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Many years ago, when I was much younger I read a book entitled "Europe in 50 $ a day". It was not a Canadian book, therefore the currency was in US dollars. The author did not mention camping ground at all but highlight places where one could eat decent meals and stayed at budget hotels. I knew before I went backpacking to Europe that it would be impossible these days to budget 50 dollars per day in Europe unless you are still young and healthy, thus can carry your "food and lodge" in your backpack. That was what we, Cecilia and I did, starting our journey of a lifetime, May 5, 2002 from Toronto to Zurich, Switzerland.

Knowing I could still portage a canoe (don't tell people that it is a Kevlar one :-)), I know I can put our three-season tent, sleeping bag, Therm-a-rest (for non-camper readers: it is a sleeping pad), cooking set, stove, eating utensils, and most important, FOOD in my backpack. At the end of our European trip on May 22, when I did the final calculation of our expenses, we spent an average of US$ 80 per day. We didn't really 'live miserably', we were only cautious in our expenses. If we had to spend, like celebrating our 27th wedding anniversary in Milan (Father Kusmaryanto can testify) we didn't hesitate to eat in a fancy restaurant :-). When it was our belief that it was worth it to buy a package deal like the Salzburg 3 days card for visiting all the museums and other major tourist attractions, we bought the 32 Euro ticket. Yes, we didn't spend $ 500 on a La Scala opera ticket in Milan but we had free musical symphony concert in the famous and beautiful cathedral (called Duomo).

We didn't enter Europe through the front door nor did we go through the back door or the cheapest way but rather we came through the side door. Hence, it will be my story's title of our journey of the spring time of Anno Domini 2002 in Europe. Sit tight my friends, this story will be as exciting as Mr. Lantern Coleman's one if not more :-). Because of my love for my Canadian and native English speaker friends that I am writing this story in my second language despite the fact that I am a better writer in Indonesian :-). Let me begin with sharing our trip planning a bit with you.

As you all know, because I am a retiree now and Cecilia is her own boss at home, we have a lot of flexibility in our trip length. However, being a devout Catholic my wife wanted to come back to Toronto before the World Youth Day 2002 event so that she can meet the Pope again. We met or rather saw him last on May 10, 2000 when we were in Rome celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary. We also knew we wanted to stay for about a month in Indonesia so that we would have enough time to meet our families and friends. Thus, we planned to be around (but not more than) 3 weeks in Europe and later on around 2 weeks in Australia and New Zealand. This would leave about a month in Indonesia, our birthplaces.

After reading about 10 Lonely Planet books on Europe, also having been to some other countries, we picked Switzerland, Italy and Austria as the 3 countries and chose Zurich, Milan, Venice, Vienna and Salzburg as the 5 cities we would be staying. Yes, this way we (started to) saved on the Eurailpass ticket because there was a special fare of visiting 3 countries in 5 days train travel. It was also a good deal because the ticket was first class fare. If your age is beyond 50 like ours :-), we recommend first class fare Eurorail ticket rather than a second class. It was much worth it, especially when we took the night train from Venice to Vienna (I will tell you more about this). So, our schedule in Europe was quite set. We intentionally left it open as to how many days we would spend in each of the 5 cities. The Canadians say, let's play by the ear or rather as it turned out by the cost of the enjoyment :-).

That's for now. In the next episode I will share with you our Zurich camping experiences. If you recall or are aware of, Cecilia and I fought before we went. In my opinion she was sissy, not willing to walk 4 km from Zurich train station to the campsite. In her opinion, of course I was wrong :-). Wait how this battle turned out to be :-).

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