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Eurotrip 2015 | Prelude

NZ2 - on my way to London


Woohoo! after six months of planning I'm finally off on my first trip to europe. I left for the airport at around 3pm on Friday to catch my Air New Zealand Flight to London (NZ2). Taking the airport bus from the city was an easy experience and no pre-booking was required.

I reached the airport with plenty of time to spare... and before I knew it my plane was in the air and on it's way to London. Apart from some turbulence early on in the flight (which disrupted the meal service), the flight went well and I ended up reaching London slightly earlier than scheduled.

Itinerary

My itinerary for this trip was scheduled to include:

  • London (2 days)
  • Paris (3 days)
  • Gimmelwald - Bernese Oberland (3 days)
  • Rome (3 days)
  • Venice (2 days)
  • Munich (2 days)
  • Bacharach (2 days)
  • Amsterdam (3 7 days)
Unfortunately during the trip, I had to cancel my journey to Germany due to the migrant crisis in Munich causing train cancellations between Venice and Munich. The repercussions of the last minute cancellation of my night train from Venice to Munich caused significant expenses that ate into my emergency travel funds and no longer made Germany possible.

Travel style

With this being my first trip to Europe, as well as my first solo travel experience, I wanted to keep the costs at a more manageable level without necessarily sacrificing on experiences that would go on to define the trip. This meant:
  • Booking intercity point to point train journeys in advance
  • Booking accommodations in advance - well rated hostels and bed & breakfasts
  • Eating frugally whilst still experiencing local cuisine - mostly street foods and cafes frequented by locals, with the occasional splurge in restaurants
  • Carrying just one carry-on sized backpack in case I need to fly in a budget airline
Savings made from the approach above would allow me to spare no expense in experiencing the best of what a city had to offer, including investing in passes that would allow me to skip lines in sights. 

For the next few blog posts, I will be publishing a series of travel journals to share my personal experience on this 3 week trip. 

Check out the rest of my Eurotrip 2015 trip journals below:
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