Kiev&its beauty.

Kiev was the questionmark of that journey. I was the only one really impatient and interested in visiting the city, and if not for me, it would have never made it to the program. And let me tell you, it would have been such a mistake!
Most people, at least people who aren't very familiar with travelling have very little interest in eastern Europe, and I can't emphasize enough how beautiful eastern Europe is!
Kiev is the perfect example of that not enough known truth.
It was a long and gruelling journey to get to one of the oldest town of Ruthenia, but it was definitely worth it! If you haven't read about this eventful journey you can by clicking here.

I fell in love with the architecture of "simple" buildings. I usually don't like brown façades, but that's really beautiful!

Little street next to our hostel, that leads to St Andrew.

My lovers.

St Andrew  the magnifique. Seriously one of the most amazing thing I've ever seen!

I loved how some details were in wood such as the roofs&domes here!

St Michaael. Impressive, huge, massive yet delicate.

St Sofia. With its interesting architecture. You can see the brown parts that were the original walls of the cathedral.

Have you ever thought of visiting Ukraine or have you already been there? I cannot wait to go back, I just loved everything there, people were absolutely adorable&sweet, the food was to die for, the bars ... amazing, the architecture breathtaking... Yes I loved Kiev!

How do I pay for my travels?

Prague! A 12hours bus ride( 70euros back&forth)

Number one question (travel related) I get is this one :

How can you pay for you trips?

How do you afford travelling that often?

Emy, do you have any tips to save money to travel?

There are already quite a few very good posts regarding that matter, on various travellers' blogs, but I thought I might just as well add my few cents. Feel free to add your tips if you have some!

1. Save save save save save save save save and finally save!

A night in the train in Ukraine=one day for free in Lviv

You'd be surprised by how much money we spend daily, monthly without realising it. Food, movies, clothes, books, grocery shopping, restaurants, bars, cosmetics ... you name it! When it comes to saving, there is no little economy. I find it really helpful to set goals for yourself. For example if I have 500euros left after having paid my rent, bills(...) I'm trying to save at least half of it and i DO NOT TOUCH it no matter what. It goes into another bank account, the savings one and stays there. Do that for 3months and you already have more than 600euros, which is more than enough to travel. Even if you were to be able to save only 100euros, it would be 300euros, and yes, you can travel with 300euros. 

There are so many ways to reduce your daily life expenses, I'm not going to talk about that, but the internet is full of tips, and really most of it is good sense or just giving up on a few things.

2. Be prepared!

If the world belongs to those who wake up early(french idiom), good deals come to those who plan either far ahead or at the very last minute. I'm not a big fan of the last minute plan, unless you have somewhere to crash on and are really lucky. I'm already trying to plan a possible trip for my birthday which is in January. Calculating the expenses such as youth hostel(or couchsurfing?), which place would be the best&still cheap(?), what is there I want to visit and should save money for? How much, approximatively is it going to cost me to get there? at this time of the year? bus, train or plane? ... And then, I book my tickets&hostels about two months in advance in order to get the better deals.

3. Travel cheap!

I'm not saying everyone should travel cheap, however if you find it hard to afford travelling, there are definitely things you must forget and things you should do!

Take the bus. Or rather, don't hesitate to take buses or trains instead of planes. Planes aren't always the cheapest way to travel! Bus rides can be quite long, but sometimes twice cheaper!

Youth hostels and not hotels. Couchsurfing or camping. Not only is it more friendly, warm and interesting, it's also a great way to save money!

Cook&prepare sandwiches. Do I need to explain that really? Oh food. you so expensive sometimes.

Also you may want to stay away from super touristy places that aren't really worth your time, or at least not buy/eat anything there. Prices obviously will be much higher.

Seasons also play a big part in the prices of rooms&flights. October or November might not be the time of the year you had dreamt of, but it may be cheaper!

Venice/Florence/Siena/Cinque Terre for pretty cheap too!

So here you are, these are my main advice or what I usually always do to be able to travel often(or at least sometimes)! I hope this helped a bit!

The grass there is greener.

I fell in love with Budapest probably before I even stepped in the airport. In my parisian room, on my bed, browsing online I was typing those words to my friend " I am going to love Budapest, I'm sure I will!". That's how my relationship, this amazing romantic relationship with Budapest started. The minute I walked outside of the airport, into the train that would lead us to the center of the town I knew I was right, I knew I was going to love Budapest, and I knew I would be sad to leave.

I didn't stay very long there unfortunately, the first time I visited the city my stay was two days long. Despite it being brief, and after two years, I still remembered the streets, the metro, the cafés and the feeling of the setting sun on the bridges above the Danube.

Back in Paris after my first visit, I realized how much I wanted to go back! I spent hours online searching for bars, museums, churches and parks ... dreaming of everywhere I would go next. "Next" was actually going to be a couple of weeks ago. I couldn't stay as long as I wanted to originally, well I'd like to stay forever, hopefully one day will be able to move there for a while, but I definitely had time to enjoy and discover more of beautiful Budapest!

First thing was Vajdahunyad vára or Vajdahunyad castle.

There are actually two castles in Budapest. The "Buda one" and the "Pest one" if one could say so. Both are extremely different, and extremely worth the visit.

I know I was supposed to write about Kiev, but I felt like this blog needed a bit of Budapest!
Because I miss it, I do miss it everyday, I miss the quietness and timeless beauty, I miss the peace that I find when I'm there. And I'm pretty sure you can't get bored of Budapest right? Even the name sounds so romantic and elegant! It's just my second home, what can I say!