Hannah's Guide to Travelling Alone on a Budget in Eastern Europe

1. Plan travel and accommodation a couple of months in advance. This saves you money on flights and guarantees safety in moving from country to country. Whatever you do don't leave it to two weeks before to book flights in and out of previously unknown Polish city and decide to fill in the 16 day gap as you go along.

2. Couchsurfing is a great option for single female travellers. The idea is simple, you trust a stranger you met over the internet with your life, and in return they trust you with their house keys. I was  incredibly lucky  not at all surprised to find that my hosts were muchos craic. It helps when couchsurfing to choose a time when your hosts are in the process of moving apartment - you're not getting in the way, you're an extra pair of hands to unpack Russian books on photography and confuse the poor cat even more. If it's your first time couchsurfing just act naturally when you find yourself eating spicy mushrooms at 6am or trying to match a Russian in vodka drinking (fun fact! it's Russian custom to drink an odd number of shots - 2 or 4 or 6 just won't cut it).

3. Avoid men. When you arrive rather late to a Polish town that's supposed to have buses to the border and doesn't, don't entertainthe 26 year old guy who's angling to stay with you in the terrible hotel down the road before your bus to Ukraine the next morning. It's far wiser to follow an Italian speaking woman into the back of a white van with (presumeably) her large Polish husband, 6 year old child and random Ukrainian man. It's wiser still to cross the border of foot with the random Ukrainian man (try speaking your limited french to him, you may find it's the language you both have in common!) who now has a name (Mr. Sergei, and you're now Анна to him). The time after crossing is a good one in which to realise you've accidentally crossed two time zones and have just missed the last legit bus to the Ukrainian city in which your patient friend is waiting. As Sergei changes money and you worry yourself about trying to find an ATM, go with the flow when he puts your rucksack in another random van tells you to follow it and when asked about an ATM replies "apres, apres!" (apres ca exactly, you may ask yourself at this point). Whilst on your dying mobile phone to your father as he communicates with your friend via your facebook account ("oui ca va Sergei!") realise that you've completely disregarded step 3 and are hitchhiking with two Ukrainian men late at night.

4. Travel light so that you can afford to fit loads of dirt cheap clothes from Polish charity shops into your rucksack! The more hideous the better. 

5. Make sure you catch a cold in Krakow so that your Ukrainian friend's parents dote on you incessantly and you get to drink copious amounts of gluhwein and eat your weight in meringue cake.

6. Keep a travel diary so that you have some quality memories to look back on. An excerpt from mine, for example, reads "in airport 9 hours early at least for now i can focus on lukin rad in this terrible dress & trying to sing midnight by yazoo without everyone noticing midniiiiiiight it's raining outside yeaaaaah U MUST BE SOAKING WET am sticking out tongue as i write must be effort of this cool new handwriting my feet smell like shit dunno where spare socks went granny bitch on my right is gonna get taken down when boarding announced unless she paid for priority which i feel defeats the purpose of a ryanair flight y do i always consider a packet of prince biscuits a viable meal option?the self loathing afterwards is always the same"

7. Be in the city your plane departs from. For example, if your plane departs from Wroclaw on Thursday morning, it's not a good idea to be in Warsaw after the last night bus to Wroclaw has left on the Wednesday night. Your parents are going to require a lot of humble pie to be consumed. (hi mum & dad thanks woo blog mention)

8. Stay with locals. You learn a lot. For example, thanks to Kuba, I now know that Wroclaw is not pronounced Rock-law, but rather Vrottzlov. Obviously. 

9. Know when and where humour is appropriate. Don't pretend to be from Derry when you can't keep up the accent for more than a sentence without fluffing up "tart au citron", don't joke at Ukrainian customs; "WODKA?" demands a firm "no", not a "haha I wish" which will earn you half an hour's questioning in a language unfamiliar to both parties. 

10. Follow advice from fellow travellers: nuggets of wisdom I received include "Don't touch dead animals" and "Don't bungee jump in Mexico".