I have always wanted to backpack in
The wise thing do is to planning for the trip long before the actual trip. The idea was, but the preparation was not. Should I go alone? Or should I go with a friend? Friend- which one is better- a male or a female? Where to go? Where to start? Budget? Means of transportation? And a lot of other small things but just as important. However with all the things going in 4th year and what seems like something very typical of me- all trip-related planning was done not long before the departure date itself. Spur of a moment kind of thing.
One of the most important issues prior to the departure date was: Should we (by this time I decided to go with Miss A, my travel partner) book everything beforehand? Or should we rough it and leave it all to fate? Bear in mind this is peak summer season we are talking about (smack bang right in August!) After careful deliberation following readings of few travel books, we decided to book everything- for our peace of mind.
Details:
When: August 2008
Where: Started in the UK then the other European countries.
Means: Train (with Interrail Pass for under 26- 10 days in 22 days)
Accom: Hostels
Budget: As much as the cost of a flight ticket back to home country in peak season (roughly 800quids- trust me- worth every penny!)
Baggage: Only small backpack allowed- for ease of traveling (about 25L each- light and can be carried on cabin)
Ok now the fun bit.
Route: A smallcity in UK- BRADFORD- YORK- MANCHESTER- BUDAPEST- BRATISLAVA- VIENNA- KRAKOW- PRAGUE- MUNICH- SWITZERLAND- PARIS-BRUSSEL-MANCHESTER- A smallcity in UK
Right after we moved out of our house in smallcity, we headed to Bradford to honour the invitation of HM#1’s parents. Good stuff: we ate a lot (in preparation of halalless eastern European countries) and watch tv like there was no tomorrow (no tv in hostels or even if they have one, most likely it’ll be in a foreign language).
Then we went to York to visit a good friend. Big country house/mansion. Her dog barked every single time he saw me. Bad dog. We had so much fun doing the new York Maze. It took us hours though. I still remember the brilliant time we had having (home-cooked) dinner in her garden just when the sun was about to set. I will miss her when I get back to my home country- seriously.
From there on, we got to Manchester. I saw few good friends and complaint about how long has 4th yr been. I topped up on carb before we flew to Budapest.
The immigration officer asked me: Do you have enough money?
Me: Sure (my mouth smiled then, when my brain was actually saying: Wtf is he thinking about?? Hell yeah I got enough money- did I not tell you just now that I was there on vacation?)
Immigration officer looked at me quizzing and then decided to let me through. (After few days, I found out why: a lot of illegal immigrants from Romania wears black scarf- like I did on arriving in Hungary). Ohh…. Hmm… we did see a lot of beggars when we were there –presumably Muslims from Romania/Bosnia? - Some with kids and all. Haih.
Budapest looks nice generally but some parts do look rundown. The city area is divided (by a river) into the Buda and the Pest area. One of the bridges crossing that river looks stunning at night. Interesting place includes: the castle, the funicular, the parliament and the massive, absolutely romantic looking park in the city- lots of couple were there for wedding photographs.
We met my best gay friend unexpectedly in Budapest- what a small world, by that time he was already two weeks into his trip- looking all tan and gay-ish (meaning happy).
Then we took a very early morning train to Bratislava. See the thing about using train pass you have to really organize and plan your route so that you can maximize its use. (unless of coz you get yourself an unlimited one month pass which gonna cost you 260quids). So a day trip to Bratislava it was. After which we headed straight to Vienna on the same day.
Bratislava is even more so run-down compared to Budapest. It was practically empty at 8.30am –time of arrival. It is a small, walkable city (with maps scale of about 1 km from east to west and north to south). Some part of the castle is currently under construction, so we spent our afternoon in the castle’s garden- lunching and reading. Other tourists found us interesting (or at least that’s what I thought) or probably pretty (no doubt about this) as most of them stared at us like the new see a-muslim-person before (ala Eminem in his Slim Shady song). The big cathedral is quite impressive in term of its height and I can only imagine how the long tall stain glass will look like from the inside (imagine because it was Sunday, and we didn’t go in as there was a mass taking place). We took bucket load of pictures considering how small this place is.
Then off to Austria late that evening.
(to be cont’d)
p53 xoxo
No comments:
Post a Comment