Europe on $5 a Day - stories?

Magnetron
Wed, 06 Jan 2016 19:07:53 +0000

Also summer of 1989. We stayed with a friend for a week in London, then spent the next two months doing a counter-clockwise rotation around western Europe staying in hostels, pensiones, and the cheapest hotels we could find from the Frommer’s Guide. Our budget was $40/day (for two, so $20 each) but about half of that was spent in the bars. The whole trip, with flights and a 1st class Eurail pass, cost about $2k each, about what we would have been spending at home.

Some of the better memories:

Meeting a couple of stunning girls from Chicago while in London (sorry I never called. I had a bag stolen in Barcelona).

Four wild nights in Amsterdam. Getting chased through the Red Light District for taking pictures. Drinking seven beers in 20 minutes at the Heineken Brewery tour with a couple of Italian guys. Winning enough money at the casino in Scheveningen for a wilder night there.

Maybe the best nights of the trip in Brugge.

Having caviar and vodka for lunch in Andorra La Vella (tax-free port!), while listening to traditional music and watching them build one of those really tall human towers in the town square.

Strolling the Ramblas in Barcelona, drinking 35 centavo Damm beers (sorry I never called. Had a bag stolen the next day). Getting our pictures taken, repeatedly, standing outside the laundromat in our boxer shorts, smoking our duty-free Cuban cigars.

Sleeping on the beach in Blanes (no hotels available, and it was late). My goodness, the Spanish people know how to have a good time. Lots and lots of other things in France, Italy, Austria, Germany and Switzerland.

As for European kids taking a gap year to travel - yes, it’s still pretty common, at least for my relatives and their friends. I have a nephew in Bolivia right now after spending two months in Oaxaca. He has plans for Korea after that.