Sunrise a few miles abve the UK….
A round trip ticket from Chicago to Vienna put me in a great location to see six awesome cities in just a couple of weeks. Six countries, six languages, four currencies, in an area about the size of Montana. Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, and Slovenia are neighbors, more or less, and share similar histories but also have their own unique cultures.
The relatively recent experience of Nazism and communism in these countries is fascinating to me, and is starkly visible throughout the cities despite the remarkable economic development that has occurred.
I flew Aer Lingus, my favorite airline, from Chicago to Vienna, with a two-hour layover in Dublin. From the door of my house to the Airbnb in Vienna took 18 hours which went more quickly than you might imagine.
This post summarizes the whole trip and separate posts give details about each country. I spent my first two nights in Vienna and took the RegioJet train from Vienna Central Station four hours to Prague in the Czech Republic. After a couple nights in Prague, I headed to Bratislava, Slovakia, another four hour trip to the country that together with the Czech Republic used to be Czechoslovakia. Sadly, after one evening in Bratislava, I continued on to Budapest, Hungary, this time by bus. The two and half hour ride was painless and we pulled into the Kelenfold transit station, a beautiful, modern, bus and metro station that opened in 2014. I fortunately allowed myself three nights in Budapest then caught another bus to Zagreb, Croatia, another four hour journey. The following day, I was off to Ljubljana, the capitol city of Slovenia. I had three nights here and this ended up being my favorite place. Finally, I had my longest ground travel day back to Vienna. The six hour train ride took me to Villach, Austria where I had to change trains. Much of this ride cruised through the valleys between the beautiful alps.
All six of these countries put together are about the size of Montana. This is one of the great things about travel in Europe. Within a few hours, you are in another country often with a different language, different currency, and different culture.
I know you want to know what this cost, and I’ll tell you. Everything included, this two week trip cost $2,700. The round trip ticket from Chicago to Vienna was $590, travel insurance (optional, of course) was $145, and the bus to and from OHare was $60. So if we subtract this, we end up with about $1,950 which results in $150/day for all the other expenses. Here’s a major financial traveling tip – I buy virtually no souvenirs. On this trip, I came home with three simple prints which cost $5 total and some interesting coasters that I took from some of the bars. In addition to saving me money, it also allows me to travel light and I have never regretted this. In fact, I used to buy souvenirs and I frequently regretted this when I returned home. The things that seem cool while traveling in other cultures often seem silly when you bring them back to your house.
Travel On!