Crossing borders on a budget

It is 3 a.m. on a Tuesday morning at a closed, vacant train station in the middle of Germany. My best friend JD and I sit huddled against a cold brick wall, hugging our backpacks for warmth and hoping the polizei (police) don't kick us out for being vagabonds.

This is what happens when transportation through foreign countries is not intelligently thought out. Take notes, kids.

When we originally planned our over night train escapade from Brussels to Munich we were sitting in our cozy bedrooms in the United States.

We thought to ourselves, "This is perfect. We now have one night's sleeping arrangements settled while traveling to our next location - all on the same dime. Win-win, right?"

Not right.

At some point (maybe the night before we left) we realized that the trains in Europe do not run directly to and from where we want and that "layovers" would be in order.

Three hour layovers at 3 a.m.? No big deal. We'll just grab a bite to eat at the train station in the middle of the night. Midnight snack, right?

I mean if Walmart can do 24 hours, why can't you mr. random, sketch train station? Wrong again. Nothing in Europe is open 24 hours - stupid Americans.

So, two misguided colleges students jumped trains that Tuesday morning (night?), which involved falling asleep, waking up to bells whistling, frantically scrambling to get off the train and stumbling to find a new sleeping headquarters at the nearest platform.

While I enjoy telling stories of my epic failures, this cold, strange night taught me a few things about transportation abroad.

First of all, no matter how young, how brave or how healthy you are if you spend a night jumping trains you will catch a cold.

Secondly, trains are the most expensive form of transportation to cross borders in Europe, but also give you the most opportunities to see the landscape. To some people this is an important aspect of traveling.

Personally, I would rather be in the countryside - not flying by it. That's what painting are for.

The most expensive and confusing transportation medium in Europe is renting a car. Let me break it down for you in simple mathematics: Daily cost of rental car + gas + toll freeways (due to no taxes for roads in France) = pay your way home by way of brothel.

Let's not play pretend anymore - as Americans in Europe we are tourists and we are lost. Just get on a bus and put some head phones in. It makes everyones life easier.

Now for some good news, there is one cheap and fairly painless way to travel across countries in Europe: easyjet and ryanair. These two airlines are no where near luxurious or fancy but they get the job done.

The tragic Tuesday train ticket from Brussels to Munich was $210. Plane ticket on ryanair from Munich to Barcelona - which required no train hopping - was $80.

Although, a few downfalls of cheap airlines are evident they are much less intrusive.

First of all, the airports for these airlines are more than likely about 30 minutes away from the major cities, but they have buses that run to the major cities at the same intervals that flights arrive and depart. So, only half-of-a-downfall there.

Also, flights are less likely to be on time when a ton of money is not invested. So, if for some reason you're in Barcelona on business - take the company's private jet and make your meetings. But for my purposes, I was on vacation - time should not and did not exist for me.

My biggest annoyance with these cheap airlines was the amount of advertisements the plane offered (most likely to make up for the money they lost on the flight.) Sometimes by the end of the flight I genuinely thought I wanted JLo's newest perfume, but I can only really blame myself for that.

Another upside to flights across countries in Europe is that they only last about an hour and there are no stops along the way. It is a guaranteed connection - plane crashes aside.

With a little research and preparation, traveling across Europe can be enjoyable. But if you try it out like me and hope that mommy's "good will" will get you where you need to go you will fail.

Know the cheapest mediums, know your stops and don't just think, "Eh, we'll figure it out when we get there."