Timetable

So most likely I will fly off from Singapore to reach London-Heathrow on August 9 2010. Here's a basic list of the places I am going to visit and in order. I have done extensive and thorough research on each place and town and I have a list on things I'm going to do there as well! It may or may not change!

Europe
9/8-16/8: London, England
17/8-20/8: Stockholm, Sweden
21/8-24/8: Copenhagen, Denmark
25/8-28/8: Hamburg, Germany
29/8-3/9: Prague, Czech Republic
4/9-8/9: Budapest, Hungary
9/9-13/9: Bucharest, Romania
14/9-19/9: Athens, Greece
20/9-24/9: Rome, Italy
25/9-29/9: Florence, Italy
30/9-3/10: Munich, Germany
4/10-9/10: Venice, Italy
10/10-13/10: Milan, Italy
14/10-17/10: Lausanne, Switzerland
18/10-21/10: Geneva, Switzerland
22/10-25/10: Lourdes, France
26/10-30/10: Madrid, Spain
31/10-4/11: Barcelona, Spain
5/11-6/11: Ibiza, Spain
7/11-10/11: Bordeaux, France
11/11-19/11: Paris, France
20/11-23/11: Amsterdam, Netherlands
24/11-27/11: Cologne, Germany
28/11-3/12: Berlin, Germany
4/12-8/12: Vienna, Austria
9/12-12/12: Salzburg, Austria
13/12-16/12: Nuremberg, Germany
17/12-18-12: Frankfurt, Germany

America
19/12-28/12: Baltimore, Maryland
29/12-5/12: New York City, New York

What do you think? About America, my mom's old mate lives there and so we're invited to come over anytime. My folks are planning to spend their 2010 Christmas there. Why not head to New York for New Year's too if we're near? ;)

Christmas Markets, anyone?

Feeling a bit dizzy because of Christmas (that is around the corner), I've looked up the top Christmas markets in Europe. I've seen a few strong contenders featured on various sites and they are Tallinn, Dresden, Copenhagen, Nuremberg, and Vienna. Here is Times' Europe's Best Christmas Markets 2009.

That's Tallinn. Want a perfect White Christmas? There it is, right there. I have an Estonian friend who seems rather proud of being—well—Estonian. I told her I was intending to backpack Europe and she told me to visit Estonia, that it is an unknown and ignored country full of beauty. I, for one, was not so sure what language Estonians speak, neither do I know where exactly in Europe it was. All the European countries I know are ones named on the Eurail website. I am now hanging my head low in shame. Estonia is not part of my rail pass and I'm afraid I am skipping it. :( Here is Times' review on it:

Tallinn, Nov 29 - Jan 7: the Estonian capital will host its 8th Christmas market since the tradition was revived in post-Soviet times. The picturesque Town Hall Square is said to be the site of the world’s first Christmas tree, which formed part of a ritual begun in 1441, when unmarried merchants sang and danced with the town's girls around a tree, which they then burned. Organisers expect 200,000 visitors this year and no tree burning.

 

All the pictures are rightfully linked so please click on them to be directed to the original photographer's website. :) Right on! So we move on to the next famous Christmas market. Dresden!

 

Dresden's Christmas Market is traditionally called Striezelmarkt, it is Germany's oldest Christmas Market with a very long history dating back to 1434. Its name derives from Hefestriezel, a sweet delicacy which centuries later has become know as “Dresden Christstollen” (German Christmas Cake). The Dresden Christmas Market is located in the historical part of the city centre between the recently rebuilt Frauenkirche and the culinary famous restaurant street of Münzgasse. (Taken from Germany-Christmas-Market.org)

Next up, we have Copenhagen. I love how this place sounded from all the reviews I read regarding the epic Tivoli Gardens!

Copenhagen, Nov 20 - Dec 30: The Tivoli Gardens in the centre of Denmark's capital have all the fun of the fair. Rollercoasters and other theme park rides add extra excitement to the masses of Christmas trees, presents, elves and stalls. The gardens are transformed by a huge Christmas Tree and miles of fairy lights: the Tivoli Lights were invented by Tiffany’s head designer John Loring - 1,800 light chains are needed for the willows around The Tivoli Lake. (From Times)

And then next up is Nuremberg! I am going to make this a pit stop for when I am on my German leg of the tour. Is it all right when I leave all my German trips till the end of November towards December? I still do want to see the famous sites all over the country. Anyway, that is out of topic. Let's go back to Nuremberg, shall we?

I have to say this looks entirely medieval and romantic! I cannot wait to visit!

Nuremberg, Nov 27 - Dec 24: Nuremberg is the biggest and perhaps the best in Germany. Gingerbread is a speciality of the region, so get your finest Hansel and Gretel garb on and feast on that and the speciality sausage - Nuremberger bratwursts. (From Times)

And last but not least, here is Vienna. Vienna has always been the top three of my MUST-SEE places in Europe. I'm in love with it (partly because of this story I wrote that is based there, and I had to research Vienna and Salzburg up for it) because I've read so much about it and things like if you've not been to Austria, you've never been to Europe. It's like a modern city with that old classic European feel to it. I don't know. I'll have to go to find out. ;)

I think Austria is simply amazing. :)

Vienna, Nov 22 - Dec 26: The best locations include the Schönbrunn Palace, the market in front of City Hall, the traditional Viennese Christmas market on Freyung, and those at Spittelberg, Am Hof and in front of the church of St. Charles Borromeo (Karlskirche). (From Times)

Planning your next Christmas already? ;) See you there!

How cold is cold?

So just yesterday my mother convinced me that my father was going to buy my air ticket for me. I'm pretty reluctant for him to do that but that would greatly ease my financial burden. I was also itching to buy a ticket with my own money right there and then and safely say, "See? I can fly to London now no problem. Nothing's stopping me." Yeah, right. That's not true. I don't have a ticket. Originally, my plan was to purchase a flight from Singapore to KL and then to London Stansted after. My mom frowned upon "Stansted" when I said it. It still is an airport, isn't it? It's for most budget airlines. When I take my Ryanair flight to Sweden, that's how it will be.

Oh, did I say I was skipping Oslo? Yes, indeed. It's too expensive a night and I just had to schedule the trip to be over the weekend. Weekend accommodation is much more expensive undoubtedly. Great job. So I canceled it. This means I am going to spend a week in London with Ashlee and CJ and hopefully we can take a trip up north to York and catch a game of football or two! I would love to watch Liverpool or Chelsea play a game. All I can hope now is that neither Ashlee or CJ would object to it, or to the idea of paying a hundred bucks to take a train to and fro York. York is amazing. It's got a lot to offer and a friend from York, Emily, is willing to take us around. I'm sure she's not going to take us in. Three strangers? Okay, maybe two strangers since she knew me. I don't like imposing on people but sometimes, it's an advantage. Anyway, like I said, I hope we can visit York and the haunted locations and have tea with Emily.''

Back to the idea of tickets. Most likely, dad will get me the ticket directly to London Heathrow via Qantas. Right now it costs almost SGD$1000, no more, but mom convinced me there will be sales by summer. I'm not too sure. All along, my parents were the ones buying my tickets whenever we traveled. Hopefully, they're right. The ticket could go up to SGD$1600 by the time summer comes. I don't want to know I could have saved €300 by booking earlier. With €300, I can drink a dozen mugs of beer at the Oktoberfest in Munich where I could stay for at least four days. Isn't that amazing? As long as my dad will buy me a ticket, I will try to worry less.

Saving is going on quite well. Soon, I will make a list of things I want for Christmas and my 19th birthday (which are just a week apart). Hopefully, I get what I want and good ones at that. I'm planning to ask for a good backpack but is buying a backpack seven months before too early? I hope not. I'm also asking for a money belt, a day pack, walking shoes, winter wear and thermals. Ashlee told me I would need a hell lot of clothing since we're going to tour in fall/winter and I'm already saying 25 degrees Celsius (75 degrees Fahrenheit) is cold. Having lived in the tropics since forever, I obvioiusly call that cold. It's still slightly stuffy and warm but it's cold enough. This year end, I will be traveling to Macau and Hong Kong, near China, and will experience 10 degrees Celsius (50 degrees Fahrenheit) on average. It will be the temperature of what Paris is right now in mid-November. And that's the period I will be visiting Paris and the rest of France. A good time to get used to the weather, right?

I hope I get a direct flight to London. I don't feel like laying over for two and a half hours in Doha or any part in the United Arab Emirates. I want to be on a plane knowing when I get off, I am in Europe. In the Europe. In the London Heathrow and that Ashlee and CJ are waiting for me on the other side of the gate, awaiting to start a journey of a lifetime. That's what I want. What do you want?

London Heathrow or Stansted?

So there's this really amazing deal on Air Asia that I could get my ticket to London for $300 tops. How? Does Air Asia really fly to London from Singapore? Sadly, no. There's only a KUL-STN route. That's Kuala Lumpur to London Stansted for you. Yes, that's the only catch. Where in the world is London Stansted? It still is an airport but just not the London Heathrow. That costs only 499MYR and altogether, around plus baggage and food, it costs $250 for the ticket to London. Might I add, that is absolutely insane. The ticket from SIN-KUL just before that flight would cost SGD$0 but with taxes and baggage, it would be almost $50 so altogether, the ticket would cost almost $300. This fares last only till the end of the month because I checked in July, the fares went up by 200MYR so I decided if I waited any longer till December or January, the price would surely rise further.

Picture credited to Jim Linwood on Flickr

So the Grapevine Hotel in the heart of London looks like a winner for now. :) Bed and breakfast? Yes please! That's very English, isn't it? Another place for B&Bs would be Paris. In fact, hopefully all over Europe we would live in B&Bs because it would be great if a meal is provided without worrying over where and what to eat. Simply marvelous.

Eight more months till Europe comes and if there are plans to be made, I'm making them right now. It's really not easy planning so that events coincide, fares are cheap, attractions are open, weather is acceptable... When we've done London where it's going to be cool and non-rainy during August, we will take a cheap flight to Oslo which costs no more than SGD$100. It's as much as a rail ticket from Eurostar from London to Paris so why not start from the top and save time as well? ;) It will be during summer so it would be the warmest up north. That would be the only flight within Europe we would take that would take us to the Northernmost part of Scandinavia. We will skip Finland. It's far too far and cold and we expect little there. I have originally excluded Norway but Norway as I have heard of and read up is extremely beautiful. To add to my enthusiasm, I saw New Scandinavian Cooking on the Asian Food Channel just yesterday and my interest was piqued. ;) And I'd love to spend a night in the world's most expensive country and show how it really isn't that expensive at all for a budget traveler!

From Oslo, Norway, we start our Eurail pass after we finished seeing what Oslo has to offer in hopefully two days, no more. Then at the end of Oslo, we will begin using the pass as we head down a few hours to Stockholm. Two days there and then to Copenhagen. Two days after, a boat ride to Germany and the first place would be Hamburg. We may or may not stop. Then we go to Amsterdam, Brussels, down south to cover France, Paris, Bordeaux, Lourdes, then Spain, Madrid, Ibiza, Barcelona, back to France, Marseille, then Switzerland, Bern, Munich for Oktoberfest, a bit of Austria, Salzburg, Innsbruck, some Italy, Milan, Venice, Rome, 15-hour boat ride to Athens, then Eastern Europe, Sofia, Bucharest, Budapest, Prague, back to Austria, to Vienna just in time for Christmas markets. And then if we have enough stops we can hop around Germany with our remaining time on our pass or buy a Germany pass before flying out of Frankfurt, Berlin or Munich to New York, New Jersey or Maryland (which I will check the fares for in February to March 2010) since my family's going to Maryland next Christmas. All these pit stops definitely exceed my 25 maximum travel days and I'm trimming it to 20 days on my list to keep safe (in case we overshot and need an extra day of travel or slept overnight on the sleeper train) but I'm excluding counting places like Ibiza and everywhere in Germany except for Munich which we have to stop at just in time for Oktoberfest. Hamburg in the beginning may be canceled but how can I resist not stopping in Germany when I'm even just passing through? ;) I have a friend who's going to Germany during the summer so maybe I would stop by Berlin to see her!

So I have decided we (my friends Ashlee and CJ from New Jersey) end Europe in Germany when our Eurail pass ends, around November since I'm planning on two 2-month passes that allow 10 and 15 travel days each. It's cheaper than buying a 3-month pass alone. I've long been complicated by it but I've already decided. It's at the most four months excluding the United Kingdom. Two months is too little and since the 4-month is cheaper than 3-month (just 25 stops as compared to unlimited respectively), I've decided to go for two passes. I don't have to finish all 162 days! Since it's Ashlee, CJ and I bunking together, rooms would be divided by three and Ashlee and I would share a bed so there's going to be no problem there. Plus CJ's got links and most likely we'll get some rooms here and there for cheap. All in all, the trip would last four months from early August to early December. I have planned for and will visit the Christmas markets in Germany and Austria.

And one more thing: if my sister Ellie saves enough, she could go with me to London for the four days I'll be there. A return flight and food and accommodation can squeeze into that if you're frugal enough and traveling in a group. Book early. ;)

Picture credited to ArjyP on Flickr

The details for my flight to London Heathrow is as of yet unconfirmed. My mother insists I should wait for better deals but don't airlines always refund you what more they charged you before the sale? Well, I'm going to let mother decide that. She's funding my tickets, anyway. :) However, most likely we'll take the flight from London Stansted to Oslo Torp and start the Eurail pass at the end of Oslo.


13 August 2010: via Ryanair — London Stansted (STN) to Oslo Torp (TRF)

Skyscanner has been a really helpful site for me. Do visit it. For cheap hotels if you're not taking the risk with hostels, go to Travellers Point. :)