Mini-Retirement Update: Germany, Poland, France and October Finances

Continued Adventures in Europe

The month of October involved quite a lot of moving around, so it’s taken awhile for me to get around to writing this post. Traveling Europe has been a lot less relaxing than Asia, since it’s so expensive that we can’t stay in one location for too long, and there’s so much to see but only so much money in the budget!

October was spent in three different countries: Germany, Poland and France, and I was luckily able to jam so many experiences into this “short” amount of time. I left off the last mini-retirement update at Oktoberfest in Munich, and at the beginning of October, I found myself in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, a small resort town about an hour south of Munich. We spent a few days just enjoying the mountains and doing some hiking, even getting to glimpse the first snowfall of the season. After Garmisch, we took a bus to Nuremberg, famous city a few hours north of Munich, still in the Bavaria region of Germany. Here we enjoyed a few days in a great AirBnb, which we shared with our local host that offered some great comforts of home. We spent the days wandering the streets, soaking up the history of WWII and eating as much Bavarian food as possible!

 

One of my favorite sections of the Berlin wall at the East Side Gallery. Then the 3 of us enjoying some German beers while at a concert in the park.

 

After Nuremberg, we took a Flixbus (highly recommend as a budget option for getting around Europe) to Berlin where we stayed for 6 days with a great friend of ours from Sydney. Berlin is a great city for music, culture and history, but don’t expect too many historic buildings and sites compared to other European cities since most of the city was destroyed during WWII. It was great to stay with a friend and get a taste of Berlin from a local’s perspective, as it’s a city that is still changing and evolving from its dark past.

 

The view at the top of my hike of Mt. Giewont near Zakopane, and our table of local Polish cuisine ($8 for the whole meal!)

 

From Berlin, we flew Ryan Air (definitely do not recommend flying this airline, but it is so damn cheap it’s hard to avoid it) to Krakow, Poland. I can honestly say that Krakow is one of the most underrated tourist destinations in Europe, both due to how unspoiled it is by tourism and how cheap it is to visit. The old part of the city is beautiful and relatively unscathed by the world wars, and there is so much to see and do. And if you don’t have much experience with Polish food, you need to go and experience it for yourself. There’s more to Polish cuisine than pierogis and vodka! And just 2 hours south of Krakow is the resort town of Zakopane, which is similar to Garmisch in that it’s a great ski and hiking town, but at a fraction of the price of Germany. Meals could be had for $4-5 and our accommodation only cost $30/night. We spent a few days there as well, and it was a highlight of our trip, as we were able to do some incredible hiking among the Tatra mountains and glacier lakes.

 

Walking around the American D-Day cemetary. Unbelievable how many graves there are and a reminder of the terrors of war.

 

The beautiful seaside castle of Mont-Saint-Michel in Normandy

 

After returning to Krakow, we flew to Paris via an easy 2-hour flight where we were set to meet my mom and spend two weeks traveling around Normandy and Paris. It was great to have a familiar face join us in our travels and remind us that we are going to be returning home so soon. We spent the first week of our trip driving around Normandy, which is famous for the WWII historic sites, medieval castles and unbelievably great seafood. We stayed overnight in three different towns, which allowed us to see much of the area. First, we stayed in Bayeux which is close to where the famous D-Day landings took place. Next, we stayed in the small town of Fecamp, which is a small, coastal town famous for the beaches, cliff walks and seafood. Lastly, we stayed in the small town of Les Andelys which has a large medieval castle that was for a long time a stronghold against English invasions of France.

 

The famous hot chocolate and macaroon from Angelina in Paris

 

Visiting a few of the popular tourist destinations, the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre, respectively.

 

After Normandy, we returned to Paris where we spent 6 days enjoying the Parisian lifestyle and had an apartment that was only a short walk from the Eiffel Tower. We kept our days simple by going on long walks, enjoying great food and seeing a few sites if we had the time. All three of us had been to Paris before, so we focused on just relaxing and enjoying the culture, rather than trying to see a bunch of sites that we’ve already been to.

At the end of the time in Paris, we were taking a bus to Belgium and my mom was headed home. With only two weeks left of our mini-retirement travels, we were starting to feel that our travels were coming to an end!

But now onto the money part…

 

October Finances

 

 

October Expenses: AUD$3,481, USD$2,506

This was a pretty great month from a financial standpoint, and I was way under my AUD$4,000/month budget. Accommodation costs were low because we got a very cheap apartment in Berlin while staying with a friend, Poland was just very budget-friendly by European standards and then my mom helped out with the costs of accommodation in France. Accommodation being the biggest cost while traveling Europe, this was the biggest reason for the savings this month.

We also did a lot of cooking in the apartments we stayed in, which allowed us to keep food costs down. The food and produce is so great in Europe that you can by so much fresh food daily, so it really doesn’t make sense to spend a lot of time in restaurants. Local farmers’ markets were our favorite stops whenever we were in a new city.

 

The farmers’ market in Paris we visited many times!

 

Flights, trains, buses and taxis as always add a nice chunk of expenses, however, we did our best to keep them under control. We took Ryan Air from Berlin to Krakow, which was only $50/each and Easy Jet from Krakow to Paris ($100/each). Overall, I was very proud of our spending for this month as it made up for a bit of an overrun in September.

Here’s a quick summary of the 5 months of travel expenses:

 

Last 5 months: AUD$17,936, USD$13,093 out of a AUD$25k/USD$20k budget for total mini-retirement (aka when I start working again)

 

This leaves a good chunk of change for my last 2 weeks of travel and also for money to get me through to when I start working again.

 

The Final Days of Travel and What’s Next

Now that we’re in the final few weeks of travel, the feeling of nervousness and also excitement is starting to set in. Though I love to travel and experience everything that this world has to offer, I’m also looking forward to going home and spending the holidays with friends and family. Also, life on the road can take its toll. It’s exhausting moving from place to place every few days or weeks, and I’m really looking forward to settling into one place for awhile. I’ve now come down with some sort of illness for the third time in 5 months, so it’s likely that travel is pretty hard on our bodies.

So during the first half of November, I’ll be spending about 1 week in Belgium and 10 days in London, just in time to get back to Chicago for Thanksgiving.

Until then, time to keep enjoying the ride!

 

NYPFGuy