Travel Expenses

In this post, I would like to review my travel expenses this time. Interestingly, all the 10 countries have their own currencies. Europe has the common currency Euro, but there are still so many countries where the Euro has not been circulated. This fact also makes me realise that I have travelled round the edge of Europe. The following are the 10 currencies I used this month.

• Ukraine: Hryvna(UAH)
  
• Moldova: Leu (MDL)
  
• Romania: New Leu (RON)
  
• Serbia: Dinar (RSD)
  
• Macedonia: Denar (MKD)
  
• Albania: Lek (ALL)
  
• Italy: Euro (EUR)
  
• Iceland: Krona (ISK)
  
• Denmark: Krone (DKK)
  
• Sweden: Krona (SEK)
  

My travel expenses have been financed by one credit card. When I sorted and calculated my bill by currency units, each amount tells me how much I have spent in each country. As my financial source is the Japanese Yen (JPY), all calculations have been done in JPY. For 30 days trip I spent total JPY 225,761 (EUR 2,109.28). 30% of transactions have been payed in cash after withdrawal at bancomats. The following pie chart shows this total expenses by country.

As we can see, the Nordic countries cost a lot. Of course, I have to consider how many days I was in one country. However, 60% of the amount was spent in the week 4 (Italy, Iceland, Denmark, and Sweden).

Trvelling expenses consist mainly of accommodation, transportation, food, and admissions for museum or gallery. I do not go shoppin! The following pie chart shows what kind of purpose I have spent. "other" means mainly food.

The reason why the proportion of "transportation" is so large would be that I bought flight tickets in the end of July, I did not book tickets on the internet in advance, and changed bookings, missed the train, and re-purchased many times. This part could have been squeezed. In addition, The fact that I took many overnight trains, buses, and ferry also contribute to the transportation part larger.

Overall, I could enjoyed strong Japanese Yen. Although I felt Denmark and Sweden were extremely expensive, Iceland was relatively affordable. Perhaps, it would have been impossible to pay if I had visited the Nordic 3 years ago...

I think that credit card is powerful to review where money is going in travelling.

Summer Trip 2010

My summer trip was over yesterday. This time I have visited “the edge of Europe” where I had never been and it costs a lot if I took a trip from Tokyo. I reckon that the “edge” would mean countries that are not a member of the European Union, have not adopted the Euro currency, or the recognition of their independence is in question. I think that their geographical locations are definitely Europe. They are really far from Tokyo and there are no direct flights from Tokyo (except Copenhagen), thus I could take advantage of living in Europe at the moment. I thought the following things concerning the travel route the day before the departure of 28.07.

• Week 1: the eastern Ukraine, where I had not been;
  
• Week 2: Moldova and Transylvania, where I had wanted to visit for years;
  
• Week 3: the former Yugoslav countries and Albania, especially Macedonia and Albania where I had not been;
  
• Week 4: the Nordic countries, where a weekend trip to Oslo in July was really impressive;
  

After all, the countries I have visited this time are following;

• Week 1: Ukraine
  
• Week 2: Moldova and Romania
  
• Week 3: Serbia, Macedonia, Albania, and Italy
  
• Week 4: Iceland, Denmark, and Sweden
  

If you recognise Transnitria and Kosovo as an independent state, you can put on the list although Kosovo is more internationally recognised.

There are some principles to be mentioned. These are substantial essence of my trip.

• to get on the train as many and as long as possible, especially overnight trains;
  
• no bookings except for flights that make the travel route flexible;
  
• an Italian sea port Trieste, where my peer reviewing paper in Groningen was written on the region, should be a must-visit place;
  
• to walk as much as possible in order to experience the size of cities;
  
• to be number and price sensitive in order to recognise the economic development;
  
• to enjoy the local food;
  

Taking the above into account, the route was drawn on the following pic. The total 11700 Km.

The trip itself was great and I totally enjoyed the entire journey. One thing I have to feel a sense of regret is that the duration of my stay in the Nordic countries. I was supposed to travel one more week, but my intern boss offered to join a workshop in the end of August. Thus I had to shorten my stay in Denmark and Sweden. I Perhaps, I have to visit the next time.

I would like to post something about this travel later if I have time.