Travel Tip #4: Traveling

I'm sure if you've picked Mannheim, or even Germany as your study abroad destination, it could partially be because Germany is rather central in terms of location, and therefore easier (somewhat) to get to your dream destinations. And part of the excitement of being abroad is traveling to tons of different cultures, and expanding your horizons. So I'm going to provide you with some tips I've learned to hopefully make your time a little easier. If you weren't planning on traveling at all, I would highly recommend you reconsider. I think traveling (even as stressful as it can be) was a really good and fun experience.

PLANNING:

First off, make a list of places you REALLY want to go. For example, my one dream destination was London, so obviously it always topped my list. If you have a certain goal you want to obtain, make sure to note that as well. I wanted to be able to go to at least 10 countries in Europe and so I also made note of that. With Mannheim, you get around 3 weeks off for Easter (sadly I don't know of any breaks for Fall semester so keep that in mind!), so I would suggest planing (and budgeting) for most of your travel time then. If you're not in a rush to leave after lectures/exams end, you can also plan for traveling then (it's probably the best time since you'll have no academic responsibilities to head back to). Keep in mind that you might not be able to get to all of your destinations, so try for the ones you really wish to go to.

Secondly, look into hostels/hotels ASAP! I would recommend hostels because they are cheaper, but maybe if you're traveling with parents/relatives, you would want a hotel. Hostels are usually set up so you can have many choices in terms of rooms. You can rent out a private room, or you can pick a bed in a mixed dorm (usually ranging from 4-12+ people) or female and male dorms (also ranging from around 4-9+). If you're not interested in being in the same hostel room with people of the opposite sex, then I'd recommend the dorms for only your gender. However, I've only stayed in mixed hostel rooms and they've turned out pretty well. Make sure you know what you're comfortable with in terms of the number of people you're staying with. For example, in Barcelona, I stayed in a 12 person mixed dorm, and while nothing bad happened, it was simply too many people to be with. Especially since some groups would go out at night, and come back early in the morning. Thankfully I am a heavy sleeper, but if you're a light sleeper this wouldn't be ideal. If you're traveling with friends, you can all stay in the same hostel room even if you've booked it separately. Just make sure you book it early enough (basically when you get your plane/train/bus tickets and know a concrete time). To save money in the more expensive places, such as Amsterdam, you can try to organize your bus trip so you take an overnight bus/train/whatever, stay one night and then take an overnight back the next day. Although it can be tiring, it's certainly a way to save money. Sometimes hostels have showers in the room, and sometimes they're shared in a hallway with others as well. Keep this in mind too! It's almost like a shared dorm bathroom so shower shoes are always great to wear. I've never dealt with nasty bathrooms in hostels but they exist! I usually brought my own lock for the lockers, but in some hostels you can borrow one (there might be a deposit).

My third piece of advice is figure out what you want to do in the place you're traveling. There are tons of websites that allow you to do this, but one of my personal favorites is Atlas Addict. Located at this website, it contains tons of travel guides as well as pictures so you can get a good feel of the area you're wishing to visit. I would HIGHLY recommend at least having a plan. While traveling with friends, one of them made a list that was extremely helpful. It contained:

• The address of our hostel/hotel, and the ways to get there. I can't stress how important it is to make sure where you're staying is at least a reasonable distance away from either the city center, or where you'll be spending most of your time exploring. There's no need to spend money on a taxi if there's an easier (and cheaper) way. This is also helpful for if your phone dies.
• List of monuments/sites that we collectively created. this also had the addresses of the places, just in case we needed to ask around
• A few helpful phrases in the language of the area. While it isn't necessary to be fluent in a language for a weekend trip, it's important to learn a few phrases to be considerate. The most important phrases are thank you, please, and excuse me. You'll most likely use those the most, and they are just a polite way to try to connect to the people you're interacting with. They'll appreciate your effort in trying. 

It might seem like a lot of effort, but in the end it'll be worth it. Also try to figure out what restaurants around you that might be within your budget. You don't want to accidentally get stuck in a restaurant that's too expensive.

One special travel tip I have is to take as many photos/videos as you can. Whether it's through an iPhone, Canon/Nikon, polaroid, or film camera, make sure to try to document as much as you can. You'll thank yourself for saving all the memories. I created a video at the end of my exchange, and while I had a lot of videos to provide, I always wish I took more so it would be more reflective of my time on exchange. I also regret not starting a travel vlog (which would have been much easier for me than to update a blog), so if that's your kind of thing I'd say go for it!

My final tip is TAKE ADVANTAGE OF FREE WIFI. There are so many places that offer free wifi, such as Starbucks, McDonalds, Burger King, Costa Coffee etc. It will save you on your travel charges based on what phone plan you're using, and it's a good way to load up google maps/whatever traveling app you use to get to your destination.

Some iPhone apps I recommend are:

• Google Maps, which can show what trains/trams you're going to need, or even just the easiest way to walk to your destination.
• Maps.me. I really like this app, because you can download the maps of the places you are traveling, and you can use it offline and without wifi (just make sure to download the map first). You can search for what you're looking for and it'll tell you the street it's on/around, as well as allowing you to search for specific things like restaurants. 

WAYS TO TRAVEL:

Okay so there are tons of options of ways to get around. And I'm just going to talk about which ones I liked the best/didn't like, so maybe you get an idea of what works for you. If you want to figure it all out on your own, feel free! It's always an adventure.

Flying:

Ryanair was the airline I used to get around Europe. While the flights are pretty cheap (depending on where you're going), the airports are usually inconvenient. The closest Ryanair airports are Baden-Baden and Frankfurt Hahn. I always used Frankfurt Hahn so I don't know how easy it is to get to Baden-Baden. However Frankfurt Hahn is around 2 hours away, and not near the Frankfurt Main Train Station at all (go figure). The best way to get there is by taking the Frankfurt Hahn shuttle bus from Mannheim ZOB (Busbahnhof near the Main Train Station). You can find the bus times here. Keep in mind whether it's the summer timetable or winter one. I didn't like the shuttle bus because sometimes you have to take the bus at 2:30 in the morning for an 8 am flight, and therefore were waiting around in the airport for a while. I would recommend trying to avoid spending 5 hours trying to kill time in an airport like I did (which was horrible), but make sure you get there with enough time so you get through security and to your gate before it closes. Also make sure you check-in/print your tickets off in advance or else it will be a fee. I packed light for Ryanair flights (either my backpack or a small carry-on) so I wouldn't have to worry about waiting for a checked bag once I landed, and so I wouldn't have to pay for a checked bag (sometimes they asked if I wanted to check a bag for free but I still declined). Sometimes the airports in the country you're going to are also out of the way, and require the purchase of bus/train tickets to get to the city center. 

Overall I didn't really like Ryanair that much. Yes it was the cheapest option, but sometimes I felt so inconvenienced by them. For example, getting to the airport was a hassle sometimes, and required an early start and a lot of waiting time in the airport. But also I had a horrible experience with them during my Easter break, in which my flight from Girona to London was delayed 5 hours. Yes they provided me with vouchers, but I had to get a 3:30 am bus to get to the Girona airport, that I ended up not sleeping for a while that day. If you're looking for cheap though, Ryanair is definitely the best. However I would recommend looking into other options (maybe for the sake of convenience and comfort).

Bus:

The Busbahnhof at Mannheim became my best friend midway through the semester. You can catch Meinfernbus (also known as Flixbus) there, and while a lot of destinations are in Germany, there are some outside that you can get to (like Amsterdam). I rode Meinfernbus on my way to and from Berlin, and I really enjoyed it. They had their own wifi network (which sometimes worked), but once you were connected, it also had the options to watch some movies (all in German though so keep that in mind). It was simple to get to, and the buses usually went to the main bus station at the final destination, which made it easy to figure out where to go next (I don't think all buses go to the main bus station so I'd recommend looking it up). I also took Megabus which I had to travel to Frankfurt in order to catch it (while it seemed like unnecessary traveling, it was rather cheap to travel to where I wanted to go). I didn't mind Megabus, but the wifi was spotty, and sometimes the final locations were a bit out of the way. Buses take a lot longer than flights, but they're certainly cheaper. Make sure to pack food though if you're on the bus for a while, but in some cases there is a vending machine on board that you can purchase coffee from (I believe it was DB buses that have that). As a precaution, print out your bus tickets in advance. Some prefer you to have it in print, rather than loaded on your phone, and it's better to be safe than sorry in my opinion.

Train:
I've only traveled by trains to get to places within Germany, and it was relatively easy. I'd recommend downloading the DB app, for it can be rather helpful. You can also have your tickets preloaded on the DB app, which saves you the hassle of having to get it printed out. It tells you what platforms your trains are on, and if you need to catch any connections which for me was rather helpful. Train tickets can be sort of expensive so I'd recommend getting a DB 25 card, which gives you 25% off of train tickets for three months. Just remember to cancel it or else you'll get a new card. While I was in Mannheim, DB was on strike quite a few times, and that affected others traveling, so that could also be something to keep in mind.

Hope this was somewhat informative, and happy traveling :)