My Europe trip. May-July 07 - Page 2 - TravelPUNK Backpacker College Student Budget Travel Message Boards!

**raoulduke** · 03-16-2007, 04:19 PM

You win. 45 days for me.

**marc873** · 03-16-2007, 06:35 PM

82 days here, and counting down. Wish we were in the 40 day range

**freespiritz** · 03-17-2007, 09:29 AM

Frickin' hell, I just counted, and I have 25 days until I head out again. I'm...not ready.

alpinesumo · 03-26-2007, 02:38 AM

36 days to Europe. golly i sure hope they're ready for me.

**Delaney** · 03-26-2007, 08:15 AM

24 days for me!

**Canadian Bacon** · 03-26-2007, 02:23 PM

Huh.... well seeing as I'm planning my trip around San Fermin in July... its like more than 90 days away...

but yeah, i need to plan the places I wanna go, convince my boss to give me the time off, and do some budgeting....

But yeah, your trip sounds awesome have fun =)

**buzzingtalk** · 03-26-2007, 02:35 PM

about seven weeks? i can't add that

**Dig** · 03-30-2007, 06:56 AM

55 days for me. Raoulduke, my fiancee and I will be in amsterdam twice in our trip as well as Berlin and further south. Maybe we can hook up for a pint.

**raoulduke** · 03-30-2007, 07:16 AM

Yeah absolutely. My dates are pretty much all up in the air at the moment so we'll have to sort out our details a bit closer to the date.

**Dig** · 03-30-2007, 07:22 AM

Our dates are not set in stone either except for may 23-2? when we first hit the ground. We have a time-share thingy that the inlaws graciously gave us, but we have not heard back from the company. So until then, who know!

**Esterina** · 03-30-2007, 07:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by raoulduke

Eastern Europe is on!

You can stretch your dollar a long way in EE, but not much in Prague though. Around Prague, I read that Cesky Krumlov and Brno are worth seeing. But Czech Republic isn't really EE like anymore. It's becoming more and more westernized, so I'd suggest you take the train to either

--» Hungary :Budapest, Eger, Pecs, Lake Balaton, or
--» Slovakia :Bratislava, trek in the Tatras, or
--» Poland :Krakow, Auschwitz, also the Tatras, or
--» Romania (the nearest country to have a good sense of EE) : a few days based in Transylvania to visit Brasov Siniai Sighisoara and villages around, for a turn back in time the Maramures, Bucharest not essential

There is more to do in each country, and more EE countries to see, of course, but the above suggestions are those not too far from Prague.

In those countries, the daily budget is about $30, Poland is more expensive.

**raoulduke** · 03-30-2007, 07:39 AM

Your awesome Esther, thanks for the tips. Eastern Europe has been on my mind a lot lately so that will definitely give my research some focus.

Is travel in these countries cheap enough to not require a Eurail pass?

Thanks again

**Esterina** · 03-30-2007, 08:27 AM

DO NOT BUY A EURAILPASS FOR EASTERN EUROPE !

Was that clear ?

Yes, it is cheaper and more travel friendly to get around without a pass. You can travel first class there and not become a bankrupted backpacker.

To give you an idea, in Romania, for an approx. 150 km trip, the price for a second class seat ranges between 4 Euros (slow trains) and 10 Euros (faster and more comfortable trains); for the same distance the lowest is 10 Euros in Hungary, etc. And buses are cheaper !

I don't want to drown you with too much infos, especially that you don't know where you'll go, but this one is too much of a good money and time saver : if you head off to both Hungary and Romania, buy in Budapest a return ticket to Bucharest. This ticket allows the owner to stop for unlimited time (I think) in every station in Romania he/she wants to ! And this trip goes through Transylvania ! One ticket to visit all Cluj-Napoca, Sighisoara, Brasov, Bucharest, etc. and return to Hungary later. :D

**raoulduke** · 04-29-2007, 06:19 AM

3 days until I go!

I'm getting seriously excited now. The friend who's place I'm staying at in Dubai came around and planned out an itinerary for my entire stay there, right down to the best places to eat and drink.

I've also secured free accomodation in London before and after my Contiki tour and will be checking out the Cheese rolling in Gloucestershire on the 28th.

**buzzingtalk** · 04-29-2007, 06:23 AM

ahh cheese rolling will be amazing. be careful though!

**marc873** · 04-29-2007, 06:24 AM

kick ass man. bet u r super stoked. PM me as you get closer to amsterdam. have safe travels bro

**raoulduke** · 04-29-2007, 06:30 AM

Will do Marc.

I don't think I'll be competing in the cheese rolling though. I'd hate to break an ankle only a third of the way into my trip. I actually think I'd be more likely to get injured doing that than the running of the bulls (which I will be doing)

I was apprehensive about Dubai at first but now it's all sorted I can't wait. Apparently the place I'm staying is pretty flash and across the road from one of the big malls. Taxis are also cheap there so getting around will be a breeze.

Inside · 04-29-2007, 05:29 PM

3 weeks till i go

I'll also be checking out the Cheese-Rolling, though i think im the same, i'll prob give it a miss for fear of breaking my Ankle 7 days into a year long trip

we might have to catch up for a beer

**raoulduke** · 05-05-2007, 11:37 PM

Here's an update so far, it copied pretty much from an e-mail I wrote, sorry to be so lazy.

We flew in at around 5am and caught a taxi to our apartment. Neither of us slept at all on the plane so around four o'clock we decded to have a nap for an hour before getting dinner. Needless to say we both slept for 15 hours and didn't have any dinner!

The next day we went to the mall of the Emirates which was absolutely massive and includes the worlds biggest indoor ski run. We opted for the much cheaper 'Snow Park' ticket which was still a lot of fun, gloves unfortunately were not provided so we had some very cold hands by the end. The ice toboggans were a bit dangerous also. After this we shopped around the mall for a while then got a taxi to the Madinate hotel, an absolutely massive fortress hotel with an indoor market and magnificent canals running throughout it, with boats to ferry (the very rich) guests to their rooms. It was right next to the Burj Al Arab hotel (The one with the helipad) so we got some great photos of that too, which will be posted soon. We spent the evening by the waterside drinking pints of Stella, smoking a Shisha, listening to live bands and watching the sun set from the bar at the Madinate.

Yesterday we took 4wd desert tour to a place about 40 minutes away. We went dune bashing and arrived at a traditional-esque campsite where their were activities such as camel and quad-bike riding, henna tattoos and traditional dress-ups. After a magnificent meal we had a belly dancer perform for us (yes, we got involved) before returning back home.

Today we\re off to the Wild Wadi Water Park for some water slide action, we walked up to it yesterday it looks pretty sweet. Tomorrow we will do some last minute shopping before flying out early Tuesday morning.

Dubai is a pretty cool place that is still very much under construction. the heat isn't too bad because everywhere has air-conditioning, it is also a very dry heat so there is much sweating going on. The overall cleanliness of the place is spot-on, for every one person doing anything at all there is at least one other person there to clean up after them. The exchange rate is also favourable, combine this with free accommodation it makes for a fairly cheap place for us to stop over. Taxis are also very cheap, and the drivers are always keen to talk about the cricket. The only real downside is that nothing opens until very late (10-11am) which is hard because we tend to wake up early when since it is hot.

Picturesd will follow. It hurts not being able to check TPunk whenever I want. Internet is scarce here.

**louse** · 05-09-2007, 12:51 AM

hey that sounds really awesome and crazy. it is great that you are finally doing something that you have planned for so long.