My (Wonderful) Experience With DiscoverEU
I was one of the lucky winners of the DiscoverEU program during the Spring round in 2025.
I've decided to use my pass in the summer of that same year; my journey began with searching for
some travel buddies, since I've applied as a solo traveler. My original travel plan was to
go through these countries;
The Netherlands (Country of Residence) -> Germany -> Czech Republic -> Hungary -> Romania -> Bulgaria -> Türkiye (End Destination)
My travel plan did change a bit. I've come to know that DiscoverEU provided also flight tickets
to remote European islands; such as Ireland, Malta, and Cyprus, so I also wanted to take advantage of this
opportunity.
Searching for some travel buddies was one of the trickiest part of my preperation for this travel. One day
I receive a message from one winner with whom I've chatted a bit, with these exact words;
"Hi Adam, I have some pretty big news. Inspired by you and my uncle Olof and I decided to change our
travel route. Instead of western/southern Europe we will be going to the Balkans including Istanbul. I dont know
if you have already planned your route between Budapest-Istanbul but this is ours:"
I didn't hesitate to tell him that I would be very pleased to travel with them, so without esitation I agreed on their
plan. His name was Aksel.
The Setback And The Beginning Of My Journey (20 July 2025)
I've talked with uncle Olof, the other lucky winner with whom I would be travelling together with Aksel; he
is a nice, social dude from Sweden, one year younger than me and Aksel. Aksel is Finnish, born in the same
year as me, but 4 months younger than me. We were supposed to meet in Berlin on the 16th of July,
I would have been there already on the 15th... until I had an unexpected setback.
During my research for some Hostels/Hotels, I've realised that.... I didn't have enough money to cover every
expense for the planned journey. After telling this to my travel group, they were understanding about the situation, and we
just agreed to meet and continue our trip from Istanbul onwards.
Italy, San Marino and Vatican City (20th of July - 4th of August)
On the 20th of July I had my first train from Utrecht, The Netherlands towards Cologne, Germany. It was a nice trip; I spent the time by using my phone and reading a book (which I recommend, Desert Encounter by Knud Holmboe), until... the train stopped because of a dude who was standing on the rails. I had a really strict plan which didn't allow me any delays; my next train was departing from Frankfurt Main Hbf towards Zurich, Switzerland, and the train on which I had sat delayed a lot. This could have meant the end of my trip technically. Fortunately though, I made it to Frankfurt's main station. My plan was having lunch there, but since I came there late, I decided to take just some cheeseburgers from the McDonalds.
I made it to Zurich, Switzerland on time; from there I had my next direct train towards Milan, Italy. I came to my old house in Legnano, Italy, where I resided before moving to The Netherlands at around midnight of that same day. Now time for some pictures I took during my trip in Italy. The picture on the left depicts the Central Station in Milan; it's really well preserved in my opinion.
On the next day (21st of July) I went to Lecco, a city (if we can call it like that) near the Alps. Nice city, but there wasn't anything to do, other then eating a Gelato. I was more excited for the next day, the 22nd of July, because on that day I had the train to San Marino. San Marino was a beautiful country, full of history and art; the people were friendly, and the hotels were very cheap there. I've decided to sleep there for a night for 60 EUR, cheap on my opinion. My main activity there was to visit the old town, the castles and obvioulsy buy some stamps and send a postcard from there. The only problem was the transportation between the old town of San Marino; this city is built ontop of a mountain, my hotel was at the base. The only way I had to reach it was by foot; there weren't any sidewalks on the way down, only streets that felt like highways. You kinda have the feeling of walking illegally on the streets, since they are built like highways. See some pictures at the end of this blog.
On the 24th of July I had my next destination, Rome and Vatican City. My goal was in reality to visit the Vatican City, since I have already visited Rome previously, but I got this chance to also go there and eat some traditional food. I really recommend to visit the Vatican City, it's so small that it wouldn't even take you an hour to visit all its corners. I sincerely went there for its philatelic products, and to obviously send a postcard to myself from there. See some pictures at the end of this blog.
Rome, on the other hand, is so big; I've visited the Pantheon, the Trevi's fountain and tried its traditional food. Nothing special at the end of the day. During this trip in Italy, I didn't have the possibility to meet other backpackers; I mean, more of I didn't try to search for some.
Türkiye (4th of August - 9th of August)
Now let's fastforward to the 4th of August, the day on which I had my flight (spoiler; not a direct one) to Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen Airport. My flight was at the Milano Linate's Airport, way far from Legnano, so I had to wake up so early. My flight was scheduled at around 8AM, to Zagabria, Croatia. There I had my transit, and from there I had my other flight to Istanbul. All the flights came on time and had no problems further. The problems came however when I woke up for the flight to Zagabria, Croatia. To my surprise, the hotel where I've booked my stay in Istanbul sent me a message, telling me to cancel my booking because on the days I was staying there there wouldn't be water, nor electricity. My feelings at that time were mixed; on one side I was happy, because then I would have gone to the same place Aksel and Olof stayed (at the time, they still didn't book a place yet), at the other hand it meant searching for a hostel/hotel the whole day. Aksel and Olof would have only come the day after (5th of August), I arrived in Istanbul at around 3PM.
The metro I took to arrive at the centre of Istanbul was so bad. I could have lost my hearing because of the rails. After arriving at Taksim Square, my only mission was finding another hotel, something difficult since I had to also contact the other guys
to tell them about the options I've found. My initial idea was sharing a room with 3 beds in Taksim Square, but then Olof shared a hostel where the prices weren't that bad, plus it was next
to the turistic attractions. We've found the Jackpot!
My way there was a nightmare though; I was at the time on the Taksim Square, and had to go to Sultan Ahmet/ Hagia Sophia Mosque; I thought it would be easy to just take the public transportation and go there.
It would only take around 40 minutes, according to Google Maps. So said, so done, I went to the bus station... it was a chaos... just imagine yourself in the middle of New Delhi, India, full with traffic and
people. After waiting for a full 15 minutes I just decided to stop a Taxi; I stopped one, got into one and paid 15 EUR for a 40 minutes ride. Did I get scammed?
After I got there to the destination, I headed to the hostel; it was a nice looking hostel, so I decided to book a private room for 30 EUR a night. There I took a shower and went to discover the surroundings.
The first turistic attractions I've seen were the Hagia Sophia and the Sultan Ahmet Mosque, or known as (thanks Aksel for letting me know about this other alias) Blue Mosque. The Blue Mosque was so stunning from the inside (look picture); unfortunately we didn't choose to enter the Hagia Sophia Mosque, because of the ticket prices. A ticket cost 25 EUR per person, to just visit the inside; we decided to spare this opportunity so that we could go to other museums. The streets were full of cutie cats; I hesitated to pet them though, rabies was in that year common in Türkiye. In the next days I've met other backpackers, who also met Aksel and Olof previously (in Budapest or Bucharest I think); Their names were Zeph, David and Hipo (I'll come back in Summer 2026 to rewrite his name, I don't remember well how it was written). All of them were French, Hipo* was hitchhiking and David & Zeph were interrailing. They were 21/23 years old, friendly dudes.
On that same day we went together to walk with a touristic guide, which showed us everything we needed to see in Istanbul. We then went to a ferry trip with the same touristic guide through the Bosphorous; it was magnificent. We've seen many important buildings as
the Egyptian Embassy and the Dolmabahçe Palace. After this tour we went to eat some kebab the tour guide suggested us named "Nuruosmaniye Dürümcüsü"; I wouldn't suggest it, too overrated. The next day (7th of August) Aksel, Olof and me went to Taksim Square, that's where we started seeing some big brands
as Zara, Primark etc. We went to a bakery to eat some desserts; I ate a Tres Leches with a cup of tea. We then went back to our hostel where we prepared ourself for the "night life", we proceeded to meet the others (David, Zeph and Hipo*).
Me, Aksel and Olof didn't eat dinner yet, so we all decided to eat a kebab before going for some beers; Zeph was really looking into some beers, so much that when we ended our meals he exclamed;
"Do you know what time it is? It's beer o'clock!"
