Once their arduous A-level exams are over, most 18 year olds make a bee line for some Spanish or Greek party island on an epic voyage of independent discovery. Although this does sound appealing, I opted out, instead deciding that backpacking through Europe was probably more rewarding and easier on my liver, however it transpires that due to 80p pints in several bars, the latter was not so true.
Due to my severe lack of prior traveling experience I felt it wise to take a traveling companion, luckily my older sister also fancied a trip around Europe so she accompanied me. Ignoring the odd sibling dispute she was pretty good company, although she annoyingly entitled herself the leader of the whole expedition and blamed me for most of the mishaps (which were deffs her fault actually).
Following months and months of procrastination my sister and I finally sketched out a route, booked hostels, flights and bought our InterRail passes. The trip was essentially a three week whistle stop tour of Europe's best: Berlin, Prague, Munich, Vienna, Budapest, Zagreb, Venice and Rome. I'm sure there is much stress involved with booking a booze up in Shagaluf but it can be nothing compared to the enormity of planning a three week trip to a tee due to stringent financial restrictions.
I won't go into endless detail on each location because let's be honest everyone knows trawling through mountains of your nearest and dearest's holiday snaps is dull and a huge holiday blog ain't going to be much more entertaining.
Berlin
Berlin has to be the most confusing place of all those we visited. There's a U-Bahn and an S-Bahn and God only knows what the differences is. A a result did often find ourselves travelling in the wrong direction, on the wrong line or at stations which appeared to have ceased to function. The drivers also look worryingly unofficial, their uniform of choice seemed to be jeans and a flannel shirt not like the re-assuring garments worn by those employed on the London Underground. Berlin was infinitely fascination and the scar of the East-West divide is still plain to see, even though I still don't really understand what the Berlin wall was all about...
Prague
Possibly the highlight of the trip, Prague was one of my favorite places we visited. Stunningly beautiful and cheap premium beer, non of the shit like Becks and Fosters. Having gained some experience from Berlin, we better enjoyed Prague having more of an idea of 'how to travel' and spent far less time as lost and confused tourists but intelligent, culture seeking pro-backpackers, although we did actually get a tour round Prague, which may account for our apparent expertise.
Prague had many fascinating stories and dramas, but my favourite has to be the golden willy in the Castle Quarter, originally onyx like the rest of the statue but has been worn gold by people rubbing it for good luck...ha.
Munich
Munich wouldn't have been worth a visit if I'm honest had it not been for the Bavarian Beer Hall. Waited on by appropriately stereotypical German women dressed in Bavarian dresses, the Beer Hall we visited made me feel like a true local, if you don't focus too heavily on the fact that I had to ask for the English translation of the menu. Unfortunately we missed the singing and dancing of Saturday nights at the Beer Hall owing to a tragic misplacment of some dirty laundry on the coach, which transported us from Prague to Munich, and the ensuing frantic search for said property. To this day the bag has never been recovered...I just feel sorry for the poor German who stumbled across my dirty pants.
Vienna
By far the most gorgeous and beautiful architecture we saw on the trip, Vienna was amazing to look at, those Habsburgs knew a thing or two about showing off their monies. Unfortunately due to a monumental cock up with hostel bookings and a night train, we lost a whole day in Vienna. We managed to book ourselves into our Vienna hostel on the night we were travelling on the night train...woops. So when we eagerly approached the desk proudly apologising for being so early for check in we were mortified to be told we were in fact a whole day late and therefore had lost a whole day in Vienna. We then spent an enjoyable, if frantic, day taking in as many sites as we could one of which being the famous Sacher Torte which was fucking to die for.
Budapest
Budapest was perhaps the closest I came to experiencing a Zante-esque holiday, we spent less time site seeing here and more time on the 80p pints of Pilsner which may explain why this was on par with Prague as our favourite place on the trip. Budapest's ruin bars were the among the most memorable of the places we visited throughout the trip. Some brilliant person decided that the numerous ruins in Budapest could probably be put to better use but rather than undertaking expensive renovation work the ruins were left as they were and bars have literally been woven into the decrepit buildings. We met some colourful characters in these bars including an Australian Jesus-looking character, he took a great fancy to my sister...which was hilarious.
Zagreb
INSERT PHOTO HERE
[I don't even have a decent photo it was that wank]
Pretty dull, not much to see, don't bother. Not even in the EU...losers.
Venice
Venice was one of, if not the place I was most excited to see. Not just because I wanted to visit all the Assassin's Creed spots but because of its iconography as one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Venice is definitely insanely picturesque, but I did feel like it was a victim of its own reputation in that it could never really live up to my expectations. Nevertheless Venice was pretty special and thankfully due to not being there in the height of summer we did not experience it's infamous grim smell. The Grand Rialto was impressive, but it was covered in graffiti. Its a bit shit that such an iconic landmark apparently doesn't deserve a lick of paint to spruce it up, but I suppose was the end of season so I'll let you off Venice, maybe they thought no one would notice.
Rome
Horrendously expensive, hot but so so stupidly beautiful. Instagram-moments a plenty, Rome is rammed full of gorgeous architecture, Roman ruins and endless picturesque history. The Colosseum is incredible, its impossible to describe its awesomeness. What I did not expect was the sense of the surreal as I stood where thousands had died for the pleasure of a supposedly civilised audience...weird sensation to say the least. Luckily by this point my sister and I were seasoned travelers and experts at the whole backpacking thing...and we navigated Rome with little error, apart from my sister believing to have a rose bestowed upon her by a man due to her sublime beauty only to have her moment shattered when he asked me to cough up some euros, I insisted she returned the rose. Sorry babe.
Home
I survived three weeks backpacking across the continent and made it home, albeit exhausted and sick of Nutela sandwiches for lunch. It was a weird sensation ending the journey, on one part I was desperate to continue exploring and discovering Europe, but at the same time I desperately wanted to come home and not have to live out of or carry my 70 liter backpack any longer.
Having said that, I can not wait to travel again. Every day different, nothing was ever boring and it really does make you realise that there is so much to see in the world and I have bollock all time and money to see it with...shit.
Also its safe to say the trip took it out of my sister, totally fucked on the underground after our flight. She was happy to be home.
No comments:
Post a Comment