Introduction: Backpacking Through Europe

On April 18th, 2012, I departed the United States to embark on a trip to mystical lands of afar. It was to be the traditional, soul-searching, rite-of-passage journey of backpacking through Europe. I was gone for twenty-three days, traveled alone and visited the following places:

• London (UK)
• Paris (France)
• Amsterdam (Netherlands)
• Munich (Germany)
• Florence (Italy)
• Siena (Italy)
• Cinque Terre (Italy)
• Padova (Italy)
• Venice (Italy)
• Milan (Italy)
• (Can you tell how much I love Italy?)

I returned on May 11th, 2012. It would be futile to attempt to sum up the experience in a single word or sentence or blog post. In an effort to share the adventure (and digitally document it for my own sake), I have planned to make one blog post for each day of the trip. I kept a journal with me and made daily entries to recap my activities, feelings and discoveries. The posts I will be writing on this blog will be combinations of transcriptions of my journal entries mixed with post-analysis reflections and relevant pictures. 

These blog entries will likely be interspersed with general posts containing my observations that may not be specific to a single place or experience. For example, I made several notes in a variety of places I visited about Europe and bottled water. I will not discuss this subject in just Day Three of London, for example, nor will I repeat it in Day Seven of Paris and Day Ten of Amsterdam as that would be redundant. Instead, I will try to give subjects like these that are applicable to more than one place I visited their own separate, independent posts.

The trip was well-planned; I did not have the luxuries of time or money to travel from place to place based on sudden whims. Most of my train ticket reservations were bought in advance and my accommodations booked weeks prior to correspond with a master itinerary I had arranged. I did have a Eurail Global Pass that granted some freedom, however, as I had nearly unlimited rail travel for almost all of the countries I visited. I used CouchSurfing for my visits to Tuscany and Padova. For London, I stayed with relatives that I hadn't seen since I was about five. For all other places, I stayed in hostels. Every night was a unique experience, regardless of who I stayed with or where I stayed.

So, with all the preliminary details out of the way, let's get this kicked off! Here, we start with the day I bought my Osprey Porter 46L backpack from REI:

(Above) Feeling pretty excited! If the right-angle that my eyebrow forms in this picture doesn't say it, I don't know what does.

(Above) Aliya's half-worried, half-sympathetic glance suggests that perhaps I am too excited. (Any other theories are welcome via comment). Aliya is my sister (left).

I thought these were good pictures to start with as they show half of my trip: backpacking Europe (that's 50%). From here on out, future posts will be entered according to date, day x of the trip, and location.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy learning about my travels!