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Europe: South, East and West

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Country editors: Europe

Craig Lees - Romania Editor
I first started travelling with my parents just a few weeks after I was born, though I cannot remember these trips I have seen many a embarrassing photo. As I grew up we travelled every school holiday. In these first years my taste for different playgrounds lead me all over Western Europe, seeing spectacular things and all because my mum liked to travel. These holidays intrigued me and after a few school trips I found the place for me...Romania. With a gap year after school I saw a opportunity to travel Eastern Europe, here I met amazing people and saw lots of spectacular scenery as well as got to experience a new culture almost every week.

Countries visited

Belgium, Luxembourg, France, USA, Canada, Spain, Germany, Holland, Italy, Greece, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungry, Czech republic, Slovakia, Poland, Austria.

Unusual experiences

1. Watch a friend get kicked off a train at a border crossing due to an incorrect visa.
2. Being stared at walking past the US Embassy in Warsaw because I had a backpack on.
3. Showing an Australian and a New Zealander a squirrel for the first time in park.
4. Almost falling off a mountain edge sliding down ice on my bum.... I stopped just before the edge.
5. Staying at the Bling Bling Hostel, Krakow, Poland.

Top five tips

1. Try and stay one place ahead of yourself with hostels and transport - don’t go somewhere when you have no idea how to leave.
2. Listen to the advice of other travellers, you can often find someone who has just come form where you are going.
3. Know where your passport, tickets and money are at all the times.
4. Spend the first day (if time allows) walking your new city; learn where places are and main landmarks. All for future exploration.
5. Talk, share and listen to travel experiences as you will learn a lot more and can help other people.

A clean shaven Craig in a hostel in Austria

The best fast food restaurant sign in all of Eastern Europe; Goodys in Bulgaria

Katy Muench - Bosnia and Herzegovina Editor
Hi, I'm Katy and I'm a final year Journalism student. I'm currently trying to find options that will allow me to travel and avoid the world of real work for as long as possible after I graduate! Fingers crossed, my next trip will be to Israel, which I am hoping will provide me with lots of material to write about.

Countries visited

Belgium, Bosnia, Croatia, France, Greece, Italy, Mexico, Slovenia, Spain, USA

Unusual experiences

1. A summer spent teaching American children how to milk goats on a ranch in California
2. Being woken up in the middle of the night on a camping trip by a large hairy creature attacking our food supplies
3. Nearly being arrested by Bosnian policeman who was chasing me away from NATO army training!
4. Escaping the clutches of a crazed illiterate Serbian taxi driver who first mistook me for a prostitute, then asked me to marry him!

Top five tips

1. The most important phrases to learn first are "Sorry, I'm English" (or whatever nationality you are) and "where's the toilet?
2. Don't carry a guidebook around with you. It's more fun and rewarding to discover places for yourself, and use guidebooks as just that, a "guide"
3. Swap books with fellow travellers when you have finished them. This keeps luggage light.
4. You don't have to take a backpack. I've travelled fine with a suitcase on wheels.
5. Travelling and working abroad doesn't have to cost thousands- there are a lot of reasonable options around such as workcamps, or becoming involved in exchanges.

Luisa Hill - Czech Republic Editor
I'm 22 and studying a History of Art degree. I love frequenting art galleries but recently my passion for other things in life has eclipsed my love of art (drawing and painting still rules though!). During uni I have got involved in volunteering events and have met many diverse and interesting people. I have also ran a one-woman election campaign to get seated on the SU council, spending two years spreading the good word of "Guinness" around campus, to an audience of enraptured (and intoxicated) students, persuading a terrifying university board to impart me £400 to fund my first travelling trip around Central Europe (educational? Of course...ahem) - for which I am grateful.

Countries visited

Austria, Canaries, Croatia, Czech Republic, Florida, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Italy, Mexico, Slovakia.

Unusual experiences

1. I haven’t done many unusual things.
2. You can safely rule me out of any bungee-jumping/ skydiving/ basejumping activities: these do not appeal in the slightest to me (and I've seen them at first-hand).
3. When I was very little I did choose to parasail on my own (and again since) - which I count as very brave!
4. Does swimming with sharks count?

Top five tips

1. Never trust a stranger, whether in your own country or elsewhere - but do try and discern when someone is genuinely trying to help you out of a tight spot. Basically, keep a hand on your bag, and don't put yourself in any awkward situations.
2. Take film cases for decanting shower gel/shampoo, etc. into - also for plugging sink plugholes - yeah, that old chestnut!
3. Have a few black bin liners shoved in amongst your kit. They can be invaluable.
4. Pack light-medium (not medium or worse, heavy!) for interrailing - laundrettes abound in Europe, and your hostel will probably have an affordable washing machine/dryer. Don't pack very many shoes!
5. I heard that if you put a can of coke/beer inside a wet sock and suspend it from your tent/a tree, it will cool your beverage, regardless of the hot climate?!

Laura Chapman - Belgium Editor
Hello, I’m Laura, I left Blighty several years ago to seek my fortune in lovely Belgium. All Birmingham Uni’s fault (they sent me there to study français - the others went to Aix-en-Provence, there’s no justice!). My main hobbies are sleeping, being cynical, eating crisps and generally doing sod all.

When I’m not busy with that, I obsess about all things green and environmental, listen to music, read (I commute 4 hours a day, something of a must!) and snowboard. My main dislikes are SPAM (yes I am quite satisfied with the size of my penis, thank you), excessive use of ‘smilies’, loud chewing or crunching, dirty sinks, people who say ‘cheer up luv, it might never happen’ and, of course, war, globalisation, George Bush and all those things any greeny worth their salt disapproves of... My main motivation is to win the lottery and never slave for the capitalists again (not for selfish reasons, no, no no, but so I can devote my life to volunteering - do you think this might improve my chances of winning?).

Countries visited

Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Kenya, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Tanzania, Zanzibar.

Unusual experiences

1. Walked amongst crocodiles and hippos (within biting distance) whilst on a foot safari in Tanzania.
2. Had a large piece of firework fall into my eye at a street party in Spain (no permanent damage done!).
3. Suffered an entire evening of Schlager music and witnessed Austrian people in ski boots energetically dance the ‘can can’.
4. Attended the Oktoberfest celebrations at a NATO military base, overdid it, and had to be scraped off the floor of the car park by the military police.
5. Been (unwittingly) initiated into a freak clan of redheads at a student party in Belgium, who claimed that due to a certain powerful gene, redheads would eventually take over the world (they even had a special handshake). One hopes it was the Stella talking...

Top five tips

1. First and foremost, people, you are never too old to travel so ditch the excuses and get on with it! I’m 26 and still in the planning stage of my gap year (at this point you all say, '26? But that’s not old!').
2. This should be an obvious one (but just in case, for the numbskulls amongst us); no matter where you are, have respect for the local culture and environment, and avoid sullying the backpacker’s reputation. Applies even when pissed!
3. I know there are many advocates of the ‘dump the guidebook’ approach; well I’m not one of them. Your guidebook IS the Bible! Well, maybe not, but at least do some research to avoid any surprises /disappointment and help you get your head around what goes on in the rest of the world.
4. Get off the beaten track; try to see something other than that which is tailored-for-tourist-eyes (but only if you can do this safely...).
5. Pack and then reduce your luggage by half. Then repeat exercise until you have removed hair curlers, pot of Marmite, and any other random ‘just in case’ items - you can always buy/wash stuff when you get there...