How We Traveled Europe On The Cheap [Season 1, Episode 23] - a podcast by Sheila Dee & Evo Terra - Third World Survivors
from 2015-06-16T18:00
Full Show Script
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Evo: So... that was Europe. 7 countries visited in 129 days of travel. We could do the math to uncover how many miles we traveled, but there are some other figures we think you'll find more interesting. Ones that have to do with money, not distance.
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She: First, the cost of travel. Getting to and traipsing about Europe has to be expensive, right?
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Evo: Not really. When we added up the numbers, our big travel costs -- five separate trips by plane, and another five unrelated trips by train to different destinations -- the total came to $3600. Yes, for both of us. And yes, that included getting to Europe from America. No, we didn't cash in frequent flier miles or fly on a friends-and-family ticket. Sheila's just really good when it comes to travel planning.
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She: And then there's the cost of lodging. 129 nights on vacation should add up quickly, right?
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Evo: Again, not really. Not when you get rooms the way we do. Unlike train and air tickets, we get a lot of free lodging. 13 of our nights were completely comped, thanks to the conferences that booked us. 32 more nights were free, thanks friends old and new that let us couch surf with them, a night or two here and there, but sometimes weeks at a time. Thanks again, Gillian! But the bulk of our time -- 74 days -- was spent house sitting. Free lodging in exchange for watering the plants and feeding a few animals. Easy.
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She: That left ten days -- only ten days across four months -- where we had to pay for a hotel or Airbnb with our own funds. Total cost: just over $700.
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Evo: That's $70 a night for those 10 days, which isn't a bad price. But if you divide it across the entire 129, it's only five and a half bucks each day. That's a smoking deal, and I think we deserve a beer for our efforts.
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She: We took a break from the Ungagged conference in London to walk the Beer Head Mile, just south of London Bridge. It was only a little after 10 in the morning, and we both still had to function at the conference, so we only hit two breweries: The Kernel, which we knew and love, and then Brew By Numbers, new to us, but one we quickly grew to love.
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She: Don't worry. I'm not going to let Evo make yet another craft beer nerd show. Instead, I want to draw your attention to the accent of Paul, the Brew By Numbers guy Evo's chatting with. He didn't sound like a typical Londoner to me, so I asked the obvious question:
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Evo: The question Paul gets a lot -- where are you from -- is becoming harder and harder to answer for a lot of...
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