Ochen Priyatna

Finally at the last part of the 5 part series! Recalling the trip and reminiscing the hits and misses through the images we captured was an interesting activity that allowed me to rethink our experiences from an alternate point-of-view. My greatest regret was not taking enough (clear) footages to truly capture the essence of the places I've visited.

13. Nature, picturesque at every corner
Europe, or at least the cities I visited, were the epitome of picturesque. Every snap, every street looked like it came straight out of a piece of art - unique and full of character.











14. Tourist passes
Having such amazingly photogenic monuments would no doubt draw many tourists to this part of the world - the European tourism boards saw through this and launched a series of tourist-friendly passes that enables ticketing discounts at key landmarks and more often than not comes with a map of the city as well. For lazy tourists touring in the entire continent in a short period of time, these are the perfect tools to ensure you touch base with each city's offerings. For us? We were interested in the discounts for entries more than anything else.





15. Unforgettable? The goods and bads - Airbnb
The good and the bad of Europe - we saw it all

14 words to remember Europe for it's good and 1 word to recall the bad experiences we've had.
All these happened when we were in Paris. JJ has booked the accommodation thinking we've had a good buy since the price was affordable considering it's relatively centralised location. We made our way to the place and exiting the train station, we had a sense that we were in the area of French where most African-French resided in. We had no issues with that but we should have sensed something when the Airbnb address directed to an old cafe with broken furnitures in it.

(I'd insert the pictures as soon as I search around for them)

First contact
JJ first contacted the Airbnb owner who listed this property as she listed the property as a "boutique hotel" and I absolutely have no agenda for stating this but the property was a dilapidated shophouse - no more than that. We were directed by her "Receptionist" - 2 guys - to our room in the basement. As the staircase leading to the basement was too narrow for us to roll the giant luggage down, we proposed to leave the luggage on the ground level. Worst decision of our lives.

The room
When we entered, the place was extremely cold so we immediately turned on the heater. We soon realised that the basement was sheltered by glass and people walking by the streets could actually peer into the room. Feeling like my privacy was being intruded, I was quite apprehensive with staying here, especially with two guys as the receptionist in the first storey. We brushed that off since we assumed they would leave at night time.

As soon as we returned after our day exploring around Paris, we soon realised the receptionists were here to stay as they were cooking mini pots of soup on the ground level. We flashed a nervous smile entering and I nudged JJ that we had to change our accommodations. We browsed through Airbnb for the cancellation policy and we somehow ended up on a feedback page. We raised our concern of privacy and before we know, Airbnb cancelled our booking immediately and provided a full refund. We were shocked at these as it was way too late to leave for another property to stay right now. Hence, we wrote to the owner that we would definitely pay her separately on the one night we stayed at, packed up, and prepared to leave early tomorrow morning.

The shocker
The next morning, we shifted all our luggages upstairs to prepare to leave and we were shocked to see, our large luggage, is gone. Apparently, the owner was extremely pissed to know that we have cancelled on her and continued to stay at her property - even though we agreed to repay her the amount for the first night, she was asking for the full repayment before she would agree to return the luggage. We spent about 2 hours of our precious time, arguing with her, her receptionist and Airbnb - all the time in French. Jj only learnt French while he was there and he had extreme difficulty trying to explain the situation to them in French and to explain our stand as well. Things turn bad and I felt we could not waste our time and money (we had rebooked Disneyland tickets the day before for entry today) so we went ahead to check into another hotel down the street and left for Disneyland.

The whole time, the owner was setting up a context that we were cheating her money and that no luggage was stolen the whole time. We were extremely pissed with the situation as we had explained that we would pay her, but she would not return the luggage. In addition, it didn't help that Airbnb was not able to render any assistance and was trying to calm both parties down. Airbnb could have done more and they should have realised that the luggage was what kept both parties in the play. Otherwise, why the hell would we be fighting to pay the owner when the owner had nothing on us?


JJ speaking to the Airbnb peeps - who were getting on our nerves for being so unhelpful

This incident made me lose faith in Airbnb and French a little as I felt that the whole situation was so appalling and at so many situations, if we had a mediator - either Airbnb or the police - the circumstances could have been reversed and both parties would have been appeased. Both Airbnb and the police did not live up to my expectations and at times like this, I lament my lack of popularity (to hustle a crowd or response from mass media almost immediately) and my poor command of linguistics (not able to communicate well with the Police or with the receptionist/owner). This whole incident was a downer to the trip but it also made me treasure the present and made me a cautious user of Airbnb - Yes, I still use Airbnb as a platform but having been through this, I've realised that things can be better solved between people, outside of the platform.

Hopefully, this would be a good cautionary tip for people interested to book Airbnb in new places.

Tada, the end of my Europe trip recollection! coming in 9 months later but everything still seems so vivid! Ending the memories with a cautionary tip that would hopefully help Airbnb fans.

By the time we arrived in Munich, we were more than half way through our trip and I remember still feeling butterflies about the new places I was heading too but also experiencing much frustrations because of the language barriers - not that the locals did not understand what we were saying/asking, but more of the fact that I couldn't fully apprehend what everyone else were saying to their friends or family LOL is this what they meant when a person has a need for information. oh wells, let's begin.

10. Fun & more fun

From the various visits to Heineken, Bayern Munich's stadium, Amsterdam Zoo and finally the much awaited Paris Disneyland, the trip was filled with lotsa fun and laughter as we tried every facility like how a typical tourist would.









11. Witbier

I don't particularly fancy beer before heading to Europe since beer had a rather bitter aftertaste that doesn't gel well with my millennial tastebuds that can't take hardship lol. Hence, when I discovered witbier, although many say witbier has much more calories, the aftertaste of wheat is so fragrant I felt like I found a new love.






12. Sports
Europe is undeniably the home to one of the most viewed sports in the world - Soccer. Since we travelled during winter, there were no games scheduled (or players would freeze to death). Nevertheless, we (or just JJ persuading me to do so) still made it a point to visit one of the stadiums in Munich to do a stadium walking tour.