Travel eco-friendly!


Climate change is a serious environmental threat, and air travel is the fastest-growing contributor to the problem. If possible, please try to avoid using plane as a mean of transport when arriving to the workcamp of your choice. Besides bus and train there is also another alternative - car sharing!

It is adventurous and definitely more eco-friendly way of travelling. Check www.taxistop.be . Click on “Eurostop”, sign up for free and check whom you can join / who wants to join you. Car sharing is unique chance both for drivers and for passengers. Drivers can recover (3 Euro per person per 100 km) their travel expenses by offering empty seats. For passengers it is a pleasant and particularly cheap way to get everywhere in Europe. Maybe there is someone driving the same direction as your workcamp.

(Taxistop is a non-profit organisation that is active since 1978 under the motto "more with less”. The purpose of Taxistop is to realize projects that will improve the use of existing goods and means.)

 

Albania

-         There is no reason to be afraid, maybe just little bit more careful.

 

Belgium

-         Mobile phone and enough money is very useful, it is good to communicate and ask people

-         Use mostly subway (it is complicated with trams)

-         They have double-decker trains

-         Chocolate, weather

-         Everything is French-Dutch, so no English

-         Brussels is not very nice but it is good to see Antwerp, Gent, Bruges

-         There are very nice children in Muslim district

 

Bosnia and Herzegovina

-         travelling - ask the locals  → important information

-         cheap kebab, good pizza → cheap food

-         there is no „hardcore“

-         you feel safety, comfortably (at least I)

 

Bulgaria

-        nice mountains

-        beautiful women

 

Montenegro

-         if you are going to travel by train, you should reserve the tickets in advance.

-         do not rely on Montenegro´s list of arrival/departure or transport

-         bargain the price

-         remember that people in Montenegro do not care for a lot of staff!

-         Their motto: Nema problema. (Do not have problem)

-         Do not eat just anything!

-         Discount for trains, if you show them ISIC.

-         People: nice, helpful, friendly, communicative

-         Transport: more expensive, minibuses and vans are the most used

-         Food: figs, pomegranate, apples, kiwi, burek → good but oily food

-         They have tea called „NANA PITOMA“

 

France

-         Very nice and helpful people from village

-         plane ticket Prag-Paris is more expensive than TGV Paris – for example Lyon

-         recommend to travel by bus (Eurolines)! not to combine plane ticket and train

Concordia – they had more strict rules compared to other organisations, maybe they were more educative, for example the same dividing of food, work, ...; maybe somtimes little bit irritating

-         very nice people, I recommend to hitchhike

-         French people do not speak good English

 

Greece

-         All archaeological places are for free for students

 

The Netherlands

-         travelling

-         free program

 

India

-         people are very good English speakers (event a shepherd of the sheeps speaks English) 

-         transport - all kinds - it is good to ask and the people will advise you

-         the food is spicy, but if you will tell them that you do not want it to be spicy, it is eatable

 

Iceland

-         beautiful nature

-         cold

-        hitchhike

 

Germany

-         You can speak English with anybody and everywhere

-         quality information for tourists

-         trains are expensive but they are on time and clean

-         the ticket could be bought also in train or in tram

-         interesting and rich trips, willingness of the organizers

-         kebab, security

-         phone, sense of direction, desire to not lose, not argue about money

-         the toilets are charged everywhere ( do not drink :))

-         food and drinks are expensive (for us ... )

-         swim in North sea (10°C)

-         a lot of possibilities (events and accommodation)

-         for young people: parks, centres, places, streets, monuments... Bomb

-         speak with German (and try to understand)

-         travel just by train (buses are not travelling between big cities)

-         Do not say hello by Grüss Got (use rather Guten Tag)

-         Berlin – very good public transport. It is good to watch regularly which direction the train is going; the ticket for it need to be marked already on the station.

-         The pillow is useful, seriously try to do something

-         Travel by buses, buy group tickets

-         If you can, speak German, be friends with locals (it is never bad)

-         Do not destroy nature; they are very strict about it

-         very nice, clean surroundings

 

Portugal

-         Almost nobody is speaking English

-         The buses could be late for 2 hours

-         it is good to see everything

-         „Normal beer" in bar is just 0,2 l

-         Juventude (organisation) – totally super

-         Each soup is potato basis

 

Serbia

-         each time smile, Novy Sad, very cheap

-         Cheap travel from Bratislava to Beograd: http://www.lasta.co.yu/eng/, you can communicate with them

 

Spain

-         good to reserve hostel in advance

-         if you are travelling by train, it is good to by interrail, but be careful for charges which are minimally €10, the ticket needs to be reserved one day ahead

-         not a lot of people in Spain speak English, it is good to know at least the basic Spanish

-         travelling by train is expensive

 

Switzerland

-         it is totally beautiful – Alps

-         It is very nice there, great people, they cook great, you will learn a lot of about other countries

 

Italy

-         great plane tickets, cheap flights

-         try to know at least some Italian - communicative locals

-         perfect kitchen, friendly people, beautiful surroundings → Italian Alps, very good communication with partner organisation

-         Milan

-         For sure go to the north areas and smaller villages (better conditions, richer area)

-         Sicily - FOOD !

-         Good food, terrible transport, it is going anytime, it is beautiful there and wild, toilets are little bit wild too

 

Turkey

-         very easy hitchhiking

-         country is adapted to tourists – showers on gas station, restaurants with long opening hours, accommodation, nice people, a lot of monuments

-         girls should travel with boys and pretend to be married

-         be careful for insect, water

 

Ukraine

-         travel by train! Very cheap :)

-         If you buy ticket in Slovakia, do not buy any other tickets. Sometimes they do not understand that ticket from Bratislava to Lvov is valid in Ukraine :)

 

Great Britain

-         good to know something from language

-         Mobile phone and enough money is very useful, it is good to communicate and ask people

-         I recommend to buy the ticket in advance through internet (as soon as possible, at least one month) – Megabus, Megatrain, National Express

-         Low-cost aerolines – Ryanair, Easyjet

-         Leave the ticket from bus and train when going out from the station. They use to check the tickets at the entrance and they will not let you go out without it!

 

Wales

-         take raincoat; check the arrivals and departures at the stations/stops, as sometimes the bus is leaving from different one. Reserve the hostel in advance.

-         cheaper buses than train; it is good to reserve the tickets before travelling, or it could be very expensive; food is little bit more expensive than in Slovakia

 

Volunteers from INEX