Backpacking through Eastern Europe

So I'm heading off on my OE at the end of August. I'm backpacking with 2 girlfriends through Eastern Europe before I head to London.

We are going to Hong Kong, Greece (Athens and Greek Islands), catching the ferry up to Croatia and then using trains mainly to get to Slovenia, Budapest, Poland (Warsaw and Krakow), Prague, Vienna, Venice and Berlin.

Does anyone have any tips or great hostels to stay in. We are doing it as cheaply as possible.

Thanks!

Usually just look up hostelworld.com and find the highest rated ones. Croatia, you're better off going for apartments (especially on the islands)... they're pretty cheap, and you can get 2-3 people per room.

Awww your gonna have a blast!!!!!!

Becareful of Budapest. A high unemployment rate means the locals target the tourists. A group of us got done last year.
Fortunatly we held the person responsible hostage for ripping us off and then handed them over to the police.

Croatia is beautiful, though dont go swimming without protective footwear.
Standing on a sea erchant isnt pleasant!

Fun times to bed had in Eastern Europe

Czech Republic and Austria

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=scx1gz5.1d0pvgz9&x=0&y=n97vvq


Slovenia and Italy

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=scx1gz5.akr2qdhp&x=0&y=-n15iyb
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Croatia, Hungary and Poland

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=scx1gz5.7h1w9hrp&x=0&y=way2x

Croatia, Hungary & Poland

Arrived in Dubrovnik Croatia from Italy and found a campsite a short ride
from everthing which was good. One problem of travelling in a campervan is
that camp sites arent always close to the town. Dubrovnik was just so
beautiful and the old town was surrounded by these massive walls making it
seem like a fortress which is was not so long ago. Walked round the top of
the city walls which was exceptionally beautiful but our timing wasn't the
best at 1pm when it was simply scorching! We went on a boat cruise round
the local Islands and the water was turqiose, clear and so warm. Pity the
boat was more like a ferry than an actual sail boat. After a couple days of
lazing in warm water we headed to Omis further up the coast. Now, I really
enjoy driving and this coast was just made to be driven on. The whole way
you had the sea on one side and mountains on the other. It really was a
fantastic way to see the country as we travelled. In Omis we went rafting
...I wouldnt call it white water rafting and everybodies nana could probably
handle it without too many problems but it was very pretty and Hisa (who
hadn't rafted before) didn't drown and enjoyed it. Great thing was that all
the 'tourists' rafting were actually from Croatia and they were pretty
pleased to have us along ....although they did splash a lot of water on us
when given the chance!

The drive from Croatia to Hungary was pretty bad by any standards. The
motorway had been closed and instead they had a one lane scoria rock road
for about 100km ....that takes a long time to drive on a tiny rocky road. I
have no ideas how trucks got past but luckily we didnt see any.

Got to Lake Balaton in Hungary and decided to bike round it. After a few
hours we asked a travel agent how long it would take to get round. They told
me about 3 days! It didn't look THAT big on my map. Good bit of exercise
anyway. Lake Balaton didn't really offer much more than a lot of good biking
tracks as the lack was really silty and not at all clear. On the upside food
prices dropped a lot from Croatia. The food by the lake was terrible (but
really cheap) but the restaurant food was great and still a lot cheaper than
anywhere else we had been. Got to Budapest and went out a city tour in a
topless bus. Great way to see the city but it was over a bit quickly in 3
hours. So we saw everything for abotu 10 minutes each. Went wlking round
after though and had a better loook at things. Budapest was a real
interesting place but our campsite was a real hike from the city centre and
one night it took us 2 hours to get back as one of the train lines was down.
Highlight of Budapest was going to some thermal baths. The place was
absolutely huge and there were about 4 outdoor pools, 10 indoor ones and 6
saunas. And the cost? About $15NZ for a whole day. Pity I didn't bring my
camera as we saw these old guys playing chess in the pools - classic
Budapest photo shot! Chess just seems to be a loved game in a lot of
countries we are travelling to.

Its amazing being in Europe and being able to cross countries driving within
such a short time. After Hungary we drove through Slovakia to Poland and it
all took about 4 hours. 3 countries in 4 hours! Stopped in Zakopane which
was such a nice town but crammed full of tourists. Good thing was none of
the tourist spoke Engliah. Seemed that a lot were there from Slovakia and
different areas in Poland. Walked up the local mountain which just about
killed Hisa but the view at the top was worth it. The town was great and I
can imagine it would be the place to go in winter. Poland and Hungary
especially have been such good value food and accomadation wise. You can go
to a restaurant, eat a delicious meal, drink a few beers and the cost for 2
people will be round $30NZ. How can you beat that?!! Drove from Zakopane to
Kratow which had come highly reccomended over Warsaw by a few people I had
talked to in Hungary and Zakopane. Kratow was such a great pick. It was set
up a lot like Prague and Salzburg with the big town square and everthing
walkable from there. We couldnt find any campsites close to town so for the
first time in Europe we coughed up enough money to stay in a hotel .... this
wasnt so cheap at all and was about the same rate as you'd pay in NZ. But
being a quick walk from town made it more than worth while.

Spent one day out at Auschwitz, place of the biggest genocide in human
history during WWII. It's hard to decribe it. The immense size was something
that blew me away. Seeing 40,000 pairs of shoes and 7 tonnes of human hair
if a pile really hits it home. It was emotionally a draining place to visit
but I am so glad I did. Even the area that the gas chambers and crematoriums
took up was simply huge. Just to walked from one end of Birkenau (where the
gas chambers are) to the other took like 20 minutes. And everything was so
well documented and set up to really take you back to what happened. For the
most part everything was perfectly preserved except the gas champers,
crematoriums and prison blocks which were detroyed by the Nazi's.

That's about all we have been up. Going to leave Kratow tomorrow and head to
Holland to meet some friends. After that it'll be about time to headback to
Germany and return out trust campervan. No problems so far and hopefully
that won't change in the next two weeks!!

Bye!!

Slovenia

Slovenia turned out to be such a great place and probably my pick for the most relaxing and beautiful place we have been so far. We only intended to stay for a day on the way through to Italy but stayed for 5 days after we just fell in love with it. Its not a place I would of ever thought of travelling to but I thought it was simply fantastic. Definately worth a look if you are ever near there in like Austria (Peter!!) or Italy.

We stayed at a nice campground beside Lake Bled and after renting bikes and cycling round the lake decided to buy a couple SCOTT bikes for about $100 each. No suspension but they are in definate good nick and will see us through our travels. Lake Bled was this crystal clear green lake where you could literally see all the fish swimming round 6ft below the surface. It had this church in the middle too on an Island and if you rowed out there and rung the bell your wish would be granted .... so obviously this bell was ringing non stop all day! We saw a traditional Slovenian dance group at our campsite and I got to dine on some fantastic trout caught from the lake. Had such a good time there.

Czech Republic

Morning saw us head into Prague and set up camp in a campsite. Prague turned out to be a beautiful, historic city abound with castles and architecture that were all there well before white people even set foot in New Zealand. We went to a Vivaldi Four Seasons classical concert and although I have absolutely no attraction to classical music normally it was really good. An hour passed in what seemed like 10 minutes although I appeared to be a little underdressed in my hoody, shorts and baseball cap! Had a look round the prague castle which was built in the 11th century and did a lot of walking round just having a good gander at everything.

After a great 2 days of exploring we were just having a last look at a market only to find our campervan burgurled when we returned. OK, it wasnt a bright move parking it outside a market but the theives must of got in and out real quick. And what did they steal? Hisas underpants (like all of them!), her shampoo, my camera charger, CDs and the car stereo face. So nothing that bad but things which are a pain in the arse to lose. Not such a big deal and insurance is onto it so I was never overly stressed about it and figureed that was al our bad luck out of the way. And Hisa got to buy new underwear which all women love I'm sure!!

Left Prague and headed to Cesky Kumlov in Southern C.Republic. This place is just great and somewhere worth going. Smaller version of Prague and just as much old stuff and good food to keep you entertained. The weather finally picked up (must of been below 10c in Prague at times) and we really began to relax into our holiday and kick back.

If those photo links don't work try this one:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=scx1gz5.a9cazou5&x=0&y=-ko7p9j


Don't bother logging in, just click on the link then the photo

If you've got Europe on a Shoe String that should see you right for finding cheap accomodation ....

Thanks Itchy...that's great