Europe Trip Statistics 2009

Trip Duration: 2 Months (or exactly 8 weeks and 2 days)
Number of Cities Visited: 19
Number of Countries Visited: 11
Countries Visited: Austria, Italy, Vatican, Greece, Portugal, Spain, England, Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Hungary.
Cities Visited: Vienna, Rome, Vatican City, Sorrento, Pompeii, Capri, Corfu, Athens, Lisbon, Madrid, Seville, Granada, Malaga, London, Amsterdam, Berlin, Zurich, Munich, Budapest.
Number of Photos Taken: 5265 photos   (20.6 GB)

(Vienna/Austria: 792, Rome: 422, Contiki Tour: 1023, Lisbon: 363, Spain: 710, London: 384, Amsterdam: 353, Berlin: 285, Zurich: 154, Munich: 256, Budapest: 523)

Luggage weight at leaving Toronto: 18 kg
Luggage weight arriving back in Toronto: 56.6 kg   (backpack: 19.2 kg, extra luggage: 22.4 kg, duffel bag sent home with Chad: 15 kg)
Number of Hostels:  3     (for list of Hostels see Appendix A)
Number of Nights sleeping in Hostels:  7 nights
Number of Hotels: 14      (for list of Hotels see Appendix A)
Number of Nights sleeping in Hotels:  34 nights
Number of Hotel mishaps: 2   (Sorrento: two men came into our room in the middle of the night; London: my hotel room door was left unlocked all day by the housekeeping staff).
Favourite Hotels: Cicerone Hotel Rome and Hotel Lutecia Lisbon
Number of Nights sleeping on a Ship:  1 night
Number of Nights sleeping on a Train:  4 nights  (Lisbon-Madrid; Madrid-Paris; Berlin-Budapest; Munich-Budapest)
Number of Nights sleeping for Free: 18 nights   (Vienna at my Mom´s hotel; Amsterdam at Fieke´s sea container; Budapest at my uncle´s apartment; Zurich at Mikaela´s family´s house)
Number of Hours spent on Trains: 91.5 hours   (overnight trains: 45 hours; daytime trains: 46.5)
Number of Flights: 7
Number of Hours of Flying Time: 27 hours
Number of Shoes bought: 5
Number of Scarves bought: 20
Number of Starbucks Mugs bought: 9    (Vienna, Greece, Lisbon, Madrid, Seville, London, Germany, Munich, Switzerland)
Number of Shirts bought: 10
Number of Pants bought: 3
Most Memorable: London and Madrid
Most Impressive: Rome
Most Eye Opening: Berlin
Nicest beach: Italian Island of Capri
Most Relaxing: Malaga
Most Fun Locations: Amsterdam, Budapest and The Greek Island of Corfu
Most Heart-Felt Fun: Portugal and Spain

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Appendix A: List of Hotels and Hostels
(Note: the number of nights stayed is in (#) after hotel/hostel name)
Hotels:
Vienna: Wien Classic (6)
Rome: Cicerone Hotel (2)
Sorrento: Tourist Hotel (2)
Corfu: Divani Hotel Corfu Palace (2)
Athens: Arion Hotel (2)
Lisbon: Hotel Lutecia (1)
Madrid: Best Western Hotel Los Condes (2) and Prado Apartments (4)
Seville: Eurostars Regina (1)
Granada: Alhamar Hotel (2)
Malaga: Hotel La Chancla (2)
London: Best Western Phoenix Hotel (4)
Berlin: Savor Berlin (3)
Munich: Golden Leaf Park Hotel (1)
Hostels:
Rome: Hostel Pink Floyd (3)
Athens: Students and Travellers Inn (2)
Lisbon: Ritual Backpackers Lisbon Hostel  (2)

Budapest

On August 13th, at 11:40pm we left Munich and took an overnight train to Budapest. We were having so many problems carrying around the enormous and heavy backpack that we had resulted in dragging it along the floor of the train station.
Right before entering the train, while waiting on the platform, I sat on gum!! I was so tired at this point that I didn´t want to deal with cleaning it until we arrived in Budapest, so Mikaela gave me an old receipt she had in her purse and I covered the gum in the receipt so I wouldn´t stick to everything I sat on. Needless to say I looked a bit ridiculous walking around with a receipt stuck to my butt.
We had tried to reserve a private, 2 bedroom, room on the train for us, but they were all sold out. So instead we had to reserve a 4-person room and sleep with strangers. Luckily there was only 3 of us in the room: me, Mikeala, and a random German Lawyer man.
Once we arrived in Budapest, we left our stuff at the apartment and set out walking to the Central Market, Budapest´s largest market, built in 1890. The ground floor sells all types of foods, including typical Hungarian specialties (paprika, Palinka, Unicum, Hungarian goose liver,  kolbasz, pastries, etc), as well as fruits, vegetables, cheese and meats. The upper level houses a number of souvenir and typical Hungarian merchandise shops where you can buy embroidered tablecloths, painted kitchenware, hand crafted boxes, leather goods, and many other products.

  We bought some souvenirs, food, and some poppy seed (makosh) pastries.  From there we walked across the Liberty Bridge (also called the Freedom Bridge) to get over to the Gellert Hill.

We climbed up Gellert Hill to the Liberation Monument, which was erected in 1942 after World War II.  The monument is of a woman holding an olive branch (a symbol of peace).
We had a great view of the city:
Our original plan was to eat the Hungarian pastries at the top of the hill, but unfortunately it started raining while we were climbing up. Before we realized it would rain, we wanted to go to the Szechenyi Baths, so we both had our bathing suits and towels in our bags.
Since we really wanted to eat the pastries on the hill, we sat, wrapped in our towels, on a bench to enjoy our delicious treats.
Later that evening we went out for a night on the town. We got off to a rocky start when we arrived at the metro station closest to the apartment and realized it was closed. We decided to take a taxi. Taxis in Budapest are tricky. In order to get a fair rate you must call a taxi company and order the taxi. If you hail a taxi off the street they will rip you off and charge you outrageous prices, unless you bargain with them before hand. So after bargaining with a few taxis we finally found a taxi driver who would take us for a decent price.
We had a great time dancing in the Hungarian discos (aka. clubs).
The following day, August 15, we went to the Szechenyi Thermal and Medicinal Baths, the largest medicinal baths in Europe. The bath complex consists of many different baths, both indoors and outdoors, all of different temperatures with different healing and medicinal properties, and the water is supplied by two thermal springs.

We spent the day relaxing in the baths and soaking up some sun.
After the baths we got ready for a night at the Sziget Festival, one of the largest music festivals in Europe and the world. It is a week long festival that takes place every August on an island in Budapest, and generally has about 1000 performances each year. It attracts international bands that perform on 5 large main stages and 14 smaller stages throughout the week. This year it attracted almost 400,000 visitors, where 70% of them were from outside of Hungary. Many people buy full week passes to the festival and camp out in tents on the island for the whole week.
Some of the well known bands and performers this year included: Lily Allen, Snow Patrol, Fatboy Slim, JET, The Prodigy, Placebo, The Offspring, Faith No More, Armin van Buuren, Eric, Prydz and Paul Oakenfold.
In previous years it has bands such as: Foo Fighters, Green Day, Oasis, Bloodhound Gang, Shaggy, Basement Jaxx (which I saw when I was at the Sziget Festival in 2004), Scissor Sisters, Good Charlotte, Sean Paul, Nine Inch Nails, Pink, The Killers, Alanis Morissette and MGMT.
The island was completely packed full of people!!

  Mikaela and I had an amazing time! We saw bits and pieces of many different bands, but stayed for the entire performance of Eric Prydz (which was amazing).
  We also had a chance to go for a ride on a mechanical bull:

But the bull quickly kicked us off:
The night was amazing, we had so much fun!
Mikaela left Budapest early the next morning and I was sad to see her go! We had a great week together with so many adventures!
I spent the rest of the day with my brother, his wife and his kids.


That evening I met up with my cousin Jolan to go to the Sziget Festival again. I was so tired from the previous night at the Sziget festival that I didn´t last too long at the festival this time! I still had a great night and it was so great to see Jolan for one last time before I left for Toronto 2 days later.
August 17th, my last day in Budapest, was extremely uneventful as I spent the whole day sleeping, packing, cleaning the apartment and shopping for some last minute things.
On August 18th at 6:45am my brother picked me up at the apartment and brought me to the airport. I had accumulated so much stuff over my 2 month travels that I had to split my belongings into two luggages (I borrowed one from my brother).
I was completely amazed at the amount of stuff I had somehow accumulated during my travels. I left Toronto at the beginning of my trip with a total luggage weight of 18 kg. Half way through my trip I sent 15 kg home with Chad in a duffel bag, and then on August 18th on my way back to Toronto my backpack weighed 19.2 kg and my extra luggage weighed 22.4 kg, making a total of 41.6 kg. Which means that I came home with 56.6 kg in total (including the duffel bag I sent with Chad), which is 38.6 kg more than I had started by journey with. How on earth did I buy 38.6 kg worth of stuff (and carry most of it around with me on my back)??
My flights went well (Budapest-Amsterdam 2 hours, Amsterdam-Toronto 8 hours). When I arrived in Toronto I was completely exhausted from my journey and was not looking forward to going through Canadian customs and waiting for my luggages. Imagine my surprise when I arrived at the customs counter and found Jon Borrelli, my friend Dan Borrelli´s twin brother, as my customs officer!! We were so surprised to see each other (the first thing I said to him as I walked up to the counter was ¨what are you doing here??¨). So needless to say, my trip through Canadian customs was a lot more pleasant and hassle-free than I had anticipated.
My parents were waiting for me when I came out to the arrivals hall and I was so happy to see them! It was good to be home.
I had a wonderful trip filled with many new adventures, good friends, amazing experiences and an endless amount of incredible memories. I am so grateful that I was given the opportunity to take this absolutely amazing trip and these memories will stay with me forever.

Munich

On the morning of August 12, Mikaela and I left Zurich for Munich. It was a 4 hour train ride, which felt like nothing compared to our 12 hour journey from Budapest to Zurich!
We decided to share my large backpack so we would have less to carry between the two of us. We had a pretty good system of carrying things: I usually carried the backpack and she carried everything else (ie. purses and food).

The backpack was wonderfully small compared to what I was used to!
We arrived at our hotel and left right away to start touring the city. We first went to see the Finanz-garten, right next to the Prinz Carl-Palais.


Has anyone yet noticed that we are matching? I bought those jeans at H&M when I was in Madrid, and when Mikaela arrived she really liked them, so we went to the H&M in Zurich so she could buy a pair too. The matching black shirts can not be explained….we just thought it would be fun!
From there we walked to the Odeonsplatz.

We had a great time just walking through all the downtown streets. There are so many shops and restaurants! The whole downtown core was packed with tourists, especially outside the Neues Rathaus (The New Town Hall) at Marienplatz. It was built in the late 1800s and has a very unique clock tower where small figures of people and knights move. At 5pm a huge crowd formed in the square and everyone was waiting for the small figures´ knights tournament to start.

That evening we decided to join a pub crawl, where we would be taken with a group to a number of different bars to try out different types of beer and drinks. We had read about it online, and thought it sounded fun!
To make the occasion a little more festive we decided to wear the new ridiculous pants we bought in Zurich.
We met lots of people, but most were from the US, which was strange for me since I had met hardly any Americans my whole trip! I have been meeting lots of British, Irish, Australian and fellow Canadian English-speakers, but almost no Americans.
We went to the world´s most famous beer hall The Hofbrauhaus. We quickly learned that the Germans drink beer out of 1 liter tankards, which are roughly the size of my head.
Our pants were a big hit, and our new friend Lexie (from Washington) was really jealous that she didn´t have a pair!
The following day we went to check out the surfers in the English Garden. The English Garden is a large park with an area of 3.7 sq km, and at the southern entrance there is a permanent wave where the local surfers ride.

The rest of the English Garden is very beautiful as well.


We actually came across a few nudists while walking through the park!! They were lounging on the grass in the nude. I have come to learn how relaxed the Europeans are with nudity… much more relaxed than Canadians!
We only realized later that day that we missed the best part of the English Garden…. The Beer Gardens!! Beer Gardens are outdoor areas with lots of tables where they serve beer and sometimes food. Traditionally, many many years ago (I wish I remembered the dates…)  they were areas outside of the city center, directly above the beer storage areas.  Since the beer gardens did not have to pay transportation costs to get the beer into the city center (contrary to the downtown taverns, who paid substantial transportation costs), they could charge cheaper rates for beer and the taverns downtown could not compete with these prices. Because of this the government made a law stating that the beer gardens could only serve beer, and no food. If people wanted to eat at the beer gardens then they were allowed to bring their own food and eat at the tables. This, of course, has changed over the years, and now beer gardens serve both beer and food.
From the English Garden we went to the the Grand Residenz, dating back to the 14th century. The palace complex was the former residence of the Bavarian kings, but it now houses many museums.


Our last stop before heading back to the hotel to pick up our stuff was the Sendlinger Tor, one of the 4 original gates to the city.
We checked out of our hotel earlier that day and had left our backpack there so we could continue to explore the city without worrying about it. A reoccurring theme of my trip has been my extreme backpack weight problems. Since Mikaela and I left most of our stuff in Budapest and were only traveling for a few days before returning to Budapest, I figured we wouldn´t have the same weight problems as I had been previously experiencing. I was wrong!!
We bought a few beer-related souvenirs, which happened to be extremely heavy, and our backpack grew exponentially into a monstrous object that could only be dragged along the floor!  The trip from the hotel (by taxi) to the train station was extremely difficult!! We each took one side of the backpack and carried it, taking breaks every few steps. It was awful! All the other backpackers laughed as we dragged, pulled, or limped along with the pack. We were finally able to shove it inside a locker and left it there for the rest of the night (our train left at midnight).
We spent the evening doing a Bavarian Beer and Food tour which included a tour of the Beer and Oktoberfest Museum, beer sampling, and a very large dinner of traditional Bavarian food.
The Beer and Oktoberfest Museum was really interesting, and we learned the origins of the famous Oktoberfest festival. ¨Oktoberfest¨ as it is known today was not always like this. In October 1810 the Crown Prince Ludwig and Princess Therese were married, and held a 2 week marriage celebration, filled with horse races and other games. The people had such a great time that the following year they asked the King if they could celebrate the 1st year anniversary of their marriage with another 2 week horse race and celebration. This continued year after year, and since these days, Oktoberfest has grown to become the Largest People´s Fair in the World!
Actually, it is not called Oktoberfest by the Bavarians and Germans, it is called ¨the meadows¨, and it primarily runs in September, running only a few days in October. To calculate the dates of the festival each year you take the 1st weekend of October, and then work backwards 2 weeks: this is the start of the festival. 
To get an idea of how large the festival is, there are generally about 6 million visitors, consuming almost 7 million liters of beer and 80 thousand liters of wine.
At the museum we also learned about beer brewing in Munich, which started 3000 years ago. Germany is world renown for their production of beer, and they take it very seriously here. Also, Bavarians are one of the world´s greatest consumers of beer, drinking about 240 liters annually per person.
At the museum we also had a chance to sample a number of different beers, all produced in different ways. We also had a taste of the traditional pretzels, covered in large chunks of salt. This is a very traditional snack at Oktoberfest for two reasons, a) the large amount of salt keep you thirsty, so you will continue to buy more beer, and b) the salt helps you retain water, so you use the toilet less often!
From there we went to the Hofbraukeller, an old restaurant and beer hall, where we were served a huge plate of traditional Bavarian food: Weisswurst, dumplings, roast pork, etc. It was delicious!!
From there we headed back to the train station for our overnight train to Budapest. We had a great stay in Munich, lots of fun, lots of beer and an overwhelming amount of delicious food!

Budapest and Zurich

On August 9th Mikaela arrived in Budapest from Toronto. My cousins Lilla and Jolan came with me to the airport to pick her up. They brought us to the train station to get Mikaela´s train pass validated, and reserve seats on the train for our Zurich and Munich trip we were leaving for the following morning.
We said goodbye to Lilla and Jolan, and then Mikaela and I headed to the apartment we were staying in. After a quick nap, we set off to explore a bit of the city. I was the tour guide and I brought her over to the Buda side (we were staying in Pest). Buda and Pest are separated by the Danube River; Buda is very hilly, and had a lot of vegetation, trees and parks, while Pest is almost completely flat, has a lot more commercial developments and does not have too much vegetation. 
We started off at the bottom of the Gellert Hill, and saw the Gellert Monument.
We then walked along the river to the bottom of the Castle Hill, and finally climbed up the hill to see the Royal Palace and Matyas Church.
The gates around the Royal Palace:
View of the city:
View of Parliament:
While we were on the hill I thought I would introduce Mikaela to Hungarian Fruit soup. It´s delicious and is made with different types of fruit (apples, berries, etc), and it is eaten cold. The one we ordered was berry soup, and it came with a scoop of vanilla ice cream in the middle of the soup. Yummy!!
We then walked over to Matyas Church. It has an interesting history: originally built in the 13-15 centuries, but was modified by the Turks in 1541 when they turned it into a Mosque, then reconstructed in the late 1800s into a Neo-Gothic church, and then it was partially destroyed by World War II. Unfortunately they were doing construction on the church when we visited it.


   The following morning we woke up at 4:30am to set off for our very long journey to Zurich, Switzerland. I had unpacked my entire massive backpack in Budapest, and repacked only what I needed for the next few days. Mikaela and I decided to only bring the one backpack and share the space.
We took a 3 hour train to Vienna, had a 40 minute stop-over, and then took an 8 hour train to Zurich. The 3 hour train wasn´t so bad, but the 8 hour train was a killer! I spent the whole trip either reading my book, using my computer, or looking out the window at the beautiful scenery. We traveled through the mountains and it was so beautiful to see how green and lush all the vegetation was, as well as all the very cute towns. It was almost impossible to get a decent photo of the beauty of the mountains, but I did manage to get one of one of the many fields of wind turbines (they were everywhere!!).

Mikaela has relatives in Zurich, and she had arranged for us to stay with them, but we didn´t quite know what they looked like, they didn´t know exactly what time our train was arriving, and they didn´t speak English. So we were a little nervous when arriving in Zurich!
Luckily when we arrived one of them was waiting for us on the platform, and the other was waiting for us at the exit, and we managed to make a very smooth connection with them! I quickly learned how similar Italian was with Spanish, and by using bits of Spanish and English we were able to communicate with them decently well!
They took us to their beautiful home just outsize Zurich and fed us a very tasty and extremely large Italian dinner.
The following morning Mikaela and I set out to explore Zurich. Zurich is a beautiful and very cute city with the Limmat River running through the center. We spent all day walking along the water and through the streets. 


  We took a long walk on the Banhofstrasse, a very exclusive (and extremely expensive) shopping street. As we walked along we saw endless Swiss Banks and luxury watch stores.  Most of the banks and luxury stores have door bells with a video camera which you must ring in order to enter. We also made sure to make a stop at the Sprungli Cafe, a famous cafe known for their specialty Swiss Chocolates.
Along the water we saw the Blumenuhr Burkliplatz, a large flower clock with a 70kg radio-controlled clock and casting enclosure.
Below is a photo of us with the Romanesque Grossmunster church (completed in 1220) in the background.
We wanted to get the full Swiss experience, and decided to have a Fondue lunch! It was delicious… but very very filling!! We had to keep brushing off our inappropriate waiter who kept making jokes about how since I was an electrical engineer he would get an electric shock if he touched me, and it would be stronger depending where he touched. We were a little amused, but not too impressed.
We had a very adventurous afternoon. Mikaela had been talking for a while about getting her nose pierced, and thought maybe she would do it during the trip if we found a safe and clean piercing studio. Today was the day she wanted to get it done.
I promised her I would go with her, hold her hand, and keep her calm during the whole process. We also agreed that if we got there and we got a bad feeling about it or thought maybe it wasn´t sanitary we would leave immediately and give up on the idea.
When we arrived at the piercing studio we had to wait for about 20 minutes. We spent almost the entire 20 minutes squealing and screaming with nervousness/excitement.  I thought I would be able to stay calm and calm her down, but we both ended up getting extremely hyper. I am a very excitable person, and so the more nervous she got, the more nervous I got! Also, we tend to get extra hyper when together.
I get really faint at the sight of needles and blood, and have been known to faint when either of those are present. And she was scared she might faint because of the shock and pain of the piercing. We warned the man doing the piercing of the possibility of us both passing out during or after the piercing (this made him pretty nervous).
We were holding hands and I was trying to say calming things to her, while looking at the wall so I wouldn´t have to see the needle or blood. He looked pretty nervous, and was scared that she would move during the process, freak out or faint.
He ended up separating us and tried to calm her down alone, which was probably a very good idea.  He told her  to stay perfectly still and to take a deep breath and then he put the needle through her nose.
Once it was over we were all much more calm (including the piercing man).
As we were leaving the piercing place the lady at the front desk was kind of giggling at us asking why we were so scared about the whole process. We asked her if people didn´t normally get nervous about piercings, and she responded telling us that yes they do get nervous, but they don´t usually scream and squeal! Especially not the accompanying friend (ie. me).
We spent the rest of our time in Zurich doing some shopping. I had been noticing these very (unattractive) low-crotched pants throughout my travels in Europe. Apparently they are pretty high fashion (even though I still have yet to figure out why). We found some at this ridiculously hideous store and thought we´d buy them for fun.
  To get back to Mikaela´s family´s house we had to take a train to the small town of Aarau. While waiting at the Zurich train station we both really needed to use the bathroom. I had been used to paying for using the bathroom; all throughout Europe I have seen fees of around 0.50 to 0.75 Euros. When we got to the bathrooms the fee was 2 Swiss Franks each (which is equivalent to about $2 Canadian!!). Two whole dollars to go pee?? We had been trying to use up all our Swiss Franks, so we counted up all our leftover money and only had 3.25 Franks… not enough for the two of us to use the bathroom!!
We wobbled to the platform and decided we would run to the bathroom the second we got on the train.  When the train finally came we both raced to the bathroom and flushed the toilet. We saw a sign saying ¨Please do not use the toilet when train is stopped at stations¨, and only realized the significance of the sign once we watched the flushing mechanism. When you ¨flush¨ the toilet, a hole opens, and all the contents in the toilet are dropped onto the tracks. We laughed at the thought that as we were pulling away from the station in the train, we had left a little part of us on the tracks for everyone in the train station to see.
We had a great time in Zurich, and slept really well that night knowing that the following morning we were getting on a train for Munich, Germany!