I went on 3 backpacking trips through Europe in the last 17 months (99 nights in Summer 2018, 25 nights during the winter, and 100 nights in Summer 2019). I made my way through 77 towns/cities, stayed overnight in 56 of them, slept in 101 beds and walked more than 3,256 km in 225 days. This is my ambitious attempt to summarize all that into a blog post that could be helpful to others planning a trip through Europe, and highlight some of my favorite memories. From the places I had the chance to visit, I also made a bunch of Top-5 lists for different categories of things that I found interesting (see below).
About Me
I like reading a lot of history, going to historic spots, chatting up everyone at hostels, throwing shapes to electronic music and buying pints I can’t afford for strangers when I’m going out.
Places visited (map+list)
Below is a map of the spots that I went to (screenshot of my google maps). I didn’t have a sim card the whole time I was in Europe. So I would mark every spot in a city I wanted to visit when I had access to Wifi, download offline maps, and then go exploring using GPS. Some of the spots I went to (like Cinque Terre) don’t show up unless I zoomed in more so this is not exactly an exhaustive map.
I spent a lot of time (36 days) in Krakow. I was working remotely for 6 weeks this summer and needed a place that:
- I loved
- was cheap enough for me to rent out an airbnb for a month.
So Krakow was an easy pick after last summer’s adventures.
I also spent a lot of time in Stockholm because I am probably moving there at some point and wanted to get a good feel for the city. Also freaking loved the nightlife and people there, so stayed there a few weeks more than what I initially planned for.
Other than the micro-states, the only countries in Europe I didn’t go to were Norway, Switzerland, Ireland, Belarus and Ukraine. Skipped the first 2 because of how expensive they were and the last 3 for Visa troubles. Last year was my first time visiting mainland Europe, but I also studied abroad in Reykjavik from Dec 2012- June 2013, so had to squeeze Iceland into some of my Top 5 lists And here are the lists!
1 Favorite places for hanging out with locals
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1.Poland (Krakow + Warsaw)- Polish young people were super-friendly to me everywhere I went in the 2 cities. Literally crossed the border over from Lithuania one time and immediately noticed people were friendlier.
2.Netherlands (Rotterdam + Nijmegen)- Long before I visited the Netherlands, Dutch people were always my favorite fellow travelers for their drunk bike-accident stories and blunt + dark sense of humor. Visiting the country just confirmed that the people living there enjoy laughing at themselves just as much as the travelers I met. I left out Amsterdam because I felt like Dutch people there were a little more closed off to foreigners and (rightfully) sick of dumb tourists for all the shit they do.
3.Stockholm- Folks can be a little reserved/awkward at first, but nothing a little alcohol doesn’t fix. Mostly progressive, friendly and educated people, so just my type.
4.Reykjavik- Similar to the Swedes, just a little more awkward when sober, and wilder when drunk.
4.Belgium (Brussels + Antwerp)- Seemed just as cool as Scandinavia and the Netherlands but didn’t get to spend enough time there to bump it further up the list.
Notable mentions:
-Ljubljana- A lot like Poland, except more socially progressive. It was a lot more fun the first time around, however, because all the universities were on break during my second visit
-Porto- Portugal was a fun place in general. I felt the city structure of Porto just made it easier to meet people as opposed to Lisbon which felt more spread out.
-Albania- Similar to other places in the Balkans, people were exceptionally kind and helped me out when they didn’t have to. I got offered free food everywhere from people who spoke no English!
2 Favorite cities for nightlife
1.Krakow- 1 million students in the city and the craziest party city I have ever been to. Enough said
2.Lisbon- I partied a little too hard here around NYE
3.Stockholm- I have heard it’s different outside of the summer, but the parties were ON 6 nights a week when I was there during May-June
4.Belgrade- Amazing underground music scene + parties every night. Cool dive bars too if you know where to go (ask Tamara at Green Studio)
5.Budapest- A lot like Krakow. The biggest clubs are bigger but it’s much harder to meet locals here since the city seems to have priced out the natives from the most popular bars
Notable mentions:
-Brussels- Every single night was wild. Only city ever where I started a pub crawl and quit halfway to hang out with cool locals I met at a bar
-Reykjavik- People just get bat-shit crazy here. They are still celebrating not having prohibition half a century after it ended
3 Favorite places for food (I eat meat and don’t eat fish)
1.Balkans- Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia, Slovenia, Croatia- I’m still having Burek withdrawals
2.Italy- Pizza sold by the kilograms
3.London- The city seemed to have a little bit of everything and I dig the chicken shops (classy, I know)
4.Hungary- The local food was bomb (and affordable)
5.German kebab shops- I have tried kebabs in dozens of countries and Germany wins
4 Favorite party hostels
1.The Green Studio and Lounge- Belgrade- My favorite hostel ever. Not a commercial party hostel and the scene depends entirely on the volunteers there at the time. But there were 2 instances when I had to double book an Airbnb after paying for the hostel so I could sleep (there was one instance when staff and guests were partying till 9 am). Just look at their top 1 star review on Facebook to get an idea of the crazy stuff that can happen there
2.Little Havana Party Hostel- Krakow- My favorite big hostel in the world
3.The Gspot- Lisbon- Milder version of Little Havana but the volunteers + guests were the best when I was there for NYE 2019
4.The Retox–Budapest- Lived up to the stories. Might have been a bit too much for me to be honest. Probably never staying there again but I’ll surely revisit
5.Greg and Tom party hostel- Krakow -Smaller and (possibly crazier) version of their rival, Little Havana. They had the craziest pre-gaming party I have been to in my life. Would have gone back there for more wild pub crawls, but my good friends from Little Havana would have killed me if I “betrayed” them again
Notable mentions:
-The Naughty Squirrel- Riga- pub crawls err night
5 Favorite chill, social hostels
1.The Green Studio and Lounge- Belgrade- I understand the irony of calling this both a chill AND a party hostel. But on good nights and the 2nd time I was in Belgrade, this was the chillest place ever. 9 puppies, 3 dogs, 3 cats and volunteers who sing, play the ukulele and drink beer on the sidewalk every night till 4 am. Even if you have no musical talents like me, you can’t help but join in and relax.
2.Oki Doki Hostel- Warsaw- Very cool Polish + international staff with a lot of stuff going on around.
3.Antwerp Backpackers- This little hostel was really cozy. The owner even had his own brewery set up right there and we could get some home-brewed beer.
4.Sunny Lake Hostel- Ohrid- Be ready for beach vibes next to a lake and a chill garden to drink in.
5.Hostel One Basilica- Budapest- This one was half party/half chill but still a great place to meet other social people.
Notable mentions:
-City Backpackers- Stockholm- The only social hostel in Stockholm (I tried 5 different ones). Spent too many nights here but it’s just amazing for meeting other solo travelers. Oh and free pasta gets everyone in the kitchen.
-Hostel Mostel- Sofia- There’s a reason it’s so famous
-Whole Wide World hostel- Zagreb- Had the perfect combination of guests and volunteers when I was there
6 Favorite places to meet other solo-travelers
1.Belgrade
2.Sarajevo
3.Lisbon- being one of the more affordable cool cities in Western Europe, it attracts a lot of like-minded long-term travelers
4.The Baltic route- you will find a lot of people traveling solo through the 3 capitals of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania
5.Romania
Note: The trick here is really to avoid any super-touristy places that get over-run with American college students on summer-break, and stag or hen parties from the UK. If hostels mostly consist of big groups that are traveling really fast, it changes the vibe for the whole place
7 Favorite techno/electronic music spots
1.Netherlands -all of it
2.Belgrade- the Drug Store (name of a club) has some crazy parties, and when it closes, just head to Half
3.Stockholm- Trädgården and Slakthuset are probably my 2 favorite clubs in the world
4.Krakow- Hit up Szpitalna 1 or head to the underground in Prozak 2.0 (it’s wayyy in the back) for some hard-hitting techno in 2nd level basement
5.Lisbon- There seemed to be a lot going on when I was there. Felt like the place for psytrance lovers
Notable mention:
-Zagreb- May be it was a lucky weekend but I had 2 amazing parties in 2 nights and the dark Techno was on point
P.S. I went to Berlin before I was into Techno. This list would probably change if I went back now
8 Favorite Historic Spots
1.Athens- Home to the world’s first democracy*, and so much more ancient, cool stuff.
2.Auschwitz- One of the more moving places I have ever been to. Ended up going there 3 times.
3.Rome + Florence- The mecca for anyone fascinated with the Renaissance and Ancient history.
4.Sarajevo- The devastating history of this place hit me harder than I anticipated. The walking tours were pretty intense too because the guides remembered the stories themselves.
5.Berlin- A place with a lot of important modern history, right up to when the wall fell.
Notable mentions:
-Paris and Munich- hard to skip either if you like history
-Tirana- Albania doesn’t get much historical recognition but some crazy stuff went down here not too long ago
9 Favorite spots for Nature
1.Iceland- At least 5 different spots in Iceland are among the 10 prettiest places I have seen in my life
2.Lake Bohinj- Slovenian Alps- Amazing and not a lot of people either if you go early in the summer
3.French Riviera- Broke my budget but the views made it worth it
4.Transylvania- The name translates to the “land beyond the woods” so you get the picture
5.Adriatic (Croatian/ Montenegrin) coast
Notable mention:
-Bosnian countryside near Sarajevo- really caught me by surprise because of how unexpectedly pretty it was
10 Favorite picturesque towns/cities
1.Cinque Terre, Italy- There’s a reason the cruise ships pile up here
2.Sintra, Portugal- Looks like something straight out of medieval movie
3.Dubrovnik, Croatia- King’s Landing
4.Gozo, Malta- Europe or Africa?
5.Ljubljana, Slovenia- That famous architect did a good job
Notable mentions:
-Krakow- talk about a romantic city
-Tosa de Mar (Spain)- you have to catch a sunset there. Make sure you get the bus times right from Barcelona
-Brasov- prettiest part of Transylvania that I got to visit
11 Favorite bang-for-your-buck spots
1.Krakow- You can buy beers for a euro in the city center. Bania Luka is open till 5 am
2.Warsaw- Like Krakow but slightly less cheap
3.Sarajevo- Just as cheap as Krakow but not as cool. Still pretty cool though
4.Belgrade- Slightly more expensive than Sarajevo. 1.5 euro pljeskavicas are must-haves if you eat meat
5.Budapest- Way too cheap for being the former (twin) capital of an empire
Notable mentions:
-Porto, Lisbon- Some of the coolest places in Western Europe on a budget
-Malta- Really pretty and really cheap, and somewhat different from the rest of Europe
12 Awesome places that caught me off guard
1.Slovenia- Probably the most underrated country in Europe. I’m kinda glad no one is talking about this, so it’s not getting ruined
2.Christiania- Copenhagen- One of the chillest places I have been to yet
3.Sarajevo- There’s the historic significance of it, and then there’s the natural beauty of the valley
4.Warsaw- Not sure why no one ever told me Warsaw people are cool af. It’s also a proper big city with a lot going on
5.Dresden- Little town with a lot of history. Do the night tour if you make it there to find out about how the city dealt with the end of communism in very interesting ways
Notable mentions:
Hamburg- Cool big city that no one talks about for some reason
Brussels- Didn’t have low expectationas but wasn’t expecting it to be that much fun
13 Places I haven’t been to that I want to visit some day
1.Ukraine and Belarus
2.Bergen, Norway
3.Swiss Alps
4.Southern Spain (hopefully after I learn some Spanish- the language barrier was real)
5.Southern Italy
14 Places I want to go back to the most
1.Greece- My next Euro trip will probably just be a month or so in this place so I can fit in all the trips to historical spots that 12-year-old me wanted to see
2.Stockholm- Never had a bad day there so would not mind going back. Wish it was cheaper, however
3.Poland (Warsaw + Krakow)- Some of the friendliest people I have met and the prices don’t hurt
4.Berlin- Only makes sense now that I live for Techno
5.Munich- Seemed like a cool city that I definitely didn’t see enough of
Notable mentions:
-Ljubljana and Slovenia in general
-Netherlands- Anywhere but Amsterdam-e Dutch people are awesome and the music scene is great
15 Favorite stretches during the trip (in no particular order)
-Green Studio in Belgrade-2018:
Came across the chillest hostel ever in Belgrade with 10 volunteers , 10 guests and a bunch of animals. Ended up becoming close friends with the guests and volunteers, and following some of the volunteers on their travels to Ada Bojana (Montenegro), Ohrid, Skopje and eventually London.
p.s — Went back again this summer to reconnect with old friends, and of course made some really good new ones too.
-Little Havana Party Hostel in Krakow:
The best large party hostel ever. Extended my stay 3 times the first time I was there and was sad for a week after I left. Had to come back to reconnect with the place this summer. The best part about Little Havana is that if you don’t like the current guests, you can just walk across the street to Bania Luka and meet awesome Polish students to chill with.
-New Year’s Eve 2019 in Lisbon with the crew from the G-spot hostel:
There was a group of 7 of us (mostly Aussies) that met at the hostel and were inseparable for a week around NYE. Went to my first psytrance festival ever with these guys.
-World cup finals and semifinals in Paris:
I was following the World Cup winners around Europe and inevitably ended up in Paris for the last week. On my first day I met a group of people from a Couchsurfing meetup and ended up hanging with them till 4 am and drinking beers by the canals. That group just got bigger and bigger for the next 6 nights and culminated in the World Cup celebrations.
-Felix and the French guys:
I was doing my usual late-night head-count to see who wanted to join in my search for the best Techno party in Zagreb. Met these guys chilling outside the hostel and we were in sync immediately. We left the rest of the group and went to a party where the vibe couldn’t have been any better. Got back late in the morning, and all of us got kicked out of our bed a few hours later (we slept past checkout time). After recovering for the day, we ended up going to the same hostel in Ljubljana where we raged again for the next 3 days. We were together for less than a week but really felt like I was part of an old friend group there.
Notable mention:
-Traveling with the same people through 5 cities in the Baltics:
Almost everyone in the Baltics goes through the same route- Estonia, Latvia, Vilnius, Warsaw (and sometimes Krakow). There were at least 20 of us (solo-travelers and groups combined) that kept turning up to the same hostels at the same time in every city. At first accidentally, but after Vilnius, we started planning out our hostels together in the next cities.
16 (some of the) Most interesting stories of the trip
-Getting stranded on the Albania-Kosovo border:
I tried taking an evening bus from Tirana to Pristina. Got booted from the bus and stranded at the Kosovo border without any cash (spent it all in Albania preparation for a new country), a sim-card or wifi. Either the border police or I misunderstood their visa exemption laws. After 30 mins of failed hitchhiking attempts, found a taxi driver who spoke enough German/English to get me to a nearby tiny Albanian town with an ATM and cheap-ish hotel for the night. Went out to see what’s up in town and found bars populated with depressed fifty-something year old men and every young person I met tried to sell me weed. A pleasant Albanian man from the hotel invited me for a drink, and went on to tell me all about how he just got back the day before from being in a LA prison for 6 months for trying to illegally immigrate with a fake passport. Apparently he spent $3000 on food and “good California weed” in prison but couldn’t get his hands on booze while there. The next morning, I lost my wallet while looking for a bus to get out of town. Had it returned to my hotel with all my cards and ID(s) intact by a kind man who found it on the streets (the whole town apparently knew there was a foreigner staying at my hotel). Realized 5 mins before my bus left that the kind man had (probably) taken my 15 euros in cash from the wallet, so sprinted to an ATM to get enough cash for the bus ticket and managed to catch it
-Sleeping in a Berlin park and waking up in a movie set:
Missed a 3 am bus from Berlin to Copenhagen because I partied too hard in the evening. After finding out the next bus was 24 hours later and my hostel (and the hostels around) were fully booked, I sneaked into the hostel smoking room to sleep. Cleaning staff woke me up and kicked me out at 8 am when they found me there. A volunteer told me to try sleeping at a park so went there to do that. 1 hour into my nap, I woke up to people yelling around me. I was in the middle of a triangle consisting of two professional cameramen on their big camera-machines facing a couple sitting on a bench. They were filming a movie and the director started yelling “kein fotos” when I tried to Snapachat the scene. Successfully argued that I should get to record stuff since I was there first, and left
-Accidentally going to a BDSM Techno party and then running into an old friend:
On one of the weekends in Stockholm, I met 4 local guys outside a club (Trädgården) after it closed at 3 am. We wanted to keep partying so went to another place, which turned out to be a boat party where older ladies go to pick up younger guys. When that closed at 5 am, a couple outside told us to go with them to a rave in Solna (pretty far). We took a taxi there, and on the way, she did mention the word BDSM once or twice but we thought it was a joke. Walked into this venue to realize it’s a gay sauna with everyone in leather thongs and dudes walking other dudes on leashes. The local Swedish guys I went with were freaking out for a minute, but then we collectively decided that we’ll stay till the party ends since we already paid 20 euros for it. The Techno was good so I was making the most of it on the dance floor. At one point, I noticed someone kept looking at me in the dark as I was dancing around. Eventually she came over and was like “Nadir, what the f are you doing here?”. It was my friend, Frida, who I had met at my hostel in Guadalajara last year and partied with there. She had just flown into Stockholm 12 hours prior to that. After getting over the initial shock, we just kept on partying.
-Samoan MMA fighter taking down a bouncer in Budapest:
It was my first night in Budapest in 2018 and I traveled there from Slovenia with my friend, Hayden, who I had met in Cinque Terre. We went out with a small group from my hostel. The guy leading was this cheerful Kiwi dude who had jokes and was making us drink a lot on the way to the bars (he bought a bottle of Jack on the way and almost single handedly finished it in 40 minutes). He was built like a Samoan tank. He told us he ran MMA in New Zealand/Australia and he definitely looked the part. Also mentioned how he is connected with the mafia in Budapest. We didn’t really worry because he was very friendly to us. Hayden and I forgot his name, so to this day we just refer to him as “The Rock”. At the first bar we tried, the bouncer didn’t wanna let us in. The Rock got pissed and tried to attack the bouncer and all of us had to restrain him. Honestly, it looked like the bouncer was scared. We went to another bar and he was calm and happy again. Many beers later, a couple of us (including The Rock) were heading to the bathroom. One the way, some Swedish guy said something to my other friend as a joke, and the Rock got pissed because apparently the Swedish guy disrespected us. A minute, he knocked out the Swedish dude with one punch. A crowd gathered and a bouncer tried to go after the Rock. It was a blur, but in 5 seconds the bouncer was also almost knocked out. A bunch of bouncers came to help. They surrounded him but everyone was afraid to go in as The Rock kept asking them to go for it. Eventually the police showed up and broke it up. Around that time, Hayden and I bailed because we didn’t want to get involved in this shit. We came back around an hour later, and he was still apparently talking to the cops
Encounters with Nazis in Latvia:
Riga was an interesting place. A lot of Eastern European countries are notorious for having a re-emergence of racist/xenophobic movements. But you don’t usually (or at least I didn’t) encounter any issues when you’re in the fancy touristy parts of these countries. Riga was an exception to that rule. All 3 nights I went out, I encountered problematic people. The 1st night, I came across some guys who were trying to pick on me at the bar for no reason. I cannot be sure but I suspect it was racially motivated. On the 3rd night, I came across a drunk group of skin-heads who got pissed because I said cheers in Latvian and not Russian. But for both of these instances, I had Latvian strangers emerge at the scene who had my back.
This made sense in the context of what I heard later from a local: that tensions are apparently still high in the country between groups who speak Latvian and people of Russian heritage who think Latvia belongs to Russia. The dust doesn’t seem to have quite settled in this post-USSR country.
But back to the story. On my 2nd night night, first I was attacked on the dance floor of a bar by a drunk skinhead. He started pushing me for seemingly simply being at that location, so I got free and just went to the other side of the bar (it was a huge place). An hour or so later, outside the bar, two more drunk skinheads came up to me and told me I need to leave Latvia. Followed was a conversation of “why?”s that went something along the lines of:
Them: Get out of Latvia
Me: Why?
Them: because you’re black
(I am definitely brown and not black, by the way)
Me: Why is that a problem?
Them: Because we are Russians. We are Nazis
Me: What does this have to do with being Russian?
Them: We don’t know..
I was intoxicated to so I kept asking questions for like 5 minutes till they themselves were confused as to why they were mad at a tourist helping their economy. Eventually one of them just went “you have to leave”, grabbed me and went for a gut punch. He was very drunk, and I had 10 seconds to brace for it so he didn’t really connect hard (also felt like he didn’t want to connect hard for some reason). I stepped back, wished them a good day and walked off looking for any other venue that was open
Notable mentions
Every weekend in Iceland was wild.
Spending the night on the streets of Stockholm after losing my friends in the club (Trädgården)
Accidentally falling asleep in the someone else’s hostel bed (happened in Dubrovnik and Munich)
The (more than a dozen) missed buses, and the almost-missed flights in Paris, London, Edinburgh
17 Things that disappointed
Some of these are going to very unpopular opinions but here they go:
1.Almost every pub crawl ever:
If you are a young dude reading this, I might save you a lot of money. This is how the business model of most pub crawls work:
a) Find a group of foreigners who want to party (usually 80% of them are guys) and who don’t know the city.
b) Take their money to take them on pub crawl.
c) Take them to crappy, empty bars because the bars are also paying the pub crawl a commission for bringing in the only customers they ever get.
d) Take them to a club at the end of the night (can be hit/miss on whether if that’s good).
After learning all of this, I personally go on a pub crawl only if I know absolutely no one in the city and my hostel is dead. Even then, I go check out the crowd at the crawl first before I pay for a wristband and delay the payment for as long as I can so I am not stuck with a shit group.
–Did I do a tonne of pub crawls with Little Havana?
-Yes, because they actually took me to my favorite club (Prozak 2.0) on 90% of the nights, and the crawl was always led by my good friends
–Did I go on the Lisbon pub crawls?
-Also yes, because I figured out how to hack that system (tag along with the crawl without paying, drink a 2.5 euro bottle of wine on the streets as you are tagging along, chill with people who are smoking outside, and pay 5 euros instead of 15 for the bracelet right before you enter the club at the end)
The exceptions to what I am describing are places that do informal pub crawls like Hostel One Basilica in Budapest. These crawls actually have an incentive to take you to the best spots without getting commissions from crappy places.
2.Big hostels in Western Europe:
A month into my first trip, I was sitting at the hostel common room in Berlin and met this guy from Brisbane. We realized we were both frustrated in the way these big hostels in Western Europe worked. As solo travelers, it wasn’t very easy to meet people, and it was often because of the vibe the guests put out and not the hostels themselves. We felt that stag/hen-parties and groups traveling super-fast (one night a city) just made it harder for people like us to make stronger connections with fellow travelers. I was telling him how I missed the cozy hostels in Central America, and he was telling me how he missed those in the Balkans with slow solo-travelers. We bonded over that. I convinced him to go to Central America and he convinced me to go check out the Balkans (and the rest is history)
3.Famous landmarks under
renovation:
It wasn’t particularly uplifting when I went to a place to see a landmark, and realized it was under renovation after I arrived at the spot. I have learned to do more research at this point and to not assume the first pics on google will represent what a place actually looks like. Wish I had known this before going to the Cologne Cathedral though.
Popular tourist attractions that I thought were meh:
– Salt mines in Krakow- I didn’t like waiting 1 hour in line to get out of the facility during peak season. Probably wouldn’t go back there even if I was paid 30 euros to do so.
– Vasa museum- Some people love it and it’s one of the more popular museums in Scandinavia . To me, it’s just a failed ship that you’ve probably never heard about before you went to Stockholm
– Visiting a big glacier in Iceland- You get on top and you can’t see anything other than white snow. You can’t even open your eyes without sunglasses to be honest. The coolest part was probably being on a vehicle used to film Game of Thrones
Late Flix buses: This is a joke because I am also consistently unreliable when it comes to showing up for inter-city journeys on time. Just like my soulmate, Flixbus.
How has the trip changed me?
I don’t know if people change, but I do believe our priorities change over time. Here are 3 ways in which my outlook on life has changed:
I have realized I do not want to grow old in the US or in any other place with this much class/income inequality
After the first big trip, I realized how few possessions I actually need to lead a fulfilling life. So I have been rapidly downsizing and selling/donating most of my stuff for the last year
I have fallen deeply in love with the musical genres of Techno and Psytrance. To the point where my traveling is largely influenced by where I can find the best electronic music parties. A good chunk of my good friends that I made on the trip were probably people I bonded with over one of these genres. Ironically, another good chunk of my new friends are people who hate Techno and Psytrance. Even more interestingly, a lot of my friends who love Techno dislike Psytrance, and vice versa