If you’re planning a trip to Europe on a student budget, check out these 8 tips on how to keep your stuff safe, and how to get the most out of your EuroTrip! I am currently in Bremen, Germany on an internship, but have visited a few places in Europe during my stay. I have found the tips below to be the most important to consider when travelling to Europe, and I wish I found a blog post like this before I came to Europe! 1. Bring a lock. A nice big masterlock. If you’re staying in hostels while travelling, it is important to bring a lock just to give you a sense of comfort and safety. The hostels I have stayed at have been very safe, and I’ve always felt that even if I left my things unlocked, they would be fine, and I’d return to find them untouched at the end of a day out. I think everyone staying in hostels have the same mindset: we’re all broke students, so you don’t steal my stuff, and I won’t steal yours. In the long run though, it does help to know that your stuff won’t be rifled through or messed with while you’re out of your room. 2. Put money in separate places. I have never had money stolen from me while travelling, but I’ve heard a few stories from people who have. If you are travelling with a large amount of money (enough for a few days), it will help to hide it in a few different places: $50 in your camera bag, $50 in your backpack, $50 in your wallet, etc. This way, if any of your money does get stolen, at least you know your whole life savings haven’t been swept away. 3. Invest in a microfiber towel. I wish I thought of this before I came over to Europe! Towels are essential to bring as most hostels don’t have them. In some hostels you can rent them anywhere from 2-6EUR, but that can add up, and for me at least, it’s a little gross to think someone else has already used the same towel. Towels take up WAY too much space in a backpack, so microfiber towels will really help save you space. They arguably work better than normal towels anyway! The ones that I have seen other travellers use are something like this. 4. Avoid bringing valuables. If you can avoid it, don’t bring your laptop. With modern technology, I have been able to do a lot of work from my phone and iPad while travelling using online apps, and file sharing software like Dropbox. Laptops and bigger devices take up a lot of precious packing space and realistically, how often will you use them? 5. A trick to getting around: Maps. Load Maps on your phone before you leave wifi. As long as you don’t close the app, the map will stay open with your directions so you don’t get lost! Alternatively, you can download maps.me. This app is awesome, and you don’t need wifi to use it. It’s perfect for getting around in places that don’t have strong wifi! 6. Plan your days. It helps a lot to have some sort of rough outline of what you will be doing for each day. It’s okay to stray from your original plan if something different comes up, but having an idea of what you want to get accomplished for the day will help to save time. I use the calendar app on my phone to plan my days. It gives me an easy overview of each day and week, and I can set reminders for any important tours or reservations that I have booked. 7. Bring a portable charger. For travellers like me, the iPhone is the main source of direction. I check out TripAdvisor reviews on my phone, plan my days, take notes, and use Maps ALL THE TIME. I know I wouldn’t be completely lost without my phone, but not having it would definitely make things difficult. The portable charger I use is this one, from Jackery. If you bring a portable charger and throw it in your bag every day (make sure it’s charged!), you’ll avoid the risk of being stuck somewhere without navigation, or a way to contact someone if there is an emergency. And finally,
8. Don’t forget outlet adaptors. This is so important!! Without adaptors, you won’t be able to charge anything in Europe. The best adaptor I’ve seen so far is this one from Heys.ca. This guy is perfect for EuroTravel and is an adaptor for over 150 countries! This way, you literally just buy one adaptor, and you’ll save yourself a lot of space (and money)! I hope you found these tips helpful! Enjoy Europe!! Also, if you have a chance to visit Prague in Europe, DO IT!! My favourite city so far. Check it out how to do one day in Prague on a student budget here.
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Prague was breathtaking. Every inch of the city was colorful, vibrant and fun, yet filled with so much history. Whether you’re keen to see the main sites of Prague, learn about it’s background, or simply visit the more quiet, less-touristy areas of the city, read on. How do you do Prague in one day (on a student budget)? 9:30am: Breakfast. PRICE: 150CZK Visit a small but delicious juice bar, located in the centre of Prague, near the main square. At Fresh Life Juice Bar, you can get a freshly squeezed juice of your choosing, and they also sell small snacks like baguettes and croissants. Sooo refreshing. 10am: Old Town Hall and Astronomical Clock. PRICE: FREE While sipping on your juice, walk into the main square and visit the Old Town Hall and Astronomical Clock. If you get to the clock a few minutes before 10, STAY! Every hour on the hour, small figures appear inside the clock, making a cute show for a few minutes. Must see!! 10:45am: Charles Bridge. PRICE: FREE Walk across the Charles Bridge, and get a stunning view of the river that flows through Prague. There were a few performers here when we visited, and lots of small booths selling souvenirs and original pieces of art. Walking across this bridge that was built in 1357 really helps you to understand the deep history in the city of Prague. This bridge was the main connection between the city’s Old Town, and the Prague Castle that you can see on the top of the hill in the distance. 11:45am: Lunch. PRICE: 100CZK After a small breakfast and so much walking around, you might be working up an appetite at this point. If you’re looking to stay on budget, you can grab a sandwich, sausage, fruit basket, and more for about 100CZK or less at any of the markets that you come across (they are everywhere, and they’re super cute). If you have a little extra money to spend, visit Vytopna Restaurant. This awesome restaurant has decently priced and delicious food, but the coolest thing about it is the way your drinks are served: by model train! A few trains circle the restaurant on individual tracks that visit each table. The train stays for about 5 minutes (enough for you to grab your drink), and then takes off! Lunch here is about 300CZK or less. 1pm: John Lennon Wall. PRICE: FREE After a big lunch, take a nice walk to the John Lennon wall, close to the river bank on the other side of Charles Bridge. It’s an incredibly vivid piece of art dedicated to John Lennon, that is continuously changing; it’s different every day. This graffiti-covered wall has been painted by artists from Prague and around the world, and it is a free medium that anyone can contribute to. 1:45pm: Gardens. PRICE: FREE Walk up the hill towards the Prague Castle, and take the less crowded, less touristy route through the gardens. These are very well maintained, and after every step, the view of the city of Prague gets more and more beautiful and clear. These gardens are lined with benches and spots to rest and enjoy the view… so take your time, stop to take pictures, and enjoy the atmosphere! 2:30pm: St. Vitus Cathedral. PRICE: FREE Walk through the St. Vitus Cathedral and experience the bright, colorful stained glass and astonishing architecture. Imagine this space without people in it, and let your imagination run. You’ll soon realize the importance of this building. 3pm: Prague Castle and South Tower. PRICE: 100CZK Visit the Prague Castle (this part is free), and enjoy the largest coherent castle complex in the world, according to the Guinness Book of World Records. The castle complex contains buildings of several different architectural styles, and is the main destination for tourists in this city, meaning it can get busy! However, it is a must see when in Prague. After exploring the castle complex, climb the spiral staircase up the South Tower. This is a nice workout for your thighs, but totally worth it! There are more than 280 steps, but once you get to the top, the view is crazy. You can see the entire city – the Cathedral bells, the Charles Bridge, the River, the Gardens, and more. 4pm: Chill time. PRICE: FREE Have a seat somewhere in the shade near the castle and rest after hiking up the South Tower. Grab a snack at a small café, and enjoy the fresh air and breeze at the top of the biggest hill in Prague. The walk down from the castle is definitely easier than going up, but it will be nice to catch a break at this point before heading down. 5pm: Dancing House. PRICE: FREE After you walk down from the Castle, cross the Charles Bridge, and stroll along the river towards the Dancing House. This building was very controversial at the time is was built because it stood out from the other Baroque and Gothic buildings that Prague is famous for. However, it provides a modern break from the traditional styles of architecture in the city. 6pm: Dinner. PRICE: 300CZK
U Kroka is one of the top rated places to eat on TripAdvisor because of it’s delicious food at a great price. It is a little bit of a walk to get to, but it is because of this that you will avoid the tourists, and the tourist prices. 8:30pm: Pub Crawl. PRICE: 22 EURO Though this price seems to be a lot, it was worth it. During the pub crawl, you visit 5 or 6 different, popular pubs and bars in Prague. The first pub you visit offers a “power hour” – one hour of unlimited, free drinks! If you do this right, you don’t have to buy any more drinks for the rest of the night. The last club you end up at, Karlovy lazne, is a 5 storey club with a different theme/genre on each floor. The energy in here is awesome, and this club is considered to be the biggest club in all of Europe. Even if you’re not into the clubbing scene, the top floor is a “Chill Out”, where you can go just to casually sip and chill. Make sure to buy your pub crawl tickets from an authorized hostel or office, and make sure they give you a receipt in return. You have to trade in this receipt later for your ticket. Don’t buy tickets off the street either, as there are some scammers that will take advantage of you. That sums up a full day in Prague, hitting all the awesome spots to visit, for about 650CZK, which converts to around 40CAD. The Pub Crawl adds about 30CAD to this, but in return you get a fun night out in Prague, with an hour of free drinks! Next time I'm in Prague, I want to check out the outskirts of Prague, or do a few day trips. Looks like I'll have to come back. First off, I need to say that Amsterdam was amazing. Super cute town and definitely worth a visit! The canals are lined with all different sizes of boats – some with plants overflowing from them, some that are clearly used as houses, and some parked there just for a short time it seems. So, how do you do 2 days in Amsterdam on a budget? We arrived to Amsterdam on April 27th (King’s Day) around 11 in the morning, after navigating through the Amsterdam airport and making it to Amsterdam Centraal. Lucky for us, our hostel was (supposed to be) a short, 7 minute walk from Amsterdam Centraal, but thanks to no maps or Wi-Fi, and wrong directions from a security guy at the station, it ended up taking us about 40 mins. Walking along the cobblestone streets was interesting, especially with the huge crowds of people we had to push through… Anyway, we eventually got to the hostel (Hostel Utopia – it was the cheapest I could find when we booked about 3 weeks in advance). It was decent for a hostel, and a good value for the price we paid. It was a short walk to everything in the city! Not much was open on our first day, since it was King’s Day (check it out here, I had to google it too). The streets were crowded with people, parties, alcohol, weed (legal in Amsterdam), and music!! DJs were playing music out of their apartments on the top floors of some buildings. There were also a few DJs jamming out on the street (including Martin Garrix). The good thing about it being King’s Day, is that there were food stands on every corner, selling cheap snacks. We decided to find a place to sit from dragging our luggage around all morning, and ended up grabbing a quick sandwich in a restaurant. Delicious, decently sized, and all for only 13EURO (including beer, of course). For the rest of the day, we just chilled and napped (jetlag hit us). Day 2 We woke up and headed out for breakfast (brunch?) around 11am. We went to The Pancake Bakery and got a huge freaking pancake for 12EURO. This really filled me up for the whole day. We then walked a short 30 mins through town to the Rijksmuseum, and took a picture outside at the I AMSTERDAM sign. Super cool and worth the walk! The Rijksmuseum is filled with famous Dutch art from the Middle Ages to the 20th Century. If you are an art lover, do it up. If not, you’ll save a nice 17EURO. The Van Gogh Museum is also in this area, and is worth a look too (if you’re an art fan). We walked back through the town and after looking around for the best price for a canal cruise, we hopped on one that was only 11EURO. This was the cheapest we could find - they can go up to 100EURO in some cases. The 11EURO cruise was perfect. It was 1 hour long in an enclosed boat about 50ft long, and seemed to be the exact same tour you would get if you paid a higher price. A canal tour is also a crucial activity to do while visiting, and was totally worth it! After the cruise, we crossed the street to the Sex Museum, and looked at some porn from the 1800s… Interesting!! It was way more educational than I thought it would be, and for only 3EURO, it was a good way to see something different. We grabbed some fries after that (Frites), and of course, you have to get them with fritssaus (that is what the guy there suggested to me). A medium size was 3.50EURO and I couldn’t even finish it. After eating, we went to Anne Frank’s House. 9EURO total, and this is such an iconic spot to visit while in Amsterdam, that we couldn’t miss it. We didn’t really plan ahead for this trip, and did the Anne Frank House last minute. If you have time, I would recommend booking tickets in advance (like, months in advance). They sell out SO fast, and between the times of 9am-3:30pm, you can only enter the house if you have bought an online ticket. We went at around 5pm and waited in line for maybe 45 mins before we got in the house (which wasn’t a huge deal). It was such an eye opening experience, though. To stand there where Anne and her family hid for 2 years during WWII was incredible – as a Canadian student that only learned about WWII in Grade 9 history class, the tragedies of that time felt so heavy and real in that moment. It was dark outside by the time we finished at the Anne Frank House, so we decided to walk to the bench that the actors of the Fault In Our Stars sat on in the movie. It looks like a normal bench, minus a few thousand signatures and quotes, and a couple locks on the sides. This is a totally free thing to do, and since it was only a few minutes away by foot, we checked it out. We headed back to the Red Light District and walked around there, after grabbing a Nutella filled snack and a tea at a little café on the way. It was super busy, and there were lots of pubs, bars, and shows that we walked past. These cost money to go in to, so if you’re down, go for it. But we decided to save and enjoy the outside atmosphere! I think we got the whole idea of the Red Light District just by looking at half-naked chicks through the windows. The next morning, we got up early and walked to the Floating Flower Market (Bloemenmarkt). There were so many cute flower shops, it was hard to stop the urge to buy every cute plant. I took lots of pictures though, which satisfied my need to buy something (sort of). This was free to do unless you decided to buy something there obviously, and the flowers, plants, seeds, etc, weren’t even that much. We stopped at a café on the way back to grab something to eat, then we headed to our bus stop! In 2 days, we managed to walk around the city, eat some traditional Dutch food, go on a canal cruise, visit the Rijksmuseum, Anne Frank House, Red Light District, Dam Square, and Bloemenmarkt, all for less than 50EURO. Hell ya.
Till next time, Amsterdam. |
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March 2018
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