1. Bring your own recycle bag when you go supermarket because they don’t give plastic bags and if you want, they will charge you. Luckily I brought my backpack whenever I go out, therefore I can put the mineral water bottle, sandwich, bread all inside my bag when I buy these from supermarket. 

2. In Germany, Austria, and Italy, one ticket allows you to take any public transport: bus, train, tram (except taxi) provided the time duration on your ticket is enough for your journey. Yes, with that same ticket, you can just take a train and then switch to take a bus and so on. 

3. In Italy, a ticket of €1.50 is worth of 100 minutes (1 hour 40 mins) which means you can take public transport to anywhere you want within that period of time. Once that period expires, you have to buy another ticket. In Germany and Austria tickets also have their own duration on their ticket. 

4. Once you have bought the ticket, don’t assume you can just hop on the train or bus. You must first VALIDATE your ticket. How? In Germany, next to the ticket machine, you will find a small machine (as shown in the photo I took below) for you to slot your ticket into it and the machine will stamp your ticket with the date and time. Ticket Validate Machine 

Ticket Validate Machine

5. If you take bus or tram, you can validate your ticket inside as there are machines inside the bus and tram. Plain-clothing officers may inspect passengers if they have tickets or if you have validate the ticket or not. If you’re caught with a ticket without validation, you will be fined on the spot for €60 (around RM 300). So please REMEMBER to VALIDATE your ticket. In some places, you can buy and validate the ticket inside the trams. Tickets come in Single-ticket, Day-ticket, Family/Group tickets. If you buy the Day-ticket, you can use that same ticket for the whole day with limitless of times you take the public transport. 

6. If you want to take away, never eat it sitting down in their cafe/restaurant as it is rude and disrespectful to the food and the chef. And if you cannot finish your food, NEVER ask the waiter to tapau (pack to take away) the leftovers. It’s also disrespectful to their wonderful cuisine. I have witnessed how the Italian waitress admonished the two China girls on this matter to which I will only tell and demonstrate in person to my friends because the effect is more realistic. Hahaha… 

7. If you have empty bottles from the mineral water you bought, bring those empty bottles to any supermarket and they have a recycle machine where you put the bottles one by one into that machine to be crushed into pieces and after you have finished putting all your empty bottles, coins will be paid to you in a slot. How cool is that, huh? You are paid to recycle. What a good way to encourage people to recycle. Your empty bottles can earn some extra money and you can use it to buy sandwich or a public transport ticket for the day. 

8. When the train stops at your station, please don’t expect the door will open automatically. It won’t. There is a button for you to press or a handle for you to pull to open the door. So, don’t just stand there and wait for the door to open. Observe how the locals do it and you will get it. I guess with this way, the train doesn’t need to open every single door even there’s no one going out, as not to waste time and energy. 

9. In Europe countries (well, at least the 3 countries I went), people will stand on the right side of the escalator and those who are in a hurry, they will walk on the left side. So, please don’t stand in the middle or at the wrong side. Again, observe the locals and follow. 

10. Public transport (train, bus, tram) in Europe countries are very punctual on time and they display the time on the monitor at the station but please be aware that trains may be delayed or cancelled due to unforeseen reasons. If this happens, they will display the info on the big information screen but the thing is, everything is in German in Germany and Italian in Italy. You have to go to the information counter to ask or you could ask a local who speaks English to translate to you what does the information says on the monitor. German people are very helpful and kind. On this matter, I will blog in another post. If the train is cancelled, they will either direct you to take another train to connect you to your destination on the same day. So you have to ask the information counter staff and they will tell you which platform, which train number, what time to catch that other train.