6/01-12/01 Eastern Europe was the focus of a two month summer trip in 2001. I wanted to extensively tour the region after my short dips into it from Western Europe and Scandinavia. I was able to explore the homeland of my relatives in Croatia, hike the Tatras of Slovakia, and attend a medieval festival in Romania among other things. After this trip I would study for a semester in Prague, taking courses in Central European history, Russian, and Czech. Our dormitory had students from all over the world. Each week, one nationality would host a party for the rest of us [View Full Entry]

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12/00-1/01 A three week getaway was in the cards for Christmas break in 2000. I decided to go back to Finland yet again and explore more of Russia. I had a great time catching up with my host-families and friends in Finland before I was off to Russia. I was able to see St. Petersburg in a more authentic way this trip because I was by myself this time as opposed to the exchange student field trip from my last Russian trip. January in Russia turned out to be a great time as there were fewer tourists meaning more intimate experiences [View Full Entry]

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4/00-7/00 Two months in the summer of 1999 was nice, but three months in 2000 would be better, right? I decided to test this theory and set off in late April of 2000. The trip started off with Herrfest, a three week European trip feautring several personalities from www.eurotrip.com, a travel forum which I was very active in. Our gracious host was The Herr and a group ranging from six people to over a dozen traveled around in or met up in various countires. It started in Amsterdam at Queen's Day, the Netherlands biggest festival where orange is dominating color. [View Full Entry]

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11/99 I had some extra money from all my pizza delivering and nothing to do in November of 99, so I decided to go to Great Britain for the first time for three weeks. I was able to explore some places in England, Wales, and Scotland. I based myself in London for most of the trip since there was so much action there. I made long day trips or overnight getaways from there to see other regions of the country. England- London, Cambridge, Newcastle, Durham, Oxford, Bristol, Bath, Salisbury, Stonehenge, Dover, Canterbury, York, Leeds, Birmingham, Chester, Liverpool, Manchester. London appeared to [View Full Entry]

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6/99-8/99 My parents were kind of against my new traveling ways, so I left for my first full-scale backpacking trip on my 18th birthday. Legally, they could not stop me! Here is a bit about each country I visited and what I did there. Iceland- 3 day stopover. Hitched everywhere as transport was too expensive. Visited Rejkjavik, the Blue Lagoon, Geysir, and Gullfoss. Sweden/Denmark/Finland/Estonia- Revisited some countries that I loved. Saw some old friends in Finland. Germany- Hamburg, Koln (thrilling cathedral!), Aachen, Rhine river area, Cochem (my favorite German town. Situated on the Mosel river with a castle looming above), [View Full Entry]

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8/97-7/98 When I was 16, I left North America for the first time to be an exchange student. My life would never be the same again. The travel bug entered me and would stay forever. Finland was a good start for me because it was a safe, clean, and modern country that presented a minimal amount of culture shock. To this day, I am still in love with Finland. It doesn't posess the 'wow' factor that other countries do, but its subtle charms make it a place that will always be perfect for me. I lived in the town of [View Full Entry]

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My name is Andy, but I'm also known as Lofton26 at the travel forums of www.eurotrek.com I'm going to attempt to use this place to post my travel journals. I'm going to Uzbekistan on July 27th, so I'll experiment with this place during that trip. I'd like to create some entries giving brief summaries of my previous fifteen overseas ventures as well to make this journal somewhat complete. I won't be writing about my travels in the USA or Canada, because that's not what this site is about for me. I've also visited Chichen Itza and Cozumel in Mexico on a [View Full Entry]

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