Personal tips for exploring Europe (Part 1)

I made my first trip to Europe in 2008 when I embarked on a one year NOC internship program to Stockholm during my time in my time in NUS. As a Computer Science student, I initially applied to do my internship in Silicon Valley, but due to the high demand, I was offered a place in Stockholm instead. Although I was extremely disappointed, but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. The IT community was very vibrant in Stockholm, the Swedish people are friendly and VERY beautiful, and Europe is an awesome continent to travel. Crossing borders in Europe would bring me to a different country, with different cultures, food and architecture. As compared to America, you could be driving for hours and still end up eating burgers and fries and visiting American museums. I'm not saying America is inferior to Europe, but I was just glad that it wasn't a bad thing that I was posted to Europe  instead of America for my one year internship during my time as a student. America is definitely on my list of places to travel and I'm looking forward to an amazing road trip there someday.

Gröna Lund in Stockholm, Sweden 2008

Lausanne, Switzerland 2015

As the saying goes, all good things must come to an end, and Lausanne was the last leg of our Switzerland trip before we completed our winter holidays for 2014. We made a decision to use Lausanne as our base, from which we would travel to visit the surrounding regions: Gruyères, Montreux and Martigny.

We found a nice cosy country-side house on Airbnb. As it was located in the country-side, the roads were not very well lit, rather bumpy and the exact location wasn't easily found on the maps. To add to the challenge, we were driving at night in pitch darkness. We were literally the light shining in the darkness! After ending up in a few wrong locations, some detours and off-road driving, we completed our drive from Geneva and arrived at our country home for the next 3 nights. 

Our Airbnb host, Corinne, is a semi-retired midwife and while cooking our dinner for the night that we arrived, we got to know her and her other longer-term tenants. One of them is a midwife-in-training who's understudying Corinne. We learnt from them that it's very common to do home delivery without the need for a gynaecologist. Even when deliveries are done in a hospital, a midwife would suffice. We have always been interested in having home birth or water birth and so, it was intriguing conversation for us. Of course these situations are for low risk pregnancies.

Our country-side home and 4WD Mitsubishi 

Interlaken, Switzerland 2015

We have heard so much about Interlaken and how it is one of the most beautiful places in Switzerland, so  after our time in Zurich we decided to stay here for 2 days & explore it with the car we have rented. As with most of the accommodations, we booked a room through Airbnb & it was a very nice & cosy studio apartment connected to the main house but with our own entrance. The view outside the glass doors was that of mountains but we didn't really get to enjoy it because of the thick mist that hovered in the mornings when we were leaving the apartment.

Geneva, Switzerland 2015

When we first arrived in Switzerland, we flew in via Geneva but left immediately for Zurich for our first leg of the trip. You can read more about our Zurich section here.

Getting to the city

But for those that fly into Geneva and are going straight to the city, you can make use of the free train ride to the city.

"Since 2008, you can pick up a free ticket for public transport from the machine in the baggage collection area at the Arrival level. This Unireso ticket, offered by Genève Aéroport, allows you to use public transport in the canton of Geneva free for a period of 80 minutes."

Zurich, Switzerland 2015

Zurich was our first destination upon arriving in Switzerland. Although our flight was to arrive in Geneva, we decided to leave that city for a later part as we had a friend there but he wasn't around during the time we arrived. As per our predictable habit of traveling, we still have yet to decide on how we would travel from Geneva to Zurich when we touched down.

At a park beside Lake Zurich

Traveling to Zurich

We were considering the option of traveling by train or driving. After speaking to the staff on the ground of the various transport departments and considering the cost of the Public Trains (SBB), Swiss Travel Pass and Hertz Car Rental, we decided to rent a car for 24H, drive to Zurich and then return it there. It was actually cheaper to rent a car (including petrol, insurance, different return location charge... etc) than traveling by train. Actually for most travel within Europe, trains are generally costlier, but in some scenarios they are more convenient, timely and scenic. But in our current situation, it was more convenient with a car as it would bring us direct to our accommodation together with the 2 suitcases and 2 backpacks that we had. And since it was cheaper, it was quite a no-brainer option for us. The other considerations we had were flight fatigue, night time driving and snowy road conditions; We had just arrived from a long flight and it was actually snowing & raining.

Switzerland & France 2015

For the winter of 2014/2015, we were planning for our snowboarding trip as it's actually been a while since we last did snowboarding. I first picked up snowboarding during my one year in Stockholm while I was doing my NUS NOC internship. It was definitely a rough and late start to the sport but the beginning of a highly addictive hobby. Since then, I've snowboarded in Romme Alpin (Sweden), Sälen (Sweden), Les Gets (France), Nanshan (China) and Yongpyong (South Korea). 

Snowboarding in Les Gets, France 2009

For this trip, we were planning to go somewhere near, preferably in Asia so it wouldn't be too costly. With those considerations in mind, we decided to head back to South Korea. Over there we could find good food, nice people and decently priced places for snowboarding. But as I researched on, it didn't seem as value-for-money as compared to snowboarding in Europe. The prices of the ski-passes and snowboard rental between Korea and Europe were almost the same but the ski domain is significantly larger in Europe. We are talking about 29km of ski runs in Yongpyong and 600km of ski runs in Val Thorens!

The Val Thorens Experience

As promised, we are back with our Val Thorens (Snowboarding) Experience in this second blog post.

We were so happy that we got to stand up on the peaks & snowboard down snow-covered slopes together.

As mentioned, we had signed up for 5 days of snowboard lessons & that would be conducted by 1 instructor and a small group of us, ranging from 3-10 people, depending on how many turned up for that day. Here's how our day was like for the first 5 days with lessons:

The long awaited Snowboarding Trip

Standing at the peak of the alps with the love of my life (Val Thorens, France)

Kenneth is crazy passionate about snowboarding since he first clipped on the snowboard & went down the slopes in 2008. Since then, he has always planned (or tried to) for snowboarding trips once a year.

P-Hotels Brattøra Review (Trondheim Norway)

Considering that Norway is such an expensive country, this hotel is very value for money and is within walking distance to the city. It's conveniently located near the train station (just beside the hotel), ferry terminal and airport bus station. So this is a good location if you have an early morning flight/ferry/train to catch as you could easily make your way there from the hotel.

Simple and nice rooms with enough space to open up your luggages. The toilets were rather spacious too.

Wifi is accessible from the lobby. So request for the rooms nearer to the lobby if you want the wifi in your room. Mine was the last room, so we couldn't really access it.

Rough walking time without luggage:
Trains - 1 minute
Bus - 1 minute
Ferry - 10-15 min

Hotel entrance

(Credits: Agoda)

Hotel room

(Credits: Agoda)

Date of stay: July 2014

Address:
Fosenkaia, Trondheim, Norway

Links:
Tripadvisor listing
Agoda listing

Guesthouse Anita Review (Mljet, Croatia)

Anita and her husband were really helpful and ensured that we got everything we needed. The weren't working on site at the guest house but they arrived to greet and welcomed us when we arrived. During the times there weren't around, their neighbours acted as host and helped us resolved any issues or enquires that we had. We had the room on the ground floor and could have our meals outside while having a nice view of the ocean. You could also head down to swim. There were a few eateries within walking distance. It was a simple, nice, quaint and peaceful place. Overall we had a good stay. Would recommend this place!

Entrance to our room

View from our bedroom. That's the porch where we would have our breakfast. And that's our rented bike.

Area in front of our room

Date of stay: July 2014

Address:
Sobra 34, Mljet, Croatia 20225

Links:
Agoda listing
Tripadvisor listing

Airo Tower Hotel Review

Me and my friends had a bad experience staying at that hotel.

Although it was located quite far away from the city, having to take the train to the end of the line, then switching to a tram and travel to the end of the line again, it was rather near the tram station (3min walk).

As we arrived there in the night, we were told that 1 of the 2 rooms which we have booked and fully paid for, has been taken up and there are no other available rooms in the hotel! After the staff spent some time on the phone, they said we would be staying in a different hotel. Despite them making arrangements to call for a cab and paying for the trip to and fro, we found it extremely unprofessional as we have already made the full payments for the rooms. The staff behind the counter wasn't emphatic about our situation and even retorted that we could choose to sleep on the streets if we're still unhappy when all the necessary arrangements have been made. And after my friends went over to the nearby hotel, they only gave them 1 room with 1 small bed when there were 2 of them and the reception was closed there. They had to call us and we in turn called up our reception to get another room for them there. Though the rude staff apologized for his bad attitude, but it was an unpleasant experience staying there. The staff at the souvenir store wasn't too friendly either. He was unhappy that we touched the display glass infront of his shop that left A (ONE) fingerprint mark on it and told us not to do that.

(Credits: Agoda)

Date of stay: May 2008
Review score: 1/ 5

Address:

Kurbadstrasse 8, Vienna 1100, Austria

Links:
Tripadvisor listing
Official website
Agoda listing