With finals and graduation quickly approaching I sat down to plan my post-grad travel plans. Like most college students, the art of procrastination has not been lost on me. How come it is always finals week when I feel the most inspired to do everything but study? The week leading up  to finals is always when I decide is the best time to work on long term projects like beginning a blog- practical stuff, all in no way relevant to my studies.

At this point I knew I would be traveling for most of my journey alone and was slightly concerned about safety and my lack of linguistic abilities when it came foreign languages. Though Duolingo is helping I still have a long way to go until I’m conversing with any locals on this trip. Though my friends and my bank account had been leaning towards South East Asia, my heart and my comfort zone said Western Europe was enough of a stretch. Baby steps.

So many amazing destinations!!! (Photo courtesy of http://www.freelargeimages.com)

Once I had settled on a region- where to begin? What direction to head? South to North? West to East? I was overwhelmed by all of the options. I had complete freedom but it was petrifying me.

Developing an itinerary was an extremely difficult task (I know, I know, first world problems right?). At first 3 months sounded like forever and I assumed I’d easily be able to cover most of Western Europe- WRONG! Should I dive deep into one area or over a larger area more quickly? I debated doing a home stay program for a month in Italy, possibly working on an organic farm or helping a family improve their English. But I wasn’t sure if I was willing to constrain myself to working 5 days a week even if it would pay for my accommodations.

I received the news my mom would be joining for the first segment of this adventure and that gave me some direction. She was extremely interested in Ireland and the U.K., having a love for the culture and never having traveled there herself. She took on the lion’s share of planning the first few weeks- planning out her ideal trip. Our first stops were set- 10 days Southern Ireland, 10 days Wales and England, 4 days Paris, France. I had the ticket to Dublin, Ireland for June 20th in my hand (well on my computer)- progress had been made!

Next for planning the solo portion of this trip. I knew I wanted to meet my relatives in Germany and was highly interested in Italy given my Italian heritage, but I was still confused about how to approach deciding what path to take and linking together different means of transportation. I began researching train and bus passes after a family member recommended the Eurail Global Pass. It looked like a great option with access to 28 countries but was rather expensive and still didn’t provide the structure I was looking for. As I began reading other travel blogs to see how people in similar situations approached their search I discovered BusAbout. Their one-way, hop-on, hop-off trips through Europe provided what looked like the perfect balance of structure and flexibility. The “Go Roman” pass started in Paris (conveniently the same city my mom would be leaving from) and hit cities that excited me encompassing much of what I hoped to see in Europe, including the towns of my German relatives. Another benefit was that the bus pick-up and drop-off points were all at major hostels located near city centers, places I would most likely be spending many nights. That combined with an excellent discount and I was sold!

The Go Roman bus route I’ll be taking- helping me take a huge leap in planning this trip.

For more details on where I will be when, please visit my itinerary page. Recommendations for must see attractions/hidden gems along my route, please leave a comment below!