Things learned over three weeks backpacking Europe:
- Supermarkets. Tesco, Lidl, Aldi: all you need in life. Rainbow toe socks, mushy peas, Polish vodka liqueur, chocolate-coated brazil nuts, ready-to-eat-grubs (yes, really). And for mere cents! Cream crackers from Tesco: 26c. Bag of hand-picked baby spinach leaves: 76c. 500ml Smirnoff: 8 euro. YEAH.
- If you leave your mobile phone charger + adapter plugged into the wall after charing your phone, expect to find it charging someone else’s phone when you return.
- If you leave your food in your allocated shelf space without securing it in duct tape/plastic bags/electronic monitoring, expect to find someone else eating it when you return.
- Couchsurfing is not for everyone. Not, particularly, if you like clean sheets and privacy.
- Black Forest cherry porter, 6.2%. Enough said.
- People-watching can fill hours. Days. A week.
- If Croations start cooking a pork roast in the hostel kitchen at 2pm whilst knocking back litre bottles of cider, leave.
- Fruit scones are wonderful.
- Gluhwein is wonderful.
- The euro is not the dollar.
- Backpackers are not, generally speaking, runners.
- Sane human beings at 730am in mid-winter Europe are not, generally speaking, runners.
- If it’s in the Lonely Planet, it’s a) expensive b) crowded c) lame
- Hostel lounges are no longer a domain for meeting, greeting and hanging out with people from all over the world. They are for wifi zones.
a woman wanders 