Review of an Epic Journey of Discovery...

Remember this is a blog & it updates backwards! Go to the bottom and find the first post if you want to get the gist of this in sequence...

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As promised, to-day I will give a quick review of my epic journey across Central Europe & UK  with some hints & tips for future reference.

David has suggested a map with destinations visited marked on it. Good idea, but I have no idea how to do that! I would love to see for myself, just where I ended up at times when I got it wrong...

Overall, a quick recap.

• 60 days
• Low cost...only my pension plus about $27 Au$d a day extra for 60 days...That is about $30 a week to save for a year...which is the equivalent to my ski holiday to Blue Cow annually!...plus of course, the airfare & insurance...which was under $1900.00 all up.  
• So for $70 a week saved, anyone on the pension can do a trip like this if they want to. 
• Once you're over there, it's easy to get around...especially using Eurolines in Europe & Mega Bus in UK.
• Food on the hop is cheap if you visit local supermarkets & eat like you would at home, allowing your self a treat every few days.
• I didn't venture into too many eating frenzies as most of the difference in foods was the enormous range of breads in Central Europe, cheese options to confuse a connoisseur & cold meat  varieties to satisfy any experiment! I restrict cheese at the best of times (no gall bladder, remember), don't eat processed meats...(not good for you) & of course, don't eat breads. So, fruits & vegies & basic fresh meats were the order of the day for me. 
• Rice cakes were hard to find outside of Vienna & rice pasta was non existent.
• Most Hostels supply breakfast of cereals, breads, cheeses, jam, milk tea & coffee & have good kitchens, with ovens, where you can meet other people & cook up a storm if you want to save heaps of money. Some kids lived on $2.00 pizzas, pasta & rice for their short stays. $3.00 a day for food!
• Apart from the airfares, my trip worked out at $67.00 a day all up...which includes accommodation, bus & train fares all over, the Ball & Concerts in Vienna, a new travel case, a pair of boots, a new jumper & top from Prague, some type of small souvenirs from each city, 4 cook books & a music CD from Vienna, Phantom of The Opera tickets in London, Tours in most cities & Day Tours in Salzburg & Munich, 3 in Vienna & Budapest, entry to lots of Palaces, glasses of bubbly a couple of times a week, basic good food & a few eat out treats on occasion.
• Favourite Places... Vienna, Oberammagau in Lower Bavaria & the snow.
• Place I'd go back to... Vienna & London
• Why...Vienna is beautiful, clean, has lots of fresh, good food, lots of concerts, has an amazing Ball culture in beautiful venues, like Palaces & Opera Houses, has wonderful & accessible Palaces, lots of chandeliers & is the big Centre for Eurolines buses to destinations all over Europe.
• When am I going back?...Next Ball season. I'd like to attend The Doctors Ball again, then The Coffee Makers Ball & The Masked Ball.
• Places I'd like to have stayed in longer...Munich & London.
• Things I wish I'd done & didn't... Nothing.
• Things I'd change or do next time...Probably go with a guided tour for 3 weeks to some area of interest from Vienna. I found I was a bit lazy & didn't do as much as I could have had I been encouraged by others in a group type situation. I have no regrets tho!
• There are heaps of cheap tours available all over Europe when you are over there.
• Hosteling was great, easily found, safe, warm, cozy & secure, averaging 12 Euro a night. 
• Some in Edinburgh were 6 pounds a night, while others I stayed in for ease, like London, were 14 pounds a night...all had free WiFi & breakfasts.
• A couple I stayed at ...Interlaken in Switzerland & Inverness in Scotland, were 22 pounds a night, as there wasn't much competition & they were the least sparkly clean, but still very good.
• Linen is changed when you leave. You pull the doona covers off, remove the pillow case & bottom sheet & hand it back with your room key upon checking out, which is usually 10 am.
• Check in is from about 1-3 pm, but if you arrive early at say 8am, all hostels take your gear & hold it free of charge, while you tour around & come back at check in time or later.
• On departure day, they hold your gear, free of charge again if you want, until you come back to collect it & head off on your bus, train or plane.
• Generally most were very sparkly clean, especially in Vienna, Salzburg, one in Edinburgh, called THE HOSTEL (the other 2 hostels I stayed in at Edinburgh was that funny one with the weird paintings all over it & the other, a converted Church), Munich & Galway Bay, which was possibly the best set up overall.
• Most hostels you can stay for long term & work in to pay for your room/bed.
• I will Hostel in Vienna again next year as good Hostels in Vienna are only 10 Euro a night. The Huttledorff  has a great supermarket close by & is close to the train/underground station.
• Then I think 2 weeks in Vienna in a Hostel, then find a 2-3 week guided tour of an area I'd like to visit in detail & then do a week of recon via hostels, for the next annual Vienna pilgrimage & tour that newly discovered area in depth etc. 

My trip was to serve 2 purposes only.

• The First was to go to the Ball in a Palace in Vienna & dance/waltz under the crystal chandeliers.
• The Second was to find out if I "belonged" over there somewhere. 
• I have always felt out of place here in Aus & have always wondered why or if I was meant to live elsewhere, hence the continual urge with these gypsy feet of mine.
• I found my answer in Edinburgh at a WiFi cafe as I was ordering a bus to Inverness. (Got the ticket online, 2 hrs before departure at half price too).
• A young lady was chatting with me about her similar dilemma & was bemoaning the fact she felt without roots anywhere ...
• I thought "that sounds familiar" & listened as she shared her feelings. I was suddenly inspired to say to her...
• "You will find your roots where your real soul passion can be expressed. Be it a cause, a mission, a career, family or a purpose.
• Some people discover looking after family is their passion root/anchor, others find over time that it is a certain path in life which is to be their anchor. 
• You must climb every mountain, cross every stream & follow every rainbow, until you find your anchor (dream), otherwise you will develop all manner of ailments, disease, addictions & illnesses, as your soul will be yearning for it's outward expression of the purpose & reason your soul is within your body.
• Your body will wither & die from diseases caused by your minds trying to compensate for "disappointments" caused by the soul's lack of fulfillment.
• Hope put off, makes the heart grow sick, but when it comes, it is a tree of life". 
•  
• As soon as I said that, I knew what to do & where I belonged! 
• It was amazing & I felt a great awareness, confidence & peace settle over me & I was then in a hurry to get back to Australia.
• The girl starred in amazement at me & said  "Thank-you, so much...You have given me my answer I have been searching for, for such a long time"
• I said to her..."I got mine too"!
• The actual place I was to live in/at became irrelevant for the immediate future. 
• It was WHAT I was to do that became the driving force for me, altho' I had always known that, but somehow felt I had to move around to find "where" to do it whilst doing it or even before doing it!
• Not so.
• Then as soon as I got to the next WiFi area (my hostel) in Inverness, an email came regarding an invite to a free seminar on the very subject I had chosen to follow as my passion & it was for the Thursday after I got back & 2 days before the cruise!
• So...All has been accomplished now. 
• The trip was a great success & achieved all I hoped for & I had a few bonuses thrown in too...
• Elaine in Ireland, crossing one of the seas in a ferry, seeing Phantom in West End, King Ludwig's Castle in Lower Bavaria & many other wonderful things I am so grateful for.

One thing which made me do this trip & not live it out in my mind like I had done for far too many years was a little thing I read on the power of imagination while studying meta physics, which I love to learn about.
The mind is very powerful, beyond our limited comprehension and this tiny paragraph stirred me into action & I was on the trip within 3-4 months of reading the following....
It said;

"You can visualize & imagine any manner of things, achieve great satisfaction & even a certain amount of fulfillment from continually recounting well envisioned thoughts. 

But you must actually DO the things in your mind to gain the learnings that will allow you to understand & recognise the next steps on your life journey.

Only fears will hold you back. So don't allow fear to be your master. 
Go, learn & gain entry to the next steps on your life journey towards your soul's fulfillment"...


So, I did & have!

Things to be aware of when traveling like I did will be covered to-morrow.