Brno, Czech Republic 2010 Blog
Blog #1: Booking cheap hostels and airlines
One thing you don't want to spend a lot of money on is getting to and from your destination. Save that money for the experiences once you are there. Start by Googling train, bus, and air fare to and from your desired destination and do price comparisons. There are times when it is actually cheaper to fly into a different city and take the train the rest of the way to the main city you are going to. One good example we have is that we wanted to go to Nice, France, which is in southern France in the French Rivera, just west of Monaco. We could not find cheap flights that flew anywhere near there so we bought $80 round trip flights to Milan, Italy and then $50 train tickets from Milan to Nice. This was still cheaper than some of our flights to other cities that actually to you to the city.
Be aware that budget airlines often do not fly you into the main city and you will have to take some form of transportation to actually take you from the airport into the actual city. For example, the airport that is listed as Paris on Wizzair.com (definitely use this website...they have really cheap flights) was actually a good hours bus ride north of Paris. This we learned once we got there and found ourselves having to take a bus into Paris. This also happened in London, Rome, and Milan.
Taxis are expensive and we would recommend you take public transportation as you will see more people and places and get in on more of the culture. An exception to this would be taking a taxi in London because they are very famous for their taxis, but everywhere we went we really enjoyed people watching while on the public transportation. We feel like we would have missed out on this if we would have also taken a taxi.
When looking for a hostel, we always used hostelworld.com. There are other websites (which you can Google) that have a good listing of available hostels, their location, and their prices. One thing we really enjoyed about hostels is the option to get involved with others staying there or just use it as a motel. At one hostel we stayed in, we ended up talking with some other students about how far in the NCAA Basketball Tournament the K-State Wildcats had gone. In another hostel, we stayed in a room with a couple other Americans and ended up venturing around town with one of them. You can forge friendships and hostels are great if you are traveling alone as you could possibly find travel buddies. One place you will probably go to frequently if you don't have anywhere else to go is Prague. We would recommend staying in Condor Suites Hostel; this is right off Old Town Square and the people that run the hostel are very nice and accommodating and are ok with last minute bookings.
Blog #2: What to do once you get to your destination
Once you have arrived at the destination city, you have a variety of options. You should choose which on is best for you, depending on your personality type and what kind of traveler you are. A couple ways that we experienced were not planning anything until we got there, planning everything before we got there, or planning a few major things but then letting everything else fall into place.
London
When we went to London, we arrived there mid-afternoon and spent the rest of the day figuring out the TUBE and finding our hostel. After settling in, we went out to eat at an Italian restaurant, spread out the map of the city, and planned our adventure for the next day. This was probably the most planning we did for any city and we still didn't book everything tight so we had so room in between to do whatever random thing came to mind. We also planned an extra day in London that we didn't plan ANYTHING so we could go back to the places that we briefly visited on the first day out. This worked well and was great for the perfectionist/planner side of us. The sites/attractions we saw that we would recommend to others are as follows: the London Eye, MaddamTussad's Wax Museum, Buckingham Palace, the Tower of London (home of the Crown Jewels), river taxi tour of London, and Tower Bridge.
Nice, France
This trip was not planned at all. We just randomly decided to go here because we heard the Mediterranean Sea was beautiful. We got there, found our hostel, and over the next few days we did whatever came to mind. It was very relaxing to spend time on the beach, go shopping, and just walk around the town. The one morning we went to the flower market, where there were tons of flowers for sale and a lot of fresh produce. This worked well because there wasn't a lot of stress in planning to be at a certain place at a certain time. It was very carefree and ended up being a very relaxing weekend because we weren't trying to cram things in. We would definitely suggest going to Nice and we even heard some French people say they also took their "holiday" in Nice because it's one of the prettiest cities in France.
Rome, Italy
Rome was a mixture of planning...and not planning. We knew before we went a few places we absolutely had to go, but other than that, we were just going to see what happened. This style worked because we still saw the places/sites we didn't want to miss but it was still laid back as we had enough time to just wander. We were really able to submerge ourselves in the culture as we spent time eating gelato, resting in a piazza, sitting by a Trevi Fountain, and watching painters on the street. Rome was one of our favorite places to visit. The Coliseum is phenomenal and is worth the trip. We also loved throwing our Czech coins into the Trevi Fountain, standing inside the Pantheon, and seeing the Ruins. We also saw the Vatican City, which was interesting. If we could recommend any city to travelers, Rome would be at the top of our list.
Blog #3: "Secrets of Travel"
Here are some of the tips that we would give to students when they do weekend travel excursions:
- Get an ISIC card. This is an international student identification card and will get you discounts for bus fares and some admission fees into sites.
- Take advantage of Student Agency bus. These are buses that give you the experience of flying, but only in bus form: they play movies, bring around drinks and food, etc. These buses will take you to other airports and are very cheap. For example, it cost us $11 USD to go to Prague for the weekend. Very affordable...we used Student Agency almost weekly.
- Learn how to pack your clothes in one small bag for the weekend. A tote bag or backpack is perfect for this. Assuming you are staying in a hostel, you will not want to leave your bag laying in the room that you may be sharing with 8 other people, so you will need to carry your stuff with you often and even a small bag gets heavy after a while.
- Look for the "@" sign. This means this is an Internet cafe and for a small fee, you can go inside and use their computers and internet. This is really helpful if you don't want to lug your laptop around with you.
- Get free maps from information centers, airports, or train stations. Most maps you get for free will still show all the main attractions and you won't have to waste your money on buying one. The one exception we had was in Venice, Italy and we paid 6 Euros for a nice map of the island.
- Bring snacks (from TESCO) with you. This includes sandwiches, granola bars, fruit, bread, etc. It really helps you save time and money. (And DON'T forget your water bottle--make sure it's an empty one if you take it on the plane.)
- Don't speak loudly and make yourself look like a dumb American...like they stereotype us as. We were never treated badly for being Americans, but it's because we were always aware and respectful of the other culture. We heard plenty of stories of other students that were treated badly because in many cases, they had acted very "American."
- Don't stress if something doesn't get exactly as planned. Everything will work out if you miss a bus, train, of flight and you will look back at this study abroad experience as one of the best experiences in your life...a priceless moment.
- Take tons of pictures....it's much better to have too many than not enough. Take pictures of the names of the sites so you know, when looking back through pictures, what you were taking a picture of.
- Keep a diary. This sounds dumb (and it does take time) but be faithful about writing about your experience everyday so you can always remember what you did. It's so worth it!!
- Even though some things may seem expensive at the time, you will probably never do it again so spend the money to have the experience of a lifetime!!!! You will not regret it!