After much (and the word much is quite the understatement) researching using "Europe by Eurail 2008," several Eurail websites, friendly recommendations, and several hours on the phone with Eurail customer service who proved to be much less than helpful, we decided on a Eurail pass that we thought was the most fitting and economical for us. Let me tell you, finding the right pass at the right price is quite a challenge, so if you are planning a trip, leave yourself plenty of time to look into this.
We simultaneously clicked the "purchase now" button on the Eurail website. We aren't going to lie, even with all of our researching, we still had our fingers crossed that we had purchased the right pass. We are pretty confident with our decision however, and even if it turns out that we needed more (or less) travel days, we are pretty clever in finding ways to work it out.
So what pass did we choose? The Eurail Select Pass that can be used between any 5 adjoining countries on 8 separate, non-consecutive days, within 2 months. 5 countries you say? and we are visiting 7? We are taking the Thalys train from The Netherlands to Belgium, and from Belgium to France, in addition to our Eurail pass. So the passes won't be activated until we leave France and head for Italy. We did this because the Thalys tends to be cheaper than most of the other Eurail trains, and if you take the Thalys with your Eurail pass, they hit you with additional charges anyway.
Our passes arrived in the mail to Nicole's house about 3 days later; it's finally gradually starting to sink in that we are leaving. Soon.
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Sunday, August 10, 2008
CouchSurfing 101
CouchSurfing. A word that didn't mean anything to us ten days ago. But thanks to friends of friends, we have discovered the wonderful world of CouchSurfing.
CouchSurfing is an incredible online world of world travelers.
Their mission: Creating a Better World, One Couch at a Time.
Some fabulous statistics to keep you interested:
-There is over 619,000 CouchSurfers
-About 650,000 friendships created
-Over 1 million positive experiences!
-231 countries represented
CouchSurfing has been riding the waves strong since 2006. The site was ready and running for the world in 2004, but then experienced a crash, and was redesigned to what we have today.
CouchSurfing is free, but as we explore this CouchSurfing world we discover that the free part isn't even close to being the best thing about this concept. It is about the learning, teaching and sharing of each others cultures. It is about the friendships that are created. It is about seeing the country in another light; instead of jumping on the tour buses, you explore the country as a local.
We were hooked. We signed up, created a profile and have been persistently surfing for couches throughout Europe.
CouchSurfing is an incredible online world of world travelers.
Their mission: Creating a Better World, One Couch at a Time.
Some fabulous statistics to keep you interested:
-There is over 619,000 CouchSurfers
-About 650,000 friendships created
-Over 1 million positive experiences!
-231 countries represented
CouchSurfing has been riding the waves strong since 2006. The site was ready and running for the world in 2004, but then experienced a crash, and was redesigned to what we have today.
CouchSurfing is free, but as we explore this CouchSurfing world we discover that the free part isn't even close to being the best thing about this concept. It is about the learning, teaching and sharing of each others cultures. It is about the friendships that are created. It is about seeing the country in another light; instead of jumping on the tour buses, you explore the country as a local.
We were hooked. We signed up, created a profile and have been persistently surfing for couches throughout Europe.
Saturday, August 9, 2008
Plan? Schplan!
Lucky for Katie, she has a friend as fantastic as Nicole. She sat right down and figured out the most logical and least stressful itinerary for as many places as she thought humanly possible on Katie's colossal list of places to go. We will both be surprised if we even visit all of the places on our current itinerary...
The tentative plan as of current is to start in the Netherlands and work our way counter-clockwise through Europe, stopping in Belgium, France, Italy, Austria, Hungary, and Germany.
Anyway, the reason Katie is lucky to have a friend like Nicole is because Katie is the ultimate slacker when it comes to planning. She likes to call herself a "free spirit," while Nicole likes to call her crazy. We both realize that Nicole is right in this situation; Katie would have been screwed without some kind of plan.
However, in one case Katie's laziness may end up saving us hundreds of dollars. We were looking at hostels and watching them get booked up by the minute. Nicole calculated that for all 36 nights in hostels we would spend an average of $50 per night. Each. That's over $1,800.
Good thing Katie was too lazy to put the deposit on any of the rooms because a few days ago she found out about one of the coolest programs on the planet: Couchsurfing. Learnaboutit.
(sidenote: we also found this really great program called "like a local," which can be found at http://www.like-a-local.com/. It is rather pricy but it might be something to look into if you are planning a trip somewhere soon)
The tentative plan as of current is to start in the Netherlands and work our way counter-clockwise through Europe, stopping in Belgium, France, Italy, Austria, Hungary, and Germany.
Anyway, the reason Katie is lucky to have a friend like Nicole is because Katie is the ultimate slacker when it comes to planning. She likes to call herself a "free spirit," while Nicole likes to call her crazy. We both realize that Nicole is right in this situation; Katie would have been screwed without some kind of plan.
However, in one case Katie's laziness may end up saving us hundreds of dollars. We were looking at hostels and watching them get booked up by the minute. Nicole calculated that for all 36 nights in hostels we would spend an average of $50 per night. Each. That's over $1,800.
Good thing Katie was too lazy to put the deposit on any of the rooms because a few days ago she found out about one of the coolest programs on the planet: Couchsurfing. Learnaboutit.
(sidenote: we also found this really great program called "like a local," which can be found at http://www.like-a-local.com/. It is rather pricy but it might be something to look into if you are planning a trip somewhere soon)
Friday, August 8, 2008
Roundtrip for Two
We've always talked about a Europe Trip and no one thought we'd actually go. Strapped down with a calendar in hand, our fingers landed on the 25th of September as our start date, providing us the rest of Summer in San Diego full of secrets and scandals, as well as time to earn some dough before we go. Thanks to our super amazing families who so generously provided enough frequent flyer miles for the roundtrip tickets, all we had to do was call the airlines and book the flights.
After several days on the phone with American Airlines (because using frequent flyer miles proved to be a bit of a hassle, not that we're complaining), we were set with the itinerary of leaving on September the 24th and arriving in Amsterdam on September the 25th. Because they are frequent flyer miles, our itinerary is constantly subject to change, and it has twice so far, but only by a couple of hours.
But we're okay with that- we are just way stoked to be going.
Stay tuned for more prep installments.
After several days on the phone with American Airlines (because using frequent flyer miles proved to be a bit of a hassle, not that we're complaining), we were set with the itinerary of leaving on September the 24th and arriving in Amsterdam on September the 25th. Because they are frequent flyer miles, our itinerary is constantly subject to change, and it has twice so far, but only by a couple of hours.
But we're okay with that- we are just way stoked to be going.
Stay tuned for more prep installments.
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