Not long ago I was lucky enough to get to spend almost a year in Europe for a co-op program I did with my school. Most of this was spent in France, where I was placed in a lycée (basically a high school) as an English Language Assistant, but after the program was over I did spend some time travelling to other places in Europe I had long wanted to go and see. The entire experience was amazing, from my job to my free time, and I can’t wait until I can go back again and see even more, but until then I’ll be reminiscing here about all the adventures I had there and in other places too. Maybe I’ll entice you to someday go and visit these places yourself.
Over the next few days I’m going to go through my travel journals and find my best stories to tell you, from the embarrassing to the unbelievable. You can expect stories from Rome, Venice, Salzburg, Vienna, Amsterdam, Barcelona, many places in England, and all over France, not only from this trip but others too, including Israel and wherever else I may find myself. I’ll mix these stories in with my regular posts, so stay tuned.
I love travelling. Well, really, I love arriving at my final destination. The actual travelling part I could do without. I don’t like planes. It’s not so much that I’m scared of flying, because I’m not really, it’s more about being stuck on a plane for eight hours or so and everything that comes with that. Cramped seating, filtered air that dries you from the inside out, boredom, screaming babies, what have you. It is just never ending. I don’t mind trains or buses or cars, but planes? Yuck, no thank you. I’d much rather a ten hour train ride than a five hour plane ride. At least when I look out the window of a train, there are things to see besides just sky. I can pass hours and hours looking out the window of a ground vehicle, but the second I get on a plane I desperately need to get off again, screaming ARE WE THERE YET in my mind the whole way. I’m sure people are saying, well why don’t you do something to pass the time, like read or watch something? I do, of course, but I find it much harder for me to focus when I’m on a plane for some reason, which makes sticking to one activity rather difficult and boredom comes crawling back.
Once I get to where I’m going though, it’s pure heaven. My big Europe trip I did mostly alone, which, for anyone who knows me, is a huge deal. I do not do anything alone, especially not travel. I’m way too paranoid about everything that could possibly go wrong and it leads to severe anxiety. But I did it! I travelled Europe alone and lived to tell the tale and I wouldn’t have it any other way, because I loved every second of it and I’m a more capable person because of it. Even when things did go wrong, and believe me, they did, in epic proportions, I somehow managed to remain decently level-headed through it all. But more on the disasters later.
I’m excited to share this all with you, and I’d love to hear your stories in exchange.
Cheers and happy travels, everyone, even if it’s just in your imagination for now.
violetsams 