TylerTraveler

You may have seen our 101 day trip Europe: http://www.tylernofziger.com/message...forum.php?f=19

Or our recent 2 weeks in South East Asia trip: http://www.tylernofziger.com/message...forum.php?f=23

And now my cousin (Barny) and I are going to Eastern Europe for 2 months in Late March... Yay!

Barney is flying in before me (I have to wait for finals to be over, I'm skipping Spring term for this trip)... and arriving on March 11 in Berlin... His trip before I arrive on the 22nd looks like this:

(All of the following are the places where we plan on spending the night on those days)

March 11 Berlin
12 Berlin
13 Berlin
14 Prague
15 Prague
16 Prague
17 Krakow
18 Krakow
19 Krakow
20 Budapest
21 Budapest
22 Barney goes to Vienna to meet up with me

So now I will be traveling with Barney from here for the next couple months

March 23 Vienna (Easter in Vienna)
24 Ljubjana
25 Ljubjana
26 Ljubjana (caves day trip or Bled day trip)
27 Split (You guys told us this was possible to do in one day hehe)
28 Hvar (have to be here by now to get on a ferry to Dubrovnik)
29 Dubrovnik
30 Dubrovnik
31 Dubrovnik
April 1 Dubrovnik? (buffer day)
2 Dubrovnik? (buffer day)
3 Dubrovnik? (buffer day)
4 Somewhere in Bosnia
5 Somewhere in Bosnia
6 Somewhere in Bosnia
7 Belgrade
8 Night train from Belgrade to Bar Montenegro
9 Bar to Ohrid, night in Ohrid
10 Ohrid
11 Sofia
12 Sofia
13 Sofia to Brasov (night train exist?)
14 Brasov
15/16/17/18 Somewhere in Romania (Sighisoara/Cluj)
19 Night train to Moldova (do we want a night in Moldova?)
20 Night tran to Kiev
21 Kiev
22 Kiev (Chernobyl)
23 Kiev (buffer)
24 Minsk
25 Minsk
26 Minsk (buffer)
27 Lithuania
28 Lithuania (too much in Lithuania?)
29 Tallin
30 Tallin
May 1 Riga
2 Fly to Dublin in the evening (set in stone, we bought this ticket)
3 Ireland
4/5/6/7/8/9/10 Ireland (we have no idea where to go in Ireland)
11 Barney flies back to Berlin and goes home on the 12th
12 Tyler flies back to Vienna and flies home on the 13th

Hopefully that works out. My only issues now are:

~ Hoping that our ferry hopping in Croatia will work out with Hvar

~ If that Belgrade to Bar Montenegro night train is a real option

~ If Moldova will actually work out like we have planned

~ And what on earth we should do in Ireland for 8 days... we are tempted to rent a car the first few days and then spend the last few in Dublin relaxing in pubs (Dublin is expensive!)

~ Hoping we don't get our laptops stolen haha... we both love doing updates and posting pictures online obviously... Barney is a good blogger too: http://brownvanman.wordpress.com/

~We have 3-5 buffer days built in for things that inevitably come up while traveling... hopefully that is enough!

I love all your input Fodorites! You are always my first stop while planning travel and I owe so much to you guys!!!!

alecksonajetplane

Unfortunately, I can't really add anything other than, "it looks good, and have a great trip."

However...

I just thought I needed to say...

Your travelogue is full of win.

Seriously. I've referred to it a couple of times for my own planning and your photos are absolutely amazing .

thursdaysd

Well, you're moving way to fast for my taste, but it's your trip. Some points:

I think you're short changing Budapest and Vienna
You're skipping Plitvice National park, which I loved
On the other hand, I think you're spending too long in Dubrovnik
I wouldn't take a night train to Moldova, it's not clear from bahn.de that it has sleepers/couchettes, and the bus will be faster.
For my visit to Moldova, see www.wilhelmswords.com/eur2006
I don't think two nights is too much for Lithuania - you'll be in Vilnius, right?

Have fun!

danon

Ljubljana is very small - one day is enough.
How are you getting to Belgrade from Bosnia?
Are you spending any time in Belgrade? ( it is a good size city)
Why are you going to Hvar just to get a ferry to Dubrovnik ( you can take a bus to Dubrovnik from Split).
Six days in Dubrovnik is a long time.

Debs

Chiming in with my 2 cents - add more time to Budapest, do the Lake Bled trip from Ljubljana (maybe stay 2 nights there and 1 in Lake Bled), shave off nights in Dubrovnik (cut planned nights in half) and write that trip report when you're back - it's bound to be amazing! ENJOY!!

lucy_d

I would definitely add a day to Budapest and maybe one for Vienna, too. No, you're not spending too much time in Lithuania.

Didn't you go to Dubrovnik before?

I, too, have loved your travelogue, Tyler. Thanks for being so generous in sharing all your adventures with us!

lucy_d

Oops, meant to include this- I'd also add Cesky Krumlov, at least, or knowing your travel style, probably for a day trip.

TylerTraveler

I love you guys!! There are so many great points here and everyone's travel experiences are so diverse... Ahh! I love it!


"Your travelogue is full of win."

Haha thanks, that's one of my favorite compliments yet.

Yea I'm a bit concerned about lack of time in Budapest but it just didn't work out to give it more and for Barney's first time to Europe I think he would be better off doing an extra night in Prague, Krakow or Berlin than in Budapest. Those places just flat out have more to do and are easier for the first time traveler. Sadly that's one of the few times where we actually need to be on schedule.

Barney has it in his head that he really wants to go to Hvar so we'll make it happen. Thankfully the ferry schedules work out fairly well for that little detour. Everyone talks up Hvar... I've never been there and can't imagine that it has much more to offer over anywhere else in Croatia but I guess we'll find out for a day hehe.

Haha... well the funny thing about all those days in Dubrovnik is that when I was writing all of this down on my calender to plan out how much time we would need I somehow managed to skip over the last two days of that month so when I went back and wrote everything out I realized that we had a couple extra days. We had originally planned 3 nights in Dubrovnik as sort of a "rest and relaxation" time before we skirted off for the wilds of Bosnia and Serbia. I have done Dubrovnik before and just think that it might be nice to relax before heading off for more intense travel. I'm not one to schedule "rest" days but I'm forcing myself to this trip =)

I'll probably divy up those "buffer" days wherever you guys tell me I need more time. The only times that are set in stone are the times before Hvar and after Riga. Everything in between Hvar and Riga is all flexible.

Thank for the tip about Moldova Thursdaysd! I don't know a thing about Moldova so I'm trying to get that figured out before I end up stuck as some border town for 4 nights because of poor planning.

For Ljubljana I'd like to spend a day just seeing the city and then I would LOVE to go out to those caves near Italy. I've been to Bled before but Barney really wants to go to Bled so I think we are going to split up and he is going to do a day in Bled and I'm going to do a day at the caves. Is it possible to do those in a day trip and be back in Ljubljana at night?

Cesky Krumlov does look amazing... Thanks for that tip =)

I think we have 2 nearly full days in Belgrade... I don't know much about Belgrade so hopefully that is enough.

The only thing I know about Lithuania is what it looks like out of the window of a bus... though I've been there a few times haha. But I've always wanted to stop in Vilnius for at least a day and tour around a bit. I dunno... maybe it's not worth it. I'd rather cut off a day in Lithuania than in Tallinn or Riga probably.

Thank you all sooo much for your great tips so far! They are soooo helpful!

lucy_d

Tyler, Of course this is IMHO: Having been to Berlin, Krakow, Prague and Budapest several times, I do not think that Krakow offers more than Budapest. Don't get me wrong; I love Krakow, but given the chance, I woud add a day to Budapest every time. I don't think Krakow "flat out" offers more than Budapest. Again my opinion. (Especially for young people)

Lithuania is SO much more than a view from a bus. Didn't you do a mission trip there? I think you may have missed Vilnius when you were there. (I'm just going on memory from your past threads and travelogue.) Vilnius is so rich and vibrant. Here's a link and a recommendation for Trakai castle.

http://www.muziejai.lt/trakai/Traku_muziejus.en.htm

alecksonajetplane

In my haste to reply, it seems my eyes have glossed over the last half of your itinerary.

Anyway...for the Ireland portion of your trip, since you said that you have really no idea where to go or what to do, you could consider doing a backpacking tour (not to be confused with the big tour companies) with Shamrocker (http://www.shamrockeradventures.com) or Paddywagon (http://www.paddywagontours.com).

According to the good folks at the Backpack Europe forum (http://tinyurl.com/2qcrcs), both are well worth the time and money spent. They're both run by locals and though they geared towards the under 35 contingent, they're a far cry from Contiki or Top Deck. A whole bunch of people from those forums have done these tours, so if you hop on over and do a search, you'll certainly find a lot more info and personal experiences in regards to Paddywagon and Shamrocker .

bkropf

Barney here...Thanks for all the information. I really appreciate it. I am really excited to finally make it to Europe. Cheers

TylerTraveler

Thanks alecksonajetplane! I hadn't thought about doing a tour like that. That might be a great idea for us because we really have no idea what we want to do in Ireland... though we are really excited to go haha. And thanks so much for the links!

I guess the difference between Budapest and Krakow for me was the day trips from Krakow like Auschwitz and the salt mines. Doing day trips always makes your time go a lot faster =)

Yea I really like the Baltics and always regretted not being able to spend more time doing "touristy" things there... though after helping out at that camp in Latvia we did do quite a bit of travel around the countryside. I don't really know exactly how everything will play out in the Baltics... basically we just have about 6 days (7 max) and need to be on our plane to Dublin by Friday the 2nd.

Thanks again!! =)

lucy_d

Hi Tyler and Barney, I get it now. Three days in Krakow with day trips to the salt mines and Auschwitz makes sense. You'd definitely need that much time to do those trips. Keep us posted as you continue to plan. It sounds like a great trip!

enroute

Tyler,

Why not St. Petersburg? Have you been? I don't see it in your log. I would take 3 to 4 buffer days from Dubrovnik for that.

-e

Debs

Day trip from Ljubljana/Lake Bled/Ljubljana is very doable. We took the bus (main station just a few minutes walk from city center Ljub) and was there in about 1.5 hrs. Train also an option, but the bus station is much closer to Lake Bled than the train station (which you'll pass from the bus). I can't remember the link, but was able to find bus schedule on line from Ljub/Lake Bled.

We didn't visit the caves, but it's so close to Ljub that a day trip must be easily doable.

And no better place for 'down time' than Dubrovnik!

2 months - am so jealous!!!

KL467

Tyler,

I LOVE your European photos. You look like you had a great time! I bookmarked your website and sent the link to others. Thank you!

GSteed

For posterity, lay out your route on a map of Europe. Note that all of it is in Central Europe. Try locating 'Trails', maybe they would be fun to traverse. In Poland, Trail of Eagles' Nests. There are more. Another suggestion; follow a river upstream or downstream. In Poland, either the Vistula or the Odra. Use your map and note the UNESCO sites. Central European cities are becoming very similar. History majors might try to view or follow WWI or WWII battle routes. Search out National Parks.

thursdaysd

I arranged a day trip to the caves at Postojna - super touristy - and the castle at Predjama - quite interesting - through a travel agency in Ljubljana. I think the agency was listed in Lonely Planet. I'd try for the other caves (can't remember the name) if I were doing it again.

I don't think I'd add St. Petersburg to this itinerary - too much hassle getting a Russian visa to be worth just a few days.

hopscotch

Bylorussia and Moldova required visas the last time I was in those parts a couple of years ago.

Chernobyl??

How about L'vov? It's a nice small city.

If you don't have it already I suggest the Thomas Cook Rail Map Europe and the Timetable. http://tinyurl.com/hnt5t

Looks like a great trip.

thursdaysd

Moldova no longer requires a visa for some countries: "Starting the 1st of January 2007 the visa regime for the citizens of the member states of the European Union, United States of America, Canada, the Swiss Confederation and Japan is abolished." (From their US embassy web site.)

I agree that the TC railway map is useful, but this site http://www.bahn.de/international/view/en/index.shtml has timetables for all of Europe, and it's free. I second the suggestion of Lviv.