A break

To take a break, it's to ensure that one can walk even further.
When things around get you down, it will be good if you can take a backseat, observe your surroundings, get detached, and take a momentary break.
Not because you concede defeat, but it's because you know this break will help you to prepare yourself for more down the road and be more determined to cross every obstacle.

Afterall, the light at the end of the tunnel
is the light from an oncoming train.
=)

Sometimes, being the jaded and pessimist me, this is the best I can think to push myself.
And yes, I need a break. A Europe trip to be exact. =)

Been speaking to a few friends about this graduation trip recently, and decided to suss out the alternatives of travelling cheap and easy to Europe.
Here's my 2 cent worth on back packing cheaply. Literally, since my ideas are fuss-free and inexpensive.

1. Accomodation

Because most of the time will be spent travelling, it will be more practical and realistic to stay in a cheap hostel, instead of a hotel. For obvious economic reasons, the accomodation place will probably be used in the night. And contrary to beliefs, most hostels are really quite comfortable.

To book your hostels, these are the following reliable sites:

a. www.hostelworld.com

Personally, having booked hostels numerous times from this site, it has never failed me and has a good feedback system you can check out before booking. With a STA student card, you can also save the $2 booking fee each time you book. It's quite a good website and I rely on it quite a lot. In terms of the booking, the practice is to pay around 10% downpayment online first, and you pay the rest after you check in at the hostel itself.

For example, my personal experience with St. Athans Guesthouse in London has left me with good memories. As advertised in www.hostelworld.com, it made us feel very welcome with a very filling and generous English breakfast. The place was a little dilapidated, but it was in a good location. It has sure motivated us to return.


b. www.hostelbookers.com
Having not used this personally myself, the feedback from my friend was that the website is just as user-friendly as Hostel World. Will probably use it myself the next time.

c. www.couchsurfing.com
My friend introduced me to this website which apparently allows you to have intercultural exchanges with people all over the world by bunking with them. Sounds too good to be true? Maybe. But I believe in the goodwill of travellers - the guideline is to give back to your hosts who allow you to well, couchsurf. For example by doing the dishes, share a special skill. It's really an intriguing idea to me, and I am just waiting to try it out.

That's at least what I can offer so far about accomodation. =) Hope that I have more to share in days to come.

2. Travelling

If you're like me, planning a cheap backpacking trip and saving time desperately as I only have approximately 3 weeks to cover the exotic places in Europe, I am looking for a time-saving travelling method. Sure, there are so many ways but I will only cover certain aspects for now such as buses and planes as the others such as rail transport is a little more complicated and I do not have the material with me now.

a. Buses are a wonderful and cheap way, albeit sometimes uncomfortable. But what's a poor traveller to do, except to make do with the inexpensive but practical way. One good example will be www.megabus.com. Megabus apparently now runs in US too.

Why Megabus? Because it is cheap. The price to travel from Newcastle to London can be 1 pound (SGD 3 dollars) IF you book early. If not, it can be more but if you plan in advance, you can really save quite a fortune. It also goes to Edinburgh. The trip from Newcastle to London is approximately 6 hours and sometimes, the seats can get a little uncomfortable. Just a cautionary word: some bus passengers can be rather inconsiderate by taking up 2 seats, and you end up sitting on a cramped seat. One bus ticket also limits you to one hand carry, for those who have heavy luggages, and thus, it can be quite problematic. But generally, cheap and reliable.

b. Airplanes

Airplanes can help save time if you want to be ambitious and carry out the exploring of as many cities as possible. Sure, it's no fun jetting to one place to another, not being able to stay and really tour the place. But budget airlines can be rather time-saving.

www.easyjet.com

Generally, I enjoy my travels with them as the airline crew are very friendly, and professional. I feel more at ease with them honestly, than Ryanair and my travels with EasyJet have so far been good. The only memorably unhappy time was when I was stuck in Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport - my flight was supposed to be at 9pm but because the flight was delayed due to a person in cast was flying and was having difficulties, I only flew at 12 amand reached Newcastle at 1.30am, hungry, tired and very grumpy as I had to edit my essays due next day 9am. It was a shocker for me, but I decided against complaining as they were really professional and apologized for the delay. This shows how important service and damage control are.

www.ryanair.com

Personally, I do not really like Ryanair. I have met several cabin crew who were rude and rowdy, but I give it to them that they pride themselves on being the most punctual budget airline. But mostly, I felt that the seats were uncomfortable. But Ryanair wins forhaving cheap tickets, very important for poor travellers like me. Sometimes, if you book early enough, you can get flights at 0 Euros, exclusive of airport tax. So a trip from Paris to Barcelona cost me about 80 singapore dollars (40 Euros). Quite a good deal, if you consider that the trips are fast and well, cheap, though sometimes uncomfortable.

Another very helpful website if you are planning your flight itinerary will be www.whichbudget.com - this allows you to check out most of the time the cheapest flights and it is highly reliable. Very useful and fuss-free. Saves you the trouble of going though different airline companies to check if they offer flights to specific destinations.

I guess that's all for now. Typing all these is very therapeutic. =)