European Overview

It's been almost a month and a half since we're back from our European trip, and I have neglected to post anything here about it. So for what it is worth, I am posting the editorial I wrote for our Journal.

---

Europe Overview

Introduction

This overview is for those of you who do not wish to read the daily blow-by-blow accounts of what we did and where we went. It is instead an overview in general terms of how our trip came about and how things progressed. It will give you more background and hopefully fill in some of the voids made by the assumptions of each daily entry.

Background

As you may or may not know, Sara, Sharon, and I, along with five of our friends took a tour of Europe back in June of 2000. We were gone four weeks and traveled by tour bus. We made a lot of Australian friends who were also on our particular tour. While we have many wonderful memories of that trip, we certainly fulfilled the role of the "typical tourist." We didn't participate in the culture, and we were happy to let our tour guide translate and spoon feed us everything.

Sharon and I next stepped out of our comfort zones in 2006 when we participated in a two week study abroad opportunity that immersed us into German culture. We had both taken German classes, and this opportunity let us put our beginner-level language skills to work. One thing I remember my German professor saying is that her goal is to teach us life skills while we were there, namely, being able to get around Europe on our own. She taught us how to read train schedules and how to navigate by ourselves. We even had the opportunity to travel by ourselves when we were there. It was exhilarating and instead of satisfying my travel inclinations, this trip only served to ignite schemes of coming back on our own.

In the meantime, my cousin Louisa called me one day to see what I thought of a travel opportunity she had through her school. I don't remember exactly what was said but I remember telling her that if we went again, we would be sure to include her in our plans. To keep a long story short, our travel band this round consisted of five siblings and a first cousin: Sara, Martin, Sharon, Jolene, and myself, in addition to Cousin Louisa.

The trip

Our European trip took us through five major countries: Germany, Austria, Italy, France, and Switzerland. We got an "open-jaw" flight, which means that you can fly into one city and out of another. These flights are a little more expensive, but it allowed us make better use of our time. We didn't have to backtrack to our arrival city. I enjoyed the planning part of it, and so my theory going into it was that we would stay in a major city three nights and we would do "day trips" based out of each city. This plan was modified slightly, thanks mostly to the input of other experienced backpackers whose advice I sought. While it is ideal to spend several nights in one place, we didn't have enough time to do that and make it to all our destinations of choice. There would've been several places I would've been glad to give up (such as Vienna and Nice), but the consensus of the group was to include them, and so there were several times when we had to pack up and go pretty quickly after arriving.

The itinerary

Here's where we landed for sleeping accommodations:

Berlin, Germany (4 nights)

Rothenburg, Germany (1 night)

Munich, Germany (2 nights)

Vienna, Austria (3 nights)

Treviso, Italy (2 nights)

La Spezia, Italy (1 night)

Nice, France (2 nights)

Interlaken, Switzerland (3 nights)

Paris, France (3 nights)

Accommodations

I had booked all our accommodations several months prior to leaving. We had a variety of accommodations, including hostels, low-budget hotels, and bed & breakfasts. Our lodging ranged in price from 15 Euros per person per night (PPPN) [$23.18] in Berlin to 30.56 Euros PPPN [$45.84] in Paris. Hostels usually have dorm room accommodations and may or may not have their own bathrooms, the alternative being community showers and toilets. By booking in advance, however, I was able to ensure that we had our own bathroom in all facilities except for the last two places. It may have been a 2 x 2 sq foot facility, but it was Our Own. Obviously, having your own restroom increases the price, and so it is safe to assume that lodging could be gotten for less than we spent if you are willing to share restroom facilities.

Here's where we stayed:

Wombats	Hostel	Berlin, Germany
Fuchsmuehle	B&B/Apartment	Rothenburg, Germany
Wombats	Hostel	Munich, Germany
Happy Hostel	Hostel/Apartment	Vienna, Austria
Hotel Laconda Lorenzo	Hotel	Treviso, Italy
Affittacamere Tre Frè	B&B	La Spezia, Italy
Villa Saint Exupery	Hostel	Nice, France
Rugenpark B&B	B&B	Interlaken, Switzerland
St. Christophers	Hostel	Paris, France

We were happy with all our lodging except for the Villa in Nice, France. The staff was great, but the thing you have to understand about hostels is that its clientele are mostly young people who enjoy partying. Since we are not partyers in the sense of bars, loud music, etc., the Villa was unanimously our least favorite set of accommodations. That being said, many of the things we didn't like about it (location, uncomfortable beds, small room, cool showers) could easily have been tolerated if we had just been able to get some rest. The noise from the bar was incredible. Additionally, the first night, we forgot to lock the door (doh), and so someone joined us in the middle of the night for a brief period of time. The second night, we made sure to lock the door, but someone tried to break their way in anyway.

Rothenburg was unanimously our favorite set of accommodations (See Day Six). We also really enjoyed our stay in Interlaken, where Chris and Ursula were our hosts at the Hotel Rugenpark. They have a dog named Monty who is just priceless. He comes and goes in and out of doors at will, which is astonishing to see. I booked the Rugenpark because of other travelers' good reviews, and we were not disappointed.

The train system

As long as you are not a citizen of the European Union, you can purchase a Eurail pass. There are different types of passes, but the one that worked the best for us was a 15 consecutive day pass. By relying on Berlin's massive local transportation system, we didn't have to activate our passes until Day 6. It was timed so that the last day it was active was the day we landed in Paris, where we again depended on local transportation. I think we used the Eurail passes every day with only a very few exceptions. The pass cost us $628 (US) each, which was discounted because we had more than two people traveling together. We got three separate passes with two people's name on each to maximize flexibility.

In addition to needing the Eurail pass, however, there are certain trains that require reservations. The Italian trains, for example, require reservations on all city-to-city trains. The cost of the reservations varies from 5 Euros per person to 15 Euros per person. Despite this additional cost, we still saved a lot of money by having the Eurail pass.

The train system is very efficient, particularly in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. With few exceptions, they arrive and depart on time. If you want to read about the day we messed with the train system, make sure you read Day Twelve. It's a wonder we lived to tell the tale.

Packing

For three weeks, we lived out of our backpacks. We had to pack light, and so we had to pack smart. We all got a set of packing cubes, which we lived and breathed by. When traveling with backpacks, it is very important to stay organized, and so utilizing the packing cubes was instrumental in this process. If there were one sound that had to define our trip, it would be the sound of a packing cube zipper. We six days worth of clothing, including the set we wore to begin with, and so we had to grab our washing opportunities when we had them. With six people, it didn't take much to generate a load of wash. Thanks to the hostels we were in, laundry wasn't the nightmare it was when we were in Europe in 2000. Laundry is relatively inexpensive at hostels, and surprisingly, they include your detergent. The cheapest we ran into was 2 Euros for washing AND drying a load AND they did it for you. We didn't catch on to that, however, until late in the day after the female staff had already left. So we ended up having to tend our own laundry anyway, but it was still very inexpensive. Another thing we did to facilitate ease of washing was to make sure our fabrics were some form of polyester, nylon, microfiber, and/or spandex. These fabrics are fast-drying and mostly wrinkle-free.

Our Injuries

Traveling makes ones clumsy, we found out, and we ended up with quite the tally of injuries. Louisa kicked of the series of injuries by running full-blast into a sidewalk post on our walking tour in Berlin. They periodically have a row of posts they put across the sidewalk to discourage cars from driving on them, I suppose. Louisa was being a good tourist and was gazing upward at some building architecture. I was following Louisa. One second she was there. And the next, she wasn't. The only thing she found to be thankful for was the fact that she was not male, for she ran straight into it. In Paris, Louisa had two more rather serious injuries. First of all, she pinched her fingers in the heavy hostel door. This created quite the little blood blisters. And after our last foreign supper, she pulled her biggest doozy, I believe, when she ran full-force into a sign post. She smacked the sign post so hard, in fact, that passersby froze and winced on her behalf.

I fell down at the Hundertwasser Haus in Vienna. I wound up with two bruised knees and a bruised palm. My camera suffered injuries as well. I fell again when we left the Villa in Nice, France, in the early morning hours. The hill was very steep, I was fully loaded with a pack on the front and a pack on my back, and evidently I slipped on an unseen manhole cover. It's a wonder I didn't roll all the way down to the bottom—it was that steep. In Switzerland, I hit my head on a shelf and again about ten minutes later when I forgot that I hadn't put the "garage door" shade on the balcony door all the way up; I walked full force into it and got a resounding smack for my reward.

Martin first of all smacked his head on a cupboard door in the bathroom in Vienna. He had a sore head for days. He thought that that injury should count toward his "injury quota," but that was not so to be. The night before we left the Villa, he was wearing his Crocs when he decided that he would go and investigate a shorter route for us to get down to the tram station. This involved a set of stone stairs down the garden path, puddles of water, and droppings from the trees. He described it as a cartoon fall—the kind where they spin and spin to no avail. He fell flat on his back and ended up bruising some ribs. He tried to cover it up by going straight to the restroom to wash off the mud, but Sharon's sharp eyes picked up on it, and he was busted!

Sara's big injury came in Vienna when she was hurrying along trying to make it into the tram. Her foot slipped off the curb and she went down on her knee, skinning it in the process. The ankle wasn't sprained, but she had wounds to tend for the next couple of days.

Jolene's injuries happened at the beginning and at the end. In Berlin, she was walking along, and her foot also slipped off the sidewalk, and down she went—splat. In Paris, the lid to her locker—a very heavy metal lid—fell down onto her face, injuring her nose and surrounding areas.

Sharon was the last one affected in our first round of injuries (it seemed everyone had their first one before the second set came along). Hers came in Nice at a restaurant called Flunch. She was on her way to the restroom, which was located downstairs. A cleaning lady distracted her on her way down the circling stairs, and down she went—faster than she cared to. Other than the health conditions she and Martin suffered after their mad sprint for the train, I think she managed to avoid the second round.

We weren't the only ones that suffered with some tripsy issues. We talked with a man from Scotland who said that he was tripping his way around Europe. He just couldn't understand it because he only deserved it once—when he had had a little too much to drink. We can't even claim that for an excuse. We were just victims, plain and simple.

Despite our injuries, we did enjoy our trip very much.

HFMA and My Friend Priceline

I was able to attend a two-day healthcare conference put on by HFMA (Healthcare Financial Management Association) this past week. My friend Brad is interning at the Medical Center-BG (I'm at Med Center Franklin), and since Dr. W ok'd attending HFMA as counting toward our internship hours, we decided we would carpool and go rub shoulders with some finance professionals. Brad's fiancé's parents live in Louisville, and so he had a place to stay. I, on the other hand, turned to my friend Priceline for accommodations. I have had great results in the past with Priceline, and this time was no different. I was able to stay at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Louisville for my bid of $60/night. Not bad for what would otherwise cost $149/night. Here's my room:

Here's the view from my window:

I also attended HFMA last year and used Priceline that time too. I ended up at the Galt House Hotel & Suites. My room last year:

The view from my balcony (same tall building as above):

My finance professor, who faithfully attends HFMA, paid $59 to stay at the Red Roof Inn, and it was not in the immediate vicinity. I had told him to use Priceline already last year, and given my results two years in a row, he says he WILL try it next year. The nice thing about the Hyatt is that it is right next door to the Marriott where all the HFMA festivities took place. This allowed me a stress-free, two-minute commute: a beautiful thing, for sure.

HFMA puts on what they call a "social event" on Thursday evening. Last year it was bowling; this year, it was attending a Louisville Bats baseball game. I don't usually attend the social event, but Brad loves baseball, and he convinced me to go. It was soooo hot, but thankfully, HFMA got us an air-conditioned corporate suite, and it wasn't too bad. This was taken through the glass of our corporate suite:

Brad and I really enjoyed hanging out with the CFO's and CEO's and financial controllers in general, and the CFO of MCBG and his daughter in particular. I have no doubt that there will come a day when I will no longer be a student… but until then, I'll take the $20 student registration fee and the $60 lodging.

July 4 in VA

Sharon and I took advantage of the three-day weekend on July 4 and went to see our fast-growing niece, Selena. The changes in Selena from when we last saw her in January were astonishing. She is so smart and can think and reason and talk. What fun!

The dress Selena is wearing in this photo is a dress Jolene and Sara bought her when we were in Venice in May. It comes from the neighboring island of Burano, which is known for its hand-made lace.