- When packing, I remember all the mistakes that I have made previously, such as the Belgium mishap, and remember all of the things I forgot that time.
- When preparing my list of travel times, I know to check, and probably double-check, all of the times and dates of my flights so that I do not have a repeat of Matt's flight departure from Ireland
The other aspect that makes this trip a lot easier to prepare for, is that the unknown factor is a lot smaller. For every previous trip that I have been on, I have either travelled with new friends, or flown with a new airline, or had some other element that I had never experienced before. Because I have been through so much through my trip this year, I know what to expect a lot better.
While there is still always an element of surprise, and mishap, that is unavoidable with travel, I'm hoping that my experience will help to keep it at a minimum for this trip.
Transportation:
One fact that I find very cool is that so far this year, I have flown with five different airlines, to eleven different airports, at all hours of the day, and with multiple connections. Here they are listed in order of rank from best to worst.
- KLM - Denmark
- Most comfortable seating, with a decent amount of leg room, and free drink/snacks on flight even short ones
- Lufthansa - Germany, Switzerland
- Very close to KLM, same service, seats are slightly less comfortable
- Swiss Air - Switzerland
- Very comfortable seating, and free drink/snack service, however rocky take-off and landing
- Aer Lingus - America, Amsterdam, and Denmark
- Not RyanAir so that is a plus, but not much better. Seats are uncomfortable and very little room with only really water being free. Biggest plus is that they fly out of Cork!
- RyanAir - Belgium, Czech Republic, Spain
- The worst of all in terms of comfort, but actually one of my favorites because their prices are so cheap it allowed me to go so many different places, I would have been a lot more restricted if not for their airline. However, the times of their flights are unbelievably bad (very early or very late) and most of the time their airports are in the middle of nowhere and there is a lot of travel to get back and forth from them. And more often than not, they give you a hard time about your luggage, which is already really restricted to begin with.
- In the coming weeks I will be flying with two new airlines: Aegean Air and Vueling. I am curious to see where they will fall on this list.
Accommodation:
I have stayed in a wide variety of places over the course of this year, and being that I was restrained to a student budget they ranged from good, to bad to very weird.
Interlaken was one of my favorite weekend trips and it was very hard to leave and know it would be my last quick trip. What made it easier however, was knowing that it would be the last hostel I was staying in this year. Here are my accommodation experiences ranked from best to worst.
- Denmark - Copenhagen
- Of all the hotels I stayed in (3), this was the best one. Caitlin's parents got us this room for her birthday present and it was very generous of her to treat Lindsay and I to accompany her. It was just the three of us, with a cozy room, and very comfortable beds. The location was perfect, not more than a ten minute walk anywhere we wanted to go. Definitely my favorite!
- Great wifi
- Belgium - Brussels
- We stayed in a hotel because it cost us the same to do so as it would have to stay in a hostel. The beds were comfortable, the room was clean, we had it to ourselves and the bathroom was fully stocked with towels and shampoo/soap etc. The location was very convenient, and it was in a safe neighborhood.
- Great wifi
- Germany - Munich
- We stayed in a hotel for Germany as well because it was Oktoberfest and there were not many options. The hotel was an excellent idea because we were able to escape the chaos of the tents and retreat back to a clean, quiet, comfortable room. It is less than Belgium however because it was expensive, and even with squeezing in an extra person,which also made it more cramped.
- Adequate wifi
- Switzerland - Interlaken
- This was the best of all the hostels. The facilities were nice and it was clean, quiet, and had a really nice charm to it. It was located not far from town, and very close to all of the activities we chose to do for the weekend. The staff was also very helpful, which made the planning aspect easier.
- Great wifi
- Spain - Barcelona
- Spain was a decent hostel. I have nothing to complain about this one, but it did not stand out as great. It was exactly what you expect from a hostel, a bed and no additional frills but it was clean, safe, and comfortable. This trip we had a larger group so even though we stayed in a 6 bed room, it was all of our friends.
- Great wifi
- The Netherlands - Amsterdam
- This hostel was one of the best that we have stayed in, however it is low on this list because we were in a 20 bed room. There were 6 Holy Cross girls with us, and we had our own section of the room, but we were with many other people. This hostel was in a perfect location, with great facilities, however the additional people gave it a lower rank.
- Good wifi but only on the main floor and we were staying on the fourth so inconvenient
- Czech Republic - Prague
- Hostel Elf in Prague is what I meant by weird. This place was just plain strange. The staff, decor, and other guests all contributed to creating just a very odd vibe. It was not near the town centre, but this meant that we were gone all day and truly were only in the hostel to sleep. It was definitely the most stereotypical of hostel experiences, but everyone has to have it at least once!
- Accidentally good wifi - I say accidentally because our room had good wifi but that was only because we happened to be located near the common room which was supposed to be the only place to get service
- Ireland - Dublin (3) Galway (1) Unidentified Location (1)
- Over the course of the year I have stayed in a variety of hostels in Ireland. The best where in Dublin where the bathrooms were attached to the rooms, but generally they were the most uncomfortable of all the hostels. The one of unidentified location was one we stayed in for my Early Start class and it was by far the worst. Extremely uncomfortable, tiny unclean bathroom for too many people, and was located on a farm so the smell was horrendous.
I have been in so many different situations, in a handful of countries, using multiple currencies and trying to understand a multitude of languages; it has been quite a year! Hopefully all of that has prepared me for what is about to come over the next couple of weeks.
No comments:
Post a Comment