With so Many Options, Where do you go in Europe? – Europe

With so Many Options, Where do you go in Europe?
Europe

Planning a big trip is the most fun, and most frustrating part of the traveling process. Once you establish the absolute maximum amount you are willing to spend on your trip, and accept that you will probably spend more, it’s time to decide where to go. But there are so many options, especially in places like Europe where so many countries are within your reach, and no visas required for Americans! Although some people go on activity-specific vacations, such as bird-watchers for instance, I am more the type of person who likes to fit as many things into a day as possible. So here is my dilemma, if I dare call it that: I have three months to cover as much ground in Europe as possible, now where do I go?

I have a starting point, Amsterdam, and plan on spending a day or two discovering the city with a group of fraternity boys who have invited themselves to go with me. I’m sure they will be busy doing other things while I explore the Van Gogh Museum, Anne Frank’s house, ect. I also have an ending point, Paris, where I plan on spending a week regrouping and dealing with the severe depression of realizing my care-free summer is over and getting a fantastic haircut. The in-between is a vast dessert of possibilities and trying to decide which fabulous cities and beautiful countrysides I want to visit sends me into a frenzy of indecision.

Do I want to expand my cultural horizons and see all the fine museums and palaces of Europe or do I want to go climb mountains and sing “The Hills are Alive” Sound of Music style? The answer, I think, is to incorporate a little bit of both. Everyone knows the burn-out feeling which occurs after spending too many hours in a crowded, bustling city fighting irate taxi drivers and mysterious foreign pedestrian walkway customs. Even worse is museum overload. The ridiculously long lines, the aching back, the strained eyes, the strange smell of old stuff and climate controlled rooms. As much as I love city life the native in me craves green and space which no city park in the world could possibly satisfy. At the same time, after a week of camping with hippie-like abandon you crave a little action and human-interaction. So I plan on experiencing both while in Europe, camping by a lake one day and hopping a train into a city the next, if for no other reason than to shower.

I have decided on a one-week strategy, spending approximately a week in a major city followed by a week doing outdoorsy activities like hiking, biking, and sun-bathing (Yes, that counts). Luckily, everything in Europe seems deceptively close. Most of the countries are the size of U.S. states and the train system is incredible, making change in local easy and accessible. This may seem like a let-down but as much as my nature is to plan, I’m trying not to on this trip. Don’t get my wrong, I have a wonderfully organized “Europe by Eurail” guidebook to help me out, but a part of me just wants to get there and roll with the punches.

So I’m a wanderer, or at least I hope to be. It may drive me crazy and I may love it, who knows! In the end it will be the experience that will stay with me, not the exact route I take.

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