Applying for Exchange - Exchange Worksheet

When applying for exchange, the school will require that you create an online exchange worksheet for them to approve and reject your modules.

First you search for Warsaw's available modules and map them over 1 by 1. You need to input a proper course description and that is retrieved from here. 

Here is my worksheet if it helps.

Download

Remember that this is only an exercise. The actual confirmation of course transfer has a deadline of 15 June for my semester. So you can take 20 modules in Warsaw, slowly determine which 5 are your best options and map those 5 over. Furthermore, exams in Warsaw are in May if you requested for early exams, so you simply map the 5 that you have passed. 

Warsaw to Budapest and Szendentre

To be frank, before I arrived in Budapest, I did not have any idea how the place was like. No preconception of the food, people, architecture, etc. That was how little I knew about Hungary. Surprisingly, Budapest turned out to be one of the nicest cities I have visited so far. Also, Budapest is pronounced as Budaphes. Fun fact =)

Statue at Buda Castle

How to plan your trips

Planning a trip can be tedious and difficult, especially if you are new at it. Here's how I do my planning.

1. Firstly, you have to decide on a location (duh).
2. Then you check out the price of travelling there. I would google "Cheapest way to go from X to Y". I would also check out the prices and duration of bus, train and plane rides to the target location. In Europe, train and bus rides across countries are more common than you would imagine.
3. Once you have found a transport that is affordable to you, you should plan out the itinerary before booking your tickets.
4. I use tripadvisor a lot. I would google "things to do in X tripadvisor" to see the 209234 things to see in X. Example. I would also go to here to create a map for X. Then I would click the things to see in X and check out the photos and reviews. If I think that it is a location that I would want to visit, I would plot them on the map. Keep going down the list until you think that you have gone through most of the attractions.
5. To see if the attractions are really recommended, google something like "3 day itinerary in X". You would see many proposed itineraries and most of the things that they mentioned should already be on your map. 
6. Next, you want to find out about day trips. Sometimes a city itself does not have much to do, but it may have beautiful towns surrounding it. I would google "X tripadvisor forum". There, you can check out posts by other tripadvisor users. Scrolling down a few pages of posts and you would get a sense of places to go for day trips. For example, for Bologna (Italy), you can do day trips to Ravenna, Parma, Ferrara, etc. You can also see recommendations for duration, things to see on the forum.
7. I would recommend you to jailbreak your iPhone, if you are using one. I load Citymaps2go Pro on it and it is very useful. It contains offline maps and allow you to search for popular tourist locations. Know that even when overseas, you can use location services to detect your current location. This does not use 3G and is a free service. If you do not want to use an offline map app, you can just get the area map and plot it, old school style.
8. I would also put on a word document what places I wish to visit on day what, load it onto dropbox and save it on my phone for offline viewing. So when I am actually in the area, I just load my word doc, see where I wish to go next, and then search it on Citymaps2go. And then I will walk there. 
9. Note down, on the map, the train/bus/airport station that you would be arriving at/departing from.
10. Search for accommodation! Use couchsurfing, airbnb, hostelbooker, hostelworld to search for an apartment location that is convenient for you when touring the place. Once you found one that is of an affordable price for you, you can book it and your transport ticket. That's all! 

Zakopane

Zakopane was an interesting and memorable trip, one that I didn't expect to be so fun. In many ways, the ambience of the place reminded me of Laos.

Essentially, there are only two things to do in Zakopane - hiking and skiing. If you like neither, then you might not enjoy Zakopane as much. There are three main ski slopes in Zakopane - Nosal, Szymoszkowa and Harenda. If you are new to skiing, you should start out with Nosal for a day. Szymoszkowa is more for intermediate skiers, and most people can reach the intermediate level after a day or so. Harenda is a great place to entertain beginners all the way to advanced skiing. If you have some experience in skiing, try out Szymoszkowa for 2 days, and then go to Harenda for a different experience. Note that sometimes, you do not need a ski pass to ski. For example, if you are a beginner, you can just play around at the bottom of the slope. Ski pass is only needed to take the ski lift. Try watching ski videos before you hit the slopes, and if you really have trouble, you should take 1-2 hour of ski lessons. They will pay off for sure.

My advice is to stay at Target Hostel, as the location is superb. It is a 8 min walk from the bus station that you drop off from if you are coming from Krakow, Warsaw, etc. It is also a 3 pln, 10 min bus ride to all the 3 ski slopes, which gives much flexibility. Finally, it is another 8 min walk to the Main Street of Zakopane, where there are plenty of affordable restaurants.

For hiking, there are numerous routes that you can attempt, but all of them are subjected to the weather, your gear and ability. The one that I went to was called Morskie Oko, a crater lake that is part of the Tatra National Park and is the largest and 4th deepest lake of the Park. The transport to the bottom of the hike is 10 pln for 1 way (40-50min), and then you can take the horse cart up for 20 pln (1 hr 10 min). Or you can just walk your way up (2-3 hr). Remember to wear boots or you may really struggle to ascend. At the lake, there is also a nice restaurant that sells great potato cakes, a must try!

Cooking in Warsaw and other places

Cooking in Warsaw and other parts of Europe can be a daunting task, especially if you are new to it. Here are some dishes that you can consider if you are out of ideas. Everything can be bought from a Carrefour or a nearby supermarket.

Things you should bring:

• Sauces like light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, etc. Try to have different people bringing different sauces, so that you have a variety to choose from. 
• Bring chili padi! Lots if you can. They are expensive in Europe and most places don't even have them.
• Rice cooker (someone should really bring this) 

Marinate to me is just adding flavor to the meat by adding light soy sauce, pepper and sesame oil. You can add other sauces if you want to enhance the taste.

Spaghetti with Tomato Sauce and Pork/Beef
Easy Peasy. Take Spaghetti, boil and drain. Fry garlic, onions, mushrooms, meat, add tomato sauce and stir till it is done.

Pork/Chicken Stew with Potatoes
Boil potatoes and carrots first. Then garlic, onions, meat, potatoes, carrots. Add dark soy sauce and some water.

Pork Steak 
Marinate the pork overnight, adding cumin powder if you have. Melt butter, add garlic, add the meat and serve.

Cabbage/Cauliflower in Oyster Sauce
Add garlic, cabbage/cauliflower, stir fry until cook and add oyster sauce and light soy sauce.

Penne ala Vodka
Penne, boil and drain. Garlic, onions, mushrooms, meat, add tomato sauce. Then add 80ml of vodka and let it simmer. After 10-15 mins, add heavy cream till the color turns orangey. Add red pepper powder and serve. Google the recipe for this if you need help.

Steamed Chicken
Basically you just need a steamer/rice cooker. Steam till it is done and serve with chili sauce/pepper/salt/light soy sauce.

Pan-seared Salmon
Marinate overnight with Kikkoman teriyaki sauce. Pan sear the salmon with some garlic and onions. Put on a plate once it is done. Heat up some more teriyaki sauce and pour over the salmon and serve.

Egg with onions
Beat egg in a bowl with light soy sauce. Fry onion till caramelized. Then add the egg in and flip it once it is cooked.

Minced Pork Thai Style
Fry garlic and minced pork. Add some oyster sauce, light soy sauce and chili padi. Top it up with fresh basil if you have.

Beef Stew
Follow this: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/old-time-beef-stew-recipe.html

Fried egg/omelette
Don't think that I need to explain this

Europe Tour Expenses at a Glance

Here, I try to let you see easily how long to spend at each city, where to stay and how much my expenses were. Expenses are in SGD and ALL IN, so it includes air tickets, accommodation, etc.

Amsterdam
Recommended: 3 days
Location: Try to stay near Amsterdam Central
Expenses: $613.66 ($271 Lodging, $157 Air tickets)

Paris
Recommended: 4-5 days
Location: 3rd, 10th or 17th Arr
Expenses: $590.99 ($219 Lodging, $74 Air tickets)

Zakopane
Recommended: 3-4 days
Location: Target Hostel
Expenses: $255.00 ($38 Lodging, $44 Bus to Zakopane and back)

Budapest
Recommended: 4-5 days (Visegrad/Szendentre/Vac/Ezstergom for day trips)
Location: 11th Hour hostel
Expenses: $347 ($45 Lodging, $118 bus + train to Budapest and Air ticket back)

London
Recommended: 4-7 days (there are many day trips out of London like Greenwich, Stonehenge, etc.)
Location: Zone 1 (Google London Zone 1)
Expenses: $586 (0 Lodging as I crashed at a friend's place, $129 Air Tickets and Airport Coach)

Italy
Recommended: 10-28 days (Italy is simply too big and diverse to cover in anything under 10, and a full country cover needs a month
Location: Varies. Italy accommodation is expensive (€15-20 minimum), so I recommend hostels/couchsurfing/sleeping in the car
Expenses: $1285 ($180 Lodging as I only slept at a hostel for 5 nights out of 14, $124 air tickets)

Amsterdam

Amsterdam is a very nice city with architecture that is modern and suits my taste. During the time that I went, the wind is very strong and it can get really cold. Sometimes, I feel like the weather is much colder than Poland, since Poland isn't really very windy.

I did a 5 day trip in Amsterdam, which I think it was excessive. 3 days would have been perfect.

Going by Ryanair, you fly in to Eindhoven airport. Afterwards, take a 3.50 euro bus (20 min) to the Eindhoven train station. Then take a train to Amsterdam Central (18.70 euro, 1.5 hours). So it can get pretty expensive.

You can spend the last day walking around some sights in Amsterdam, like the Heineken Experience, Van Gogh Museum, Anne Frank House, etc. They cost about 5-15 euros per visit. 

Transport in Amsterdam can be quite expensive. Renting a bike costs like 7.50 euros a day. A bus ride costs 2.80. A day transport bus covering metro, bus, etc. costs 7.50 euros a day and gets cheaper if you buy multiple days. You buy this from the Tourist Information centre near Amsterdam Central.

Coffeeshops

In Amsterdam, many drugs are legalized. So there are opportunities to try some things that you can definitely not do in Singapore. I tried pot brownies, smoking weed and truffles (milder magic mushrooms as mushrooms are banned now). One piece of pot brownie costs 6-7 euros, a stick of weed (or a joint) costs 3 euros, and truffles cost 20 euros a box. 

IMO, skip pot brownies as I think that they are a waste of money. I ate 1.5 pieces myself and nothing happened. Smoking weed isn't a pleasant feeling if you are not a smoker, and it requires some technique to smoke correctly. I bought the mildest truffle, which is a mistake, as I did not feel much after eating half a box. And they taste horrible, simply disgusting. If I were to try again, I would skip smoking weed as well, and buy stronger truffles to try. But it can be just that my body is resistant to drugs, so don't blame me if you go wild after eating 1 pot brownie. Here's what they look like. Truffles is the one that look like goat shit. 

Looks like goat dung