Traveling

Don't let anyone tell you that traveling around Europe is easy once you're there. Before I came here that's all I heard. "It's inexpensive and easy." "you can take RyanAir and Easy Jet anywhere." "You can travel from London to Rome cheaper than traveling cross-country." Of course there was that one person who warned me before I left that it wasn't as cheap or easy as I thought it was, but what's one voice against so many others?

What they don't tell you is that its not that much more expensive to fly across the United States than it is to fly across Europe, especially when you factor in hostels, food and getting to and from the airport. Oh yeah, and then don't forget that you're not just flying across Europe once, you are traveling every weekend. Other information that seems to slip through the cracks is the chaos that ensues when planning for a group and the panic you feel each time you enter those sixteen digits on your credit card.

The one thing that they did get right however, is that no matter how hard or costly it is to book a trip each weekend, it's completely worth it. Yes, we planned a trip for fourteen people to go to Amsterdam this weekend (group size not recommended) and yes, I lost my nerve several times with finding a plane or hostel that could fit all of us. Yes, it is hard to work around everyone's class schedules and yes, it was too expensive.

But in less than nine hours I will be getting on a train that will take me to the river where a night ferry is waiting to take us to Amsterdam. We have no plans of what we will be doing once we get there, but we do have many people with many ideas. All I can say is that even if I come home in May with no money left, it will be because I'm having amazing and worldly experiences with amazing and worldly people. When else will you have the time and freedom to travel to nine different countries in the span of four months?

Planning, worrying and being practical is what adults are for. Me, I'm here to break my bank account and have the most wonderful time of my life.