Travel Log #4: Traveling International!

Hiya folks, this will be a shorter blog as I write this during midterms week and I am in the midst of studying for all of my classes. One thing about classes in Italy is that the classes themselves are nice because there is very little homework and they are only once a week, but the con to little homework is that the tests are worth a high percentage of your grade. So although it is nice for most of the semester, when it is time to study, you should study.

In this installment, I made my first international trip of this study abroad experience! And it most definitely will not be the last!

Switzerland!

Switzerland was really fun! But it was also pretty expensive. The part of Switzerland we went to was called Interlaken, which means 'between lakes' because it is between lake Brienz and lake Thun. Interlaken is also a valley city so it is surrounded by mountains, making it an ideal place to stay if you are hoping to make a skiing trip while you are there. Between the snow covered mountains and the picture perfect blue lakes, it is really an amazing place to be to enjoy nature.

Coming into study abroad, I didn't really have a list of places that I wanted to go see, so when our friends brought up Switzerland and snowboarding, I was excited to go along for my first journey outside Italy! I think having an open mind and being open to all the great places in Europe is the best way to travel because then it allows you to experience all new experiences that you never imagined having and also allows you to save money by finding the cheaper places to go.

Planning

In planning to travel, the two most important things to make sure are covered are your housing and your transportation.

Transportation

Depending on where you are going, if there is an airport nearby, then looking at Ryan Air for the cheapest deals during an open weekend has been super helpful to keep the transportation costs cheap. Ryan Air tickets can be as low as $20 round trip within Europe, which is great for the college student budget.

When going to Switzerland, there was no airport near Interlaken, and so instead the other options were bus and train. For us, we opted to pay a little bit more for a quicker trip that was more comfortable on the train. Since it was a further distance, we utilized the Eurail pass.

This is a pass that allows you to pay a set price for unlimited travel on a set number of days. We purchased the 4 day pass which allows us 4 days of unlimited travel within a month for the set price of about $200. Unfortunately we did not realize that you have to book seat reservations for each long train, so with 4 long trains total with a seat reservation cost of around $12 each, the total came out to $150 for the 2 days of travel and we still have the pass to be used for 2 future days of travel. If we were to have booked the train tickets without this pass, it would have been around $300 round trip.

Accomodation

When it came to finding a place to stay, Airbnb and aggregate hotel sites like booking.com helped us to find the best deal. Comparing and contrasting between sites has worked the best for me. Hostels in Europe have a relatively good reputation, and so this can be another way to keep costs reasonable while traveling.

Cost

We were in Switzerland for Friday afternoon, Saturday, and Sunday morning. In total for the 2 night stay, we spent about $550. The most expensive thing that we did on the trip was snowboarding which in total cost about $200. The transportation was $150 on the train, and the hotel room was another $120. The rest was spent on miscellaneous attractions or food.

To help to save costs we did not eat out at all during our stay and cooked every day of the stay. I made sure to get a room that had a kitchen because Switzerland is very expensive for eating out, where each meal is around $30 each.

Switzerland is an exceptionally expensive place, and the snowboarding made this trip cost a lot more than it had to. But it was a fun experience that I am glad I did! In comparison, by traveling looking at pricing and choosing the cheapest options, over spring break we are traveling to Greece and Spain for 4 days each for only $300 per country.

I hope this process has been helpful to see and can help to guide your travels!

Mandatory Foods I Have Been Eating Update

Finally, I have the foods that I have been eating to share! There is nothing better than some good food. Here's a look at what our meals have been like.