Aside from learning something, travel is the most important thing you should do while at TUD. You will experience thousand year old buildings, churches and cities. History will come alive, famous paintings you've seen only in expensive art albums will jump at you, and along the way you'll meet interesting people from every corner of the world. I would even venture to say that travel is the most important part of you exchange experience.

Travel doesn't have to be expensive. As a TUD student you will be entitled to free public transportation within entire Hessen. That includes all buses, trams and most trains. The first thing I recommend to do is to buy BahnCard at the train station. It will cost you around $100, but it will quickly pay itself back. With it you will get 50% discount on all trains in entire Germany.

To get most out of your travels you should always be staying at youth hostels. A night stay with breakfast ranges between $15 and $20. Your accomodations will be similar to dorms, but know that it is common for four to twelve people to sleep in the same room. Expect bunk beds. I know it sounds scary, but it is safe and you will meet interesting people. In Siena, I met a crazy canadian whose wallet got stolen and some stranger gave him money to call his embassy. In Florence I spoke to a spanish couple who just finished college and were spending six months to travel around europe, living in hostels, with nowhere to hurry, with time to see everything and talk to everybody. Venice had an older british gentleman who couldn't sleep at night due to loud conversations between french kids on a school trip. He was warning them that they lost in Waterloo and if they won't let him sleep, they will "loose" again :) In Amsterdam there were all kinds of interesting people willing to discuss politics. I also traveled with my girlfirend to Paris, Barcelona, Valencia, Arles, Bodensee and Berlin. In Florence I spoke with two fanatical brother cyclists who were on a bike trip from Croatia over Alps to Italian heartland. If you would listen to only one thing I have to say, then that would be "to stay at youth hostels."

Another transportation option, one that is often overlooked, is renting a car. When you travel with two or three other people and rent a car, it becomes significantly cheaper than taking a train. For example, a weekend trip to Holland, in a rented Mercedes with four other people, will cost only $50 per person. That is about half of what an express train would cost. You will save time, have flexibility to see something along the way and you will experience what it means to travel on Autobahn.

During my stay in Germany I have traveled extensively by car. I had great experience renting cars from eSixt. Let me offer you some tips:

• If you have a credit card, check with your bank to see if they provide rental car insurance. It will save you about 25% rental cost.
• Do not travel alone as you will have difficulty finding your way and with other people you will be less likely to fall asleep behind the wheel.
• All rental cars in europe have manual trasmissions. If you don't know how to drive stick, then start learnig NOW!
• Most parking spots in europe require parallel parking. If you don't know how to parallel park, then start learning NOW!
• I can't stress this enough: ALWAYS use turn signals and do so before changing lanes. On most german highways there are no speed limits and you do not want somebody to rear end you at 150mph. Be careful!
• Just because highway between Hannover and Berlin is four lanes wide, smooth as ice ring and your car can do 140mph, doesn't mean you should drive that fast. But if _you_ do, please be careful.
• Unless you are an experienced driver I do not recommend driving to Italy. You have been warned.

If you are going to drive in europe please do not ignore my pointers. I've driven cars ranging from 50hp to 250hp. Small and big. Slow and fast. During the last year I've driven over 6000 miles; in Germany, to Amsterdam, Paris, entire Italy, most of southern Spain, Switzerland, Austria and Poland. I didn't have a single accident and enjoyed every single mile (especially those coming down from Alps to Genova:). Trains are very expensive and I would like people to know that renting a car is a very affordable alternative.

Don't forget to take a lot of pictures!