A very HYPOTHETICAL backpacking trip through southeastern Europe

[Mirc]

After spending some great time in a cheap hostel in Belgrade, seeing lots of foreigners and understand how you will always pretty much only meet people with an adventurous spirit in such places, people with whom you have what to talk about, see fantastic stuff, have a lot of fun and getting together with 5 different girls in 5 different nights in a row (from which I don't even know the names of two), and after having just bought some great equipment this summer, and knowing how much I love traveling, I decided I want to go backpacking through Europe REALLY REALLY badly.

Right now, I am pretty far from having even 1/8 of the money I would need for something like this, but I am thinking about it, and if I already have a plan I'm sure I could manage something until the next summer.

I want to go through this part of Europe, see the obscure but beautiful stuff (like I just have been doing in Serbia in the past week), but I'm not sure which route to choose.

One of the problems is that money is limiting me. My plan includes quite a loooooooooooong trip, like 40 days or so. I'm not really sure how much I could spend in each of those places (I don't want to be always in a hurry) but I would absolutely love doing something like this, and make unequal stops - like 1 day here, 5 days here, etc.

Knowing a fair bit about this part of Europe, I made a couple of plans. The most important part of the plan however is that I don't plan to respect the plan. But I'm completely confident that I absolutely need some kind of skeleton to build on.




So basically I have to choose between those hypothetical routes:

1) The longest one would probably be incredibly hard to manage, but if many people suggest this, I will definitely give it a thought. This would be Bucharest - Sibiu - Budapest - Bratislava - Vienna - Zagreb - Split - Sofia - Thesalloniki - Athens - Crete (Heraklion) - Antalya - Istanbul - Bucharest. Having 12 stops though, and wanting to be able to stay more than 1 day in each place (I'd like an average or 4-5 days or so), I don't know if I can make it in around 40-42 days.

2) Another one I could do is Bucharest - Sibiu - Budapest - Vienna - Split - Sofia - Thessaloniki - Athens - Crete (Heraklion) - Istanbul - Bucharest. This one has only nine steps, however I'm missing quite a few important places: Bratislava, Zagreb, Antalya.

3) I would really love to go in southern Turkey though. So another one is just like the one above, plus Antalya. Bucharest - Sibiu - Budapest - Vienna - Split - Sofia - Thessaloniki - Athens - Crete (Heraklion) - Antalya - Istanbul - Bucharest.

4) Route number 4 would be... the open one? I mean the one with the suggestions about which places from the first one I could be skipping, and which important ones I forgot about. I really want to stop for a few days in Sibiu, in Romania, though it doesn't seem so important, because I've never been there for more than 2 hours and I think it's a fantastic place. I also am more eager to see Split and the Dalmatian coast rather than Zagreb, though I'd like Zagreb too... Thessaloniki could be another one I could skip. Is Bratislava interesting enough to be worth staying a few days? Or at least a 1 day detour? Don't really know.


I would absolutely love the idea of going to such a trip, with only my backpack and my guitar tied to it... But it's so hard to make up my mind!! So what would you suggest?

As for my opinion, I'm kind of inclining towards the 3rd one, but I don't really know...

 

[Emperor2]

I'd be as free as the wind, just blow from one great city to another. Spend time in one city, and when you're done with it, take the first train to another south east european city that comes up.

 

[Mirc]

I'd be as free as the wind, just blow from one great city to another. Spend time in one city, and when you're done with it, take the first train to another south east european city that comes up.

Yep, would love that, but I'm afraid I'll never make it on time... I don't want it to take too long, you know. It's already a huge trip.

I mentioned though the the most important plan of the plan is not to respect the plan.

 

[DNK]

http://www.travelindependent.info/

Good info there, I think.

 

[Emperor2]

Yep, would love that, but I'm afraid I'll never make it on time... I don't want it to take too long, you know. It's already a huge trip.

I mentioned though the the most important plan of the plan is not to respect the plan.

Do this: make a ton of money and then quit your job, and do what I suggested.

 

[Mirc]

Do this: make a ton of money and then quit your job, and do what I suggested.

I don't have a job, I'm in highschool. I need to go to a big guitar contest (like, the biggest in America) in late August/early September so I'd like to do this in late June - end of July, right after I finish school. In any case, I'm definitely going to buy the train tickets from each city separately, no way I'm gonna buy ahead of more than 1-2 days, so I will be free.

Actually I considered getting money from a travel magazine for this, because I know someone who works at one in Romania. I could write and take photos (I like to think I'm okay at both, maybe actually good at writing), but I doubt those people would actually pay much because they are a pretty small company.

 

[Arwon]

Yeah, that's something I learned the hard way - don't book travel or accommodation more than a day or two ahead. Gives you more freedom and less stress.

 

[Kyriakos]

Sounds like a nice trip

Of those cities i have only been to Sofia, Budapest, Vienna, Athens, Heraklion, and obviously Thessalonike

However Heraklion iirc is not a nice looking town. If you definately go to Crete, visit Chania instead. Other possible island destinations are Rhodes ( i remember that you liked its castle ) and Corfu.

 

[Winner]

You can omit Bratislava, it is not worth it. But Vienna is a must.

 

[Yoda Power]

Yeah no point in going to Bratislava.

 

[aronnax]

Okay Mirc, if I were you I would take a more straight route. Jumping from Budapest to Vienna than to Thessalonika would be quite messy. So here is my suggestion

Leave Bucharest and ride by bus or train to the Bulgar City of ROUSSE, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rousse
Now you should be in the city on May 6th or June 24th where there are city celebrations. Spend a day or two then head for SOFIYA on car rental/train or bus on Route/Highway E85 to E83 to E79 via the city of PLEVEN http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleven
Might Interest you as many Romanian Soldiers died there during the Siege of Pleven in the Russo-Turko War. The city is like an memorial to the war.
Spend a few hours then head to SOFIYA

Leave Bulgaria on E80 and proceed to EDIRNE in Turkey. Interesting cities on the route is PLOVDIC http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plovdiv.

Arrive in EDIRNE and take highway Q-3 and Q-2 to ISTANBUL. Cross the straits for bragging rights you stepped foot in Asia. Now, skip Antlayta and fly to RHODES CITY. Worth it totally. After that you can take cheap regional flights to IRAKION and/or ATHENS You can head to THESSALONIKA but ill rather just go to by plane to DUBRONIVK in Croatia. Have fun then take a bus ride to SPILT, (stop in Bosnia and Herzgonia for some flower picking). Head along up the coast and visit ZAGREB. Cross the border and land in LJUBLANA, Slovenia. Head to Austria and visit Mozarts birth place SALZBURG. So close to the Border? head to MUNICH Germany and take advantage of your EU's citizenship to move through borders easily. One more time at VIENNA before you head to BUDAPEST. Spend time in Hungary then meet Serbia, BELGRADE. Then return back to the motherland in SIBUSI before dropping dead back in BUCHAREST

The entire journey is about 5500km.




I want to take that trip!!! BUT I Live in stupid singapore!!!!!!! CRRRYYY!!!

 

[Mirc]

@arronax: thanks so much for your suggestions!!

However there are things you don't know, for which I didn't choose such a route.

1) I've already been in Munich and spent 1 week there, I know pretty much everything.
2) I visited everything in Italy north of Rome (never actually got to Rome though)
3) I'm in Belgrade right now and I've just spent a great week here, I don't think there's much point in seeing this again. I know Belgrade better than many cities in my country.
4) I've been to Ljubljana this september, and 1 year ago, and I'm going there again in September this year.
5) Ruse is way too close to Bucharest to be going there in such a trip. I can go there anytime, so I don't see much point in going there in this trip. I can even walk to there in 1 day, if I really want to, and if I don't have a backpack, it's 65 km from where I live.
6) I've been to Salzburg 3 times, and I might be going there to study for a month or so next year.

So your suggestions are really great, and you definitely know very well what you are talking about, but I've already seen so many of those that I don't know if it's worth going there again.


Oh and you guys were right about Crete, I'd rather visit Chania, I just didn't remember the name right then.

 

[aronnax]

Well I assume you would go to Rousse since thats the where the main highway from Romania to Bulgaria goes through. So...no Munich, No Ljubljana, no Belgrade no Salzburg, no ancona.

If you can, you must find a ferry ride and go to Santorini. Its so beautiful there. I would recommend you head to South Italy but its quite expensive at times.

Actually I planned this trip for me except I added Greece, Turkey and Austria for your benefit, been there already.

 

[aronnax]

So have you figured out any new rough frames for your trip?

 

[Mirc]

I was on the train to Bucharest until a few hours ago, so I couldn't actually decide much.

Anyway, I'll be looking soon into what possibilities there are for water transport, because I'd love to see some islands of Greece and I've never actually been on a boat in open sea before.

 

[REDY]

I think you should miss Bratislava. Not sure about Zagreb and Antalya.

 

[El Koeno]

Just start the trip. You'll get great ideas while on the road. The people you meet will have better advice than people on an internet forum anyway.

 

[Mirc]

One possible idea could be this.

Spoiler :

Apparently there's no way to get by train anywhere else than Zagreb from Split... And I might substitute Crete for Santorini, don't really know. The trip is still too long though. Might actually skip Sibiu in Romania to further shorten it. Don't really know. It's still too long right now, if I went this way I would need around 56 days to see as much as I want, and 40-45 is already a bit too much.

 

[Kozmos]

If your passing through Croatia, visiting the Plitvicka Jezera National Park might be interesting if you like nature and stuff.

 

[DNK]

You could always take a freight ship to Europe, assuming you aren't already there.

I'm planning on doing a 6-12 month backpacking tour through Asia next year ($10K pricetag weeeee). I've decided on this travel. It takes a couple weeks or more to go intercontinental, but you get fed and you get a room. It's likely to get boring after a few days, but I think the point is:
A. doing it just to do it
B. you'll appreciate the experience all the more after 15 days of being on a ship
C. that's how it used to get done

Granted, you could get a plane for half the price.