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Travel

19 Countries in 10 Weeks: Europe Backpacking Itinerary

Surprise, I did in fact survive my 10 weeks of backpacking in Europe. It’s been almost two years since I dropped off the face of the blogging Earth, but I’m back, and I’m ready to tell my tales. I got back from Europe in the knick of time to attend my graduation ceremony in Seattle (well, 1 out of 2 anyway), celebrated my 22nd birthday, and started working full-time the very next day. Since then, I’ve been fully immersed in the world of consulting with weekly travel to the Bay Area. That’s right folks— every Monday I’d fly down to SFO or SJC, and every Thursday back to SEA (or wherever I chose to spend the weekend). But that’s a story for another time. 

Today I’m back to share with you my EuroTrip itinerary, because I worked too damn hard on it to not shout it from the rooftops. I hope with a mighty passion that there’s someone else out there who is looking for a way to explore 15+ European countries in 10 weeks, and they stumble upon this blog for ideas.

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Travel, Travel Prep

10 Tools to Plan a (long) Backpacking Trip

T-minus seven weeks until I’m graduated and thrown into the world of adulthood. Seven weeks until I’m financially independent, living on my own, and can no longer use the word “student” as an excuse for things. Like most other angsty millennials, I’m going to embark on a grad trip to celebrate the success of completing my university education (blah, blah, blah).

Now this trip is going to be nothing less than a chaotic three months of traveling Europe (and a brief stint in Northern Africa) with a combination of my friends that I met studying abroad in Australia. Three months sounds like a long time, but don’t worry, the practical side in me ensured that I would have a job lined up when I returned, even if that meant two quarters of absolute hell in order to graduate early to make that happen. Impulsive, but logical (story of my life).

Planning three months of travel is not easy, especially when those plans consist of 16 different countries, and a combination of traveling solo to traveling with 6 friends, and absolutely every combination in between (including a detour with the parents). I’m talking messy combinations of plane tickets, hostel reservations, airbnbs, train passes, rental cars, and every other word that triggers those who hate to travel. Luckily, in the last few months of “planning”, I’ve identified several tools to make the whole thing go down easier…

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