The October Trip

Our first of four travel breaks started in October. In total the travel breaks comprised 10 weeks. A two week break in October, two for Christmas & New Years, two in February, and four in April/May after classes had finished.

As with other things, I didn't really have an idea of what I wanted to do during the break. I thought it would be fun to go to Rome and Greece, but I had no one to travel with and was unsure about how to go about getting from place to place. A few days before the break, I was approached by Craig who said he was going with others to Northern Europe. Their reasoning for going north instead of south was because the warmer climes could be saved for the winter breaks. There would be six of us travelling together (Craig, Paul, Tom, Al, Mike, and myself) and we would cover seven cities in two weeks. Munich, Salzburg, Vienna, Prague, Berlin, Copenhagen, and Stockholm. I had a great time in almost all of these cities and would love to go back and experience them again. I returned to Vienna on another trip and Munich four other times. Having grown up in a largely German neighborhood may have contributed to my enjoyment and familiarity with the cities on this trip.

It is the second best trip that I have taken to date for two reasons. The first being that we saw so much. The second reason being because it was really the threshold where I was introduced to the world of international travel. After that point, the rest of Europe and even the world seemed so accessible. Part of it was familiarity with travelling and also with getting around in countries of other tongues. The burden of the unknown had been lifted. After this trip I was jumping on trains every other weekend to wander in another unknown city.