Euro Trip Plan - Slovenia, Italy, Czech Rep., Austria and Hungary

Last week at this time, I was thinking if I should go travel in the Europe. One of my housemates went travelling with family and the other with her course mates around Ireland, Eastern and Western Europe. So that left me alone at home but I had a wonderful trip to Seven Sisters near Brighton but that was only for a night stay, though it was very fun.

So, back to the question of whether or not I should travel Europe. First question I asked to myself - Am I willing to spend some money for this trip. After much consideration, I decided to put a sum of budget and work things out from it. I started to look at the places around Europe especially Eastern Europe cause it's relatively cheaper in all aspect - currency, foods, accommodations, etc. After much of reading and research, I finally came out with a list of places that I will be visiting in my 13 days trip and can be illustrated below.

Euro Trip - 13 days

My first destination is Bled and Bohinj in Slovenia. These two places are very popular with their beautiful lakes and surrounding areas. I will be touching down at Trieste Airport at around 1435hr, which leaves with two options. First wait for 6 hours in Nova Gorica to board the train (Euro 5.00) to Bled-Jezero OR take a bus to Trieste then change to Ljubljana and take a train to Lesce-Bled which in total cost about 20 Euro. Obviously I am not going to just sit around and do nothing, so I've decided to take a longer route which will allow me to explore Trieste town before heading to Ljubljana. 3 nights will be dedicated these two places.

The next stop would be Venice, Italy. The accommodations here are expensive - as a backpacker, I always look for cheaper alternatives. Fortunately I found one but the location wasn't that great. It is called the Camping Jolly. This place will have facilities such as the swimming pool, open door gym great for relaxations.

The next day I will be travelling to Lake Como via Milan. From Venice to Milan, I booked a train which only cost me for 9 Euro under the Super Economy ticket category trenitalia.com . A regular ticket would have cost me 35 Euro. Lake Como is located near the Switzerland-Italy border. I am planning to rent a bike to tour around the lake and provided I have enough time, I will try to cross border to Switzerland and bike around Lake Lugano.

On the next day early in the morning, I will be heading to Bergamo by train and then transfer to the airport to catch my 1205hr flight to Brno. Upon arrival in Brno, I will be heading to Prague by bus. The bus that I am taking in no ordinary bus. It has very advanced entertainment system on the bus with free coffee and tea provided to all passengers. The company that owns this bus is called the Student Agency bus, first founded by students.

After Prague, I will be staying one night in Vienna, Austria and head to Budapest for the Saturday night thermal bath event before taking a train in the morning to Siofok, Hungary which is located near Lake Balaton. In Budapest, one of the most popular activity is spa and public bath. I am looking forward for a good experience in this. Also, they have quite good party locations around the town.

Until then...

Brighton and Seven Sisters

Over the past few months, life had been a little bit hectic with all the coursework and preparation for my final exam followed by the completion of my final year project report and presentation. I realised that after the exam and all the coursework will be a period of transition between the old and the new chapters of my life. But before that chapter arrives, I am planning to use the time wisely - treat myself something good after the 4 years of hardship in Imperial, hence decided to do a 1 night trip at the Seven Sisters with some of the Mech Engers. This is an all guys trip to Seven Sisters, located approximately 30 km from west from Brighton. The original plan was to catch some fish and BBQ them have a short nap in the car and camps before heading back to London. There were 7 of us headed for Brighton from London, took about 3 hours of slow drive (stopped by Croydon to buy a 4-men tent). One of us has his own car and we decided to rent another ZipCar from London. It was a fun journey on the way to our destination. We first head to do some fishing and catch as much mussels and crabs as possible for dinner. 

Fab the Pro

Unfortunately, I am not a pro in shore fishing, so as expected, we failed to catch any fish. But Fab, my Italian friend was very skilled in catching mussels and crabs, showing us the bunch of Asians on how to do it. We next drove to one of the national reserve - the Seven sisters. There is a reason why this place is called the Seven sisters. Look at the picture below. You can see 7 bumps at the cliffs in the picture shown below.

The Seven Sisters

Upon arrival we set up some of the cooking facilities for BBQ and tent. Weather on that day was wonderful and we did not face any problem cooking near the beach. It took us awhile before we could sleep at night. Looking up the sky and talking like we know how the future will be. At the same time, we competed on counting the shooting stars that entered in to the atmospheres and eventually slept without knowing. Next morning, I woke up at around 0500hrs, took a short walk around the area and decided to snap some photos of the morning scenery. That is me in the photo trying to be in the picture while setting the camera on timer.

The river and Me

City-Get-Away house

The river bank with man-made structure

River towards the sea

The path along the river

Around Seven Sisters

Where all the rabbits lives

Went fishing around 9 am. Super sunny. That my friend trying to fish.

 

Tired of fishing, we decided to take a break

We decided to stop by Brighton for lunch before our journey back to London

Most of us took the Harry's Challenge.

Our Winner of the Harry's Challenge

 

My checklist

Here are a few stuff that I have and haven't accomplished:

1. Final year examination = DONE
2. Final year report submission = DONE
3. Final year project presentation = DONE
4. Hangout with the Mech Enger's at BBQ = DONE
5. Mech Eng trip to 7 Sister's = DONE

So now, what is next before I start my busy working life back in Malaysia? More hanging out with friends before we part our ways in pursuing our new dream, which are making loads of money and building a happy family. What will things be after 10 or 20 years. I hope all of us will still be in touch with each other on facebook (if facebook still exists at that time).