What it’s really like to travel around Europe on a gap year

Museums, carnivals, and five-storey clubs! Europe was the first continent I wanted to discover, so with a backpack almost as big as I was and my cousin by my side, I set out on the first grand adventure of my gap year.

Paris

The city of love and lights. As two people who were not in love, I can’t tell you about the romance of Paris, but certainly the city lights up and you can feel the magic when the sun sets.

Looking back on it, I don’t think I appreciated this place as much as I should have (I’d put that down to my amateur status as a newly fledged traveller). We were still getting used to reading maps, understanding the public transport, carrying our huge bags and, most importantly, budgeting. During the planning stage of our trip, we set ourselves a daily budget for food, trips, transport and the odd drink. Some days we came in under budget, which helped cover the days when we inevitably spent a bit more.

As all tourists should do, we went to the Eiffel Tower, but unlike most visitors, we decided to join the shorter queue and take the stairs to the second floor. It’s cheaper than taking the lift, though prices change, so check the official Eiffel Tower website before you go. As an impatient person, I was more than happy to climb, with the added bonus of working off the Nutella and cream crepes we’d consumed on the way there.

Our hostel was in Montmartre, the art district of Paris – only a 5 minute walk to the Sacré-Cœur Basilica and the Dali museum, a 15 minute walk from the Moulin Rouge, and a short metro journey to Notre Dame. I imagine that the lines to get into the Basilica and Notre Dame would be horrific in summer, but in autumn we found it was quick and worth it to have a cheeky look around and see the beauty of the glass windows and the interior architecture.

Food in Paris was expensive, but luckily our hostel had a guest kitchen, so we could make our own food for the whole day. Depending on your budget and appetite you can decide when to eat out and when to save money at the expense of your taste buds... there’s usually a lot of pasta and bread with cheese, but it also depends on the facilities at the hostel.

Amsterdam

The moment you arrive in Amsterdam, you feel welcomed. There is a buzz of excitement but also a very relaxed and youthful vibe. When arriving in a new city, it can be quite daunting to decide where to go and what to do, especially for a night out! I’d recommend doing a bar crawl – yes, sometimes they can be lame, but it gives you a good idea of places to go the following nights, you get to meet fellow travellers, plus you usually get a free T-shirt... and who doesn’t like free stuff? Depending on when you visit, you might also find seasonal events, markets or fairground rides around the city, so it’s worth checking what’s on before you go.

Obviously, there are tons of things apart from drinking to do in Amsterdam. It’s relatively simple and cheap to hire a bike for the day and explore the city’s streets and parks, for example Vondelpark. Just be aware that some bike hire companies may ask for a deposit or ID, so check the terms before you book. On the way to Vondelpark, you’ll also be close to the Museumplein area, where you’ll find the Van Gogh Museum and plenty of places to grab food nearby. As with many popular tourist attractions these days, it’s worth booking tickets online in advance if you really want to go.

If you get tired of bikes there are also canal cruises, giving you another perspective of the city. The Anne Frank House is also very culturally significant, however due to lack of funds – and patience, on my part – we gave it a miss. The Temple of Venus is another well-known Amsterdam museum but check the current entry price before you go.

Our hostel, St Christopher’s Inn at The Winston, was by far my favourite hostel. It had its own bar, and a nightclub attached to it. The rooms were big and the beds were comfortable. St Christopher’s is a hostel chain, with locations in Prague, Paris, London and our next stop...

Berlin

Physically drained from a weekend of partying in Amsterdam, we gave Berlin’s night life a miss, even though everyone we met highly recommended it. One club stays open the whole weekend, so if you really feel like it you can party on a Sunday afternoon! Another one is so exclusive that if the bouncer doesn’t like what you’re wearing, he won’t let you in (even if you waited 2 hours in absolute silence in the queue)!

Though we didn’t do much in the evenings, our days were always busy. A good way to explore a city with so much history is to do a walking tour. SANDEMANs offer tips-based free tours in several European cities, so although there’s no set upfront fee, it’s expected that you tip your guide if you enjoyed it. SANDEMANs also operate in cities such as Amsterdam, Barcelona, Lisbon, and Prague, to name a few.

We spent a whole day at the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. It’s a vast area of grey concrete blocks. As you walk through the ground undulates, and the grey blocks begin to tower over you, disorientating you, making you bump into people and feel the claustrophobia. It is symbolic of different things, depending who you talk to. Some say it represents a ghetto, some a concentration camp, while others think the maze-like structure is more symbolic of the uncertainty faced by those who were persecuted. There's also a free museum underneath the memorial. One room’s floor is lined with accounts/letters/diary entries of the men, women and children who faced the Holocaust. It really deepens your understanding of the people and families affected.

Prague

If I had to recommend one city to visit, it would be Prague. Not only is it astonishingly beautiful, with its gothic architecture, winding river and castle, but it is also affordable and offers a great night out. Karlovy Lázně describes itself as the biggest music club in Central Europe, with five music clubs across five floors The entry fee gets you into four out of the five, as the bottom floor is the ice bar.

The only thing we spent money on in Prague was a river cruise, which as a student you get a discount for. Student discounts are available in plenty of places across Europe, so it’s worth carrying valid student ID and asking before you buy tickets. The rest of the time we just wandered the streets of the old town and new town as well as the Jewish quarter. The astronomical clock is definitely worth a look, and Charles Bridge – which is beautifully gothic and lined with artists and little stalls – has a great view down the river. Each day we visited Choco Cafe, which not only had the best macarons I’ve ever eaten in my life, but also has delicious homemade iced tea.

After a long train ride we finally reached what we thought would be our last stop…

Venice

Again, you could spend all day walking through the little alley ways and window shopping, getting lost in between the lanes and crossing bridge after bridge. Like Paris, however, it's a place I think would be best to visit with a partner, as it's the ultimate romantic destination. As it was our last stop, though, it was nice to just relax, drink wine and eat some yummy Italian food!

The Rialto Bridge and St Mark's Square are two of Venice’s most famous spots. I was slightly underwhelmed by them both, perhaps because they were swarming with tourists and souvenir stalls, so you couldn’t really get a taste for their actual beauty.

So, our trip was coming to an end – although we’d had the best time and learnt so many things, we were ready to go home. Unfortunately, on our train home, people broke into our cabin and stole our handbags with our passports and train tickets in. They were probably just after money, but jokes on them (‘cause I was certainly not laughing) – we didn’t have any money left. It hasn’t put me off travelling at all, and it shouldn’t for you either. It was human error; we got too comfortable and forgot there are bad people out there. If you take anything from this article, let it be this... separate all your important documents, tickets, money and bank cards!

So now a sixth city was added to our little adventure, Munich, but that is a story for another time…