When a few months ago British weather and exams got the better of a few of my friends and I we decided to do something about it; we planned ourselves a little adventure. I have two great life mottos, firstly; to go somewhere new at least once every year, and secondly; to never ever waste these gloriously long summers university affords us. Talk about killing two birds with one stone…
I have a very passionate relationship with Europe, I literally adore it. All of it. However I was starting to think it was getting a bit ridiculous to have such a fierce love of a continent I had barely explored, a continent which was, to my benefit, on my very doorstep. I have a bad habit of shrugging off my splendid neighbouring countries in favour of places like China, but when I realised that I hadn’t been any further east in Europe than France I knew that something needed to be done.
I count myself as a European before anything else, and I genuinely fear that a British Island mentality could ruin the progression of our country. So, with this desire to embrace everything European I rallied some of my wonderful childhood friends together and got planning. Now, I am one of those girls who loves post-it notes, highlighters and the planning process more than most things in life so you can imagine how excited I got about the prospect of organising weeks of travel.
It seems to be somewhat a rite of passage to backpack around Europe, I know both my parents did it when they were at university and it was always on my list of things to do. I was getting sick of meeting people from America who had seen more of MY continent than I had.
What I never really thought about was the massive amount of diversity Europe houses, it is quite staggering when you think about it – from the sandy beaches of Spain, to the snowy mountains in Austria; you cannot argue that there is something there for everyone.
A few weeks ago I purchased my most expensive train tickets ever: an interrail pass – whoopee!! This will be my transport from country to country, and as someone who hates flying I cannot wait. This way we can look out the window and see the landscape we’re travelling through. I’m expecting some very inspirational long train journeys where all my friends divulge their deepest secrets and desires, I just hope they are ready for that…
This is our route which seems to cover a pretty vast amount of Europe:
Croatia à Slovenia (Lake Bled) à Hungary (Budapest) à Austria (Vienna) à Slovakia (Bratislava) à Czech Republic (Prague) à Germany (Berlin) à Holland (Amsterdam)
However, due to an incapability to save money and a terrible habit of going out for lunch with my friends, I seem to have left myself with not much to actually travel with - I will be living off bread and wine, with a reserve fund saved for ice-creams and art galleries, but that is the joy of being a student traveller. |
| I feel pretty lucky right now! |
I’ve got travel monopoly, travel chess, AND travel scrabble. I think I am all ready to go. Wish me luck!
Florence
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