Misadventures Had and Lessons Learned From 8 Days in Germany
If you know me, then you know I’m detail-oriented… except for when it comes to planning a trip. I prefer my trips to be spontaneous and go-with-the-flow rather than planned out down to every detail.
In 2016, I paid for a $400 round-trip flight from LAX to Berlin, Germany, on a whim. I had no intention of going to Germany until a flight deal passed across my lap, and I couldn’t help but grab the opportunity with both hands. The same happened earlier that same year when an error fare from LAX to Vancouver, Canada, came across my newsfeed on Facebook. (That trip was $46 round-trip for those of you wondering.)
I have found that if you are open to traveling whenever to wherever, then you can stumble across an incredible opportunity. That’s how I’m jet-setting off to Iceland in just under two weeks for $350 round-trip ($60 of which was the travel insurance just in case I had to cancel- which I have zero intentions of doing, but it makes me feel more secure in my purchase).
Lessons Learned From Not Planning My Trip to Germany
As someone who loves spontaneity, when it comes to actually hammering out the details for a trip I get easily overwhelmed. For my trip to Germany, my older sister gave me Rick Steve’s: Germany, and I can guarantee that I opened it up less than a handful of times. Seriously, I went to Germany for 8 days with only one goal: to see Neuschwanstein- the castle the Disney castle was based on. I had no other tangible plans. The only thing I used from the book was the name of one hostel: the Circus Hostel where my brother and I spent our first night in Germany.
I can guarantee that Germany was a major experiment. I had never been to Europe, and I had never been solely in charge of planning a trip before- my older sister planned our trip to Vancouver down to the last detail.
As a first-time trip planner (with a lackadaisical attitude towards setting my plans in stone) and a first-time adventurer to Europe, here are some of the lessons I learned:
My brother and I at the top of TV Tower... notice the backpack straps.
Hostels have lockers to store your bags during the day, so you absolutely DON’T have to carry them around with you all day and look like an idiot as you have to unzip every compartment of your bag to go through security to go inside Berlin’s TV Tower (true story).
Buy your train tickets ahead of time or else you’ll be taking an overnight bus from Berlin to Munich and spending your first day in Munich exhausted and sleeping in the lobby of your hostel because check-in isn’t until 3 p.m. and you got to the hostel after a long walk from the bus stop at 6 a.m.
Public restrooms cost money, so always carry change with you. Luckily this was the one thing I was prepared for.
It’s open seating at Hofbräuhaus (a beer hall in Munich), so find a table and sit down or else you’re going to be looking around with a confused look on your face until a waiter takes pity on you and finds you a seat.
Also, expect to start having so much fun at Hofbräuhaus that you don’t realize what time it is until the waiters are politely telling you it’s 2 a.m. and you don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay there.
Public restrooms aren’t open after 2 a.m. I’m pretty sure whoever thought of that has a good laugh every morning at 2 a.m. as drunken foreigners stumble around looking for a bathroom.
The giant pretzel we bought but never ended up eating.
But, what I also learned from my misadventures and lack of planning is that while things may be rough in the moment, the memories that I made that I can now laugh at (like how I didn’t realize that both the push and pull sides of a door in Germany have handles so you will feel ridiculous when you pull the handle and the door doesn’t open).
Admittedly, though, while the last-minute decisions of Germany were exciting, I can safely say I’m putting a bit more thought into my solo trip to Iceland.