Central and Eastern Europe trip: Introduction

The three week break for "Ski-Week" and for the "Second Chance exams" (where you can re-write if you didn't pass the first time) seemed like a perfect opportunity to travel the "Winter Wonderland" of Europe: the Alps, and surrounding areas.  I spent a fabulous 23 days on the road with Jocelyn,  an exchange student from OttawaU, and one of only 2 Canadians I have met here in Lyon.  We bought  21-day Eurail Global passes, which allowed us unlimited rail travel during that period anywhere in the 20-something countries covered.  There are different types of passes, for different lengths of time or different countries, but this one seemed to be the best for us.  The great thing about it was for most trains (those without reservations), we could just hop on the train, and not have to line up for tickets.  Plus, the cost of the pass was several hundred euros cheaper than paying for the tickets individually.  The downside was that 1 month later, we would have been eligible for the ~25% cheaper Interrail passes, for people who are European residents for more than 6 months. 

 Nordkette ski hill, Innsbruck, Austria.

 

With Jocelyn at the famous Hofbräuhaus beer hall, Munich, Germany

We sat down one Friday afternoon and spent about 6 hours total to plan the trip, the week before we were planning on leaving.  We both had a an idea of certain cities we wanted to visit and things we wanted to do.  We made our own Google Map (using the My Places app), and plotted everywhere we wanted to go.  Then we looked at the distances between each place and how long the train rides would be, to plan a schedule.  We decided the most efficient way would be to start in south west Germany, make our way through Switzerland, stop for a few hours in tiny Liechtenstein, hop across the Austrian border a few times into Germany and the Czech Republic, then from Vienna to Slovakia and Hungary.  From Budapest we would take a night train to Switzerland, spend a day on the Glacier Express through the Swiss Alps, then a few short train rides back to France.  After we'd decided on dates and how long we wanted to stay in each place, we booked our hostels on hostelbookers.com.  It was really nice not having to book train tickets everywhere! 

 View of Schwansee (Swan Lake), from Hohenschwangau Castle (near Neuschwanstein Castle), Hohenschwangau, Germany.

This trip was probably my favorite so far (although London is still my overall favorite city), and it really surprised me with the cultural diversity and overall awesomeness of the places we visited.  The only downside: it can get really cold in January in eastern Europe!  Most of the time we were in Prague, Vienna and Budapest, I had my long johns and ski gloves on and was still freezing!  On the flip-side, not so many tourists in the dead of winter.  I think this area of Europe is definitely underrated.  I'd love to go back in the summer to Austria, Prague and Budapest, and maybe someday make it to Munich for Oktoberfest.  I think a great 2-week, 4-stop trip would be Munich, Vienna, Prague and Budapest.  Definitely more value for your money than Paris or Italy, in my opinion, and pretty easy travel connections. 

 

House in Old Town Square, Prague.

The Astronomical Clock, Prague.