I promised a few of you i’d do a quite writeup about my trip when I got back so here we go…

All in all it was an amazing trip and sitting back here at my computer is a bit surreal. Even my dream last night was about traveling so I was disoriented for a second when I woke up…hehe

London – 5 days – One of my favorite cities even though it is exactly like my home city of New York. It was still a ton of fun, tons of history, excellent museums. Maybe it’s because it was my first stop and I was excited to be over there but I thought it was a great city. Picadilly Hostel was a great place to stay, so central it was worth staying there just for that.

Doolin, Ireland – 2 days – Nice place to decompress after London with some really nice natural scenery including the Cliffs of Moher. I was ready to move on after 2 nights though, extremely quiet.

Galway, Ireland – 2 days – Really nice and fun city. The hostel I stayed at was crap though (Barnacles) and I didnt meet many cool people. The city had a lot of potential and if I went there with someone instead of solo I probably would have had a better time.

Dublin – 4 nights – This city was a major disappointment, I dont know exactly what I expected but not that. It was dirty, had no real character or charm. The Guinness factory was boring although the Jameson Distillery was cool. If I couldve left after 2 days I wouldve.

Rome – 4 nights – Another one of my favorite cities, it tops London. Yeah it was extremely dirty but theres so much to see and do I didnt even notice. I was warned about how dangerous Rome is but I had no problems at all, but I did hear stories from other people about the Gypsies, but I just ignored them whenever I could. But with places like the Colisseum and Vatican who could not like this place? Plus the gelato was amazing (Giolitti was probably my favorite). I stayed at the Alessandro Palace which was excellent.

Naples – 3 nights – Naples was basically a launching point for a day trip to Pompeii and Ischia. I thought Naples itself was fine and seemed like a fun city to be in, but after dark it definitely was a bit sketchy, especially during the week because on the weekends there were people out until all hours of the night. But after 10pm on a weekday it was a bit dodgy. I stayed at the Hostel of the Sun which was fine, nothing stood out about it. Ischia was a really nice island to spend a day on the beach relaxing after walking and sigtseeing all day long at Pompeii and the Herculaneum.

Florence – 2 nights – Nice city with not much to do besides the museums. I saw the David, skipped the Uffuzi and did a day trip to Siena which was nice but I got bored after like 4 hours. What made Florence was the hostel, Ostello Archi Rossi, and the people I met there.

Cinque Terre – 3 nights – Well after almost not finding a room and having to sleep on the beach I finally found a room in Riomaggiore and met a few cool people there as well. I did the beautiful hike and go to Vernazza then just took the train the last little bit to get to the beach. The beach was cool but i’m not used to all the rocky beaches, so uncomfortable.

Venice – 3 nights – I left after the second night to go to the Dolomites but the town I got to I didnt like at all so I went back to Venice for a 3rd night so I could leave to Interlaken. Venice was also a disappointment, I only went into the city one day and got bored there too after a few hours. Probably one of the most overrated places I visited. I did like the Campsite Fusina though, and was glad I stayed there for 11 Euros/night instead of in Venice for 23.

Interlaken – 4 days – Ah, my favorite place on my trip. What a beautiful country and there was so much to do. I just charged a few adventure activites, and that whole i’ll worry about it when I get home is biting me in the ass now. Oh well, certainly now regrets. I went hangliding, canyoning and mountain biking. I stayed at Balmers hostel too which was probably my favorite hostel of the trip because I met so many people there as well. If youre gonna do one activity, do canyoning, its one fo the cheaper ones and from everyone i talked to one ofthe most fun. I thought it was a better value than hangliding.

Munich – 2 days – Cool city, beergardens, mikes bike tour, other than that not too much. 2 days was enough time. Got my record for 3 doner kebabs in 1 day here

Piestany, Slovakia – You must be asking "How the hell did you end up here??" Well in Munich they have car sharing places and me and this guy I was traveling was supposed to just get a ride to Vienna but us and the guy driving hit it off and he offered to take us back to his hometown in Slovakia and since we were on no timetable we went and it was so much fun. The guy showed us all around the town and took us out to a huge lunch and then took us out to a club that night. You really do meet the coolest people when traveling. I would also have to say without a doubt that Slovakia has the most beautiful women I have ever seen.

Bratislava – 2 days – Eh, nothing special, shouldve left after the first night. More modern and nicer than I was expecting. Cheap ice cream, more pretty ladies.

Vienna – 3 nights – Another nice city, nothing extremely amazing about it though. The Wombats hostel helped make it more fun though.

Prague – 3 nights – Stayed at the boathouse which was a bit out fo town but all in all it worked out fine. The city itself was really nice but I couldnt take anymore sightseeing by this point so I just walked around, people watched and went to the public pool on the second day because it was so brutally hot.

Berlin – 4 nights – Despite what other people have said about this city, I really liked it. I took a great tour of the city and really enjoyed spending time just wandering about the city.

Amsterdam – 4 nights – My last stop..what a strange city, by this time of my trip I was kinda ready to head on home. If I was with someone else I probably wouldve been fine but going solo I was kinda done after 8 weeks which actually kinda surprised me because before I left I was wishing I couldve went for 3 or 4 months. Went to a coffeeshop once as i’m kinda growing out fo that stuff. Took shrooms once as well.

In hindsight i shouldve gotten the Eurail pass because towards the end I had to spend more time than I needed in some cities just because I didnt have enough money to take many more trains. Well I was only supposed to be in europe for 6 weeks to begin with and with 2 flights in the beginning and since I was planning on spending so much time in Italy I didnt think it would pay, and it probably wouldnt have to get a Eurail, but once I extended it it wouldve definitely paid.

I would definitely like to go again but next time with someone if possible, my sister wants to go in 2 years so I might do that. Shes one of the few people that I could picture spending that much time with and not going crazy.

Im really glad I brought enough to spend comfortably, althought I did kinda like having to shop at supermarkets to save money, it was nice ti buy a few beers at night and not have to worry about it. I do think I developed a doner kebab addiction though, at 2 euros you cant go wrong.

I definitely didnt pack that efficiently looking back on it. I actually had to buy some shirts over there at H&M because I underpacked clothes but overpacked on useless crap like bandaids, medicines, extrabags, laundry line and other stuff that took up a decent amount of space. I agree with the people on here who say not to bring medicines, or jsut a very little bit to get you through a day or so until you can make it or honestly someone else in your hostel will have something u can borrow or would probably even go pick something up for you if ure in a city. The other backpackers I met were for the most part such nice people and everyone identifies with each other because after all youre all in the same boat.

Oh yeah, it was a good idea to cut out the sections of my travel book because it takes up a lot less room in your day pack and you dont stick out as much as a tourist.

Anti-Americanism – I encountered hardly any on my trip and if anything most people responded positively and said that theyve been and enjoyed it or wanted to visit NY really soon. The only people that I got any insults from ironically were Canadians and Australians. The Canadians in particular were quite vocal about their dislike for not only Bush but Americans in general,personally I think they get a bit crazy when theyre all ironing those patches on their bags.