While growing up, something that was always a part of my prayers was to visit 'every' beautiful place on Earth. Belonging to a family where taking semi-annual fortnight-long trips was a tradition, my passion to travel was only sparked further. During my childhood when there was little internet access, I used to intently listen to travel anecdotes and put together information in my to-travel list.
While pursuing my MBA at Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow, I got an opportunity to go to France as an exchange student for a term of 80 days. I thought all my prayers were finally answered and yes, they actually were. My excitement knew no bounds. I started devoting most of my time and energy getting into good shape and form and meticulously planning my time in Europe. I wanted not a moment in those 80 days to be squandered. Every time I reminisce my time in Europe, I get overwhelmed by the beautiful experiences and self-discoveries that I made on the way.
I want to go down my memory lane & pen my best memories through this post. Also, I promise I will resort to zero editing to enable you to see exactly what I saw. So, here we go.
But before that, since I went on a student exchange program, I used student Eurail pass & flights (which are an average of 20 euros even if you don't book in advance) for most part of my journey.
AUSTRIA
VIENNA
Call it the first trip effect but the moment I stepped out of the Vienna airport, I was completely enthralled by the detailed architecture of the buildings. Every moment, I felt tempted to pull out my camera & capture the magic around me.
WERFEN
While I was in Berlin, I met a random Indian guy who told me that it's a crime to go to Austria & not visit the Werfen ice caves which are the largest in the world. Reading up about it pushed me to take a detour on my Switzerland trip to the Werfen ice caves.
Werfen is ~50 km away from Salzburg and can be covered in a day trip so I spent the night in Salzburg, the birthplace of Mozart. From the Werfen railway station, I took a trolley for some part of the route, walked through ice tubes for another & trekked till the entrance of the caves which was a guided tour of the magnificent limestone & ice monuments which stretched as high as you could see.
CROATIA
ROUTE TAKEN
Zagreb---(Bus)--->Dubrovnik---(Ship)--->Hvar---(Bus)--->Plitvice
You can also do a round day trip to Plitvice from Zagreb.
ZAGREB
While Croatia is primarily known for its clear waters, its capital unexpectedly had distinct experiences to offer like the Museum of Broken Relationships, Museum of Illusions & delicious kadhai paneer after days of eating make-do meals.
PLITVICE LAKES NATIONAL PARK
This place made me realize that the pictures I used to see on my calendars were real. Each and every corner of this UNSECO world heritage site was postcard worthy. Plitvice is known for a chain of 16 terraced lakes, joined by waterfalls, that extend into a limestone canyon. You can walk through the park on a fenced path along the lakes and waterfalls.
DUBROVNIK
I believe myself to be a huge fan of 'Game of Thrones' and therefore, this place had to be on my list because it holds the King's Landing. Dubrovnik is only accessible via a bus from Plitvice/Zagreb & not a train but the discomfort was worth it.
Also, don't miss out on a local drink called as 'Orohavoc' which is smooth as silk.
HVAR
What is Croatia without its waters? Hvar's blue caves and beaches came as a welcome respite to my travel cravings. We missed the ship that goes to all the popular places in Hvar so we instead took a private speed boat which swung us left, right, back and forth as we sailed through to the blue caves.
HUNGARY
BUDAPEST
Rightly called the party capital, the aura of the city transported me to the zone of ruin pubs, hot wines and thermal baths.
Most Recommended Thermal Bath: Széchenyi
SLOVENIA
BLED
There is a fable about Lake Bled which runs in the town that it was created by fairies and it was indeed hard to be challenged. We spent one day in this gorgeous place and walked across Vintgar Gorge in the first half & hired bicycles at 1 euro/hour to go around the city ion the next half.
Bled has popular cheesecakes and we were lucky to have one during an ongoing festival in September'18.
BELGIUM
Small towns have always fascinated me more than big cities. This is the reason I chose to cover Bruges, Ghent, Antwerp and planned to skip Brussels, the capital city of Belgium.
We took the train to travel between places and all of these places are nearby with approx. travel time of 30-60 minutes.
BRUGES
When I count the places in Europe I would definitely like to revisit, this medieval town always tops my list. It is, without a doubt, the most gorgeous fairy-tale town among all the places I saw in Europe.
Belgian waffles, fries, chocolates were a big hit. The canal ride shows you all the popular places in the town and was good. But what I really loved about the town was its lifestyle and culture so just take a map from your hostel/town and spend a day on a walking tour of your own.
GHENT
Ghent is a place almost at par with Bruges. The architecture is quite similar to that of Bruges and this place looked breathtakingly beautiful at night. We stayed here for the evening, dinner and took early train to Berlin the next morning. We also learnt here that regular water in Europe means bottled water which might cost you as high as 8 euros :D
GERMANY
Germany will be a haven for vegetarians like me because there are plenty of vegetarian restaurants available here. Also, if you want to go shopping, then Germany has reasonably priced items in whole of central Europe.
We had covered Berlin, Black Forest, Munich, Dresden, Nuremberg in Germany and the transportation option we had taken was the Deutsche Bahn.
MUNICH
The most popular Oktoberfest is a 16-18 day folk festival (starting September end to Otcober begining) which is held annually in Munich is attended by more than 60L people around the world. The attended wear traditional Bavarian attire. The women wear 3 layered costume- a blouse, skirt and apron and the way you wear your apron indicates your marital status. You might feel more in place if you dorne a similar attire.
Beer is a must^infinity-do here. People are extremely friendly this time of the year and will try to make you feel inclusive.
BLACK FOREST
Germany is still 33% forests and woods and being a fan of such terrain, I found the small antique wooden towns of Titisee and Freiburg mesmerizing. The local train (slow but amazing journey) and buses take you around to these small towns which are about 1 hour away from each other. You can buy the tickets to the bus inside the bus or at the bus stop.
DRESDEN
Dresden is one of the most populous cities of Germany and is known for its classic architecture.
ICELAND
The best part of my Europe trip was Iceland. The 6 days I had spent in Iceland made me completely forget that I was on Earth and not some other mystical planet. Given a chance, I would trade anything to spend my remaining lifetime in Iceland.
We had booked round trip flights from Paris to Reykjavík, the capital city of Iceland which costed us around 100 euros/person. Within Iceland, you take car to roam around since there aren't other transport options available in the interiors. Therefore, it's recommended to have an international driving license made. The driver must also read up basic regulations or you might end up like us who got caught for driving too slow by 2 policewomen :P
The best time to experience the northern lights is between October and February but make sure to check Aurora forecast to decide the place to stay for the night. Also, choosing an Airbnb is better than taking a hostel here because the homes are in the middle of nowhere and give you authentic feels of how people survive in the harsh Icelandic winters. Make sure you carry extra padding of clothes because the temperatures fall to extremely lower Fahrenheit during the night, especially when you're sitting outside waiting for Aurora Borealis. Also, the food outside is quite expensive so it's better to buy groceries and cook yourself.
These were some of my best memories in the first month. Stay tuned for my memoirs on other countries. I will write whenever I have time next.