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Thursday 16 October 2014

Blarring Your Way Through Europe

I was walking in the underground of Paris Metro, connecting one station to another and I saw those men and women in uniform with arrogance written all over their faces, halting passerby to check their tickets. It reminded me of the horrible time when a friend of mine got into trouble, for simply not speaking French. What? Of course I am joking! However, she was fined for not adhering to the rules of signing over her photo on the metro pass and raising her voice speaking English absolutely did not help. Ridiculous stuff, I know. Having been in Europe for almost 3 months, I get it. Its expensive to travel in Europe. You want to get through the villages, the towns, the cities, the countries in the cheapest possible manner. Every penny counts.

Being a backpacker myself, this is some information I have gathered and trust me, I have paid a fortune for it.

Voyages SNCF


travelling through europe gare du nord paris
Gare du Nord, Paris
My travel mainly revolved around France. Well, what can I say, j’adore France! SNCF has provided me with simple and timely connections between train and bus within France and to main European cities such as Milan, Barcelona, London and more. If you can plan well in advance, the website normally gives up to 50% discount for early birds. They are very reliable, although in some short local connections, they prohibit purchases via international credit card that use the “Secure 3D Authentication” payment method. That means you will have to buy the ticket over counter and bye-bye online discount.

It has been my main source of travel planning until recently when I was stuffed spending nearly 100euro on a one way train and bus connection from centre of France to Barcelona while my sweet little friend bought a bus ticket for 5euro for the same route. I am sure you can imagine how annoyed I was with myself. Anyhow, for travel within France, this website will unfortunately be your bible, I think.

If you are under 26 years old, bare in mind that SNCF does provide 25% discount. Now, I look pretty young, or some might even say I look wickedly kiddish in real life. Although I thought the “age is a sensitive topic for women” is kind of rubbish, but still, I like to stay mysterious. Haha. I went to the Gare in Annecy before departure to get my connection train to Lyon and the guy over the counter gave me a 25% discount without as much as a question. It was a two hour journey and I was lucky as no officer came onboard to check my ticket. I heard the penalty is quite hefty.

Bla-Bla Car

Another cheap way to get on the road is via car sharing. Bla-Bla Car might be the most active site for hitching a ride safely. It is very much like hitch hiking, except you arranged it and pay a minimal fee. Sharing the fuel cost. Bla-Bla Car gets you on an adventure, fresh faces and fresh topics to talk about. I love talking to people and meeting new people, don’t get me wrong, but somehow when I get on the road, I prefer some peace and quiet time for myself.

I signed up for short journeys with Bla-Bla Car so far and I have good and bad reviews about it. I shared a ride with a French guy from Chamonix to Genève and 1 hour flew by because we clicked. He did what I am doing and took a year after his college to travel in Asia. He has beautiful and ugly stories to tell about Asia and I listened with amusement, fiddled through the memory boxes, trying to match the past with the relatively fresh present in my head.

Another ride was from Genève to Annecy. It was a Spanish teacher and he was commuting back and forth between France and Switzerland like many other white collars. The cost of living in Genève is skiving through the roof that most people moved to nearby towns such as Annecy where they could afford bigger square meter with their pay checks. I knew there was something about Spanishthat I dislike. We didn’t have a heart to heart, mostly because he was pegging away to kill me with the heat in his car, oh someone please teach this Spanish bloke how to operate the air condition in his Volkswagen! Also, he has an underlying tone of cynicism that I detest. Thank god it was just 30 minutes.

Bla-Bla Cardoes get you cheap rides (80% off the official price with bus or train), but you will have to put up with the talking and odds of riding with people that might not share the same interest as you. Some like yapping, go ahead. Some said, “Ah well, you are not picking a husband, who cares?” In that case, by all means, be my guests.

Megabus


travel through europe megabus porte maillot coach park paris
Megabus parked at Porte Maillot Coach Park, Paris
I have recently been introduced to this website, Megabus, which raised the urge of me stabbing myself in the foot for being so effing foolish. This is an UK operated company who provides long distance bus journey with the most economical price ever. What’s their success story? I still couldn’t fathomed. They offer quite a varieties of routes within Europe and of course, expect the less popular routes to have lower frequency.

It is really a life saver with this website. I’ll give you an example, Barcelona - Paris, I paid 15pounds whereas if I have gone by the book with SNCF, I’d ended up paying 170euros for the train. A word of advise booking with this company? Weekdays travel cost at least 50% less than weekends travel. They are not the best long distance travel options, but it save you heaps that you can probably splurge on a massage later.

Hitch-Hiking

Another more traditional travel option for backpackers is none other than hitch-hiking. I am not a big fan of it, but tried it out of desperation when I was hiking in the bother of France and Switzerland. I got lost and under time constrain so I did the hand gesture. Yes, I know. I remembered talking to a girl in a hostel in China. She left home with very little savings but she has been to so many places in China, all by hitch-hiking.

In the beginning I thought she was a drunk. Then I realised it was her signature story-telling face, with one eye bigger than the other in sort of a half-squinting and half expressing-disgust way. Then again, it was China. How it works in Europe, I have no idea. Although I have heard it is generally safe to hitch-hike in Europe.

travel through europe traffic in beijing china
Traffic in Beijing, China
A friend told me about rome2rio which I have yet to find out. It is supposed to tell you the ways you can get from one place to another. I have also heard stuff about Eurail Pass, how convenient it is, I am certainly curious to check out the terms and conditions. I hope this information help you and save you tons of money!

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