I have always wanted to go to Europe.  Even before I really understood what that meant.

Two years ago, I had this conversation with a friend:

Me: I want to go to Russia

Her:  Me too!  Where do you want to go?

Me:  Uhhhhhhh, Russia?

Her: I want to go to Moscow, St.  Petersburg and ride the Trans Siberian railway.

OH.  I see what you mean.  You don’t just pick a country, you pick destinations within a country.  I was so not even close to being well traveled outside of America that even that had never occurred to me.

I had always wanted to see the world, but had a million different reasons that were stopping me.  I’m scared to go alone, I can’t afford it, I’d rather take an easy vacation instead…and so on.

Then it happened.  I was staring down the barrel of age 40. I was only two years away from the age my mother was when she was diagnosed with the cancer that eventually took her life.   I started panicking that I had done nothing in life that I had ever truly dreamed about.   In a way it was kind of like a midlife crisis.  Although as a good friend of mine once told me it’s not because “mid life crisises are for boring people who wake up one day and realize they are boring.  You just woke up one day and decided to be even more interesting”.  Either way, its time to go.

There are so many ways to travel in Europe.  I don’t mean just transport options, although that exists as well. I mean the whole “Where do I go?!?” and so on.  There’s so much to see in this world, how can you possibly narrow it down to ONE destination??

It can be completely overwhelming, which is another reason I had put it off for so long.  There are a million different ways to pick your destination.  How did I pick my first?

One night I was in Las Vegas, for my annual Christmas trip.  Before going to bed one night, I saw a Facebook event invite for one of my favorite bands (Grey Area, if you must know), who were going to be playing Europe for the first time, in Belgium.   I said “if I win enough to buy a plane ticket, I am going”.  Well……the next morning……

I was completely shocked.  I now  had no reason to not go.  I could not talk myself out of it because every single justifiation I had was now taken from me.

My first trip was a very short one as it was a tester trip to make sure I could do this.  I believe I was gone six days.  I figured London was a great starter city because obviously English is the main language there.   I knew I wouldn’t have any problems with communicating.  It was also the perfect starting point for me because I have two friends who live in Liverpool who were going to the same fest in Belgium as I was.  They were more than happy to meet up and travel to Belgium together.  It was still scary, but it was made that much less scary by not having to do it completely alone.

I arrived in London, solo.  I was petrified.  I made a lot of mistakes.  I got lost looking for my hotel. I didn’t correctly bring helpful directions.  I had a map with me but I hadn’t blown it up enough to view smaller streets.  I incorrectly assumed that “making a left past the Google building” was a great landmark and it wasn’t.  I never found the Google building the entire time I was there, and no one, including the local police, had any idea where it was.

I booked a really bad hotel. I’m not talking about quality, although that was certainly part of it.  I never checked the weather before going; I assumed London was famous for being dreary so it would always be cool.  It wasn’t, it was hot.  I didn’t have an air conditioner.  I was lost for about an hour looking for my hotel.  When I finally found it, I realized it was maybe two minutes from where I started looking. But I had missing the tiny turnoff street because it wasn’t on my map. I arrived completely exhausted, sunburned, and miserable.

Stupid little things like that.

My flight had a layover in Iceland on the way there.  I had never even considered the concept of having to go through security a second time when changing planes in another country.  I then lost my water bottle I had brought with me and had no Icelandic money to purchase a second one after passing through their checkpoint. I was scared if I used my credit card, it would get shut off since I hadn’t alerted my credit card company I was going to be in Iceland.  I didn’t plan on using it there since it was just a layover.  I also didn’t have a cell phone with me because I thought it would be annoying to have with me.

There was so much that simply never occurred to me.  Even the idea that the Reykjavik airport does indeed accept American dollars didn’t occur to me to even look into.  Guess what?  They do.  All that dry cough for nothing.

Oh and just in case you are wondering “why didn’t you just empty the water bottle and keep the empty bottle and fill it at a water fountain?”   Well simply put, I didn’t think you were allowed.  Lesson learned:  DON’T BE STUPID.

While we are on the topic of stupid mistakes, also allow me to add:  changing Euros into American dollars in London.  Stupid.  They first charge you to change your Euros to pounds and then charge you to change to dollars.  I should have done this while I was still in Belgium!

So back to that first day in London all by myself, making mistake after mistake after mistake.  Do you know what?  I’m so grateful for all those mistakes.  I went and I saw what it was like and I survived absolutely fine.   That was what I needed to see.  That was what I needed to realize “Hey, I CAN do this!”  Despite all the little annoyances that could have been prevented had I just spent less time freaking out in fear and more time doing basic research, it was a great experience.  On my second night in London, my British friends arrived and showed up at my hotel to collect me to go drinking, but I was out solo sightseeing.   I was actually quite proud of myself.  Look at me, being self sufficient, seeing LONDON BY MYSELF!!!

I recognize now that was I was SO petrified worrying about everything that I took no real time to pay attention to anything little because I was so scared of everything else.  For my second trip, I was so much more prepared.  I arrived with so much information all printed out and organized perfectly. I had maps and directions and every single thing I wanted to do was laid out with location and cost, including cost of public transit.  I also had every train schedule and intermediate stops printed out just so I could verify I was always going the right way.  I planned this trip perfectly.

I found that my time in each city was more than ample for what I personally wanted to see, because I did research to make sure I had enough time in every place I ended up.  A great tool I used to make plans were Rick Steves guide books.  He outlines so much information that makes it so easy.  It is crystal clear how to do walks in neighborhoods that take you to every tourist attraction. You find out accurately how much time you will need. It makes it so easy to figure out how much time you should spend in a city to see everything that you want to see.

As I start this blog,  I will be posting about my trip from last April/May, along with current plans for my next trip this coming April/May.  Taking trips involving many countries and train travel is a ton of work.   I realize there are people out there who arrive with nothing more than a train pass and just go go go.  I am not one of those people.  I over plan everything.  It’s the best way for me to get the maximum out of my trips, which is crucial when you are attempting to see the entire world on just vacation time from work.