Things fivemack discovered today

[fivemack]

There is in fact a good reason why travelling without a vehicle is called 'backpacking' rather than 'large unwieldy duffel-bagging'; Ben has lent me Dad's large green backpack.

The Sot-Weed Factor, surpassing dense as it is in verbosity, is also much heavier even than most books its size.

Waterloo Station is next to the Great London Aquarium, so, after having to get to London two hours early because the trains stop running at noon, I ought to be able to get in an hour and a half of fish before getting on the Eurostar.

Itinerary

Saturday 8/9	On the sleeper Strasbourg->Vienna
9/9, 10/9	Porzellaneum hostel, Vienna
11/9	On the sleeper Vienna->Belgrade
12/9, 13/9, 14/9	Star Hostel, Belgrade
15/9, 16/9	Nis Hostel, Nis
17/9, 18/9	Mostel Hostel, Sofia
19/9	On the sleeper Sofia->Istanbul
20/9, 21/9, 22/9	Istanbul Hostel, 35 Kutlu Gun Sokak, Sultanahmet, Byzantium
23/9	Easyjet flight 2384 arr Luton Airport 1500

Hostels appear to have Internet even in the smaller cities of Serbia, so I'll probably post more from the Balkans than I usually do from England.

Comments

[darcydodo]

Ah, so you will be back by the time I'm in England. :)

[rwl.livejournal.com]

You might be interested in what tripadvisor.com has on the Vienna hostel:

Hostel Porzellaneum
"Worse than a dorm room"
Although this hotel....actually, it's a hostal....is in a safe neighborhood, the room was worse than my dorm room. It's really a small box with a cot, desk, and sink. The shared shower had no lock on it! And the toilet nearest my room was locked, so I had to go to the other side to use the toilet. There's no elevator, so it's a steep hike.

There weren't any reviews of the Nis or Belgrade hostels, but the ones in Sofia and Istanbul got some very positive reviews.

[fivemack.livejournal.com]

I suppose I am one of the few students who agree with Le Corbusier's belief that what students want is a monk's cell; the box with bed, desk and sink is suiting me fine here in Vienna, and on my floor the toilets and the showers are lockable and not permanently locked. There's no good common room here, which is a bit of a pity, but I can happily wander around Vienna on my own.

I picked the hostels from hostels.com which has a reasonable rating scheme; it's never yet given me a place as nasty as the Capel-y-Ffin hostel in Wales was.