Travel!

This time I am going to write about travel opportunities that one has while studying in Konstanz. The city is located in the heart of Europe. It is only a few hours drive from the Alps, which you can see from the city, and a few hours from several other countries. Coming here is a great choice if one wants to travel, but only in certain ways. The city does not lie on a major train line, so one has to switch trains if they are traveling far. It also means that train tickets are more expensive that if one was in a larger city. The nearest airport is Zurich, but it can be expensive to fly in and out of. It is only an hour away however, which is quite handy. A bus service called Flixbus has three stops in Konstanz. This is the cheapest way to travel around, and unlike in the US, intercity buses are not a dirty and even dangerous affair like in the US ( greyhound for example). Flix Buses are notoriously late however, so the cheap cost does come at a price in its own way.

Currently, I am planning to travel around part of central Europe and then to Italy with several friends. There is a two week break between GO-Konstanz and the beginning of the semester, because there is another shorter orientation program at that time. This is the perfect opportunity to travel, and you better believe that everyone is taking advantage of it. Almost everyone from GO Konstanz seems to be panning trips, especially those of us from off continent. Some are going to Spain or Ireland or Latvia. So if one does Go Konstanz, you may want to start thinking of where you want to go during your two weeks. Why stick around Konstanz during the only break in classes that you are going to get? There is four months to see the city later. It will also only getting warmer and nicer as time goes on. It is still gray and cold here right now.

The trip that we are planning is to Czechia, Poland, Hungary, and then Italy. We are going east first, because generally the more east you go in Europe the cheaper everything becomes. Or so they say. The Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary all use different currencies than the Euro, so that will be a challenge. We are only in each for a few days, so I do not want to waste money buy withdrawing to much and them having to convert it. This is made easier by the fact I had to get an account with Deutsche bank for my residents permit. This bank has branches all over Europe. We are going to be taking the FlixBus for most of the trip, because it is so much cheaper than the train. The most expensive ticket is from Hungary to Florence, which was about 50 Euro. But by train or plane it would have been hundreds most likely.

Interestingly, we will never be leaving the EU, so we will not be going through any customs checkpoints. We are told that we still need to bring our passports however, just in case something happens or there are random checks. Apparently the German police do sometimes check buses, in the wake of the immigration crisis. So that is something to be cautious of when one is over here. The EU is not a country, even though we sometimes may think of it as such. Each state is still its own sovereign body.

Another thing worth noting is that European countries are tiny compared to the US. So traveling between 5 countries in 2 weeks is not an impossible task. Our longest ride is supposed to be 12 hours by bus, or about the amount of time it takes to drive from Pheionix to San Fransico. So anyone coming to Konstanz should not consider themself limited to Germany and Switzerland in terms of traveling, all of Europe is open to you.

A veiw looking accross the lake from Meersburg, a good place to take a short trip from Konstanz