"How did you DO all that?" This is something I have heard quite often by now when I return from a trip and reveal how little money it had all cost me. Here is how: I am the queen of budget traveling. Kidding, of course. Actually, it is really hard work. I spend hours in front of my computer researching, reading guidebooks and travelblogs from other travelers to figure out the best destinations, routes and prices. Travel companions happily let me do all the planning - always. And, truth be told, I love it. Yes, it is time consuming and yes, chances are high I should be doing something else instead (mostly studying), but I just cannot help it. And as you might expect, I have made some major mistakes over the years and drew quite a few lessons from them.
You are tired of going to travel agencies, letting other people plan YOUR trip or you are far from a millionaire and still want to see the whole world? Stay with me.

The first and essential question you will ask yourself before taking a trip is "Where do I want to go and how do I get there?" I cannot help you with your "where" - only you know which places you dream of and which ones are on top of your bucket list. The only tip I can give you regarding your destination is this one: Do not get hung up on one specific place. There might be a better time to go there (pay attention to high seasons!) when flights are cheaper. You have one week off work/school/university and Paris is just unaffordable right now? No problem. I bet, there is another place on your list that you can get to for less money. Comparing fares really pays off!
And in case you do not want to let go of your dream destination just yet: Check the prices every single day at least three times. There are certain times when you can get tickets at a cheaper rate. Some say it is Tuesday or Wednesday. I say it could be any day.

Good websites to look for flights:
x Skyscanner
x STA Travel
x Checkfelix
x Google Flights

I would recommend to use those websites only to get an overview of all the flights offered. Do not always believe what they say about the price! Most of the pages you get redirected to charge you for paying by card or simply request a service fee. The search engine usually shows you that the ticket is more expensive when booking directly with an airline, but speaking from my own experience: It is not. Try it out! Also: Subscribe to the airlines' newsletter to receive the latest offers. You might even get as lucky as I did when a well-known 5-star airline had a promotion and I was able to purchase a round trip ticket from Munich to Bangkok for only €450,-

If there are no flights available within your budget, you might want to look into other ways of transportation (of course, it always depends on how much time you have). A very affordable way to travel is by bus, especially for long distance travel. There are numerous operators out there who take you from A to B overnight - which is actually the cheapest way to go somewhere as you also save up on a night in a hotel and you do not lose any time of your day - and some of them are very comfortable. Another advantage of using buses is that they drop you off right in the city center or close to it. I had the best experiences with MeinFernbus&Flixbus, iDBus which is now Ouibus in Europe and Megabus in the U.S. Their deals start at $1, and one time, I actually got a ride from New York City to Boston for $1,50!! My breakfast that day was more expensive than the whole trip ;-)

Another awesome and really, really cheap way to get around is to use BlaBlaCar, a car sharing website. BlaBlaCar is particularly suitable for short distance. Unfortunately it is a French company (and page), so everything is in French. But, no worries, there are a few more branches from Germany, Spain and Portugal, for example, but they only have a fraction of all the rides. What is so great about BlaBlaCar beside the fact that you get to travel with locals and it doesn't really cost much? You can book the rides very spontaneously (even a few hours before) and the driver only gets paid if he /she actually gives you a ride. So, they cannot set you up.

The next means of transport might not always be the cheapest one - it defintely depends on the country: Trains can be very low-priced in countries like Italy or some parts of Asia, but in others it can be even more expensive than taking an airplane.

The cheapest of all, but only for hardliners: Hitchhiking. If you have never done this before but are thinking of giving it a try, take a look at Hitchwiki. It provides all the information you need for your adventure, offers help with your first time-fears and shows which countries are especially suitable to hitchhike in.

For a longer trip, the best method is to use a combination of all the aforementioned transportations (one-way) to reach your destinations. Just to give you an impression of how well this works: This summer, I traveled through Europe for 7 weeks - not with Interrail but trains, buses, carpools and airplanes combined. Vienna - Berlin - Amsterdam - London - Paris - Milan - Genova - Cinque Terre -  Pisa - Madrid - Lisbon - Algarve - Seville - Málaga - Valencia - Barcelona - Vienna for as little as €480,-.

You see, traveling does not always have to be expensive. Low-budget traveling is definitely doable but also a lot of work. But hey, it is totally worth it!!!

I hope this post will help you with planning your trips in the future - let us know where you will be going!

xx Lena


Photo taken in: Key West, USA

Back in New Hampshire, when I had known Lena for approximately two weeks, I told her that she was one of those rare people I can see myself fighting with. I usually hate arguments with my friends. I’m just not good at fights – those with my sister not included. But with Lena, I thought, I could really enjoy a good argument every now and again. Boy oh boy, was I wrong.

How wrong I was with this assumption, I didn’t realize until almost two years later, when we went on a girls-trip to Budapest. Now, imagine four girls, each one with her own, very strong personality, sticking together for three days straight. You know as much as I do that something was bound to happen. Couldn’t agree on where to go? Not our problem. Hangriness? Not that either. It was the German language that got us started. The article of the word dumpling, to be exact. I am not even going to go into the whole thing again, or I’ll have to call Lena right now and start discussing this again. The argument went on for quite some time, ended in tears and I soon realized: I hate fighting with L.

Why I’m telling you this? Because I want you to know about Mimi. And Mimi came at the perfect time, reminding me that I love this girl from Upper Austria to bits, even though she frustrates the hell out of me sometimes. So who is Mimi? 

She is our first favorite find and the reason why we started flying floordrobe, but most importantly she is my favorite artist and an incredibly talented person. Mimi owns a not-so-little-anymore company called Papetri Paperworks and creates amazing notebooks, cards and as of last year, she also designs diaries for dm Hungary. Her illustrations are the cutest thing I have ever seen and her notebooks too precious to ever actually use them. Can you tell I’m in love?

We found Mimi the day after the dumpling incident, strolling around Budapest’s amazingly beautiful Jewish quarter and browsing a few market stalls that have been put up in one of the passages connecting Király utca and Dob utca. (Remember those names; you don’t want to miss out on Budapest’s Design Street – which would be Király utca – and all the courtyards and passages around there!) Naturally, the two of us got excited about pretty much everything – as long as it was handmade and special somehow. But then there she was, in a dark corner, showcasing her work.

how can you not love these illustrations?
I think Mimi was a little scared of the two crazy people jumping up and down in excitement just because of her notebooks. And I think that our fellow travelers were a little annoyed at how long we took just because of those notebooks. But Lena and I were in our own happy bubble, our day having been made a little better just because of Mimi’s notebooks. It also made me realize that I probably won’t ever find another person again that goes as crazy for those little things as I do.

I don’t have to mention that we fell in love with her stuff right then and there, but when we started talking to her we loved the company even more, because Mimi turned out to be a lovely person. Of course we bought some of her work that day. We also got her card, tracked her down on Facebook, went to see her when she was at a street market in Vienna, obviously bought some more of her stuff and are currently working on a very exciting project with her.

So that’s the story of how we found Mimi. If you want to check out her stuff – trust me, you want to – have a look at her Facebook page and her Instagram feed. And don’t forget to check out Király utca if you ever find yourself in Budapest. But bring enough money - you willl want to buy everything. Don't tell me I didn't warn you!

xx Kathi

Photo taken in: Budapest, Hungary

First things first: I subscribe to everything Lena wrote about getting to Chris’ apartment. Let’s just say I have never been happier to be greeted by a doorman – not that I have ever been to an apartment building with a doorman before - except the fact that he made fun of me for not being able to pronounce Chris' last name. (Exactly what happened to L the year before.)

The summer after L’s first stay at Chris’ we decided to meet up in NYC and he was kind enough to host us (again), even though he had loads of visitors that weekend. We were 6 people in his one-room apartment. How we did it? I have no clue. I just remember Chris’s friend sleeping on some towels in the hallway, because there literally was no more inch left in the room. Hello there, hardcore sleepover!

I didn’t want to admit it back then but I was quite nervous, since I didn’t know our host and was on my own for the first night. As soon as I got to his place though, all my worries were forgotten.  Chris was super nice and even though he had to go to work the next morning he listened to all my stories until late at night. I felt so welcome at this apartment, it was ridiculous, considering the fact that this was a complete strangers house. What flustered me most was that within ten minutes of knowing me, Chris gave me a key to his apartment and told me I could come and go whenever, even if he wasn’t there. How can a person be that trusting? It still baffles me. And then there was the food sharing thing. “Feel free to eat anything you find around here. But it might be safer to check the expiration date before” I mean I get the hosting people for culture exchange purposes thing. But don’t touch my food, person. That’s where the friendliness stops. Not in Chris' world, though.

But this weird concept some people call food sharing didn’t stop there. The next day I was invited to come by Chris’ work. To pick him up and then get some dinner, at least that’s what I thought. When I got there, though, I received a text saying “Tell the doorman your name and come up. You’re on the list” THE LIST?? 

Now, you have to know that back then he worked for a pretty well-known media company with a huge office building just off Central Park. Telling the doorman my name, letting him take my picture to put on my Visitor Pass, then being thrown into this world full of busy and important people and shown around didn't feel like anything remotely close to reality anymore. But forget all that. More important was the fact that the waiting area was full of food. Full to the bursting. With anything you can imagine. And I was allowed to take whatever my heart desired. It was the BEST DAY EVER. I remember sitting there, on a huge pink couch, not daring to get up and messaging my friends because I couldn't believe it. (It was so good that two days later, Lena and I forced Chris to put us on “The List” again – mainly to show Lena all the food.)

But even all the food aside, it was a great weekend. We explored the City some more, went out with the whole apartment crew – which might or might not have been the time when Lena pretty much asked the bouncer if he knew that we weren’t quite old enough yet to enter the club, but that's another story – and generally had a really good time. 

blurry picture - great memories

I still talk to Chris sometimes and I know that we are always welcome back in New York. What I’m trying to say is this: Without Couchsurfing we would have never seen the inside of a NYC office building. We would have never even dreamed about going clubbing in the City. And we would have never had a friend there we could go back to visit. So if you are still skeptical about the whole concept, don’t be! Try it! I’m not promising that it will be great, but it might be. And just the possibility of such a unique and different trip is worth the try. Even if your host turns out to be horrible, it's still a good story to tell.

Have you tried CS yet? Tell us about your experiences. The good, the bad, the ugly, we want to hear about them all!


xx Kathi


Photos taken in: New York, USA

This is going to be a story about both our first time Couchsurfing, which happened to be with the same guy: Chris from New York. For the ones of you who do not know what "Couchsurfing" is - it is fairly simple: There is this website (www.couchsurfing.com), where you can sign up and look for free places to sleep. Traditionally you sleep on a couch in someone's apartment, sometimes you even get a bed and - if you are especially lucky - your own room (but do not expect that to happen on a regular basis). It is a great way for broke travelers like us to be able to go on a trip regardless their empty wallet and to engage with the culture and everyday life of the locals. Just keep an open mind and your priorities in order and you will be guaranteed to have a unique and unforgettable experience. You might even make a friend along the way, which is exactly what happened to us. 

My first contact with Couchsurfing was back in 2013 when I was living in the United States and wanted to visit christmassy New York. I had just heard about this website and got curios, so I signed up and sent out my first few surfing requests. After a few declines I received a very nice message from this guy living on 4th Avenue offering his couch to me and my friend Tiana. There cannot be any harm in that, right? Well, imagine this:

You arrive in the city at 12AM and the bus driver lets you off in a dark, abandoned alley and you have no idea where you are. "Okay, no need to panic. We only have to find 4th Avenue and Chris' apartment now. Easy peasy. No need to panic." Then you run around in circles - because turns out 4th Avenue is pretty long - without finding the right apartment but instead crossing ways with a bunch of creepy people in the biggest city you have ever been to, not knowing anyone. This is probably the time when you actually start panicking, just a little bit. "So, where is this apartment now?...we have already been here...this guy looks scary...he is coming closer...OMG! We are gonna die out here!! Okay, he just passed. No need to worry...but WHERE ON EARTH IS THAT APARTMENT?! Oh, here it is."

We had passed said apartment three times already by the time we actually found it. But our little adventure did not end there. After an actual doorman told us where to go - you have no idea just how fancy we felt in that moment - we ended up standing in front of the door we thought was our host's both being too scared to knock. What if it was a rapist or a serial killer? You never know. While we were still deciding who would stand in front of the other and take the first bullet, we already knocked and prepared for the worst. Fortunately, nothing happened. I mean literally, nothing happened. Turns out we knocked on the wrong door at 2AM in the morning. I guess the person was not at home. But Chris was, and we had loads of fun getting to know him better over the next few days. He definitely was not a creep and the best first Couchsurfing host possible!

Read about my second time staying at Chris's, our summer trip to NYC and how we ended up being friends with our Couchsurfing host in Kathi's post on Saturday.

xx Lena


Photo taken in: New York City, USA


Hey, we’re Kathi and Lena – you might know that already – and we’re flying floordrobe. We became friends a couple of years back, when we were Au Pairs in the exciting American State of New Hampshire (read all about how we met here) and soon realized we shared a deep love for the 90's, tiny necklaces and airplanes. Not to forget clothes and any other kind of transportation method. 

Since then we've both moved back to Europe - and travelled thousands of miles, sometimes living out of a suitcase and sometimes off a floordrobe next to our actual closet. Because why hang your clothes up if you can keep them in a pile on the floor?

What we're trying to say is this: We are not perfect. We don't have perfectly looking closets or rooms - even if we're trying really hard sometimes. We are messy sometimes. (Some more than others.) And we are in no way trying to tell you how to live your life. All we want to do is share our love for unknown designers, artists and little shops and restaurants we discover on our travels, combined with the stories behind them. (Since both of us have a hard time shutting up, well, ever, and we love talking to strangers there really are a lot of stories to tell!)


At the moment we are based in Vienna, Austria and Tallinn, Estonia, so there will be a lot of stories about those two cities. But we'll always let you know about our travels as well. (Check out our future plans here.)


Before we'll let you discover flying floordrobe on your own, here is a description of what you will find in each category:

Dreamy destinations is all about our future travel plans and our bucket list.

Favorite finds is where you will find posts about our favorite artists, designers and shops. The ones we found when we were not actually allowed to spend any more money on another notebook or cute stuff we didn't really need but bought it anyways.

Master meals - where to eat and drink. The restaurant, bars and coffeeshops we like best.

Wonderful world is pretty much the place with all the stories that didn't fit anywhere else. It's subcategories Austria and Estonia will contain every story on these countries.

So that's flying floordrobe. We hope you enjoy reading it as much as we enjoy writing and creating it.

xxx
Lena and Kathi


Photo taken in: Death Valley, USA
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