My Blog at a Glance

Because Blogspot has such poor site navigation and since this is an information blog, I have arranged all my past posts nicely here so that you can find what you want easily.

Blog Introduction
Link

Pre-departure
Exchange Worksheet
First email from Warsaw School of Economics
Winter wear
Modules at Warsaw School of Economics
My Packing List

Guides
Ryanair
Warsaw Modlin Airport 
Paris Beauvais Airport
Europe Tour Expenses at a Glance
Cooking in Warsaw and other European countries
How to plan your Trips

Warsaw
First Day, where to go, etc.
Warsaw 101

Poland
Skydiving
Zakopane
Krakow

France
Paris
Normandy

Netherlands
Amsterdam

Hungary
Budapest

UK
London
Edinburgh
Isle of Skye

Italy
Bologna and Ferrara
Florence
Cinqueterre and Pisa
Capri and Naples
Rome
Pompeii and Amalfi Coast
Sicily
Venice and Milan

Ireland
Ireland

Switzerland
Switzerland

Germany (Hallstatt is in Austria)
Munich and Berlin and Hallstatt

Czech Republic
Prague

Austria
Vienna
Hallstatt

Slovenia
Slovenia

Croatia
Croatia

Venice and Milan

A quaint city that is famous for its its canals and gondola, Venice is a place that will captivate you if you have any interest in the arts. Instead of having buses and subways for transport, what is common in Venice are its water taxis, since the roads here are made up of water. From museums to masquerades, you could imagine how this place used to be the port of the world.

Dubrovnik

Old Town

Lake Bled and Lake Bohinj

When you go to Europe, you will always hear about friends raving about the Slovenia and Croatia road trip combo. They call it the Eastern Europe trip, but actually it is more of a Central Europe tour. And true enough, Slovenia turned out to my one of my favorite visits in Europe. Maybe because it was a trip with 10 other friends, and good company always makes a trip more enjoyable.

So we started from Ljubljana, rent two cars from ATET and then headed to Bled in the morning. From there, we visited Lake Bled and Lake Bohinj. We did some boat riding at Lake Bled, visited the Bled Castle in the middle of Lake Bled as well as hike a secret path to the vintage point where you can take a marvelous shot of Lake Bled.

Vienna

Possibly the most boring city that I visited during my entire exchange. About the only reason why I came to this city was because I had to stopover somewhere as I travel south to Slovenia. Thank god that I only allocated half a day for here, cause that is enough for Vienna.

Firstly, there is no free walking tour in Vienna! Probably because there are not enough places for a tour to walk to. I only went to the Naschmarkt, St Stephan Basilica and Schonbrunn palace. Naschmarkt is pretty cool as you can see some food that seems to be unique to Austria. The basilica is like any other basilica in Europe, and the better ones can be found in Italy.

Schonbrunn palace is probably the only saving grace. While looking plain from the outside, the garden that is within the palace is quite amazing. Probably one of the nicest gardens that I have seen in Europe, but then again I did not go to many. I enjoyed it better than the Boboli gardens in Florence. 

Naschmarkt

Prague

A lovely, medieval looking city with a Budapest feel, Prague is worth a visit. Maybe not for 3-4 days, but you will definitely have enough things to do for 1-2 days. I was only here for 1.5 days, but I felt that it was enough for this quaint, little capital.

The free walking tour is a must go, and it will touch on so many places like Prague Castle, St. Vitus Cathedral, Royal Palace, St George Basilica, Lobkowicz Palace, Charles Bridge and Old Town Square. Food is quite oily here, but very affordable (S$10ish) compared to the rest of Europe.

Munich

This is about the most boring trips I have ever taken in Europe. Many of my friends like Germany for its history and stuff, but to be honest I was really bored. Oh, and also cause I'm not a big fan of beer, which Germany is really known for.

Munich
In Munich there are only a few attractions that got me interested. There is the English Gardens, one of the world's largest urban parks. It is not built by the Brits, but rather because its informal landscape design was popular in Britain when the gardens was built.

Reminds me of Botanical Gardens

Zurich to Grindelwald

A place known for hiking and its gorgeous Alps, Switzerland is a must go if you are one that enjoys scenery and marvel at how majestic nature can be. Be prepared to spend a lot more in this country compared to other places in Europe, but if you can afford it you should definitely go for it. Best to visit on a parents' budget! =)

Day 1 
I took a plane from Paris to Zurich (62.60 euros) and then took a train from Zurich to Lucerne. From Lucerne, we rented a car from autoeurope.eu that cost 211 euros for 3 days. Note that my parents were insistent on an auto car, so if you had gone the manual route perhaps you can get the vehicle at a cheaper price. Driving in Switzerland is quite affordable if you compared it to the trains. Trains are ridiculously expensive. For example, it cost SGD$60 per person from Zurich to Grindelwald. So essentially the car is a better option after like 1-2 train trips. And you get to stop to take photos if you are driving. Below is a photo of the famous Interlaken, taken as we headed to Grindelwald.

Normandy and Mont Saint Michel

Normandy, if you have not heard of it, is an area just west of Paris. It includes cities like Rouen, and is most famous for the Normandy beach stretch that was the place of one of the fiercest battles of World War II. Perhaps you have heard of Omaha beach from games like Battlefield 1942 or movies like Saving Private Ryan

Notable places are the beach stretch mentioned earlier and the Cliffs of Etretat. You can also visit pretty coastal towns like Honfleur and Bayeux.

Belfast, Giants Causeway and Connemara

Compared to untouched Scotland, Ireland was kind of a let down.

Giants Causeway

Isle of Skye

The weather in Scotland is said to be so erratic that it's possible to encounter four seasons in a day since it is located so close to the Atlantic Ocean. More often than not the weather sucks for a vacation around Scotland, the Highlands and Isle of Skye, but when the sun is out, this has got to be one of the most beautiful places in the world. Talk about untouched beauty. Isle of Skye is also a hiker's paradise as there are so many trails, the longest one being 7 days!

Isle of Skye is a place northwest of Edinburgh and you can easily spend at least 2 days on this island. On the way to the island you can tour the Highlands, which is essentially north of Edinburgh. There is the Stirling castle, Glencoe region, Loch Ness, Urquhart castle, Plockton and Eilean Donah Castle, seen from the photos below respectively. If you are a Harry Potter fan, you can even check out the Hogwart's Express rail!

Edinburgh

Edinburgh is a city to behold. Not only did J.K. Rowling wrote the first few books while she was staying there, there are also plenty of interesting ghost tours that you can take up. Furthermore, the city is situated just next to an extinct volcano! And bagpipers!

Arthur's Peak

Skydiving

So the day has finally come! One of my goals was to skydive in Poland, and I feel as ready as I can be. The company that I am going to is called Skydive.pl. My seniors went to this company and survive so that made me chose them as well. Their jump site is at Wloclawek, which is a 2 hour train ride from Warsaw. You get to see lots of pretty yellow fields if you go in May, which is when I went.

So I headed off in the morning and reached Wloclawek train station at about 11am. As it was a public holiday, the buses to this area weren't working so I was forced to cab (50 pln one way).

And we have arrived! Since I have already book a jump, I just have to wait for my turn.

Getting geared up and all ready to go.

To the plane! The plane ride up takes like 15 minutes. And off we go!

You get wonderful view from the sky, and can enjoy it once the parachute releases.

Without a doubt one of my most expensive minutes of my life, especially when it did not feel even half as long as it took. There was 55 seconds of freefall and 5 minutes of gliding, but it seriously felt like it was 10 seconds of freefall and 1 minute of gliding. Something about adrenaline that slows down time perception so that your brain doesn't overload. The skydive with photos and video cost me 849 pln, which is one of the cheaper ones in the world (I hear from my friends that Budapest and Krakow is cheaper) especially when comparing to New Zealand, etc. Everyone should try skydiving at least once! Also, if you are new to it, I recommend doing the tandem jump as I did, where someone is tied to your back, otherwise it might be dangerous considering that it is a new experience and all.

Sicily

Transport from Naples down to Sicily is expensive, and I mean really expensive. A ferry costs €54 while an overnight train €64. Of course you can take a train in the middle of the day for €29, but you are effectively wasting one day of travel, so that doesn't make much sense. Since we had 5 people, we decided to do an overnight drive. It's actually a very comfortable drive and you are on the highway for like 400km, as though you are driving on the PIE towards Changi Airport. The drive takes about 5-6 hours and you will reach Villa San Giovanni, where you will take a car ferry to Messina, Sicily for €38.

View of Taormina Giardini

Pompeii and Amalfi Coast

From Naples, we hired a car down to explore Sicily, Pompeii and Amalfi coast as it is difficult to travel to these places without a car. Train to Pompeii is possible and convenient, but it makes more economical and practical sense to rent a car for Amalfi coast and Sicily. However, do know that the drive along Amalfi coast is very difficult because it is left hand drive the cars are manual, so you need a fair degree of skill and confidence to tackle this drive smoothly. Thankfully my friend drives a manual car back in Singapore, so we finished this drive uneventfully.

Positano

Rome

Aptly named the eternal city, modern Rome has an ancient city that is 2000 years old right beneath it, well preserved and difficult to excavate without causing trouble for the millions of Italians currently living in Rome. Thus, there are no metro lines at the heart of the city, and the nearest metro lines are located at the outskirts of the city centre. Rome is a largest city that I have walked about so far and rather taxing. There are two free walking tours a day, one at 10am and 4pm daily at the Spanish steps. Each takes about 2 hours, the first one brings you to Vatican City, the second one to the Colosseum. You can easily spend 2-3 days in Rome visiting various places like the Colosseum, Pantheon, Vatican City, several Piazzas, the ancient walking bridge (so ancient that no cars can go on it), basilicas, Trevi Fountain, Castel Sant'Angelo, the Forum, Palatine hills, etc. The best pasta and gelato are also found in Rome, so do a good search to know which ones to go to.

Capri and Naples

The most dodgy city of my Italy trip is certainly Naples. Otherwise known as Napoli, the city looks like a ghetto region, the houses look run down and the streets unsafe at night. There isn't to be done in the city and the sights are all day trips from Naples. We chose to go to Capri Island, but do note that you have to spend a bomb there to enjoy the place. Nice as it is, leave this island to later if you aren't willing to spend. Actually, that rule applies to all islands if you think about it. I spent €30 for a two way ticket to Capri and another €33 for a private boat tour. Yikes.

The island is about 55-75 mins from Naples if you take the ferries. Check timings here. From there, you can choose to take a round island tour in a big boat at €17 or a private tour at about €33. The more people you have, the cheaper it might be, but I can't confirm that. You should spend at least a night in Capri to make your money worthwhile. A day trip is scarcely enough to enjoy the island. There's the Monte Solaro to go, Phoenician steps, Capri Centre, etc. Also lots of caves to visit.

Cinqueterre and Pisa

If you have never heard of Cinqueterre, then you have probably not clicked on those "100 Amazing Places to see before you die" links before. Cinqueterre means five lands in English, Cinque meaning 5 and terre meaning land. It can be a day trip from Florence, but it is best to stay for a night in Cinqueterre or La Spezia, which is a town very close to Cinqueterre.

To get to Cinqueterre, you have to go to La Spezia Centrale. Cinqueterre is made up of five towns: Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Venezza and Monterosso, the first one being the closest to La Spezia and the last the furthest. I recommend starting at Monterosso and then walking all the way to the first town, which is what I did. I reached Monterosso at about 10.30am and then I hit Riomaggiore by 7-7.30pm at an average pace.

Florence

My favorite city in Europe so far, Florence is a place with Scotland-like scenery on one side of the river and one of the most artistic place on the other side. It has a rich history that is more interesting than the usual slew of basilicas and domes, with pastries and gelato that rivals Paris. 2 days in the city is enough if the day is long, otherwise a relaxed pace will cover the city in 3 days.

The station that we arrived in from Bologna was the Firenze SMN station. Firenze means Florence, and SMN is short for Santa Maria Novella, which means the new Church of Saint Mary. Trains in Italy rarely require you to book your tickets online early, but do buy at least 1-2 days in advance. However, Trenitalia, which is the railway company, offers promotions from time to time that can only be purchased online, so check whenever you can. To check prices of ticket and timings from city to city, visit here

Once we arrived, we stopped by the tourist information centre near the train station for some maps and had breakfast at a nice cafe while we waited for the 10am free walking tour. There are two each day, one in the morning from the West to East side as you see the places relevant to the Italian Renaissance, where Florence was heavily involved in. At 2pm the tour goes from North to South, following the influence of the Medici family, which used to be the most powerful family in Florence at one point. The walking tours are relatively shorter than other cities and take less than an hour usually. The starting point of the tours are at the Santa Maria Novella Church, near a small tower.

Bologna and Ferrara

Italy is an amazing place, so much so that I have to have separate posts for each of the different cities that I have been to. Each city differs greatly from one another, be it in food, ambiance or the people. Often, I wonder if I am actually in the same country still.

We first landed in Bologna in the late afternoon and took a cab from the Bologna airport to the Bologna train station, where we met our friend who came from Munich to join us on this Italy trip. A cab ride costs like €17 and a bus ride €5, so if you have a group of 4 people it makes sense to cab. Then we walked around Bologna but there isn't really much to see in this town besides a few statues, two towers and piazzas.

Krakow

Krakow, the old capital of Poland, is only a 3+ hour train ride from Warsaw. However, like Warsaw, there isn't much to do there, and I would recommend spending at most 2.5 days here. I stayed at One World Hostel which is located near the train station (Krakow Glowny) and is one of the best hostels I have ever been to.

First 0.5 day can be used to explore the Main Market, Old Town, Wawel Castle and the Jewish Quarter. The Old Town and Main Market can be covered within a few hours, and there's only Synagogues to see in the Jewish Quarter. Wawel Castle deserves a walk around the castle to get a bird's eye view of the area.

Day 2 can be used to visit Auswitch. This used to be the biggest concentration camp in the world during the Holocaust. It is a depressing place and a shocking experience that makes you wonder what the hell was going on in Hitler's brain when he ordered the extermination of the Jews. 

 Next two pictures are places where the gas chamber used to be. The people were made to strip in the first picture and then squeezed into the second where they released the gas and suffocated them all to death. Apparently they packed around 2,000 people into the chamber each time. After that, there is a furnace just next to the chamber where they burn all the bodies. It is disgusting how they streamlined the process as though they are assembling a car.

Day 3 can be used to visit the Salt Mine, but I opted not to go as it did not really interest me. Still, you can check it out!

London, Hummingbird Bakery, Byron Burgers

London is every bit of awesome as what your friends have been telling you. Right off the plane you will immediately feel comfortable as everyone here FINALLY speaks english. Even the highways look similar to the ones at home.

After you pass the immigration checkpoint where they ask you lots of questions, remember to hit to the coach ticket office like National Express to get a free London map. It would be useful. Also do have your London address with you or they will NOT let you past the immigration checkpoint. And book your coach from London Stansted Airport to City early as you can get half price tickets from companies like easybus.

Next thing that you should do is to switch off the auto currency converter that you do each time you are in a new country, because you really can't enjoy London if you keep on thinking in terms of SGD. Pounds are just too overpowered compared to SGD, so help yourself and just spend on things that you can't get out of London.

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!