Europe Trip Revealed Part 2: Dilemmas

This is the second part of the series. Read the first part here.

If you have read part 1 of this series, then you already knew that I'm going to Nice, France for 12 weeks for a language course. It's one and a half month left before my departure. I'm really excited for this trip, and terrified at the same time. This is my 2nd solo trip after the solo trip to Bangkok, Thailand in 2009.

It's always been my dream to visit Europe, but I never thought that it would come true before I'm somewhat older. The cost seemed too expensive for me. Fortunately, working in Singapore makes it possible for me to save some money. At first, I was planning on going to Europe by group tour around February 2011 (low season means cheaper rate). Based on my calculations, group tour costs roughly SGD 5,000 for 2-week trip covering 5 countries. Then I thought, why not triple the budget and stay longer while learning something so that I don't go home empty-handed.

Trust me, this decision wasn't taken lightly. It was really painful to spend that much money from my savings. It took me 10 months to save that amount of money. I could probably use the money to get into post-grad school or buy a small apartment in Jakarta. But after many days of thinking, consulting, weighing, and considering, I decided to do it. After all, 3 months with that amount of money is actually not that expensive compared to the group tour for the same duration.

Although, even after all payments has been made, all tickets has been purchased, and the Schengen Visa has been approved, I still wonder sometimes whether this is a right decision and something that I won't regret. And when that happens, I always think about how short life is and how this will be a great opportunity and experience for me. With me still being young and single at the moment, this is a perfect time to do a once-in-a-lifetime trip like this.

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” - Mark Twain

So I did my research to find the best place to stay and learn French, a place that is cheap enough so that I can still travel around the region or to the nearby countries. Some cities came to mind, including Paris, Lyon, Tour, Bordeaux, even Montreux in Switzerland.

Eventually, I chose Nice among other cities because I found a language school which offers really affordable rates and the fact that Nice is close to the other bordering countries, like Italy. Although Paris is much more central and easier to get to all other countries either by plane or by train, the course and accommodation fee in Paris, however, was so expensive that I thought it's still better to find a cheaper place and use the money for the traveling.

Using train for traveling is better from Paris because Paris serves all domestic and international destinations. So, one of the drawback of choosing Nice as the place to stay is that it's not served by many rail routes. Although, Nice airport is has many flight connections to other domestic and international destinations.

It takes less than 6 hours from Nice to Paris by TGV (Train à Grande Vitesse, literally "train at great speed"), which is the fastest wheeled train on Earth, cruising at 300 km/h. Traveling in Europe without trying the rail once is almost like going to France without seeing Eiffel Tower. I will definitely go by rail to Paris once or twice on weekends during my 12-week stay in Nice. I also want to try the overnight train that leaves in the night and arrive in the morning.

I think choosing Nice as the place to study is the right decision. I just hope that it won't be raining so much in Nice and when I go to Paris for the weekends, as it will still be spring in March and April. And I probably won't visit 5 countries like when going with group tour though. Most likely I will spend my time and money for traveling to cities and towns in France and Italy near to Nice, because going further is not feasible after all for the weekend trips. Rather than rushing and cramming everything in short time, it might be better to visit the other places later. One piece of advice from a guidebook that I like is "always assume that you will return".

There will be more to come in this series. Be patient, and stay tuned!

UPDATE: read the third part here.