I recently went on a tour of Europe, which I had been
planning and saving for, for quite a while. Being the cost-conscious person that I
am, I needed us (the people I had convinced to join me on the tour) to not have
to spend more if we could spend less. Anyway, we booked as early as we could
and during the time in between researched the sanity out of travelling abroad
and what fun things we could do in the countries we would visit.
We understood that the tour would involve a lot of walking
and driving but boy were we not prepared for how much walking and driving there
actually was. Despite these minor discomforts, the scenery was spectacular and
we got to see more than the actual places that were our destinations as we
covered countless kilometres of country sides during the drives. The world is
beautiful and the beauty of it is unfathomable and nor can it be imagined, one
needs to see for oneself if one can. God is quite the artist!
Accommodation and food was yet another challenge. We were to
be booked on 2* or 3* hotels because it was a budget tour. The bathrooms were
small in most hotels and showers were all that was available, no baths. The
breakfasts were buffet style (mostly including things like croissants and jams,
yoghurts and cereals with milk and coffee or tea and some cold meats like ham,
salami and turkey) and were mostly passable and sometimes even a little
impressive, but the dinners were not always appetising. I enjoyed the dinner I
had at our hotel in Interlaken Switzerland and their breakfast was one of the
better ones.
As for shopping, I would say Switzerland and Netherlands
were best in my opinion. This is because it turns out cheaper for those working
with the rand to shop in these places since, let’s face it; our currency is not
the greatest performing when it comes to economics. Complaining that a t-shirt
that costs twenty euros is expensive can be embarrassing when you travel with
people with better currencies who don’t give a thought to what the cost
translates to in their currency because it makes little difference.
Europe is full of history and historical monuments and
buildings. They do things grand and most buildings are high so if one gets lost
and needs to find one’s way, it can be a maze as you are not able to see beyond
the buildings and thus may do a lot of wrong turns before you make the right
one. But since the towns are usually not that big, it is easy to cover most of
the towns on foot and getting lost is not something to pop a vein over, you
always find your way. The metro system in Paris is a dream, or should I say I
understand how it works really well. The one is Spain has less labyrinths and
thus also easy to navigate.
The history of the Romans while they were pagans is quite
gruesome, not for the fainthearted at all. Apparently the Colosseum (a.k.a. the Flavian
Amphitheatre) was a place to entertain men with bloodshed and the bloodier the
better. It is averred that they would take people from the places they
conquered and enslave them and force them to be gladiators, where they would
fight to the death to save themselves. The arena where this took place, was so
efficiently organized that thousands of people could be admitted into the arena
and seated within minutes. During these bloody duels, there were people who
were hired to mop up the blood spillage and the word arena was derived from the
fact that these activities were performed on a sanded surface, because the sand
could absorb the blood quickly. While I listened to this recount, my entire
body was tense from the thoughts that ran through my head and I could not send
enough thank yous to God for sparing me that kind of life.
There is a culture of people-watching in most European
countries and some of this people-watching can be mistaken for staring. Our bus
driver demonstrated this very ‘staring’ kind of people-watching when he stared
at my sister and friend during one of our dinners in Avignon.
So we went to see a Flamingo show while in Barcelona and
were utterly disappointed when we compared the cost to the performance we
received. The acoustics and fancy footwork were something to behold, but the
singing, gosh what a nightmare! One of our compatriots likened it to “begraafnis van
‘n koei” so you can imagine how bad it was to our ears.
In Amsterdam, I was shocked by the blatancy of the red-light
district and its activities, but I was even more shocked by the public
urination facilities, which provide no privacy whatsoever! Another thing I noted was that, unlike many
European cities, there are a lot of native Africans there and thus we were not
a novelty or a rare sighting as we had often felt in most of the places we went
to.
Something I also noted, whenever you feel homesick, you need
just wonder the streets and you are bound to come across a Spar and you find
yourself smiling despite yourself. I have to admit that I did not venture into
any of these Spars; it was just comforting to see something that reminds me of
home.
So, my advice to you if you are thinking of travelling
abroad in the future;
- · Do not over plan, let your destination surprise you in what it has to offer as most things are seasonal and you may just frustrate yourself wanting something that is not offered at the time you will be visiting that country or city. We found out the hard way because one of our pre-planned activities did not happen and it was a huge disappointment as we were really looking forward to it.
- · Pack light as you are bound to do a lot of shopping despite yourself. If you are brave enough to leave with the clothes on your back and some toiletries plus pyjamas, then you can shop for your change of clothes at your destinations. It worked quite well for two of our friends who did exactly that.
- · Remember that flying to Europe and other continents has luggage restrictions, except for some countries in the African continent and SA is not one of them, and only one bag can be checked in at no charge so long as it does not exceed the allowed weight limit. You can check an extra bag but you will have to pay for it, regardless of the other bag not weighing the maximum weight allowed. *A tip, if you happen to have more than one bag, the sum of which make up the allowed weight, get them wrapped as one prior to checking in. Alternatively, just get one huge bag and have a back pack for hand luggage.
So…. Happy travelling and remember to enjoy yourselves!
