19 September – 6 October 2018
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Hello guys! I’m back to update on my latest trip to Germany, Austria, Hungary and Greece. It was a long-awaited trip and my first time to all these places. So I’m excited to share my itinerary and just blog about it for future references!
So here it goes, I will be starting with pre-trip preparations, and each post will be on the individual cities.
Pre-trip.
We booked our air ticket with Scoot in Jan/Feb when there was an offer (with additional discounts :D) and decided to just go ahead booking the trip without any consideration. I mean, $600 odd to fly to Europe and on a direct flight? Count me in. Here’s a breakdown of the amount we spent before flying over while planning for the trip.
- Flight (SG > Berlin, Athens > SG): $680.
- Inclusive of 20kg luggage and 1 meal onboard. As it’s a budget airline, luggage weight was significant to get.
- Global Eurail Pass (bought from STA): $649 not inclusive of city trains
- We kind of miscalculated this – as we had a last minute change of plans before travelling. We could have gotten the 10 days one which is way cheaper. But oh well, it was definitely useful. We used it from Berlin > Reutlingen, Munich > Budapest > Vienna. Just note, remember to validate it and write in the travel diary!
- Flight (Budapest > Athens > Santorini): $229
- Our original route was to take the train downwards to Athens and ferry to Santorini but decided against it (which was a right decision), and thus we had another day in Budapest and easy travel to Santorini.
- Accommodations (AirBnB, 18 nights): $854.94
- Ferry (Santorini > Athens): $118
- To experience all, we took a ferry (Seajets) back to Athens from Santorini.
- Insurance (Aviva): $110
- Data/Phone: M1 Data Passport @ $50/month.
Pre-trip expenditure: $2640.94
Similarly, we budgeted €50/day for our meals and activities. This is quite a safe amount if you need to be on a budget. I changed €1,000 for the trip (and thankfully, I did not have to change SGD there.) and this is about SGD 1,599.
So with these, we were ready to fly.
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Onwards to Berlin
Our flight was at 12.25am (+8GST), and we were all prepared for a 13-hour flight on a budget airline – snacks, dramas on our phone, masks and pillows.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bn3w2rzFA9G/?taken-by=annabellezl_
For 13 hours, it was just eating, sleep, watch movies/drama and repeat.
We had quite a smooth flight and arrived Berlin TXL at around 7.20am (we were on time!) and we had to figure out how to get to our first Airbnb and how to get around. Thankfully our apartment is easily accessible by bus from the airport – so we bought the 72 hours Berlin + Potsdam ABC at about €30 each. Took the TXL (airport bus) and after a few stops, we alighted. However, with our heavy luggage, a 6mins walk became 15mins.
Thanks to Google Map, we managed to find our apartment but had to wait for the host to pass us the keys and bring us in. Thus, we were stranded outside for almost an hour.
When the apartment manager arrived, she brought us in and showed us the place. It was lovely and we were just glad to be able to put our things down and have a good shower. Our exploration started after lunch.
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With this, I’ll end the prelude. For each place, I’ll have a new post, so stay tuned!
#BellexTravel 