Tip 1: When travelling in a country without data, make sure you know what train station your hotel is at before spending 14hrs walking around the city.
This is something I learnt the hard way. The city was Berlin, and it was early May, 2016. I was travelling by myself and did not have any data (or credit) on my phone. My first morning, I decided to take a walk and explore some of the must see locations a friend had recommended. I passed the Berlin Wall Memorial, the central station, through to the main park where I climbed the Victory Column, then back through the park for a nice audio tour of the Reichstag building. After a brief rest, I continued my walk through the Brandenburg gate and up the main road of the city to Alexandraplatz.
By this point, it was nearly 6pm and started to get just on the brink of dusk. My feet hurt, I was hungry, and I wanted to get back to my hotel for a nice shower and then bed. I was all geared up and ready to catch the train home. There was just one problem; I couldn't remember which station my hotel was at. I vaguely remembered the hotel receptionist pointing at one of the train lines on the map I had so helpfully left at the hotel and writing down the number "47", and I knew that it was on one of the lines that lead straight to the airport.
Rather than doing what any sane person would do and find the nearest source of wifi and look this up, I headed into the station to examine the map. There was a line 47 and it did connect to the airport, so I had narrowed down my options. I found a station that I thought sounded familiar and purchased a ticket. I rode the train all the way down, but when I got to this station it was definitely not the right part of the city. Feeling increasingly panicked, I tried again, heading a few stops further along. Again, I was very definitely wrong.
I began searching through my phone for clues. Maybe the hotel email was still loaded and would say? Or maybe google maps would work? No luck. Eventually, I opened up a screenshot of google maps I'd take earlier that showed my hotel. In the very top, barely visual, I spotted the train station and could just make out the name. Finally! Excited, I headed back to the train map but try as I might, I could not see this station on there.
It was dark by now, and being a young female in a foreign country, I was beginning to get a quite scared. I got back on the train, and continued around the line. I passed a station that looked like it might be mine and jumped off. While further investigation found that it definitely wasn't, I did take one last look at the map and finally, finally, managed to see my stop. It was on a completely didn't line. I switched lines and finally made it safely back to my hotel, some two hours after I had begun my quest.
Moral of the story is, when travelling in a foreign country alone, make sure you know how to get home again.
Here are some photos I took along the journey:
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