Statistics

One of the most frequently asked questions when I come back from my long summer travels is:  

"How can you even afford this?"

Let me be clear: Without my parents covering pretty much all of my living expenses here in Vienna, I probably wouldn't be able to travel at all. So thanks to my parents (and grandparents) :) But this way, and by working a little bit, I can save some money every month.

Apart from that, I just don't spend so much money. As you will see below, accommodation still makes up 26% of my spendings; one can only imagine how high that number would be if I hadn't couchsurfed more than half of the time. The other category that would be either on second or even first place is transportation; apart from two long distance busses and urban transportation, I hitchhiked all the way from Tallinn to Istanbul, so that saved me a LOT of money as well. Also, I don't go on shopping sprees when travelling and don't buy a lot of souvenirs (who will carry that shit?), I don't smoke, and, most recently, I don't drink (see the illustration below). I generally don't do expensive day-tours, don't visit many museums (actually it's usually one in each city: the Jewish one), and don't eat in expensive restaurants.

Now that sounds like a lot of "don't"s instead of "do"s, but that doesn't mean that I don't do anything. Most of my days consist of walking, walking, and more walking. And I like it! Most of the time ;)

First I just wanted to see how much money I had spent in each country. Obviously, this isn't really representative, because in some countries I only spent 3 days, while I travelled others for more than a week. Bulgaria is especially misleading: I got a tattoo there for 45€, so that's an impressive half of the total amount that I left there.

The next graphic is more interesting. I differentiated my spendings in six different categories: Readymades (which means everything consumed while sitting somewhere or things you can buy "to go"), Groceries (which is food and drinks), Transport (which includes both long distance and urban transport), Fees & Tours (which means entrance fees, money I paid for free walking tours, and other charges like for toilets), Souvenirs (to which I counted the tattoo as well ;)), and Accommodation.

Unfortunately I don't have any numbers to compare, but I'm sure that on this trip I ate out (="readymades") way more often than on any other trips before. Especially in the Balkans, eating in restaurants sometimes seemed even cheaper than making an effort and go to the supermarket and prepare my own meals. But apart from that I think I learned to enjoy spending money on another nice cup of coffee and dishes I have never heard of before.

The next graphic shows the amount of money I spent per day in each country - a far more representative image. While I spent the most in total numbers (almost 200 €) in Poland, my daily budget there was actually only about 14,50 €. The most expensive was Croatia, with around 26,80 € daily, followed by Bulgaria, which is again not really accurate, because as stated I got a tattoo for 45,- € there - without it, Bulgaria would range at 13,87 € daily. So the real second place goes to Estonia, with 23,44 € daily, closely followed by Lithuania, where I spent 23,19 € a day. Kosovo is the cheapest, with 5,50 € per day - but I have to admit that I only stayed one and a half days there, brought some food from Macedonia, and was invited for dinner :)

This graphic mainly shows you that I spent an average of 11,79 € for a night (I divided the total amount with 22, the number of nights I actually stayed in a hostel/pension). Also, I lived with around 7 € per day for food, with two thirds going into readymades.

To make things even more specific, I wanted to examine how much money I spent on groceries compared to readymades in each country. Croatia again turned out to be on the first place (5,77 € per day) - here the four days I spent with my two friends mostly cooking for ourselves clearly show. Germany comes on second place here (3,34 € daily), which kind of surprised me at first, but a second glance showed that I sponsored the ingredients for 16 delicious pizzas, completely homemade by my friend and host Gal in Berlin. Afterwards come Estonia (3,04 €), Latvia (2,91 €) and Montenegro (2,60 €), which also felt expensive. Turkey was the cheapest, with a glorious 10 Eurocents per day - but that is because I stayed with my friend Mirjam and she and her husband insisted on paying for everything.

The following graphic shows quite a different picture, but again needs some explanation. Estonia comes on first place with 10,07 € per day; prices are just like in Germany or Austria. Bulgaria (9,67 €) again comes on second place, this time because I just LOVED the food and atmosphere there, so I didn't cook myself at all during my stays in Sofia and Plovdiv. It's followed by Lithuania (7,52 €), where I don't remember eating out a lot, but the Western prices show here again. Poland is on fourth place, with a daily spending of 7,02 €, which is  probably due to my aspirations to find the best Pierogi in all Poland ;) Expensive Montenegro comes last here, with 49 cents a day, because I spent my days in bed, not eating anything at all.

Last but not least: the thing about alcohol. 

I had been thinking about quitting for various reasons for quite some time already, and decided that this trip would be a good chance to try. Except from my first evening, on which my host almost forced me to buy one of the microbrewed local beers, which I didn't even finish, I didn't have a drop of alcohol during the whole trip. And it felt good. At no point I missed getting drunk and lost on the way back to the hostel, or losing my voice from all the shouting against the loud music. Surprisingly, after very few days, I also didn't feel like having beer with lunch or dinner anymore, like I used to. Obviously I was offered homemade Rakiya on various occasions, and sometimes people got upset when I refused, but it got easier every time.

What I did instead was writedown every single time I had the chance to drink, or would've had something to drink in earlier days (be it beer, wine or spirits). To make it easier, I recalculated everything as if it was just beers, and came to the conclusion that I saved my mind and body from 89 bottles - or more than 40 liters! - of beer. 

Talking about money: Just roughly calculated, this decision also saved me between 180 € and 220 € :)

Hitchhiking XIX (Edirne - Istanbul)

After a very short but very "productive" day in beautiful Edirne I followed my bad feeling about my Couchsurfing host and decided to take a bus to Istanbul. One reason was that the highway was quite far away and definitely not reachable by foot, but I guess I was just being lazy about this very last distance I had to cover. Plus: once in Istanbul, I would probably be totally lost in spite of my beloved offline map.

So I got a free (!) bus from the center of Edirne to the central bus station, which turned out not to be "central" at all, but just at the beginning of the highway! So in no time I changed plans again, passed the bus I was supposed to get, and walked towards the highway. YOLO.

A closer look to the map revealed that this was not the actual highway yet, but a road leading to the highway for around 3 kilometers. I started walking, occasionally turning around when cars were approaching. 

A truck stopped after no time, but was going back to Bulgaria. I still hopped in because he would drive until the junction anyway - sweet luxury. 

After I had passed the toll stations, I didn't even put my bags down, confident that someone would stop very soon. 10 minutes later a car with a Bulgarian license plate stopped, but Memo was originally from a village around Istanbul and had worked and lived in Vorarlberg for more than 30 years. He ended up inviting me to his home in said village, where I met his wife and daughter, and talked to his 22-years-old son on the phone while having coffee. 

Then his daughter brought me to a bus stop nearby, honking at the bus - which then actually stayed and waited for me! I then drove through the westernmost suburbs of Istanbul for more than an hour, until boarding the metro and finally arriving at my friend Mirjam's place.

And this is the end of the hitchhiking for this trip - can you believe it?

Edirne

As you know I had a difficult start with Edirne, because I spent the whole afternoon waiting for my Couchsurfing host. 

On the next day, I got up really early, because I didn't want to take the risk of the guy coming with me to see the city.

The internet said that Edirne's synagogue is in ruins and cannot be entered, but I went to see it anyway. You cannot imagine my joy when I discovered that it had been fully renovated in the year before!

Very happy about this great start of the day, I went on to see the various magnificent mosques of Edirne, which was the capital of the Byzantine Empire before Istanbul.

In one of the markets I got a basket with scented, fruit-shaped soap - supposedly a typical product of the Edirne region - as a present for my friends in Istanbul.

Because it was still really early, I decided to go to Karaagaç, which is still part of the city but is located about 4 km on the other side of one of the rivers that run around it. I crossed two old bridges on foot and then successfully hitchhiked the rest of the way. 

Karaagaç was a lovely place with lots of cafés, few cars, and an old train station that is now a university. I also visited the oldest mosque of Edirne, which also turned out to be the simplest.

Then I hitchhiked back into town, had a dessert called Peynir Tatlīsī, and took a free bus to the main bus station, which turned out to be just next to the highway..

Hitchhiking XVIII (Plovdiv - Edirne)

Thanks to hitchwiki I didn't have to research a lot on which bus to take, and thanks to my lovely host Vladi I didn't have to worry about looking for the station, because he brought me there :)

From the stop I walked about 2 kilometers until I reached a gas station. There was no cars, so I just stood on the road. 

After 10 minutes, Peter offered to drive me to Parvomay, but ended up driving me double the distance until Haskovo. He spoke a decent English and used it mainly to warn me about "the gypsies", who supposedly are a "big problem" in Bulgaria, because they don't work but get social benefits from the state. When asked if Bulgaria would be better off without the gypsies, he said no - maybe they're not such a big problem then after all? He also warned me about the Albanians, the Bosnians, and Bulgarians with mustaches (Turkish!), because "they will all want to make sex" with me. Oh really? Thanks for the advice. 

In the end he asked if I wanted to have sex with him. I laughed, thinking it was a joke. Turned out it wasn't - but he didn't even have a mustache?!?! ;) I didn't try to explain his own hypocrisy, considering that we were almost in Haskovo, and just silently shook my head. Someone understand those men.

From Haskovo there was two direct
roads leading to the border: a road that has been in use as a trade route since Roman times, and a newly built highway. Peter had told me that no one really uses the highway yet (whaaaat?), so I stayed on the old road.

After 2 minutes, a truck slowed down. I asked the driver if he was going to Edirne, he said something I didn't understand, but with "Turkiye" in it, I tried to explain something with my hands, he didn't understand. I waved him to move on.

When he drove off and I was alone again, I tried to understand my logic. I had just declined a ride all the way across the border, just because he probably wasn't going to the city center of Edirne (which is about 10 km further). WHY WOULD I DO THAT? I would've been there in no time. 

Probably god punished me for my stupidity: I waited for another 30 minutes until the next car stopped. Miško only went to Liubimec, around 25 km away from the border. He didn't speak English, but managed to explain that he would drive me to the highway. I said "No no!" - he drove me anyway. I didn't see a chance of explaining my point, so I just got off. There had to be some cars on that brand new highway after all!

Indeed, I hadn't even reached the actual highway when a small truck, which was about to enter, stopped. He was going to Kapitan Andreevo, the last Bulgarian settlement before the border. The highway turned into a normal street again, while trucks were already lining up for kilometer after kilometer, waiting to go through the customs. 

I got off before Kīci left the road - still 3 km to the border - and started walking. Truck drivers were having tea and smoking, curiously watching me as I passed. Two long-distance cyclists overtook me; I was determined to overtake them again before the checkpoints.

And I did: after 10 minutes of walking and only a few cars passing, Šefik, originally
from Kurdistan, slowed down to pick me up. I waved to the cyclists as we passed them, and after quite some time at the checkpoints, the first mosque came into sight. Hošgeldiniz to Turkey! :)

Šefik dropped me right in the center of the city, where I got myself some Turkish Lira and after that sat down for a (disappointing) Frappe. I was quite proud of myself, because I had arrived one hour earlier than my host would be back from Istanbul. Unfortunately his bus was half an hour late, and for reasons I still don't understand, he met with a friend after he had arrived, so I ended up waiting for another 2 hours, because he kept telling me he would arrive "soon". When we finally went to his place, he insisted on playing a stupid videogame while drinking coffee. 

I was super frustrated and annoyed of course, because I had arrived so early but still didn't see anything of the city. One of the ambivalences of Couchsurfing  - you depend on one single person, instead of having a 24/7 reception at your service ;)

Plovdiv

The very first thing it learned about Plovdiv is that it was chosen to be the European Culture Capital in 2019 - I soon would understand why.

After some cheap but tasty soups in a students' place, my CS host Vladi showed me around the whole city. Except from the fully renovated and therefore a bit artificial main pedestrian shopping street, I immediately fell in love with the city center, or more precisely the artsy part of it, called Kabata. Hipster shops and cafés everywhere! Also, there would be a street festival in the next days, so everyone was outside and preparing some extras in front of their shops or decorating the street with little flags. 

We went on to see the Old City, which is located east of the center on a small hill. People still live there, but compared to the rest of the city it was rather empty, except for the obligatory stray cats of course. There was lots of museums in old houses, for which I didn't have time and motivation though, so we just continued until we reached the peak overlooking the city. There was quite a few other hills surrounding/incorporated into the city, one of them with a very impressive monument on it - unfortunately I didn't have the time to climb them.

If you think this was it, you are totally mistaken. The by far most impressive and surprising part of Plovdiv were the remainings of ancient buildings scattered all over the city. For example, a Roman arena of 124 meters length (or so) was partly excavated where the main shopping street is today. In the ancient amphitheater nowadays operas and concerts are performed. Sounds crazy? It is!