(Note: Publishing this post almost a year after the trip. I hope I
still remember the details)
Backpacking in Europe has always been on my bucket list. So realizing I will have a one week off for
Lebaran (Eid al-Fitr ), I was mentally
drafting an itinerary and looking out for inexpensive plane tickets.
I used Kayak App for researching and comparing various airline
prices. I subscribed to updates if there are price changes on the trip details.
After a few days of price watching, I finally settled to book a flight via
Etihad Airlines. The itinerary:
Jakarta-Abu-Dhabi-Paris then Rome-Abu Dhabi-Jakarta, with layover of 4-5 hours
each.
As it was holiday in Indonesia, prices are not necessarily cheap.
I booked my tickets for around $1,700. I know in lucky days, one can even
purchase roundtrip tickets for less than $1000. But since I’m traveling on a
national holiday, I have to live up with the price premium.
After which, I checked requirements on how to get a Schengen
Visa. I applied through Italian Embassy
(via VFS) since I plan to stay longer in Italy. In multi-country visit, you need to apply VISA
to the country you’re staying the longest. If you have the same length of stay
in all countries, you apply on the country you’ll first visit. For the Visa, I
needed to prepare my plane tickets, hotel reservations, certification of
employment, and bank certificate as part of requirements.
The next few days were spent researching on accommodations.
Traveling alone means accommodations will be more expensive unless I opt to
stay in hostels wherein I can get a dormitory bed for less than 40 Euros.
However, for this trip, I felt I needed to upgrade from hostel bunk beds and
get a nice, cozy, but affordable room for myself. One of my options is staying in hostel but
have a private room. This is an
attractive option, since staying in hostels means you get to meet and talk to
other people who share the same passion of travel as you have.
I used mainly Trip Advisor to research on my accommodation
options. Here, I get to sort my options—budget, accommodation type, ratings
etc, and more importantly, I get to read reviews of other guests. After I mark my choices, I checked out
different booking sites such as booking.com, agoda.com to check out best deals
and book my hotel accommodation.
After completing my Visa Requirements, I scheduled an appointment
with VFS through email (since their online registration site is down). It is
recommended to schedule appointment a month before the planned trip. During the
appointment, I submitted all requirements and paid the Visa Application Fee
(worth IDR1.2M or 100 Euros). After a
week, I received a notification via email, that my Visa is ready for pick-up.
2 days before the trip, I went to the bank and bought some Euros.
In most of my travels, I just usually withdraw local currency in my destination.
But for this one, to be sure and to avoid any unnecessary hassle, I just bought
Euros while in Jakarta. I may have paid a few more because of exchange rate
differences, but I guess it’s worth it.
A day before the trip, I finished my packing. I said to myself
that I wanted this to be a backpack trip. I was tempted to use my 4-wheeler luggage, but
have to remind myself that the goal is to “backpack in Europe”. Never mind the
fact that I have 30kilos luggage allowance, I fit my stuff in my ever-reliable
red Conquer backpack. This is the same backpack I used for a 7-day
autumn/winter trip in China, 7 days December-trekking in Nepal, amongst others.
So an 8-day summer Europe trip still made the backpack a bit roomy.
And I’m off and ready to go!
I was a bit paranoid for the trip, since there were several plane
crashes in the span of 3 weeks. I was
never afraid of plane rides, but this one is different. I had to request for
prayers from friends and family and prayed for safety as well. (Oh! There is a
travel prayer as well in Etihad planes, after the safety briefing).
Thank God for the safe journey!
