Since we’re coming up on the one year anniversary of international travel coming to a screeching halt— with a light at the end of the tunnel at last, at last, in sight— I’ve been thinking about where I will go once I am granted the option. More important, perhaps, is where I will financially be capable of going. At the crossroads of what I want and what I can afford, I found Central Europe (which I’ll drop the satire for a moment to tell you is genuinely one of my favourite corners of the Earth). Speaking in terms of a roughly 2 to 4 week stay, these are five of the most affordable cities I’ve experienced in the region.
- Sofia, Bulgaria
Initially, Sofia functioned as essentially a natural stop on my tumultuous journey from Istanbul to Belgrade. I arrived to the Bulgarian-Turkish border by overnight westbound train, and was promptly placed on a returning eastbound train upon realizing I had forgotten my passport in Istanbul, but that story is too lawless and disjointed to fit into this piece, so, another time.
Anyway, Sofia came THROUGH. $8 fresh venison steak dinner? $11 bottle of red wine, the taste of which doesn’t remind me of dropping out of college? At a RESTAURANT? Incredible. I was only there for one night thanks to the Passport Thing, but I believe we paid 15 euros per night for our (lovely) (mean it) double hotel room. Our train in from Istanbul was 40 euros double occupancy which included a private bedroom, and our train to Nis, Serbia the following day was about 9 euros per person.
Budget To Survive: 100 euros/week
Budget To Enjoy Yourself: 175 euros/week
2. Nis/Belgrade, Serbia
Nis was my first stop on my Meet-My-Estranged-Family-Members tour, 2018. I can’t speak for those who don’t have a lovely aunt to present them with enough food for a 10th grade football windup (she made me TWO CAKES!), but I would say baseline living expenses were similar to Sofia. Food and accommodations were pretty similar in Belgrade, though attractions such as museums (Go see Nikola Tesla’s ashes, for some reason!) ran a little higher. Next time I’m in the country, I’ll maybe do some camping along the Bulgarian border where I passed some gorgeous mountains on the train, an activity which I assume is free or close to it.
To reiterate, the ashes are in the Nikola Tesla museum, not like, a grave. Though they arguably serve as a sort of Serbian Mecca, I have and respect boundaries.
Budget To Survive: 100 euros/week
Budget To Enjoy Yourself: 200 euros/week
3. Prague, Czechia
This is my favourite city in the entire world. To oppose Serbia, I’d say baseline expenses were higher than the majority of Central Europe, but extras were almost a non-expense. Underground “magical cavern” (read: strange basement in an elderly man’s home on the side of a mountain, covered in nude paintings of ethereal, fairy-like women) with free flowing mulled wine (or some sort of red, syrupy substance, anyway? maybe use the buddy system at this one) set me back 4 euros. Art museum which features multiple larger-than-life statues of a bare ass, which you may scale with a ladder and peer into, to find that they contain a looping video of two politicians spoon feeding each other soup, set to the triumphant score ofQueen’s We Are The Champions? By donation. You can even get paid to bar-hop, should you be truly determined, by visiting The Alchemist Bar and embarking on their “Choose Your Fate” challenge, which launches you into a mystical tour of the city’s finest mixology, and if you play your cards right can land you a grand prize of 100,000 CZK. Just make sure you pay your metro fare properly (no less than two minutes before boarding the train, if you are paying through the app), as I failed to do this upon leaving the first bar and was promptly arrested and fined 10,000 CZK, bringing the journey to a rather sad and less-than-profitable halt.
Budget To Survive: 130 euros/week
Budget To Enjoy Yourself: 200 euros/week
4. Budapest
One might not associate “cheap” with “Budapest”, but honestly, you just need to know where to look. Head to a “ruin bar”— quite literally, a bar which exists within the ruins of the city’s old Jewish Quarter— for surprisingly tasty (1 euro!) red wine ladled into a chalice from a large vat. Accommodations are comparable to Prague, but depending on your interests you may end up paying more for attractions— Budapest is built over a network of hot springs and is somewhat famous for luxury spa treatments, though you can also enjoy an afternoon in an Ottoman-style bathhouse for 20 euros or less. Pre-covid, the city even hosted raves in parts of the parts of the springs, most notably the Grand Budapest Bath Party, which sounds like a horny version of the popular Wes Anderson film, but it’s not, probably. Actually, I have no idea what the party is like, as i deemed the 60 euro price tag too expensive and vowed to “go next year”, which was 2020. The moral of the story is, pay the 60 euros.
Budget To Survive: 140 euros/week
Budget To Enjoy Yourself: 230 euros/week
5. Barcelona
Ok, technically not Central Europe, but I only had Germany, France and Austria left in my repertoire and those countries have their GDP all the way up. I lived in the Barcelona area for about 2 years on and off, and as long as it’s not peak season and you don’t care about being walking distance from the Sagrada Familia costs are quite reasonable. If you don’t mind dry (read: shitty) wine, you can sip it out of a juice box on the metro at a rate of E1.80 for 3. You can fill yourself with tapas for under 10 euros, or have a hearty dinner for roughly 20. Other gorgeous and relatively affordable towns like Sitges, Tarragona or Girona are all under an hour’s train ride away.
Budget To Survive: 150 euros/week
Budget To Enjoy Yourself: 250 euros/week
There you have it! See you on the other side.
fin
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