Eurotrip 2019 - the logistics

The stunningly beautiful Lake Skoder, Montenegro side (Virpazar)

Hello!!! I have all but abandoned the blog in favour of Instagram, but seeing as I am now home and bored and it's raining and gloomy outside, I thought I would jot down some notes from my 2 month Europe jaunt.

I came back to the UK with no idea of what to do - well that's not strictly true, if anything I had too many ideas of what to do, and couldn't settle on any of them. However my friend Jen randomly booked flights to Croatia and wanted company, so this solved my indecisiveness - travelling Europe was on my list of possible things to do, and I didn't want to fly all the way to Croatia and back again then fly back to Europe at a later date as I wanted to keep my carbon emissions down.  So, I booked a one way ticket to Pula and figured that I would work out a route as I went - avoiding planes where possible.

I ended up visiting 10 countries in 2 months, using busses, cars and trains, met some great people and saw some beautiful things, and caught up with people I met in New Zealand who have moved back home.  It was a fun experience and I think I learned from it - this was my first solo travel experience relying on public transport and in non-English speaking countries.

This post is a summary of my travels, and the next few posts I'll break down into more details.  I'll discuss where I went, what I did, and of course - how I tried to do it as eco-friendly as possible (it was hard).

My route - as I was doing it on the fly, it's a bit random...
(Croatia) Pula, Labin, Korenica for Plitvice Lakes, Zadar, Split
(Bosnia & Herzegovina) Mostar
(Montenegro) Kotor
(Albania) Tirana, Berat, Dhermi
(Montenegro) Bar, Virpazar
(Bosnia & Herzegovina) Sarajevo
(Slovenia) Ljubljana, Bled, Triglav National Park (and then Italy for one night for pizza :P )
(Austria) Worthesee, Dunstein,Vienna
(Slovakia) Bratislava
(Czechia) Prague
(Germany) Teltow, Brunswick, a couple of places in Bavaria, Munich, Dachau

I knew where I wanted to go in Croatia from travel blogs and instagram, and have wanted to visit Kotor from a blog post I saw on The Travel Hack, so worked that into my plans.  I also have always wanted to visit Mostar in Bosnia & Herzegovina, so when I saw how close I was I sketched out a rough route.  Albania was never part of my plan, but I wanted to work somewhere random and saw Albania was nearby so picked it.  After Albania I knew I had to be in Berlin to see my friend Franzi at the beginning of September, so worked out a rough route north to take Sarajevo into account, having heard good things from other travellers. I also really wanted to go to Bled, and it happened that my friend Anja was also going to be in Slovenia around the same time I was, so we joined forces and that created my Slovenia and Austria plan.  Then I had to kill a few days before meeting Franzi, so went to Bratislava for a day whilst staying in Vienna, and stopped off in Prague for a few days before meeting Franzi in Berlin. I've never truly appreciated the fact that living on the continent, you can just country hop in a day - it blew my small mind!!

Getting around
I used a mix of transport.  When travelling with friends I was luckily enough to be in a car (and campervan in Germany!).  Otherwise I relied on public transport - I discovered Get By Bus far too late in my travels, but I found it to be the best bus website, showing the most options compared to the FlixBus app or Omio app.

Frustratingly, some of the bus companies needed the bus ticket printed out so I would have to head to the bus station either a day or two before I wanted to travel to ensure I had a seat, but other companies did electronic ticketing.  Often you have to pay extra for your luggage, but you do this when you get on the bus - usually 1 or 2 Euros per big bag paid to the driver in cash.

Busses between countries in Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina and Montenegro were easy enough to find - I found and booked via the Get My Bus app or FlixBus.  Most of the bus stations were also easy to navigate - the people at the counters often spoke English, or you could look at a screen and see what stand you needed to go to (peron was the word for 'platform').  Most of the stations offered a left luggage service for a small fee, though I had no use for it. The busses weren't overly comfortable and often didn't have seat belts and sometimes the AC didn't work.  They would stop off at random places every few hours so you could get off and stretch your legs and go for a pee.  For longer journeys I would recommend buying food and drink in advance to bring on the bus as they often stop at random truck stops which don't have the best food selection.  For overnight busses, bring a travel pillow.

After a particularly long, hot and cramped journey from Mostar to Kotor, I decided to treat myself to a car transfer from Kotor to Tirana in Albania.  It was advertised in the hostel I was staying at, and was only 30 euros for a 4 hour journey to the centre of Tirana, compared to a 26 Euro bus journey to the outskirts.  There were 4 of us in the car plus the driver so I didn't feel too bad about the carbon emissions.

Albania was more tricky for busses - there was little information online and the hostel I stayed in didn't know about the public busses, but instead booked me a minibus from Tirana to Berat for 600lek which took 2 hours, though if I had gone with public transport it was half the price - but again the minibus dropped me off pretty much door to door. When it was time to leave Berat, I managed to get a lift with a couple who I met at the hostel I was working at to Shkoder, then I got a bus to Ulcinj, then another bus to Bar in Montenegro.   

In Slovakia and Czechia, I found RegioJet to be the best bus company - prices were comparable to Flixbus, but the service was way better - the busses had free wifi, a steward, free tea and coffee and tv screens in the seats. I used Omio to book trains, but I only ended up getting one train from Vienna to Prague - I would have loved to have got more, but a) trains are few and far between in the Balkans (I think a lot of lines were damaged in the war and they haven't got round to replacing them) and b) the trains I could get were SO expensive compared to bus travel! In fact, the only reason I booked a train from Vienna was because I wanted to experience the train, but the bus was only half an hour more and a little bit cheaper.  When exploring cities, I would use the public transport, or more often than not, I would walk as I like to get a feel of the area.

Border crossings were simple enough - always make sure your passport is in your hand luggage!!! Then hand it over to the bus driver when they ask for it and make sure you get the right one back!

Language
I'd say that a lot of people spoke at least basic English, so it was easy enough to get by. Another bonus was the languages across the Balkans is very similar, so you got used to some words - except for Albania which was pretty different. 


Money
Revolut was my saviour here.  It's a really awesome concept - a card and app that you load money on to, and you can hold the money in either USD, Euro or GBP.  You link your current account to it so it's easy to transfer money to the card.  I held my money in GBP.  There is a free version and a paid version - I used the free one.  You can apply for a card here, it's free! Once your card arrives, download the app to your phone and follow the security instructions - they take a recording of your voice and your face for added security.    If you opt for the free version, you can make withdrawals from ATMs for free (though some ATMs will still charge you a service fee - especially the random standalone ATMs built into shops, try and use ones attached to banks) up to £200.  After that, Revolut charges you but it's really minimal.  I was keeping track of the exchange rates and they were excellent - often only 1 or 2pence difference to what google would say the day's exchange rate was.  The app keeps track of everything - categorising your expenditure into sections like travel, accommodation and food, and tracking spend by country too - so really easy to work out budgets.  You can also opt to save you spare change in a separate account! I saved up £32 by doing this. Another feature I really liked was the app would alert you to everything - each time you spent, if you input the pin wrong - it made you really aware of your card usage and if someone stole it you'd know the moment they spent something on it.  You can also use the app to freeze the card, view and change your pin, limit your monthly spending, and turn contactless on and off - you are really in control from your pocket! It's so great.

The frustrating thing was a lot of places, especially the Balkans, didn't accept card.  Living in New Zealand, I'm used to a cashless society - so it was annoying country hopping and having to carry multiple currencies, I ended up buying a separate small wallet for my Euros.  I was foolish and did zero research, I knew that Croatia accepted both Kuna and Euro (but Kuna is more widely accepted), but ignorantly assumed the other European countries would also accept Euro - they don't!  Below is a quick run down of each country and their money situation:

• Croatia - accepts both Kuna and Euro but Kuna more widely accepted.  Euro used for things like accommodation and touristy things, Kuna in restaurants and shops.   Cash is King.
• Bosnia & Herzegovina -  Euro and Bosian Mark, but depends where you are.  Mostar widely accepted Euros for accommodation and gift shops and sometimes restaurants, but not in grocery shops.  I also found some places would accept Kuna, though usually this was tourist gift shops.  Both my hostels in Mostar would happily exchange Euros and Mark for me.  Sarajevo didn't accept Euros at all.  One of the cheaper countries I visited.  Cash is King.
• Montenegro - Euros. Cash is King. 
• Albania - Albanian Lek, though hostels accepted Euros for payment.  Definitely the cheapest of the countries I visited, except for the beach!  Cash is King.
• Slovenia - Euros. Cards more widely accepted, but also use a lot of cash. 
• Italy - Euros. Was only here for one night so unsure about cash or card acceptance.
• Austria - Euros, card widely accepted. 
• Slovakia - Euros, I was only in Bratislava and used cash. 
• Czechia - Czech Koruna.  I used a mix of cash and card, some places didn't take card but grocery stores did. 
• Germany - Euros.  Some grocery stores had a minimum card spend but otherwise card was accepted in most places. 

In total I spent £1,926 which is a rough average of £32 a day - but towards the end of the trip I wasn't paying for accommodation as I was bunking with friends.

Useful Apps

• Maps.me This app is a saviour and I use it regularly in New Zealand and the UK too.  Free downloadable maps for every country, so you can use them offline.  Often has walking tracks on it so makes it easy when you're out hiking too.  And you can search for things like toilets, grocery stores, wifi, things to do - it's really, really good. And free!
• XE Currency Convertor What I should have downloaded from day one, haha! You can add lots of different currencies to you homescreen to compare.
• Google Translate Download the language for offline use, some of them also have the camera function where you can hover it over a menu for example, and the screen magically turns it to your chosen language. 
• Flixbus To book FlixBus, more friendly than the website for mobile phones. 
• Get By Bus To book other busses including FlixBus. 

So if you're wanting to travel Europe, hopefully this was a little bit useful!!! Over the next few days I'll write up the actual travel side of things.