Amsterdam :)

Okay, I've been neglecting this blog for a while now, mostly because I'd submitted it to Indiblogger and was waiting for the approval. Well, now its done! So, yeah!! :)

Coming back to my list...

Next on our agenda was Amsterdam!

Amsterdam, the devil's paradise. Drugs are legal, prostitution is legal. For fucks sake, the red light area is their main tourist attraction. I was jumping to go there. Did it live up to the hype?..

Before I tell you about Amsterdam, let me tell you about what happened on our way back from Cologne to Frankfurt. The great German train was late due to which we missed a connecting train and we were stranded in a village where they were around ten houses at 11 o clock in the night. Not one soul knew english and the next train to FF was at 8 AM next morning! It was freezing like hell.

Fortunately, one of my friends who studies in Germany was with us, and he'd learnt some broken German (I stress on "Broken") and thanks to him, we got to know that there's a fast train from cologne to FF at around 12:30 AM so we had to go back to Cologne and take another train to FF. We reached FF at 5 in the morning and we slept in the railway station.

The moral of the story is: Don't blame Indian railways and next time, someone praises the German Bahn, throw this story at their face.

Ok so, next night, we took a Eurolines bus to Amsterdam from FF.

Number 1 thing to remember:

DO NOT take the Eurolines bus. It is horrible, it looks like a Volvo, but it is not! It is congested, absolutely no leg space, and very very bad.

2) There are lots of discount cards like I Amsterdam card, museumkaart card etc. Buy it only if you are into museum, art and stuff like that. We bought it for around 50€ and it was a big waste as we just went to the Van Gogh museum and yawned all over the place.

3) Amsterdam is a bloody sex haven. Women beckoned to us when we were walking in the Red light area, sex shops all over the place, sex museums, an exciting place to be.

4) Drugs are legal!! We bought weed for around 4€, but it was a waste. I didn't get high at all even after smoking that and stuffing myself with a hash brownie.

5) Yes, cycling is very popular in Amsterdam as it is very flat city, but we preferred trams. The IAmsterdam card comes with a transport pass and that covered our expenses.

6) We gawked at a woman performing a table dance. 

7) There are a lot of canal cruises, this is also included in the IAmsterdam card. If not, it can be bought from the ticket counters.

8) Keukenhoff or the famous tulip gardens (Yes, the Silsila gardens). Go there only in April, because we wasted 34€ on it. It was like Lalbagh!

9) If you are a football fan, visit the Ajax Arena. There's a walking tour for 12€, I guess. Its fun.

10) This point had to be on the top, but I forgot. So here it is. We stayed at a hostel called Damrak Inn, it is
bang in the centre of the main Damrak street, very convenient, cheap (we paid only 15 €) per night. The only drawback is the narrow staircase, its a little difficult to pull your bags up. Check the link below:

Damrak Inn

Amsterdam is a very nice place. More than all the darker stuff, I loved the liveliness of the place. People here were friendlier than all the other places we went to.

Guten Tag Germany!

Stop Number 2 on our trip was Frankfurt!

Before I get talking about Frankfurt and all the stuff there, I want to tell you about Ryanair.

Ryanair is this super cheap, ultraeconomic carrier. You can fly across Europe for prices as less as 10€. Yes, again there is the charm of travelling by a train and all that, but I'm talking way cheaper and lesser time.

Check out their website:

http://www.ryanair.com/en

Okay, Now back to Germany:

1) Most important:

Do not go to Frankfurt on weekends, Every damn thing is closed!

Plan so that you do not end up here on a saturday/sunday. You can only sit and sulk.

Zeil Mall in Frankfurt

2) We stayed at a friend's place here thinking that we'll save money. Guess what, we ended up spending double the amount. If, in case, you are planning to do this, first find out where they live. 'Cos god knows, they may live in a town "just" outside frankfurt and it may take only half an hour to reach, but damn, the train tickets may be priced at 14€! So, beware..you can stay in a decent hostel in the city centre for that price.

3) Frankfurt is a place of business, not so touristy and all. It has amazing buildings and an even amazing skyline. So if you are expecting colonial architecture like the rest of Europe, you will be disappointed. But, it is beautiful.

Deutsche Bank Building, FF

4) There is a group ticket that DB (Deutsche Bahn) offers, 5 people can travel the whole of Germany for one single day at 38€. 

Yacht in Cologne

This ticket is a steal if you are travelling in a group. Even otherwise, buy the ticket and make some extra money by convincing some fellow traveller to travel with you. You can inquire and buy this ticket in Frankfurt Hauftbahnhof(Main train station).
But this ticket does not include ICE trains i.e fast trains, they include only RB and SB which are the slower trains.

We used this ticket to go to Cologne.The journey from Frankfurt to Cologne along the Rhine river is simply splendid. Stay in one of the hamlets along the way..There are castles, a river, bridges..heavenly!

Koln Cathedral

5) One more thing, there is "Carpooling" offered by this website:
http://www.mitfahrgelegenheit.de/
You can post your requirement here and pay the person who offers to carpool. It is a convenient and
safe method of travelling for cheap.

Happy Visiting Germany!

:)

Ciao Rome!

Starting today, I will embark on the sole purpose for which I started this blog, and that is to list out all the things that I learnt while backpacking across Europe exactly 8 months ago.

We left on 10th May, Summer, the ideal time to go to Europe. Long hours of daylight, just perfect to pack a zillion things in a day if you are on a tight time leash.

Our first destination Rome:

1) The airport express- Please please do not waste 14 € on the Leonardo Express that takes you from Fiumicino to the city centre. It is a waste of precious money. We made the mistake. Instead of that, take the COTRAL which costs almost 10 € lesser.
 You may think that a train journey will be more appealing, I'm saying this 'cos my friend did but I'll tell you it just disappointed us.

Check out COTRAL's link here:

COTRAL

2) We stayed in Termini, which is like the central station of Rome. The area was little bit creepy but for the price we were paying, it was good. We stayed in a women's hostel called Coconuts hostel. I would really recommend this hostel for all-women groups. It is clean, the staff is helpful especially the owner Giancarlo who drops in sometimes. The area outside is a little shady, but when you are confident, no one's going to bother you.

Termini is a good place to stay, well connected by every area in Rome. It may not be as beautiful as Trastevere, but we are backpackers here remember.

3) Unless and until you are a fully blown museum and art history enthusiast, which I'm sure most of us are not, Do not buy the ROMA pass. It costs 30 €, and includes the colloseum, roman forum, vatican and most museums. Also, it includes bus fares for 2 whole days.

Yes, It does sound like a deal. It is, if you are serious about seeing everything in Rome. However, if you are just staying for 3 days and you want to cover the important things i.e Colloseum, Roman Forum and Vatican, it is not worth it. 2 problems:

a) If you need a guide, you will have to shell out extra which is not included in the Pass. Believe me, it is no fun to see things if you don't know head or tail about it. We ended up shelling out 6€ for an audio guide in colloseum, and we didn't have the liberty to take a guide in the Vatican because we couldn't afford it.

b) You do not need to buy it because of the free transport.Even otherwise, it is cheap. It costs 4 € for a day pass.

I want to suggest an alternative here:

a) Buy the integrated Colloseum ticket, which includes the Roman Forum and the Palantine hill as well for 13.5€+audio guide(6.5€)
b) Go to the Vatican city and take a guided tour. It is required unless you are this nerdy expert. There are a lot of agents trying to lure you into it, just find out good ones and strike a bargain. Do not prebook anything online. We made that mistake.

Yes, in this process you may end up paying a tad more, but the experience will be worthwhile.

4) Yes, Rome is a foodie's paradise, but sadly, I didn't even enjoy one scrumptious meal. We were ripped off in one of Piazza Navona's streetside restaurants and it wasn't even good. Please check online, do your research about the good restaurants, after all who wouldn't want to taste a heavenly pizza in its motherland. And, yes, gelato!

5) Do not overplan, keep 2 days extra for the places in and around Rome and go there without doing any over-research. There are a looot of places to see which we haven't heard about, believe me.

6) If you are taking Ryanair or any such low cost airlines to fly out of Rome, use the COTRAL or Terravision buses to reach the airport, best bet.

http://www.terravision.eu/rome_ciampino.html


Enjoy! If you have any more questions, please let me know I'll try my best to help :)