The last couple of months (I can’t believe we’re 2 months down… 7 to go!) have been pretty hectic and the last month particularly. The longest we’ve stayed in one place in Europe was Cesky Krumlov for 4 nights. I don’t mean to imply that we’re feeling exhausted or are sick of traveling. In fact I’m surprised at how well things have been going and how effortless our journey has (mostly) been.
But you do get sick of having to re-pack the bag every few days and the actual traveling parts, while interesting (or in some cases cramped, stinky and confusing) are tiring and so having 5 nights to relax in a gorgeous alpine village is a welcome break.
To make it all the more enjoyable, the Ginger Monkey has two dogs and a cat. Luke and I are both mildly allergic to cats but it hasn’t been in the bedroom and we’ve felt fine so far. The dogs, Wally and Chuba (I’m just going to call her that because I can’t pronounce her name)) are delightful. I had no idea how much I was missing my own dog until then.
Wally!
We went for a walk this morning up a nearby ridge to take in the view. The ground was very soft and there’s a lot of snow melt running down the gullies, which wasn’t great for Luke as he only has runners and no boots. Wally came with us and wanted us to throw things for him – plastic bottles, too-large sticks, a shoe sole and a rock that was almost as big as a half brick (we didn’t throw the rock). He was pronking all over the place and making us laugh. Then he found a huge stick and kept running past Luke, banging him in the ankles with it, which made me laugh. Luke not so much.
Anyhow, I can’t wait to get to the UK so we can travel a bit lighter after ditching some stuff at Matt’s place. But for now we’re having to live with a bit of chaos.
I blame the fact that there is nowhere to hang anything for the dreadful state of our room.
Here Comes The Planet 
Stunning Amanda, yes I am sure it would be a welcome break after all the travel. Very lucky you are doing this blog as you are moving so quickly it would be difficult by 6 months in to remember all the little details of the first 2 months.
Yeah, it’s going to make for a fantastic record of the whole experience. At the end we plan to make a book out of the photos and blog entries, and I’ll most likely put together a DVD of the videos. 🙂
Slovakia looks amazing! I may have to try and make a visit there myself 🙂
Reading you talk about the hassles of carrying so much stuff, running for trains, etc, reaffirms for me that I really do want to set off with only that 40L backpack 😛
Wow, 40L! I’ve travelled Asia with a ~35L pack and it’s great, but you hardly need anything for Asia. I’m going to struggle to fit everything into my 65L + daypack for this coming trip!
Yeah, cold weather definitely adds to one’s luggage!
Slovakia is beautiful, but there’s a lot of beautiful countries! 😉 We had Slovenia recommended to us and it looks absolutely stunning, so we’re hoping to fit it in next time we’re in Europe. If your schedule allows you should come do that with us!
I think it’ll be tricky to travel with that size backpack for the length of time you’ll be gone, but that it’s certainly possible with some forethought and planning. As you say, it’ll certainly make life easier while traveling from point-to-point. 🙂
Yep, I’ve only heard wonderful things about Slovenia!
You do have to balance the fact that you’re traveling for maybe 1/20 of the time you’re traveling.. but I’d be on my laptop and using my camera for a much greater proportion than that. Having the convenience of some things outweighs the annoyance of having to carry them. But each to their own – if you can get by with minimal electrical stuff that’ll help lots. Personally, having the opportunity to take great photos is worth taking my tripod and two lenses but I can understand not everyone would agree!
Hi Amanda & Luke
Just though I’d let you know that Loey & I both love your blog. we check it about once ever 3 days or so.
Keep up the good work & happy trails.
Hey Kelvin and Loey! Glad you’re enjoying the entries. 🙂 How are things going for you guys?
Kelvin, you’d be loving all these Euro beers! How’s the home brew coming along?
All is good here. Well be bottling beer later today. I’d love to visit Europe but have a feeling I would be drunk the whole time. 🙂
Really enjoying reading your blog, even though I’m envious. Keep enjoying your travels. Glenda
Thanks Glenda, we’ve not had the most fantastic day today – the hostel’s dog was bitten by a snake! Very much hoping he improves, he’s just adorable.. like a collie but golden.
That looks like a lot of chaos to me….
I have to say I’ve been surprised with how quickly you have moved on from place to place. I get that you are trying to see as much as possible, but when you spend less than 2 days in a a place your transit overheads are more than the time you’re actually there… One thing my experience has taught me is that I hate being in transit, I’d rather spend more time in fewer places and get enough stuff done that I don’t feel like I left without really getting to know the place.
I’ve only felt truly rushed a couple of weeks ago, before we got to Slovakia. We could’ve spent one more day in Vienna, and we wasted a lot of time whilst in Budapest. We’ve had at least two full days everywhere we’ve been, we extended our stay in Krumlov since we were enjoying it so much, and the only time we’ve wished we could stay in a place longer but couldn’t was Munich – and we’ll get back there later in the year most likely. Munich was also the only time we travelled for an extended period of time to get there (~11 hours flying time), but didn’t have at least three days to spend. Everywhere else it’s seemed like a good amount of time for however long it took us to get there (not counting overnight services, as it’s time you would have spent asleep anyway). Our point-to-point whilst actually in Europe has always been less than 5 hours, so we’ve had an extra half a day up our sleeve on travel days.
However I will say that I think three days should be the minimum time in any one place for anyone planning a trip like we’re doing. It generally takes you one day to get the ‘hang’ of a city, where things are, how to get around, etc. Then one day of full sight-seeing, then an extra day for doing things with people you meet, or at the suggestion of a local/fellow traveller, or if you’ve got there on a weekend and things you wanted to see were closed, you’ve got one weekday to spend doing whatever.
Last time I was in Europe I was on the hop-on-hop-off Busabout service. We spent most of a day traveling and then (because I was traveling with a group who aimed to do as much as possible within their ticket’s travel time) would have 1.5 days to spend where-ever we ended up. It was nowhere near enough time, so it was always a goal of mine to spend at least two full days in each place with some wriggle room for extensions if more time was desired. Except for the aforementioned places, I’ve felt happy with how much time we’ve had for each location. 🙂