"EVERYWHERE! LET'S GO EVERYWHERE!"

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When preparing to travel, lay out all your clothes and all your money. Then take half the clothes and twice the money!!

HELLO!

This quote is very apt. If I could give one piece of travel advice, it would be to PACK LIGHT!

Nothing can prepare you for the intense European early-summer heat (the kind of heat that you get in England at the peak of summer), the miles and miles of walking because your boyfriend tells you "it's not that far", and the constant dull ache in your shoulders that almost comes along with that nagging voice in your head with your Mother's words saying "I told you so".




Lesson 1: Backpack's are heavy.



Planning a trip around Europe is not as easy as it seems. We did pretty menial planning in terms of making bookings, but the real hard labour was narrowing down our list of countries that we simply must visit! Starting off with pretty much every country in Europe, we seemed to have forgotten our (very) limited budget (part-funded in Beni's case by Student Finance, thank you very much) and as a result of this, our relatively short time travelling. Having only three weeks, and a budget of just over £1,000, it was a heck of a challenge to pick the 10 countries we wanted to visit this time round. However, once these had been penciled into our diary (NOTHING was a permanent decision on this trip) we were very ready to go!





Task 1: One way flight to Stockholm, Sweden BOOKED

Task 2: Jump up and down screaming at the excitement of booking a ONE WAY FLIGHT!!!

Task 3: Contemplate how it can be possible that a flight, on an actual aeroplane, to another country, can cost only £23, when a train journey to Nottingham costs £30!! *snide comment about the state of the UK's train network*

Task 4: "Where the hell do we stay in Stockholm?!" Yes that's right, we booked to stay in a BOAT hostel for our first night. YES. A BOAT HOSTEL.

Task 5: That's enough booking for this trip. Beni tells me that we will turn up in a city and walk into a hostel, no problem. NO PROBLEM!??!?! But I'm so chill, I went for it...



I purchased a travel book (Lonely Planet's "Europe on a shoestring") to fuel my imagination, motivation and excitement for jetting off to spend 3 weeks in Europe with my boyfriend. In fact, it is highly probable that I spent more time studying the travel guide than I did my actual University revision material! As you can imagine, booking a flight for the day after my last exam provided just as much stress as it did relief! It came just at the right time though, and knowing I got to spend 3 weeks with Ben after not seeing him for near on 7 weeks (due to him going to University 3 hours away from me) was perfect. Ah yes, my point- definitely recommend the book. So many great tips, address & telephone listings for various hotels and hostels at a varied price range, and also maps of the city center of all countries in Europe- was definitely a worthwhile buy. One downside though was it was WAY too big and heavy for my backpack (especially with all the clothes I just had to take!).



So, shall we?

Let's go!

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