Europe on $5 a Day - stories?

Parent Cafe
21

In 1976 while on a summer exchange program, I went on a one-week tour of Lapland with only $30 in my pocket. We camped out at night and I kept to a tight food budget. We drove along the Finnish-Russia border which had a tall fence with barbwire between the two countries. Donald Trump might want to take a look at it. Russian guards watched us from outposts every hundred yards. When we came to a sign in Russian telling us to go away, I took a picture of it as they also wrote below it that taking pictures was forbidden and would be prosecuted. I thought to myself that they can’t arrest me since I’m not even in their country.

The highlight of my stay in a hostel in Amsterdam was buying a can of Heineken beer right out of a vending machine which was something you didn’t see in the US back in 1976. A lesser highlight was walking through the famous red light district, and listening to Pink Floyd’s “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” playing on outdoor speakers. The hostel cost only $4 or $6 per night.

The mention of a Eurail Pass reminds me that I bought a one-day pass that could be used to ride anywhere you wanted. I met another American, and her and I decided to ride from Amsterdam to the town of Gouda. We watched an outdoor show about cheese making and then stuffed ourselves with Gouda samples before we left. The hostess always responded to our “That’s good!” remark with a “That’s Gouda!”

After flying from Amsterdam, I arrived in NYC with only $5 in my pocket so I hitchhiked home to Boston with my heavy backpack. A car actually tried to hit me deliberately around midnight and I had to jump out of the way. That’s when I knew I was back in the USA.

22

Did any of you take advantage of the mensa cafeteria at the local U’s in France, Italy and Germany? I remember getting full meals for around 25-50 cents.

23

I remember Côtes du Rhône as being inexpensive, and not particularly good. Now, it’s quite popular and frequently far from inexpensive. I still miss being able to travel with my Swiss Army knife handy corkscrew, thanks to TSA. Ah, a baguette, some brie and a bottle - heaven. I ate so much Toberlone in one summer that now, almost 40 years later, it doesn’t tempt me at all!

Who needed laundromats? My traveling companion and I used to exchange clothes. I guess I thought that if I hadn’t personally worn it, it must be clean. Makes me a bit ill to remember that now - but at least I had my own towel!

24

This is funny, I grew up in Europe so my friends and I traveled to The States after we graduated high school in the eighties.

Booked a four flight trip (Cologne, New York, Cleveland, LA) and stayed at each place, where we (or our parents) knew someone, for a few days. Went sightseeing in NYC (Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building, Central Park), tried to drive a huge Monte Carlo in OH, went to Sea World and Niagara Falls, and visited Universal Studios and Disneyland, along with San Diego.

It was great and I think the whole trip cost as much as just one flight ticket overseas now.

25

Summer of 1989 I was 21 and traveled alone around England, Scotland and Wales using a bus pass and sleeping in hostels. There was a hostel in Snowdonia National Park in Wales where I hiked up and over the mountain and down the other side to get to the hostel (10 miles), then awoke at dawn the next morning and hiked back over again (10 miles). I was going to catch a bus to Caernarvon but the buses did not run on Sunday, so I tried to hitch but must have been to scruffy looking as no one offered a ride. So hiked another 10 miles to Caernarvon. Halfway there I stopped in a pub and spent my last pound and a half on a pint. Best beer I’ve ever had in my life. Welsh folk were funny because at first they thought I was English and so they would shun me or only speak Welsh to me. But once they heard me speak they discovered I was American and were just as nice as they could be (and switched to English language). Boy they really hated the English though!

26

I was a kid in the 70s but my dad liked to travel frugally and he took me and my sisters to Europe (one at a time so he didn’t have to break up squabbles and to make it affordable). We were also basically add-ons to his business trips so he got reimbursement for his part. It was great to get one-on-one time with my dad. This was back when international airfare was 50% off for kids. We stayed at hostels and guesthouses, used the 2nd class Eurail pass, ate out of vending machines and in train stations and in neighborhood restaurants, and sometimes slept overnight on the train. It was high adventure.

One of my most vivid memories is waiting for a train in Germany, eating a bratwurst on a hard bun bought from a station vendor, with a Mozartkugeln for dessert. Priceless. And yes, we loaded up with Toblerone and gummi bears and duty free booze on the return.

When I traveled to Europe on my own in the mid 80s, it was probably closer to $20/day and combined a rail pass, stays with friends then studying abroad, and cheap digs. I remember having money for cheap beer and bad wine.

Going to Europe with my kids a couple of summers ago, we rented a car and stayed mostly in apartments and I’d not do it that way again, despite the significant cost savings. Eurail passes are so expensive and restrictive now! It ended up feeling a bit insular. However, I still use paper maps and guides and don’t have a smart phone so that forced us to interact with locals.

27

We ate several times at the railroad workers mensa, across from the main terminal in Rome. And later, one for administrative workers, in Munich. But I had the U mensa experience earlier, on a summer program in France There, the counter ladies liked telling us the white goopy stuff was mashed potatoes, but it was really mashed fish.

Mozartkugeln, my fav.

And this, that I only knew in Europe, but you can now find in some US airports or train stations: I adore the sound of the letters flipping on the arrivals/departures board. Stops me in my tracks, every time.

28

I am enjoying this thread and there was so much more that I could add… but one of the memories is that sometimes when you ate dinner in a restaurant if there was a musician playing you were charged a tax for listening, you paid per roll for example for any rolls eaten from a basket on the table, paying to use the restroom facilities in museums, churches, etc… so I think we made many stops whenever we could at department stores that were I think free, we packed skirts because in those days you needed to wear a skirt to be admitted to tour the Vatican and so many other funny things.

I travelled to Spain for 3 plus weeks less than 10 years later with DH, post-Franco and what I remember most about that trip was the cost by comparison but also that in post-Franco Spain, there was a huge explosion of pornography as that had been so suppressed previously.

29

I traveled on one of my trips with a Dutch girl. She taught me to find out where the communists eat and there we would not be over charged for rolls or service charges. I remember the restaurant in Florence(where I ended up living for over a year) was called La Tavola Rossa (The Red Table.) Communal tables and the same thing was served every night. For 600 lire (.75 at the time) you got a jug of wine, tortellini, focaccia , salad, roast chicken and mandarini. If the owner liked you, he would not water down the wine and would stuff your pockets with oranges as you left. SIGH.

30

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.

31

As a mom, I find the recollections of poste restante mail collection touching. In my time, I was bound and determined to be totally independent from my parents and left an itinerary only under threat. As far as I was concerned, I was incommunicado for the duration - I’ll be too busy to contact you and you don’t contact me with all your instructions/warnings/snooping. Imagine my horror on checking into one of the few reserved-in-advance hotels to be given letters not only from my mother, but also my GRANDMOTHER.

Times and people change - my offspring and I enjoy Skype chats multiple times a week and love sharing travel adventure stories. Thank goodness they didn’t take after me; I almost feel guilty for treating my parents as non-entities.

I was hiking in Hong Kong last August and went right past a youth hostel that looked like it could have been found in Wales. Nostalgic, but they would certainly have had no takers in me!

32

There were times in my life I ate every day at the mensa. I first ate rabbit at a mensa. Sometimes, rarely, I still eat at mensas, but never through choice.

Next time someone tries to take me to a mensa, I’m suggesting we look for a communist cafe.

33

Just go in humming Bandiera Rossa and tell 'em comrade musica sent you.

34

I spent the 70s in Europe as a student, and I do not think that a $5 a day budget was ever feasible for food only Living in the US was way cheaper in the late 70s and early 80s. Of course, one could live under a bridge!

35

I’d forgotten about eating in the Mensa. I’d say 70s budget travel was closer to $10 a day. I remember in Brittany traveling with two friends and bargaining a prix fixe meal down by skipping the first course. It was mussels which I love now, but didn’t then. I seem to remember we drank the wine though! I also remember saving breakfast rolls to each for lunch. I never stayed in hostels, mostly in budget hotels or bed and breakfasts. I liked the Italian bathrooms where the shower was just part of the bathroom and the whole room got wet.

When I lived in France I stayed at the apartment of the son of my French family. It was in an ancient building on the Ile St. Louis. The bathroom was down a flight of stairs then outdoors to the courtyard where it was a hole in the ground with two foot plates and newspaper for toilet paper. I avoided it as much as I could.

36

Could somebody please explain what a Mensa is (or was)?

37

It’s a cafeteria usually at a school or trade union hall. For the ones at the University we needed to show student ID. But you did not have to attend that U.

When I visited D this year I noticed that the one in Berlin still only charges 1.55 EU. Still pretty cheap.

38

Are the Mensa cafeterias only in Germany?

39

A place for cheap, sometimes subsidized meals, usually connected to some organization- a U, the RR place in Rome was a sort of union hall.

Xpost but in many countries. The one in Munich was for state employees.

40

My experiences with Mensa’s date back to the 70’s and I was surprised to see them still in Germany. So whether or not they are still active in other countries and available to foreign students elsewhere is beyond me. The one that I mentioned in Berlin was at the university and student ID’s from anywhere were accepted.