Europe on a shoestring - top tips

I have interrupted my usual, nice, neat chronological posts to give you this snapshot of tips for travelling Europe because the sooner you know this, the easier your travels will be!

Below is a list of top tips, some for specific places, some more general, that I learnt during my Interrailing adventures over summer (full story will be posted later!).  Also look out for my upcoming post with top tips for your own Interrail adventure.

So, when you're travelling to and around mainland Europe, bear these tips in mind:

1. Validate your public transport tickets
Instead of paying per journey, most places in Europe issue what are essentially 'blank' tickets for public transport. You have to stamp these tickets at special machines when you get on a bus or tram and get a certain amount of time in which you can make as many trips as needed with that ticket (usually 90 minutes). If you don't have a validated (i.e. stamped) ticket, you could be fined.

2. Buses in Ljubljana are cashless
In Ljubljana you cannot use cash on buses (this is the only example I know of outside London, but if you know otherwise please leave a comment!).  To use public transport you need to buy a card (called an Urbana card) that costs a few Euros and top it up like and Oyster card. The easiest place to get the card is at news stands, but you can also get them from other places.  Full details can be found here.

3. Check public holidays
This is a good idea wherever you're going in the world, but being European I fell into the trap of assuming holidays wouldn't be too different to the UK.  We arrived in Ljubljana in the evening on Assumption Day.  Assumption day is not a big holiday in the UK, so we weren't even aware it was that day - in Ljubljana, everything closes at lunchtime. As a result, us weary travellers got of the train and trudged around the outer city to find several closed supermarkets, shops and cafes. The only food we could find was from a greasy takeaway with one stressed out, tired and very sweaty server, feeding the others who forgot / didn't realise the day.

4. Don't sit down!
When eating/drinking in cafes, bars and restaurants, be careful where you sit.  In many European countries, you will get charged an extra 'cover' charge if you sit outside, so decide if it's worth it to dine al fresco.  In Italy, particularly in the larger, more expensive and more touristy cities, you can be charged a 'cover' fee in a cafe just for sitting down!  Italians drink their coffee in a very functional way: Stand at the bar, neck and espresso and leave. Standing at the bar is 100% acceptable. Alternatively, insist on paying for your coffee when you order it, then take it to a table. Yes, it's a bit cheeky but it was a tip given to me by a born and bred Venetian.

5. Learn the Language
You don't have to be fluent in any language and a lot of people will speak English, but learning a few words of the local lingo (hello, thank you, please, yes, no and 'do you speak English' being solid staples) can go a long way and help you to look polite and respectful.  Even if the locals laugh because you're pronouncing words wrong, they'll love it if you just give it a go!  When Interrailing, long train journeys are a perfect time to brush up!

Sri Lanka – The Southwest Coast

Firstly, apologies for the wait of almost a year! Here it is, last Sri Lanka blog post...

We had a whistle-stop tour of the southwest coast of Sri Lanka, although we returned later in the trip to explore Galle.  Galle gets its name from the Portuguese for ‘cockerel’, as it was colonised by the Portuguese in 16^th Century. Today, the town is characterised by a Dutch fortress, which holds the main cultural centre of the town, filled with cafes and shops.  Even though Galle was one of the places worst hit by the Boxing Day Tsunami, the sturdy fortress remained standing. Driving along the coast we saw constant reminders of the devastation caused by the Tsunami, including an impressive Buddha statue built by Japan, to commemorate those whose train got swept away in the disaster. Along the coast we also saw a happier, more iconic sight of Sri Lanka: stilt fishermen. These fishermen sit on a tiny ledge sticking out of a single pole, which is rooted in the sediment of the sea. They wait like herons for hours, relying on the fish becoming accustomed to their presence.

To our slight exasperation, we arrived at another ‘factory’. This time it was a moonstone mine, in an area known as Mitiyagoda, which is the only place moonstones are found. Unlike the other factories, the gift shop consisted of very expensive jewellery, which we looked at out of politeness whilst being followed by the overly keen moonstone factory guide. Unfortunately for Mr Keen, we didn’t have the same blasé attitude to buying a hundred-pound necklace as to buying some cinnamon sticks.

In Ahungalla we explored the mangroves by boat safari. We finally caught a glimpse of purple-faced langurs, the third and final monkey species in Sri Lanka, some of which are kept as pets. The other creatures lurking in the trees were local children, who had made a game of jumping into the river. Other local residents were just as innovative, creating platforms in the water from which they sold king coconuts for thirsty boat-goers. We stopped off on an island to see cinnamon beating – the process of turning tree bark into the cinnamon sticks we recognise. Two rings are cut around either end of the branch, then a line is cute between them. The bark is then peeled off in fragments and several fragments are rolled inside each other before being dried.

Given my work with turtles in Costa Rica (http://asilverplane.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/turtles-piro-days-and-peje-nights.html), I was delighted that our driver took us to a turtle hatchery. We were taken for a tour of the hatchery, starting with man-made turtle nests, onto a tank full of baby turtles then we saw some older turtles. The tour guide explained that the market price for turtle eggs is 20 rupees, so they buy the eggs for 20 rupees. Whilst this reduces the number of eggs sold for food, I was left wondering whether it encourages the taking of eggs in the first place. Once hatched, the turtles are moved to a concrete pool for three days until their egg sac is completely absorbed. Male turtles are then released into the ocean. The gender of reptiles is determined by the temperate at which they develop in the egg. Due to this issue, less females have been developing than males, making them a highly valuable resource for modern turtle populations. For this reason, female turtles are kept at the hatchery for five years, to increase their chances of survival once released.

The hatchery also acts as a sanctuary, caring for injured and disabled turtles that would not survive in the wild. We met some characters, including a turtle who refused to be released into the sea (perhaps a risk of keeping females so long). There was also an albino turtle, which we were told was the only turtle in the hatchery to survive the tsunami. Whilst it was fascinating to see a fully grown albino turtle, something almost impossible in the wild, I couldn’t help questioning the quality of life in a small concrete pool with a couple of foot of water. Despite my reservations, I appreciate the aims of the hatchery and their desire to enhance the populations of these beautiful species.

The last stop of our trip was a beachside hotel in Wadduwa, called The Blue Water. We enjoyed swimming in the pool, wine tasting, yoga, cookery demonstrations and watching traditional dancing. Whilst Sri Lankan hospitality didn’t fail, we started to get itchy feet after a couple of days of relaxing!

Until the next adventure…

New year, new blog!

January is the time for new resolutions and I am all too aware that my lovely little blog feels abandoned. I haven't even finished writing about my trip to Sri Lanka, which was over a year ago! I have had lots of adventures in between that will probably never get a look in.
So thus year I will aim to write more, but little and often. I love to take in everything about my travels, but wanting to record all the little details mean it takes so long for me to finish a post! So get prepared for a new, concise me!
Watch this space...

Sri Lanka - Yala National Park

Buddha statue

On the way to Yala National Park took a detour to what seemed like an abandoned dusty car park, next to a building that was either half built or half fallen down and what looked like a closed down café. Wondering where we were we followed our guide, who led us to a small desk to pay entry to a hidden gem. We walked down a wooded path into a clearing, to find a huge Buddha figure carved into the rock face. There were more figures, which our guide explained were the ‘second Buddha’ and his escort, representing a sort of second coming of the Buddha that is present in some Buddhist traditions. The figures were unusual in that they were carved out of the rock, rather than into it. The clearing had a quietness about it, with an air of reverence much like a cathedral, but the quietness lay outdoors, across the grass and stone. On our way back to the car we our guide stopped and hushed us excitedly towards him. We were treated to the sight of a spectacular Paradise flycatcher, harassing an Indian cuckoo. We were told it is rare to see an Indian flycatcher and it was one of the most beautiful birds I have ever seen, with a dark head, a bright blue eye and a tail so long and red it had phoenix-like qualities.

The best photo I could manage of the PAradise Flycatcher

On arrival at Yala National Park, we were greeted with another Sri Lankan speciality drink, called ‘sweet lassie’. Lassie is a cold, shaken milk and, as the name suggests, sweetened. Along the entrance road to the hotel, we saw yet another of Sri Lanka’s fine, colourful birds, the green bee eater, along with water buffalo, crocodiles and a lot of elephant poo! We stayed at Cinnamon Wild Yala, which was a hotel with a safari theme; the guides were dressed like safari guides in khaki trousers and shirts, and the bedrooms were individual cabins, raised from the ground by a series of wooden steps. What excited me most about Cinnamon Wild Yala, was the fact we had to call an escort to and from dinner due to the possibility of coming across elephants and boar on the path in the night. Swimming in the pool whilst watching grey langur monkeys in the surrounding trees was also a great experience. From the top of the restaurant building, it was possible to look over the lake that bordered the Cinammon Wild Yala complex, the forest and savanna-type landscape of the National Park and the neighbouring beach. We went for a walk along the beach, which was scattered with boulders and cacti, and marvelled at the force behind the waves crashing on the beach – it was not a sea to swim in.

The beach at Yala

The main purpose of our visit to Yala was a wildlife safari. The highlight of Yala is the chance to see a leopard, which sadly, and much to the surprise of the safari guides, escaped us that afternoon. Nevertheless, we saw a fantastic variety of wildlife, including crocodiles, water buffalo, Sri Lankan axis deer, wild boar and a variety of birds from black headed ibis, whistling ducks and the sinuous Indian darter, to wild peacocks and junglefowl. At one point our driver put his foot down and started speeding down the track - another driver had told him there was a sloth bear in the vicinity! I tried not to get too excited, but how could I not? Unfortunately, much like the leopards, the sloth bear eluded us and we returned to the hotel having had a great experience, but feeling slightly defeated by the Sri Lankan mammals.

Green bee eater

Sri Lanka - Time for Tea

We left Kandy via a silk shop, where we tried on Saree (or Sari), which were gorgeous and made me wish I lived somewhere where I wouldn’t be stared at for being a white girl dressed in one! We then made a visit to Kandy Botanical Gardens, which could have provided a good half day of entertainment but we were only allotted under 2 hours from our guide. The highlight of the gardens is considered to be the orchid house, with beautiful ornamental flowers from all over the world. The rest of the gardens include avenues of palms and coconut trees, and the unexpected sight of hundreds of bats (Indian Flying Foxes) hanging in the trees like baubles on a Christmas tree – barely a branch was bat-free! Not only were they everywhere, they were awake, chatting and flying from tree to tree like huge black seagulls – quite a sight considering our own UK bats are barely the size of my thumb.

This tree is laden with bats!

Tea is a key export of Sri Lanka and a growing part of the tourist industry. On our way into Sri Lanka’s ‘hill country’ the scenery changed from coconut trees and Buddha statues, to tea plantation as far as the eye could see. We stopped off for a tea factory tour at a plantation owned by a company called Mackwoods and were surprised that it was actually chilly that high up! Despite a whole bush of tea leaves, only the top two leaves and a bud are picked. The leaves are then withered, rolled, fermented and dried. The dried leaves are graded, with the finer tea leaves going to make stronger tea. Our English Breakfast Tea is a fairly fine tea, known as Broken Orange Pekoe, or BOP. We ended our tour with a drink in the tea rooms. Sri Lankans drink Ceylon tea without milk and stew it lightly. Our guide told us that the tea pluckers earn only 500 rupees a day and live in shanties on the edge of the plantations. We saw some of these shanties from the road as we continued our journey – it certainly made me question why people are not prepared to pay more for tea.

 

We arrived at our overnight stop, the Heritance Tea Factory. The hotel is an old tea factory on a still functioning tea estate. We were greeted with a welcome drink of spiced tea and a traditional tea factory welcome of a dot of sandalwood on the forehead and a small handful of sugar, cumin and cardamom to chew. The hotel fully embraced the past of the building, retaining many original features, including a steam engine that was turned on for demonstration every day. The counters in the dining room were mock tea chests and staff dressed in tea factory workers uniform. There were many tea factory relics on show, including several pieces of equipment from Birmingham! The atmosphere of the hotel was fantastic, and what a view to wake up to...  

The next day, we took a visit to ‘little England’, a colonial town called Nuwara Eliya.  We sent postcards home from an old post office and had a look around The Grand Hotel; the oldest hotel in the area that was once the house of the British governor. The hotel was interesting in its grandeur and mock-Tudor architecture, but typically, I was drawn to the environmentally minded quotes hanging on the trees outside:

 

We also passed a waterfall that was huge in height, but with its fall broken by a series of pools. The local people found a range of uses for the waterfall, from washing themselves, to washing their clothes, to just having a great day out!