Around Europe in 21 Days Pt. 1 -- The So-so'est Laid Plans

"Be VERY careful.  Don't talk to any strangers, and don't walk down any quiet alleys.  You will get robbed or raped and no one would even know."

^^^ My mom's immediate reaction upon telling her that I was planning to travel by myself in Europe for 3 weeks.  Is it... is it because I'm too young and beautiful, Mother?

Fortunately, the support was there in other places, because I would have totally lost it and given up on this excursion otherwise.  Why?  For those of you who remember my Italy series, you will recall that a.) I am prone to panic, and b.) am somewhat vexed by the idea of international travel.  Add to that the concern that I could even afford this trip in light of the fact that I would be staring at a big ole' student loan bill soon, and we have a base recipe for regret.

But, being the everlasting fount of positive energy that he is, SJH was able to talk me out of my Negative Nancy doldrums.

Pictured:  Pre-planning discussion

I'd been freaking out about how long to spend in the various countries, and where I even really wanted to go.  Where to start, what to see, how much time to allot, etc., etc.  Planning a trip with someone else is vastly different than planning a trip for just yourself, particularly when you've never cared to form a strong opinion about something before.  After checking ticket prices on flights, my one starting point was that I would begin and end my trip in Amsterdam -- a city that hadn't even crossed my mind as somewhere to potentially visit.

Admittedly, part of me regretted needing to even choose a start and end point.  There's something really romantic about the idea of just getting a one-way ticket to a new destination and letting the wind carry you as it may, particularly for someone feeling as displaced in life as I did.  Go, meet other young travelers, make friends, flirt, blahgetty blahgetty blah.  When the seeds of adventure had been planted in my head, I'd even had the notion of being gone for a whole 5 weeks.

Real talk:  5 weeks is a really long time for someone with social anxiety to be out and about by herself with zero support network readily available.

So 3 weeks it was (which, really, was plenty of time to have a really fulfilling trip).  And after listening a little to what my vague skeleton plan was, he set up a basic itinerary for me in Travefy, a pretty swish website for collaborating on travel plans, itineraries, activities, and lodgings.

Being able to see everything laid out concretely helped immensely, and really got the gears going as far as how I wanted to plot my course.  What I eventually settled on was:

1. Amsterdam, The Netherlands (just to stop off, no real exploration)
2. Paris, France
3. Nice, France
4. Milan, Italy
5. Munich, Germany
6. Vienna, Austria
7. Cologne, Germany
8. Amsterdam, The Netherlands (actual visit time)

I am, by nature and upbringing, a planner.  I am comforted by safety net upon safety net upon safety net.  However, in the past decade-ish, I've sort of learned that plans are a little bit of an illusion -- the best laid plans of mice and men oft go astray.  And... I sort of wanted to embrace that with this trip.  So, I set out a pretty basic itinerary, filling it with some pre-reg activities, but otherwise keeping it flexible.  I didn't need every minute of every day to be completely mapped.  Exploration was the name of the game.

I did, however, what to be as physically ready as possible, and to that end, I kind of wracked my brain about how to pack as light and efficiently as I could for a 3-week trip, staying primarily in hostels, and traveling by public.  What I ended up with was the following:

-The main bag:  an Osprey Fairview 40L travel pack.  I knew that I wanted to be pretty mobile for this trip, so early on I decided that a sturdy travel backpack was the way to go.  DG had gotten the Fairpoint (male frame version) for his own trip and recommended the Fairview for me.   

I'm going to try hard not to comment on how successful my packing habits were for this trip, as I'm going to do a wrap-up post towards the end, but I will probably mention a few plusses and minuses here and there.  For starters, this bag was amazing for this trip.  First, it fit the dimensions of a carry on, so that was great for the first leg.  It held everything I brought with me, though the separate compartments within each section were pretty small.

The backpack straps pack away, and there is a detachable shoulder strap for side carry.

- Day Bags:

• Frankenbag.  So, I don't really care for purses.  I own a pretty slim bi-fold wallet that fits into my lady-sad-excuse-for-pants-pockets, and my phone goes in my back pocket.  But, I knew that I was going to want a day bag for carrying things like water, souvenirs, my jacket, papers, and so on.  I got it into my head that I wanted a versatile, lightweight bag that could convert between a messenger when I wanted to look snazzy, and a backpack when it got really full.  True to form, when I can't really find stuff on the market that I'm looking for, I decided to make one for myself:

Looks pretty good, but we'd have to wait for the trip to see how well it really functioned (spoilers, we are ultimately going to have to give this bag a C-, for reasons I will get into later.)

• Shopping bag.  I knew early on that a fair amount of my food would be from grocery stores and farmer's markets, so I decided to bring a reusable bag.  Fun fact - many European markets don't provide bags (or if they do, it's at extra cost).  Also, I figured toward the end of my trip, I would split my things up, check my Osprey, and just carry my day bag and my shopper onto the plane.

- Other storage and compartmentalization:  

• Vacuum bags.  Holy hell were these important.  While I did do a pretty good job of sticking to essentials as far as clothing, these really just made carrying things all the easier, and freed up a LOT of space in my bag for souvenirs and such.
• Packing cubes.  These were kind of useful, though I ended up mainly using them to separate my shoes, as well as dirty laundry.

- Clothing:  clothing was by far the hardest thing to pack.  Because I'd be moving around so much, I only wanted to bring as much as would comfortably fit into my backpack, and then maybe buy items in Europe if I really had to. But, I also wanted to be fairly ready for any occasion, as well as any kind of weather (within reason).  Weather in one location would have been easy enough to deal with, but weather at multiple latitudes was a little more difficult.  Eventually, I pared it down to what I thought was good enough.

• Outerwear:  (L-R) a grey cardigan that would pair with just about everything I brought, my bomb-diggety REI raincoat, and a lightweight canvas jacket that I could either wear by itself or that would fit perfectly inside my raincoat if it really got chilly.

• Shirts:  (TL) a pretty light 3/4 sleeve, (TR) a basic long-sleeve, (ML) a tank-top blouse for casual to slightly dressy fair, (MR) a basic short sleeve, and (B) a very lightweight blouse, also for slightly dressy fair.

• Other active-wear: Bath suit, a pear of jeans, a really comfortable active shirt and jogging shorts, sneakers, flats, and flip flops (primarily used as room shoes - I hate walking around in flip flops).  Also, not pictured, a pair of basic shorts 

• The most wonderful skirt known to humankind:  Ok.  So, generally speaking, I tried to limit the things that I purchased SPECIFICALLY for this trip.  This skirt is one of those exceptions.  This skirt is from Betabrand, whose platform I think is primarily just crowdfunding clothing designs, but honestly has some of the most functional pieces I've ever seen for women's fashion.  A basic black skirt that could be worn for formal occasions, but with a few little secrets.

This skirt has a back pocket that easily fit my phone:

As well as HIDDEN SHORTS because technically this is actually a skort, but whatever there's a side pocket that fits my wallet and I love this skirt to bits.

- Gadgetry and other odds 'n ends:  several charging cords, a battery pack (absolutely essential), a 4-plug power strip, European outlet adapters (specifically Type C, E, and G), cable and travel locks for my bags and hostel lockers, safety pins, meds (zyrtec and tylenol), melatonin, and sunglasses

- The Beauty Routine:  hair ties, bobby pins and hair clip, Stila liquid liner in black, Colourpop shadow, Stila eyeliner in dark brown, Colourpop lip primer, Colourpop lipstick in brick red, and my absolute hero - Stila convertible color compact for lip and cheeks.  A couple of brushes (shadow, lip, liner).  And, of course, not pictured, toothbrush and paste.

- Other Junk:  (R) Bath towel and washcloth -- because I was staying almost exclusively in hostels, there was a good chance that towels would not be included.  (L) That, my friends, is a sleep sheet, essentially a flat sheet version of a sleeping bag.  A number of the travel sites that I read suggested packing one on the chance that the hostel ALSO didn't provide sheets, or provided grody ones.  Mine, I made from a really comfy duvet cover that I found at Goodwill for $7, and I can probably use it again for camping or LARPing, so win-win.

- Travel Guide:  this book was purported to be like a European travel bible, so I figured why not, I could probably use all the help I could get.

On top of that, offline maps of every country I planned to go to were downloaded to my phone.  I highly recommend HERE WeGo for anyone who might ever travel and isn't totally sure if they'll have a good cell signal.  Additionally, I had offline dictionaries for French, Spanish, Italian, German, and Dutch downloaded to Google Translate -- not ideal, but good for things like street signs and menus.

So here we were.  June 3rd.  Night before my flight to Amsterdam.  Bags packed, first three hostels booked.  A few tours booked through Viator and AirBnB.  Heart thumping, nerves a wild tangle all wrapped around my belly a few hundred times.  

Let's get this party started.

Up next:  Setting Out, and the briefest glimpse of Amsterdam.

Until the next <3