Some of you may be pros at travelling light and efficiently, but for those of you who have yet to venture out on your own on a tight budget, I would like to offer a few pieces of helpful advice. Of course, I will use some stories of my own to convey these little lessons and hopefully add some humor to this.
1. Plan ahead. Common sense, hm? Maybe not for this girl. I am a very spontaneous, last-minute planner and I didn’t realize how detrimental this could be for my budget until I spent well above and beyond my budget because I did not think smart. So, look for cheap flights, train tickets, and bus tickets at least a month if not two or three in advance. RyanAir offers flights for €5-€25 to select destinations, but they are always a month or 2 in advance. Same situation with hostels, HostelWorld is a great resource, but it seems that the rates go up every day, so be sure to book well in advance to get the best deal.
2. Do not underestimate mass transportation services. When you are in a hurry… you can guarantee that if something can go wrong, it will. This is ESPECIALLY true with public transportation.
Story number 1: I made plans to leave Brussels on a 6 AM bus to spend the lovely weekend in my favorite city, Paris. I was staying at a friend’s who lives on the same line as the tram I would need to take directly to my bus station, Gare du Nord. Piece of Cake. I checked the timetable and the first tram arrives at my stop at 5:30. Perfect. So, Saturday morning arrives, I wake up at 5 AM quickly get ready and am out the door at 5:25AM. I arrive at the tram stop and wait. 5:35 rolls around and I start to sweat it, because even though it is a direct line, trams can take a very long time to get from point A to point B. 5:40 rolls around, no tram. Needless to say, my blood pressure has sky-rocketed as it dawns on me that I might not catch this bus. So, I start walking hoping to either beat the tram and be one stop closer to my destination, or find a Taxi driver along the way (keep in mind it is 5:45AM- pitch black outside, no one.. I repeat NO ONE is on the street or even driving by). Finally, a see that glorious black Mercedes with a yellow Taxi sign on top. I run into the middle of the street waving my arms frantically and he does a quick U-Turn and comes to my rescue. I quickly explain (in French;) that I need to be at Gare du Nord in 10 minutes. He flies through town (thank the LORD it was too early for Brussels traffic) and pulls me up to my bus as the driver is shutting the door. Safe.
Story number 2: Thinking that I had learned my lesson, I attempt this journey a second time with the intention of catching a 10:30PM bus headed to London. I leave my apartment at 9PM, take the Metro to Montgomery where I intend to catch the 7 tram and ride to Gare du Nord, flawless. WRONG. The Metro that usually runs every 5 minutes was only running about every 15 minutes, delaying my departure to 9:25, I get to Montgomery at 9:40, arrive at the platform for the Tram to see that it will be another 10 minutes before my 7 tram arrives. I’m a little nervous, but still have enough time to not really panic over it. After about 3 minutes I realize that the counter for the est. time of arrival for the tram is still reading 10 minutes. Oh dear. Then I realize that the other trams are surpassing that tram, like it is stuck at a stop. OK, now my blood pressure is starting to climb. FINALLY, at 9:55 the tram arrives. Now, 35 minutes sounds like plenty of time; however, it takes a solid 40 minutes for this journey because of all the stops. I am sweating it. However, I am assuming this tram was the driver’s last run for the night because he sped between stops and barely opened the doors long enough for the lone traveler to hop aboard. Thanks to him and his desperation to get off work, I arrive again with mere seconds to spare. Whew.
3. ALWAYS expect the unexpected.
Back to my Paris story, the game plan was to arrive at the bus station and meet up with my friend Yonseili and her boyfriend Kyle who had (of course) planned ahead and purchased a cheap train ticket. By the time I bought a ticket, the train prices had tripled, leaving me with the option of taking an early morning bus. Yonseili and I had discussed meeting at the Galeini station in Paris at 10:30AM, so when I arrive at Galleini I walk towards the main building to find the train platforms. I walk and walk and walk and slowly realize that there are no train tracks coming into the station at all. I ask someone where the train is and they point me to the Metro… no, no. I grab my mobile phone to call Yonseili only to find that the battery has died. Panic mode sets in. I’m in one of the largest cities in the world, I have no idea how to contact my friends, and I have no idea what time it is. So I act quickly. I find an Internet café, I google Paris train stations and find the one station that has incoming trains from Brussels, Belgium. Viola. I hop on the Metro, get to the station (which is magnificently huge), I finally find the train platforms and fear that I will be too late to know which platform they will arrive at. However, I am in luck, it is 10:35AM and the Arrival board indicates that the train arriving from Brussels is late and will arrive at 10:40AM. Perfect. Yonseili and Kyle arrive and I have had just enough time to calm down and find the humor is the whole situation.
Back to my Paris story, the game plan was to arrive at the bus station and meet up with my friend Yonseili and her boyfriend Kyle who had (of course) planned ahead and purchased a cheap train ticket. By the time I bought a ticket, the train prices had tripled, leaving me with the option of taking an early morning bus. Yonseili and I had discussed meeting at the Galeini station in Paris at 10:30AM, so when I arrive at Galleini I walk towards the main building to find the train platforms. I walk and walk and walk and slowly realize that there are no train tracks coming into the station at all. I ask someone where the train is and they point me to the Metro… no, no. I grab my mobile phone to call Yonseili only to find that the battery has died. Panic mode sets in. I’m in one of the largest cities in the world, I have no idea how to contact my friends, and I have no idea what time it is. So I act quickly. I find an Internet café, I google Paris train stations and find the one station that has incoming trains from Brussels, Belgium. Viola. I hop on the Metro, get to the station (which is magnificently huge), I finally find the train platforms and fear that I will be too late to know which platform they will arrive at. However, I am in luck, it is 10:35AM and the Arrival board indicates that the train arriving from Brussels is late and will arrive at 10:40AM. Perfect. Yonseili and Kyle arrive and I have had just enough time to calm down and find the humor is the whole situation.
4. Check, double-check, and triple-check your itinerary.
My very first trip out of Brussels was to Cologne, Germany with a group of 6 people. Four of us were scheduled to leave early Friday morning and return early Sunday morning, while the other 2 were scheduled to leave Friday evening and return Sunday evening. So, on Sunday morning we arrive early at the train station to catch our 11AM train only to find that it is not listed on the Departure list. So one girl in our group checks the ticket and realizes that we misread the ticket, it actually departs at 1PM. No big deal, we decide to grab lunch in the station and then leave at 1. At about 12:45 we walk back to the Departure board again to find that there is no train listed. We take out the tickets and go to the ticket booth and the lady informs us that we misread the tickets again, our train actually left at 11AM; however, Brussels was only a stop on the way so the destination would have read differently on the departure board. Not only that, but we would have to purchase new tickets to take the next train out (the train that our friends were leaving on!). Not only did we waste an entire morning and afternoon sitting in a train station, we also had to pay another 25€ to take a later train home.
My very first trip out of Brussels was to Cologne, Germany with a group of 6 people. Four of us were scheduled to leave early Friday morning and return early Sunday morning, while the other 2 were scheduled to leave Friday evening and return Sunday evening. So, on Sunday morning we arrive early at the train station to catch our 11AM train only to find that it is not listed on the Departure list. So one girl in our group checks the ticket and realizes that we misread the ticket, it actually departs at 1PM. No big deal, we decide to grab lunch in the station and then leave at 1. At about 12:45 we walk back to the Departure board again to find that there is no train listed. We take out the tickets and go to the ticket booth and the lady informs us that we misread the tickets again, our train actually left at 11AM; however, Brussels was only a stop on the way so the destination would have read differently on the departure board. Not only that, but we would have to purchase new tickets to take the next train out (the train that our friends were leaving on!). Not only did we waste an entire morning and afternoon sitting in a train station, we also had to pay another 25€ to take a later train home.
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