Month One Recap

I’ve officially been on the road a month. It was a fantastic start to my year away. I embraced a bit of a slower pace, knowing that I have much more time, and spent time in smaller towns and cities not necessarily known for their tourism draws.

Places Visited

Ukraine:

Kiev: I started my trip off in Kiev. I’d been to the city before, so it was nice to be a bit familiar with the place.

Chernobyl: visiting Chernobyl and the exclusion zone has been on my list since I first visited Ukraine. I knew with the series on tv that it would get only more popular, and I wanted to visit it before tourist hordes descended on it and bureaucracy potentially ruined it in the name of ‘safety’ (😝).

I went with one of the most well-known companies, Chernobyl-tours, and was thoroughly impressed with the incredible tour. I know if I’m lucky enough to go a second time, that it probably won’t be the same. Nature is definitely taking over the buildings and due to structural damage, both naturally and due to cleaning and decontamination procedures, it definitely won’t be the same for long.

Chernivtsi: was my first ‘new’ city that I’d never been to before. I chose it basically because of its proximity to my next stop, and due to the fact that I could get a direct train between the two (this was later found to be not possible…hello crazy Ukrainian buses!). The first thing my hostel asked me when I arrived was ‘why come here?? There is nothing to do!’ But the town featured in my Movie Monday that week, and it was a charming place to stay for a few days!

Romania:

While I’d been to Sibiu and Bucharest before, I wanted to spend some more time in smaller centres and rural towns on this trip.

Cluj-Napoca: while not necessarily a small Center, this university-town had a great mix of young people, backpackers, and tourists. My hostel was right on the main pedestrian walk and it was really easy to get around.

Medias: my first taste of rural living. My goodness I missed wifi….but it was really relaxing, and I had a friendly owl who hung around right outside my window every morning and evening. The Airbnb I was in was connected to the town by a half hour walk through the woods. It was perfect!

Bâlea Lake: while definitely not super budget-friendly, I really wanted to drive the Transfagarasan road to Balea Lake. Similar to Banff or Lake Louise, the glacier-fed lake was a beautiful place to spend 24 hours.

Brasov: I arrived into Brasov just in time for a music and arts festival. My hostel was right in the middle of the action and I met many fellow travellers here, which always makes a trip exciting. The festival was all over the main pedestrian street, and it was free!

Sighisoara: I stayed in the old town here and it was so perfect for exploring the area. I went to the most amazing choir concert at the Church on the Hill here and the acoustics absolutely blew me away.

Bulgaria

Plovdiv: I’d wanted to visit this ancient city for several years, and I managed to get into town at the same time as another arts/culture/music festival. Plovdiv was chosen as Europe’s culture capital of 2019, so there was a lot going on in the city. I managed to see a cultural performance inside an actual ancient Roman amphitheater.

United Kingdom

I spend the last day of the month changing my trip groove by flying to London to surprise my cousins on the first stop of their European tour. Besides, how could I pass up another opportunity to see Cursed Child??? Answer: not possible.

Budgeting

I’ve made it my goal to try and document everything I spend on my year abroad. My goals is to stay within 50$ a day, with two exceptions (Antarctica, and the Indian Pacific train across Australia).

This month was overall a good month. I spent 1327.21$ coming out below budget. Here’s how it broke down:

Accomodation: 540$ (mostly hostels, with one Airbnb)

Long Distance Travel: (darn you, overnight train from Warsaw to Kiev…that ate up half of this cost…) 298.41$

Food (restaurant): 237.30$

Food (grocery store): 127.11$

Local Transport: (bus, metro, Uber) 38.63$

Entertainment: (walking tour guide tips, random concerts, other things requiring admission) 72.54$

Miscellaneous: (laundry, etc)13.22$

Favourites

Favourite Meal: Roata in Cluj-Napoca. This restaurant was recommended to me by my free tour guide and it was incredible, though tricky to find!

Favourite Tourist Experience: Chernobyl. Chernobyl was incredible. Interesting, with an amazing guide and tour, and surprisingly peaceful. With just a hint of creepy doll factor ;).

Favourite Random Experience: a tie between finally meeting up with my friend and her mom in Kiev, and randomly coming across a trumpet player playing a beautiful, haunting melody from the top of the city hall tower in Chernivtsi.

What I Read:

This month, I took a slight detour from my travel books to read a new book from one of my favourite authors that I’d been saving for ‘beach reading’. Now. I’m at a beach almost never so it was my book of choice for my stay in Medias. Every Note Played by Lisa Genova is a story about a well-known concert pianist who develops ALS. My uncle passed away in April of this year from the disease, so it was especially interesting to read from the point of view from a person slowly being taken over by it. Definitely one to check out!

And that concludes month one on the road!