It all started with a wedding invite to Vilnius. It became the generator of our much delayed European tour. We wove around Vilnius an European vacation covering 8 coveted bucket list countries (Sweden, Lithuania, Poland, Czech Rep, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, and France)...for a person who had never stepped outside India. Initiated by a few inputs from a travel agency, it took me 6 months of extensive study and planning to create a 20 day itinerary which included touristy stuff as well as local experiences. Now I am back with an even bigger list of Do's and Don'ts. But the experience was worth all the Don'ts ..for sure...One life is all we have!
GETTING THE BIG PICTURE
As we were a group of eight, the first thing we did was open up a Whats-app group, where everyone started throwing suggestions. It was all over the place, where someone wanted to go to Norway and another to London, all this with Vilnius in the center. But keeping distances in mind and duration being 20 days, we settled down with 7 countries initially, keeping 2 nights for each country, but three in our wedding destination and three for Paris. From Delhi to Vilnius (Lithuania) to Warsaw (Poland) to Krakow (Poland) to Prague (Czech Republic) to Berlin (Germany) to Amsterdam (Netherlands) to Brugge (Belgium) to Paris (France) and back.
VISA WOES
Now there were two of us from Delhi, two from Mumbai and four from Kolkata. From which country do we apply for Schengen Visa was the next hurdle. For Lithuania, only the office in Delhi issued Visa, as the main reason for our tour was the Wedding in Lithuania. So we did a rethink on that. A Schengen Visa could ALSO be issued either from the country of exit or entry into Schengen area, considering you spend the maximum number of days in that country. And as Paris seemed a popular choice, we increased number of nights in Paris to four, deciding to do some day-trips in neighboring places.
BOOKING FLIGHT TICKETS IN AND OUT OF SCHENGEN
The next step was to book the flight tickets as soon as possible to get the best deal. When we started doing this, we realized that Delhi to Vilnius would be via Kiev, which really meant wasting a full day, if not more in hopping and sitting around security. Brainstorm again. And suggestions to fly into Lithuania from Scandinavia, after spending a couple of nights in one Scandinavian country, surfaced. Although Oslo came up, it could not stand up to Stockholm. So finally it was decided to fly Air India from Delhi to Arlanda Airport, stay two nights there and then take a low cost carrier to Vilnius. And return journey would be from CDG Airport,Paris to Delhi.
BOOKING ACCOMMODATION
Initially we decided to go through an online portal for the whole Itinerary. But budget constraints and deliberating with my much traveled friend, I decided to go the whole hog myself. This was the toughest thing to do in terms of time. In order to decide accommodation, not only did I have to consider cost considerations, but also location of hotel from airport/ stations AND nearby local attractions. Which meant I had to have roughly in my mind, places we wanted to see and things we wanted to do. Which meant sifting through a lot (means a huge huge lot) of hotel reviews, comparing costs, Google mapping , sometimes even through 3D mapping to see the actual location and its whereabouts. After all this was a one time thing for me then and I am a crazy surfer. I devoted minimum two days to each, as we had begun plans quite early. Stockholm hotel, I changed twice, as my study of local attractions gave me new directions, literally. And since all hotels booked were under 100% cancellation till a few days ahead of the trip, it was like trading stocks.
CONNECTING THE DOTS: THE INTERCITY CONNECTIONS
From all the Travel Stories I had been reading up about Europe, an idea had crystallized in my mind that we should use the European Railways. Not only would it fall cheaper but that, apparently was the best way to enjoy Europe. After studying the duration and costs, we finally decided to use another low cost carrier from Vilnius to Warsaw and from then on to use the railways to travel from city to city, across the borders. We gave the Eurail Pass a lot of thought, compared even the discounted cost of this to buying tickets separately. Finally we decided to buy tickets separately for each connection and also do reservations for all. So most of the tickets were booked online with reservations from the online portal of Trainline.
From Amsterdam, as there is no direct train to Brugges, we decided to go through Antwerp, stopping at Europes prettiest station for a couple of hours and do some diamond shopping (window or otherwise) near the Cathedral Station. This I call my 1/2 city :). Only the connection between Warsaw to Krakow could be done exactly one month prior. So I set up an alarm for that date, after finishing all other bookings. Every time I would do these bookings, be it hotel or intercity, I would upload it to a special Whats-app group we had created , just to upload official documents. I also sent emails to everyone with the attachments.
Wasn't I glad I did that! Because two months later, my laptop crashed and all my data was wiped out! I have a stronger heart today. If I could survive that, I can survive anything.
PLANNING THE ITINERARY FOR EACH PLACE
The whole idea of this trip had now taken the mode of a DIY, leaving us/ me a lot of freedom to go to places which were famous landmarks. At the same time, it gave me the opportunity to scout around for things to do, which were a little off the beaten track.
An Icebar in Stockholm got included as google map showed it to be just 200m away from our hotel. A visit to a food court, Hala Gwardii, in the middle of a local Market became the highlight of our Warsaw trip. A new rotating Franz Kafka statue head nearly made me miss my cab to Prague Station. A floating swimming pool and beach bar in Berlin took us to a new part of Berlin. It was a different matter that it had closed for the day, when we reached at 6pm. But more than made up for it at this beautiful Lakeside cafe in Tiergarten, where there was a movie shooting going on too. In Amsterdam we walked for miles to visit this brewery in a windmill and the panorama terrace of Nemo Science Centre, which literally took our breath away. We optimized our itinerary by visiting Diamond shops near Antwerp Station in the two hour halt we had on our way from Amsterdam to Brugge. In Paris we did this interactive digital museum in addition to climbing atop the Arc de Triumph. In Rouen in Normandy, on a day trip from Paris, we lost our way and roamed around in a city straight out of the Medieval era.
For the Itinerary, I kept about four to five days per place, sifted through a lot of sites, blogs, Youtube and reviews to streamline an hour to hour things to do and see plan. There is so much out there for everyone and every budget.
GETTING AROUND IN THE CITY
This was , by far, the most challenging. Am I repeating myself? But it was. The more I was reading up, the more stronger was the conviction that we should use the Public Transport of each place we would be in. To take in the local culture, interact with locals closely, this was the best way. And the icing on the cake was it would fall cheaper. Every country had the system of Travel cards for 24/ 48/ 72 hours, whereby one could use any mode of transport by the Public Transport to and from any place.
There were some interesting facts I came across as a result. Every place has a tramline or busline that goes through many tourist points and could replace the more expensive Hop on Hop off coaches. True, you won't have an audio or live guide. But how much of that does one retain? I , personally, find myself dozing off in a guided coach, due to he non involvement added to the fact that we are travelling over a period of time. That's how we came across this Retro Tram for Tourists in Warsaw.
Thats how I also came across Jet Express TXL, a bus from Berlin Station to our hotel. Infact, I changed our Berlin hotel because of this bus. And we realized on our trip that people use Public Transport from airports and railway stations to their hotels. Everyone you see around is travelling with luggage. We did this in Amsterdam and in Brugge. Only in Paris, we found it cheaper and convenient to take a cab, as it fell cheaper being in a group, using a metred cab.
This trip was a huge learning for me. And I am hoping to do some more.