Summer in Europe
One of the best parts of summer break is all of the freedom and chill vibes that come with it. I’m really excited because my well-travelled best friend managed to convince me andmy parents to go backpacking across Europe this summer. We are going to go all over Europe. Some notable stops include Germany, Portugal, Italy, and Norway. But, who knows, we are going to some countries I’ve never even thought about going to before, like Croatia and Belgium.
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This, by far, was the best summer and late birthday present ever. It was just me and Jess, our backpacks, a general plan subject to change, and a train map for most of Europe. We met some great people, ate phenomenal food, and learned a lot about Europe and ourselves. Since Jess has travelled so much, she was basically my very own tour guide and travel agent! I get why she hates being in one place for so long, because she’s always looking for that next great adventure.
We had a good two months to do anything and go practically anywhere. We flew into London and after 67 days we were going to fly out of Lisbon. We had a general game plan to do at least two countries a week, which would be about seven countries, but Jess said that there were some really great places pretty far from London. So we checked into out hostel, spent a few days in London and took a super cheap flight to the Ukraine. Why? Because I wanted to say that I’ve been to Kiev. Also, my mom’s mother is Ukrainian and she would have been so disappointed if I didn’t at least try to go to Ukraine.
Not going to lie, I really enjoyed Ukraine. It was oddly familiar and I got to practise my Ukrainian with actual Ukrainians. They always were shocked because I look and sound so American, but could have real conversations with them or at least tell them what I wanted with almost perfect grammar. From Kiev we went south to Odessa and basically followed the coast of the Black Sea until we got to Burgas, Bulgaria with a couple pit stops in Bucharest, Romania and Varna, Bulgaria. It was so gorgeous. We took our time getting there and only had three overnight travel days. We spent a week and a half getting there and another full day in Burgas before we set out for Greece! Fourteen days down, 52 left.
After Bulgaria, we island- and city-hopped around Greece. We started in Kavala, a coast town with plenty of history and gorgeous look out spots, then headed west to Thessaloniki, another coast town with plenty of history. It was so cool to get to read through the letters to the Thessalonians in the place, the actual intended audience’s home, that Paul the Apostle sent his letters to! And, of course, we headed down to Athens, saw all the sights we could manage, and island-hopped north toward Albania. If you Google search pictures of Albania, they are like all breathtaking, so I made Jess actually take a couple of days in Albania. Apparently, it’s one of the hidden gems of Europe, so how could we not? Between Greece and Albania, we spent another seven days, so 45 left.
When we got to Albania, Jess was already thinking about where to next and hot to get there. Turns out, there is an overnight ferry from Albania to Italy and another ferry up to the coast from Italy to Croatia, and she said since she had never done it before, we just had to. We hopped on the first ferry in Durrës, Albania and hopped off in Bari, Italy. We touristed around Italy, through Naples, Rome, Florence, Bologna, San Marino, and ended in Ancona to catch the ferry to Zadar, Croatia. Another six days gone, 39 left; well, 38 by the time we got to Zadar.
A month into this trip, it felt like we just started flying through the days and the cities–Zadar and Zagreb in Croatia for two days; up to Vienna, Autria for two more days because I really wanted to see an opera; ovre to Germany for Munich, Nuremberg, Dresden, Berlin, and Hamburg for a week; up to Copenhagen, Denmark then Göttenbrg and Stockholm, Sweden, and Oslo, Norway for five days. Sixteen days of just constant moving, meant 22 left.
Since we powered through for two weeks, we could relax and take our time and go to the smaller, harder to reach places in our remaining countries. We had four planned countries left, which averaged to five or six days in each! We flew down to the Netherlands, saw all the tulip fields (that weren’t in bloom), the windmills, the canals, and Amsterdam. Oh, and, the Dutch really are giants. Everyone is just so tall.
One of the great things about the American public school system is that students have to take some foreign language, typically. Also, being fluent in two languages made it really easy to learn German, at least to a conversational level. And, that made our time in Austria, Germany, and Belgium so much easier. I told Jess since we had all this time, we had to go to Antwerp and Brussels and Luxembourg, just for kicks. I really loved Belgium.
I feel like France was a combination of a wine, art, and history tour. Reims, Paris, Versaille, Orléans, Tours, La Rochelle, Bordeaux, and Toulouse. We didn’t spend a day in each, but we did spend a few hours in each before we caught a train to the next city. Jess wasn’t really into all the history, but loved the art and only talked more and more about it the closer to Spain that we got.
We pinballed around Span. Bilbao, Madrid, Valencia, Murcia, Málaga, Gibraltar, and Seville. Spain is so culturally and culinarily diverse, from the learned lisp of Barcelona to the paella of Valencia. Ant, it’s also full of history, art, music. I just feel like Spain is teeming with life in such a unique way that a lot of the other countries we went to weren’t.
After two jam-packed months of adventure and travel, Jess and I decided to spend our last full day on the beach in Lisbon before our early morning flight back to America.
I’m so glad Jess and I went on this trip. It was cool because me and my best friend got to take on the world together! It wasn’t perfect–we got lost a couple times, missed a train–, but I wouldn’t change a single moment for anything. The best parts weren’t getting new passport stamps, even though we did go to 19 countries in 67 days! Or, even the places that we went , but the small moments and our new friends. Like, when Jess and I got to stay with some of my grandmother’s family just outside of Kiev for free. Or, the random Alaskan man that just started talking to us in a random coffee shop in Albania before we headed to the port to catch the ferry to Italy. Next, time, because I have to do this again, we aren’t going to go so much, rather just be. Here’s to the best summer ever and that the next will be even better!