As many may already know, I have embarked on a journey. For the second time in my life, I am traveling Europe solo. This is an adventure not entered into lightly. It involves quite a bit of sacrifice on one's part-- money, time, comforts of home, and the solitude can be deafening. This is my itinerary, for those of you just joining:
London
Dublin
Prague
Amsterdam
Paris
Burgundy & Rhone (for drinking's sake)
Nice
Milan
Venice
Florence
Rome
Undetermined, but add about 2 more weeks...
This is unnerving. Don't get me wrong, I love Europe, but I am beginning to think I am too old for this "backpacking across Europe" brew-ha-ha (yes, I spelled it "brew" as in beer, because it takes me a few of those each day for my brain to not implode).
I did a similar version of this trip when I was 22. Thinner, younger, more adaptable to sharing a shower with a million other dirty hostel partakers. These days I have to block out the idea that the person in the bed next to me is going to steal my iPhone as it charges. That there are not bedbugs in my comforter. And that I won't get some weird venereal disease from using common facilities. Let's face it, I am an American, and I hate that about myself, but what can I say? I live in a townhouse in Raleigh, NC with my own plush bathroom and hot water nearly anytime I want it. Don't even ask me how much I miss my DVR. I will cry.
But all of this aside, I am determined to enjoy this for what it is... an adventure. I am, after all, someone who loves the life lived "off the beaten path" and what is more off the beaten path than a trip across the Atlantic Ocean. So bear with me as I leave behind my life of American luxury and become a true American vagabond in Europe... even if it kills me.
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