Independent Travel

Here is one of the Clarion articles I wrote when I was in Barcelona:

Last week I stepped off the plane in Rome with only my pack, passport and two weeks to get to Paris. The 21 of us, splitting into smaller travel groups, have been backpacking through Europe for the past week.

Hopping planes, jumping trains, riding ferries, wandering lost through streets, we have used every mode of transpertation to make it through some of the most spectacular places in Europe.

There’s no telling what’s coming next.
Now halfway through our travel, we are taking a little time out from our constant travel to rest on the beaches of Barcelona and enjoy some sunshine.

Though it seems like forever ago, it was only last Tuesday when I started backpacking.

After we were given our Eurail passes and a green light, three of my friends and I hopped on a plane from London and landed in Rome a few hours later.

As we quickly realized, Rome really is a city of fountains. Everywhere we turned there was some sort of flowing water display.

Through we only spent two days in Rome, we had time enough to witness the spectacular artwork in the Sistine Chapel, eat pizza outside the coliseum and make a wish in Trevi Fountain while eating as much gelato as we could hold.

From there we made a pit stop in Pisa to see its tower, a spectacular result of poor engineering, while on our way to Venice.

Venice was a completely unique city in every way. It was as though the whole town was a floating marina. It was like a small town and an ancient ruin in one, though it also felt surreal with its waterways and canals carving through the buildings.

The romantic city does have a double-edged sword, however. Stray but a little from the main streets of Venice and you will be hopelessly lost in the thick labyrinth of streets.
The Venetian streets should more accurately be called sidewalks and no map detailed enough could lead you through the maze. If not for the frequent signs pointing to the major areas in Venice, we might still have been looking for the train station.

Only a day later we left the mild city of Venice and hopped a train to Switzerland. There, we spent the day climbing the majestic Swiss Alps, which took our breath away.
We did not stay long but took a pit stop in Marsailles before planting our feet in Barcelona for a couple of days.

Other groups have wondered as far north as Amsterdam and as far east as Budapest.
At a chance reunion with another group in Barcelona, Sara Anderson advised that, “when traveling to Budapest, try the thermal baths. The changing rooms are a bit of a shock to the typical modest American, but swimming under the stars in Eastern Europe is incredible.”
Living out of a backpack isn’t a bad way of life. You soon learn that such things as clean clothes and sanitation are a luxury.

Everything you need in this world can fit into a backpack. With a new city, new country, new language every couple days, I had to accept the fact that we’ll always be perpetually lost.
“I’ve learned after traveling to eight different countries and hearing an array of languages sounding so foreign to my ears,” said Ashley Jackson, “that pointing and smiling is the best universal language.”

There really is a thrill in stepping off of a train with only a loose set of directions and having to figure out how to get where you are trying to go.

In one instance in Rome, a gentleman was thoroughly surprised when we told him we had no idea where the bus we were on was going.

For all its confusing and humorous moments, backpacking through Europe is the most incredible thing I have done.

Now nearing just weeks before our return to the States, I can hear Michael Buble’s song “Home” playing in the back of my mind.