Home Again: And now, An account of the last week

9 Days of traveling, 2 countries, 8 cities delved into.

At the beginning there was a big group, but by Sunday evening it was cut down to me and my two house mates: Esther and Kelley.

General Musings:
I've been in Europe for a month now, and I think I've finally gotten straight the explorer's mentality. You can always go in with a plan: I certainly had my whole trip pla

nned out, itinerary and all.

However, I've learned that plan

s change incredibly and that it is important to be able to be flexible, to think on the spot, and to be spontaneous occasionally. This breaking-free-from-the-plan can be intentional or not, but regardless, there are serious benefits to simply showing up to a city and simply looking around. This is method worked beautifully in Madrid and in Venice. In my wanderings, I found impromptu musical performances, met some interesting people, and felt as if I were more independent for discovering the cities' wondrous secrets on my own in lieu of being told by a guide.

This attitude, however backfired a bit in Milan when we showed up in the city far after the major museums closed. I was very disappointed, but also could have easily remedied the matter if I had been aggressive about getting to Milan earlier rather than sleeping in. Such is life.

General Musings, Continued: Katherine's List of Musts Upon First Arriving in New Destination

1) Orientate. Get a Map, usually found at the nearest bus station, train station, or Hotel. In the last week, I made use of all of these resources.

2) Determine or Find where you are going to stay: (Map helps.) If you are only meandering through the city for the day, find a locker for you baggage. Museums and Bus stations have baggage checks, generally; Venice was the only city which I went into not knowing where I was going to sleep that night. Matters were made worse by the fact that I arrived at Midnight far away from any potentially cheap hostel. Luckily I had done some research

3). Determine Best Means to travel: Madrid, Milan, and London (4 weeks ago i visited), all have very cheap metro systems. In Madrid and London I did not take full advantage of them, but in Milan I figured out the trick and managed to make full use of the system.

Walking, however, is also very beneficial in that it allows you the freedom of exploration and spontaneity; In Madrid and London (And in Salamanca, Granada, Seville for that matter) I walked everywhere and by the end of the day was completely exhausted. I'm sure there is a happy medium between the two.

4). Look For Cheaper Restaurants Throughout the Whole day: And mark them on your map. It's way too easy to forget exactly where that one cheap restaurant was, and in the process of looking for it, you look over all the other moderately cheap restaurants until you are so tired of looking for a place to eat

that you settle for something far more expensive; I did this everywhere.

5) Decide What Sort of Tourist You Want to Be: The Stereotypical tourist follows the map legends and gets a day full of only the best sights. The drawback, I find, is that there are far too many people everywhere and you tend to hang around tourist traps and expensive-ish restaurants that seem reasonably priced until you find something cheaper 5 blocks away. However, there is of course a reason for the people. A more artistic/historic tourist sticks to the big sights, but probably hits some that are not as popular; in Madrid we evaded the Prada and hit the less popular museums. (we go to the Prada in October with AIFS). The Vagabond Tourist of course just wanders aimlessly, and does what is most convenient for the moment; we had to be this kind out of financial necessity. The cheaper everything was farther away from touristy areas, and so we basically just made do with the new sights in our areas, albeit it being less spectacular. In Venice, for example, we stayed in a campsite 20 min. away from the water by bus. Vagabond tourism, however, is also less stressful and even relaxing. (See detailed day in Venice below).

6). Observe City's Quirks:

Examples: Madrid, Salamanca, and Valladolid have traffic signals that flash green before immediately turning red, while Milan has very very very long green lights before the yellow. Venice Taxi service was actually a fleet of motor boats. It took about an hour to realize the fact. Also, Museums in Milan have "Last admission" times before they actually close (Grr). Italy has a sunflower motif: On trashcans, napkins in restaurants, painted on buildings. Italy also has a pretty substantial cover charge upon entering restaurants. Madrid tries to get girls into its bars by offering them free drinks on the house in order to have them attract more business.

7). ON that note: Keep your eyes open for Unusual Events and Opportunities:

Entertainment geared towards locals can be free and more culturally enrichingt; In Seville we found that the museums were hosting free concerts and plays all night. In Venice th

ere were chamber music rotations around the city plaza. In Milan there was a professional fashion show we got to watch. Free entertainment= somehow more rewarding.

Soon To Come (one at a time): Individual Entires

Cordoba

Madrid

Venice

Milan

La Mancha

Seville

Granada Alhambra

Or you can just scroll down.

Or you can click on the side bar for my albums to view specific cities.