drugs about… visible in public (not sold in public) which was also strange to me as well. Aside from that the place had its own character and personality that is difficult to describe unless you are really there. Visitors to Copenhagen should try to get around to seeing this.
Finally I went to Møn which is where the white sand cliffs are located on the small island of Møn south of Sjælland (where Copenhagen is). It was awesome! Chalk like sand with flint, and towering cliffs… it was amazing! Definitely try to visit this place. To top off my Møn experience, my host family and I had a nice dinner in the town of Stege which is on Møn Island.
Well that is all for now… I probably should have been studying instead of writing this, but I am not sure when I will get around to it until after finals (which are next week, ahhh!!!!). Basically I won’t have a life until May 17th, after my last exam.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)