September saw a big increase in my travel speed and distance covered. I visited 14 cities and 5 countries in 30 days. Woah! I also saw an increase in my money spent as the UK, Iceland, and Ireland, are all very expensive countries.
Going into the fall, I had about two weeks of downtime between attending the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh and meeting friends in Iceland. As I stared at a map, trying to decide where to go (seriously!), I considered many options. I’d never been to Spain and I could travel Madrid to Barcelona, then down the southern coast to Gibraltar, and maybe even make it over to Morocco! Or I could get down to southern Italy as I’d never made it beyond Rome — Sicily in the fall is supposed to be stunning. Or I could travel through the rest of the United Kingdom and cross over to Ireland, finally seeing the rest of the British Isles. Ultimately I chose this last plan as it involved little additional transit and kept me well positioned for a short flight to the land of always winter.
Ireland Grand Tour
I crossed into England at the end of August to meet up with a friend from Thailand who is living and working in Manchester this fall. We had a crazy couple of days as she showed me all the hip bars, restaurants, cafes, and bars (ha!) all over that exciting city. Next stop was Liverpool, where I spent a couple days shopping for winter clothing as my lightweight travel gear was not cutting it in the crisp air. And it was only going to get colder as my plans to stay in Europe looked like they would last until November!
Newly equipped with a sturdy fleece and a down jacket, I took the inter-island ferry over to Dublin. I didn’t have any advance plans or really any idea of what there was to see in Ireland other than I had heard of the Blarney Stone and that the country is really green. After a decent amount of reading and shedding of my ignorance, I decided the best way would be to spend a week exploring the rugged west coast of the country with a rental car then looping up to Northern Ireland and doing the same along the northern coast.
My week on the Wild Atlantic Way in Ireland was a highlight of my month. The sheer cliffs fall straight into the sea as rough waves carve them ever inland. Rain pelted me nearly every day, only to clear as the sun began to set, just in time for me to grab my camera and run outside. I made some of my favorite photos of the year and could have easily spent a month there uncovering all there is to see on that magical island. There’s always next time.
Drenched in Iceland
Iceland – also known as oh-my-God-expensive-land. I loved my too short time there exploring the quaint Reykjavik, hot-spring-bagging, eating fermented raw shark (blech!) and being awed by stunning sight after stunning sight. But my friends and I were floored by the price of everything. We had all been warned, but didn’t think it would be so insane.
How bad was it? How about $14 for a standard-sized smoothie, $15 for a bowl of soup, $10 for a just decent beer, and the list goes on and on. We ate at restaurants in gas stations, as that appears to be where they are located in tiny towns, and still paid inordinate amounts for not that much food.
That being said, I would love to return and continue exploring some of the wacky and alien cultural and geographical experiences. As I only had a long weekend, I didn’t get out as far afield as I would have liked. Ideally, I think a week would be sufficient to see the entirety of the country. We did however, have a few adventures in our short time there, exploring an eery plane crash and seeking out hidden natural hot springs off the tourist track.
Ein Prosit!
In my original itinerary, Oktoberfest had been one of the cornerstone stops, one of the non-negotiable features on my yearlong journey.
You see, one of my friends from the frequent traveler world, who I met during the planning and research phase of my trip, makes yearly pilgrimages to the world’s largest beer fest. It should be telling that nearly every time we’d hung out in the States had been over a pint of beer. So the thought of meeting up in Germany to drink an unholy volume of beer made total sense. So the tentative bookings and reservations were made nearly 8 months before the planned dates.
By the time we made it to Munich, my excitement and curiosity had built to extreme levels. And yet all the research and advice couldn’t have prepared me for the experience of walking down the midway and into the first of many beer tents I visited in my three days on the festival grounds.
The sheer scale, logistics, and mass of humanity smashed into the 27 tents was astounding. One day, we spent 12 hours in the Paulaner Winzerer Fähndl tent, the absolute largest at the fest seating over 8500 people! During the height of the festival, 4 million, yes million, pints of beer are consumed on a daily basis. If you like beer, you must make it to Munich for Oktoberfest at least once in your lifetime. Or if you’re like my crazy friend, 4 times so far with plans to return in 2 years!
Countries Visited: 5
England (UK), Ireland, Northern Ireland (UK), Iceland, Germany, Czech Republic
Cities Visited: 15
Manchester, Liverpool, Dublin, Cork, Killarney, Cahersiveen, Dingle, Ennis, Galway, Belfast, Bushmills, Reykjavik, Munich, Oy-Mittleberg, Prague.
Budgeting
Accommodation:
$392.83 or $13.09 per day Dorms cost $10 to $25 in the UK and Ireland, inline with what I was expecting. In Iceland, I helped a friend out with some tech stuff and in exchange he let me stay with him for free. In Germany I booked a couple nights on points and then we had a massive AirBnB for 6 people out in the countryside for a night for only $23 a person. At the very end of the month, I was paying less than $10 a night in Prague!
Food:
$509.98 or $17.00 per day I did ok on food in Ireland, as I tried to cook as often as possible in the hostels I stayed in. Most days while in Europe, I will eat breakfast at hostels that include it, lunch out on the town, then cook dinner back at my accommodation. While in Iceland, however, I didn’t do any cooking and ended up spending $40 a day on food, oof! Germany was a bit above average, but only because of the festival season. In general, I find it a fairly affordable country.
Transport:
$633.83 or $21.13 per day Wowzers, I racked up a serious bill in Transport in September! You can thank the difficulty in getting around the UK and Ireland without a car. I ended up renting a car both in Ireland and Northern Ireland. Many of the places I wanted to see would have been next to impossible without a rental. Not to mention how much more expensive gas is than in the States. People back home need to seriously lay off complaining about $4 per gallon gas when it’s 4 times the price in the UK. Only saving grace is that cars in Europe are so much more fuel efficient!
Entertainment:
$361.03 or $12.03 per day Like nearly every other category this month, entertainment was up over August. Beer, my main cost here, is pricey in the UK, Ireland, and Iceland. $5-$7 per pint in the UK and Ireland, then try $15 in Iceland! Suffice to say I didn’t drink much beer there. I also spent $40 to see and swim in the Blue Lagoon which felt way overpriced. In Germany, Oktoberfest ran me about $60 a day for two days. Again much higher than my normal budget, but so worth it.
Miscellaneous:
$39.92 or $1.33 per day Nothing exciting here, just some toiletry refills and a SIM card in Germany.
Total
$1937.60 or $64.59 per day This month I ended about $500 above my target. Given the countries I visited, I’m not all that surprised! But October should offset the high spend as Eastern Europe is much cheaper than Western Europe.
Next Month
I’m all over a new part of the globe in October. I’ve started my Eastern Europe tour in Prague over the last couple of days and will be bouncing around the former Iron Curtain bloc over the course of the month. This schedule is pretty loose but I hope to spend about 4 days or so for each of these places. And I even have a few extra days at the end of the month to figure out where I’m going in November.
