Traveling Reflections

I had every intention of blogging regularly while I was in Portugal, but my busy schedule, and the fact that blogger locked me out of my account because I was signing in from an unusual location, thwarted my attempts. Rather than do a recap of each day (which I may choose to do at a later time), I thought I'd share some of my overall reflections from my time in Portugal. Here they are, in no particular order of importance:

Traveling alone is such an invigorating and empowering experience. Absolute freedom.

The grass is almost always greener on the other side. In Portugal, the buildings were more beautiful, the weather was better, the people were friendlier, the sky was bluer, and the alcohol was cheaper.

It is possible to live primarily on bread and puff pastries for 8 days. 

The affinity for white converses is universal. 

There are so many attractive, well-dressed men in Portugal. So many. 

It is possible to spend two full days with a total stranger and to thoroughly enjoy yourself. At the end of the two days, they no longer seem strange.

Being practically mono-linguistic is embarrassing, especially when nearly every other traveler I met was fluent in at least 3-4 languages.  I walked away inspired to learn.

Many Europeans know more about American history than Americans do.

Canadians are just as loud and obnoxious as Americans when they travel, especially when they’re drunk. 

When in doubt, eat what the locals do. 

It’s great to have an itinerary, but it’s even better to do things on the fly. Some of my best traveling memories were a result of me stumbling across something or meeting someone that I never could have planned for.

Averaging 4 hours of sleep every night is not sustainable. Drinking espressos intermittently throughout the day is an excellent counter balance. For the Portuguese, espressos are not a delicacy. They are a way of life. 

How to Spend 6 Days in Scandinavia for $200

I recently returned from a trip to Scandinavia, where I spent three days in Stockholm and three days in Copenhagen, all for only $200. You may be asking yourself how this is possible, since Scandinavian countries are the most expensive in the world, and you can't even spend that little visiting a city here in the US. Well, I'm here to tell you that it IS possible, and that I had a fabulous time on a dime. I'll break it down according to my costs:

Lodging
This is where I saved the most money. In fact, my lodging was free. FREE! I found this amazing website called globalfreeloaders.com, which is basically a network of people all over the world who open up their home to travelers. It's free to sign up, and all you have to do is type in the city you're visiting and then dates you'll be there, and a list of people in that city who are on the network pops up. There's a description for each member, and you basically choose who you'd like to stay with and email them to ask if they'd be willing to host you. So, I found a host for both Stockholm and Copenhagen, which ended up being a good cultural experience.

Transportation
In both Stockholm and Copenhagen, I bought 72 hour transportation cards, which basically gets you on any train, bus or metro in the city for free. I paid about $30 each, but it's way cheaper to do it this way than to pay for each individual train/bus ride you take. I suppose if you stay in the middle of downtown, you wouldn't necessarily need to take transportation at all (except to the airport). But I thought they were great to have. As a side note, the public transportation systems in Sweden and Denmark are fantastic (as they are throughout the majority of western Europe). As a second side note, bikes are SUPER popular in both cities, so you might want to rent one. They're actually free in Copenhagen. All you do is leave a small deposit, which you get back when you return the bike.

Food
Food and drinks are fairly expensive in Scandinavia. Most things there are at least double the price you would pay here in the States. You're going to spend at least $25-$30 for a sit down meal, and much more than that at the nicer restaurants. It's definitely possible to find affordable places to eat, but they are few and far between. For this reason, I didn't eat out. I brought granola bars and beef jerkey with me from home, which were great snacks for my travels. In both cities, I went to the grocery store and bough bread, cheese (the cheese there is delicious!) and pears. Between all of those things, I was good to go. If you're into fine dining, then you wouldn't want to take this approach, but I wasn't there for the food, so it worked out fine for me. The tap water there is super safe to drink, so I just filled up my water bottle different places I visited. I broke down and purchased a banana nutella crepe in Copenhagen, which ended up being a marvelous idea. I probably spent about $20 for food in both cities.

Entertainment/Tourism
My ideas of sightseeing is walking around and seeing the sights (makes sense, right?). So I did A LOT of walking. I would estimate about 8-9 hours of walking each day. Of course there were intervals of short breaks, but I was constantly on the go. The great thing about walking is that it's free, and it allows you to see things that you would most likely miss if you relied solely on public transportation to get around. There were tons of fabulous things to see- great architecture, beautiful parks, amazing sunsets... All of these things were free. However, I did allocate some spending money for visiting select places. In Stockholm, I paid to take a tour of City Hall and to climb the tower at City Hall, which offers a breathtaking view of the city. I also paid to take a tour of both palaces-the one where the King works and the one where the royal family lives. All three of these were TOTALLY worth paying to see. I think the three of those cost me between $30-$40. In Copenhagen, I paid to visit the old castle, which was pretty small but also totally worth seeing. The royal jewels were available for viewing as part of the tour. I also paid to climb a church tower for a view of the city. I think I spent about $20 between those two. I still have my student ID from college, and I put it to good use. The prices I paid were all student prices. Had I paid normal admission, it would have been at least twice the cost. A little dishonest? Yes. But, I figured if I still look young enough to pass as a college student, great. Plus, I'm fairly sure that neither Sweden nor Denmark are in need of my money.

Souvenirs
I bought a few magnets and some post cards to send home to the family, but that's it. I think of the hundreds of pictures that I took as souvenirs, so I really didn't feel the need to purchase t-shirts or small figurines. I think I spent about $15 in total.

So, if you add up all of those costs (give or take a few bucks), I ended up spending around $200 for six days of sightseeing. I must say, I'm quite impressed with myself. Granted, not everyone would enjoy the kind of traveling that I do, but it works for me. I had a fabulous time, and highly recommend both cities to everyone!