Find the Country That Speaks to You, It Doesn't Cost All You Would Think

Everyone has a sculpted idea of backpacking Europe nowadays; shaped by the travel vloggers and Instagrammers that stimulate our senses and give us a quick hit of dopamine everyday as we scroll and absorb, scroll and absorb. You can make your journey as glamorous or as gritty as you please, this does depend on your budget of money and time.

Europe is a wonderful part of the world to travel, and is suitable for beginners or experienced travellers as it is so easy to navigate through. There is so much diversity within the continents parameters! There are 40-50 countries in Europe, most of which have their own language, and all have their own culture and customs. If you aren't prepared to learn key words and phrases in other languages, then you may struggle, but I'll talk about that some other time...

I have come across older travellers, who make it clear that before social media and modern technology, backpacking Europe had so many obstacles to jump around, just the effort of contacting family took a lot of work. But what I have thought about vastly; is how different the travellers of as little as 10 years ago, are to the travellers of today. Social media gives a large percentage of the population a platform, and with this comes the opportunity to boast to their "friends" and followers about the places they've seen and experienced through the lens of their camera.

I appreciate that people work really hard to make a living off sharing their experiences and inspiring others: which is awesome! It is these people that have lead to my discovery of Hostelworld, a must have for all who plan to visit anywhere!

The automatic response to planning a backpackers trip is to go Interrailing (Eurail), and although I have not personally done this (yet), I think it is quite expensive, compared with my own experience, and it requires you to spend a certain amount of time travelling, and a lot of people can't afford to take a month or three out of work. Other forms of transport such as buses and coaches tend to be overlooked.

Trains are faster, yes, but if you want to explore part of Europe in depth, as opposed to simply visiting its capital, and you want to capture the essence of a country or two, then taking a bit longer with coach journeys is the way to go. They feel more safe and comfortable, there are fewer stops, and you get dropped off in the outside world; no fighting your way through a foreign train station after you've been sat down for hours!

I had flown to the Netherlands from Bristol, England and was visiting a friend studying in Rotterdam. As we sat at Vicky's kitchen table after a few nights of going to exhibition openings and bars, lakes and food markets, I wanted more! Once you're in mainland Europe everything feels so close and is so accessible. I wasn't flying back for another 6 days, and Vicky had a week off school, so we made the decision to hop around some cities and get inspired!

Explore your own bubble as you find yourself in the lesser known cities with fewer tourists.

It took me about an hour to book 5 days of travel; 4 cities for £100 each, that's including accommodation too! We went from Rotterdam to Cologne; had two days here, then to Frankfurt, Brussels, ending in Amsterdam. I'll let you know the impression each city had on me:

• Cologne was a strange Germanic combination of the narrow old streets of Gràcia in Barcelona, and the openness of downtown Copenhagen... and I absolutely fell in love! For me, a city isn't my kind of place unless it leads to the ocean, and the River Rhine is best experienced after taking a walk across the well-photographed and of course padlock-riddled, Hohenzollern Bridge and sitting on the large stone steps watching the sun set behind the cathedral. We lost two hours just watching the world go by from this spot.
• Frankfurt was Vicky's favourite. A European mini Manhattan, with skyscrapers filling the blue sky, in contrast with the middle-age Römerberg in Altstadt (old town). Take a walk down the Frankfurt am Main river and this German city still strangely resembles New York City, with its wooded pathways littered with autumn leaves, it also took me back to the times I had previously spent in pleasantly serene Dutch cities.
• Brussels did not gain any fans from our visit, we had a good time checking out its few tourist attractions, but as girls who like to save money on public transport and walk through cities to get a feel for them, this is not something I recommend for this Belgian city. We also found it quite funny being two British girls wandering round the EU epicentre, mid Brexit, especially as our Prime Ministers being there meant we had a 45 minute detour because the metro station closest to her was closed.
• Amsterdam unfortunately had miserable weather, luckily I had been a year or two before and still had a fantastic view of this whimsical yet crowded city, and Vicky was only living an hour away. During this short stay we decided to visit some of the random attractions that you find in small houses along the canal, such as a tulip museum and cheese museum, the latter had some of the friendliest people we had come across and also meant Vicky could skip lunch after the dairy consumption! We only managed until mid afternoon until we retreated back to Rotterdam to sleep the week off, before I flew back the next morning.

All of our hostels were great, one big tip for choosing hostels is to book somewhere with a free breakfast, we only did for one of our 3 stays, but it's a great start to the day and saves having to find somewhere to eat in the morning when you want to go exploring.

I am going to sign off with a final top tip for anyone who plans to travel by coach... please check that the hostel you arrive at has a 24 hour reception if you are getting to the city at a stupid time of day! Arriving in Frankfurt at midnight was no problem, but finding your Belgian hostel closed at 5am because you forgot to check is a real morale-killer, and sleeping in a train station among the countless homeless people in Brussels is not something your parents want to here about your backpacking 'round Europe!

For coach travel we used Flixbus, cheap and easy in this part of Europe!