The East!

Now Tim has really hit a nail here and a good one at that. None of us have really explored the Eastern countries as much as we have the West. I went to France, Spain and Portugal, Tim has not. Tim went to England and Ireland, I have not. To some degree, it seems like backtracking for one or even both of us. Also costs are extremely high in this past year. Although exchange rates may continue to improve as they have in the past few months, they also have the propensity to get worse.

What better way to spend your months abroad than by living like a king at a pauper's pay? If we attempt to travel on certain proposed budgets, the amount of eating authentic foods and drinking authentic drinks will be minimal. Some in the group have real jobs and have the money to have expensive and elaborate fun in the West but even they want to save money! The best way to attract the greatest group is to have an elaborate trip but with a minimalist budget. In some of the Eastern countries we would be able to eat in the restaurants and pubs for as cheep as buying cheese and crackers in France from the grocer!

The East is littered with beautiful architecture, culture, music, beer, and women! (I know, beer isn't beautiful). One of my best trips was to Budapest in which we spent several hours trying to find a hostel! Never trust the maps in that city by the way. At least not the ones on the hostel websites. Traveling by taxi is even possible for very cheap in these countries. Taxis give you a great range and availability of travel that public transit doesn't always offer.

Eurail offers individual country or select passes that will encompass many of these countries. Like Slovenia is only 32 Euro for a 3 day (in a month) pass! A bit more research into the actual costs is certainly necessary but I can imagine going to Eastern Europe at about half the cost. Also for the collector, there are many more currencies to nab on your travels in Eastern Europe than in the West.

There is certainly something to be thought about here because it would be extremely wonderful to be able to drink good beer every night in a local restaurant and see every site and not just the free sites like churches.

Pluses: Cheap, Fun, Beer, Women are way hotter than in France!

Cons: Language will be difficult because not everyone speaks English (although France knows it but refuses to speak it anyway), it might present a few more dangerous cities in comparison to the West (By dangerous I mean more than pickpockets since all big cities employ pickpockets just for the tourists' entertainment!). And finally you won't be able to say "I saw the top of Eiffel Tower" but instead you will say "I went to the top of the Ostankino tower!" and then have to go and explain that it is in fact the second tallest tower and is located in Moscow.

A little side note, Russia would probably not be all that cheap, especially Moscow but still cheaper than Paris and the Eiffel tower is only number 26 on the tallest towers list.

Update by Tim: I wasn't actually thinking about all the advantages you mentioned when I wrote about going to Romania, but these definitely are good reasons. We can easily extend our trip for very cheap by traveling in Eastern Europe. For example, a 6-day select pass for the countries of Montenegro, Serbia, and Bulgaria would cost us about $350. We can easily go for an extra 2-3 weeks on this pass, and we'd be able to see more cultures and places that few European travelers get to see. As you said, there would be some disadvantages, most notably crime and corruption. I wouldn't be worried about my losing my life in these countries, but I would be worried about corrupt police cheating money out of us, "rich" Americans. All concerns set aside, take a look at pictures of some places we can see in these countries.




















Of course, these 3 countries is just a random sample of the Eastern European countries we can see for cheap. There are several others to choose from. I'd also like to suggest spending a little time on the Scandinavian Peninsula. If we really wanted to see Russia, the cheapest way is to go to Vyborg, which is right by the border of Finland, as there is no Eurail pass available for Russia. This actually might not be a bad idea, as Vyborg looks like it would be a nice city to see. We can also consider going to St. Petersburg, which isn't very far from Vyborg. Before going to Russia we'd need to get travel visas. This actually isn't too big of a problem. We just need to fill out a simple application in advance.