Europe on LESS then a shoestring - Part 1

I love all those books that claim that you can travel through Europe on $25 or less a day. I didn't read any of those books before I left on my 3 1/2 month backpacking trip, if I had, I would have had a more luxurious adventure!

I'm not going to go through in detail of places to stay, restaurants to eat in or the 'must see' tourist attractions. Just some quick tales of 4 kids with Canadian flags sewn onto their backpacks travelling around Europe in 1995.

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We landed in Frankfurt, Germany and decided that we should stay in a hostel for a couple of nights to figure out what we were going to do. I do have to say, the German hostels are the best. They supply comfortable duvets & pillows and a healthy breakfast. But being on a budget, we had to get out of Frankfurt - actually out of Germany.

We hopped on the Eurobus, and headed out of town to Heidelburg. But like Frankfurt, this place was pretty pricey, so we left for the more 'cheaper' country, Italy.

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Italy - The city of food! The yummy
blood oranges, coffee and gelato (or in my case gelati - yes that is plural for all that I ate in one day).


Venice, a beautiful place. Where vendors sell everything from bread to bird seed to $10 T-shirts. A city where you can get lost in the maze of canals. A destination to visit for the love of history.

We stayed at a campground called Camping Fusina. If you want a cheap place to stay, a good party in the evening (with Contiki & Top Deck), and just a short boat ride from the historic Venice, then this place is for you. With outdoor plumbing, converted barns to sleep in and a shop that sells $6 jug of wine, what else could you ask for?

In the San Marco Piazza, there is the St Mark's Basilica. Probably the most visited tourist attraction in Venice with entrance lines too long on a nice day. Right beside the Basilica, there is also this great building called Doge's Palace. If you are sneaky, there is a set of stairs on the side of the building that goes to the second floor which gives you amazing views. So Aimee, Chris and our new friend from New Zealand, Ricky, decided to check it out. But were we shocked to find out, that through that locked gate (which happened to be open at the time) is the police station! Whoops! No worries, they didn't get caught, and they got some nice photos to prove it.

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