Eurail I Hate You

Sure, a rail pass is absolutely vital for any traveler... whatever.

The rail seems ridiculously antiquated to me. When you can fly Ryan Air or Easy Jet for the cost of a taxi ride, what's the point of a rail pass? Especially if you've got Prague, Istanbul, and Moscow on your mind. Getting the proper rail pass is turning out to be a pain in the ass.

I'm thinking about basing this trip out of London. From there do the flights to outlier cities like Dublin and Seville. Then get into Germany and rock the face off of the neighboring countries.

I dunno. I can't see where the rail pass is The Thing that any Euro-tripper needs.

I can see the benefits of sleeping on the train, traveling between cities in your sleep. But I like the instant gratification of plane travel. An hour plane flight, suddenly you are in a neighboring country. And I am still in love with the luxury of plane travel. The perfectly packed small carry on. Having a slightly bored look on my face that says "I do this all the time", but still look good on the flight. I scorn Pajama flyers.

Gotta Get Away From Here

Why Europe? Why not some place warmer? Why not some place less "everyone else goes there"?

It is the comfort factor. Being in your early twenties and female (and quite possibly traveling alone for a good chunk of this trip) is a safety hazard.

Yes, I am like a 110 pound ninja. Safety shouldn't be an issue. But I'm paranoid (gas mask anyone?) and I don't want to go to a place where I'm likely to be sold off as a sex slave. Also, my travelmate isn't the most discrete traveler. You'd peg her as American at first glance. She's that obvious. She'll wear sneakers everywhere. And she can't control the volume of her voice. I love the girl to death, but she isn't going to blend. I just hope I can pass her off as Canadian (hun, if you are reading this: don't be mad, you know I love you).

Plus, seriously, what's wrong with Europe, anyway? There are loads of places there that I haven't been yet. I have the time and the money to slum around, see some shows, hang out at bars, hit up museums, get lost, get found, find men, and basically do kid stuff. I'm sick of how pretentious people are when I tell them I'm going to Europe. "Ugh, everyone goes there." Yeah, well you've never left the state, bitch. Show me your passport and I'll show you mine.

As far as some place warmer, I'm going to be spending some time in the Caribbean in January. A couple of weeks there is enough for me. I'm not really a sunshine and beaches kind of girl.

...And A Gas Mask

Now that I have a tentative travelmate, this whole "Go to Europe for 2 Months Post-Graduation" thing should be less stressful. Right?

No. That is not the case. Sorry.

More about my travelmate later. For now, I'll share this wonderful story she told me.

She had this friend who did basically what we're going to do after graduation. He got on a train to Prague (one of the cities on our list). He has a little train car room or something of the sort. Suddenly, he wakes up and all of his clothes are disheveled. His money is gone. Also missing are his laptop and everything of value. Apparently, his compartment had been gassed.

This is why gas masks are on our list of things to pack.