A quote for your consideration:
Eurohopping, that thing where you cram, like, three or four countries into one 10-day trip, isn’t for me. I like feeling languid in a city, really sinking in, having mornings where you don’t rush out or feel guilty for not being at a museum. And the thing I like the most, always, is just walking, walking with no particular agenda. Hard to do if you’re only in Paris for a few days before moving on to the next place — more pressure to make the most of your time and see the Top Hits. (I do, however, completely understand the appeal of wanting to make the most of a trip to Europe and see as many places as possible! Just not my personal preference.)
That’s my own preference as well. I’ve been abroad only twice, to England and Germany, and in both cases I could have done and seen much more in the time I spent there than I actually did. But I went with the philosophy of PBS travel guru Rick Steves, who counsels travelers to “assume you will return” as you plan your itinerary, rather than trying to cram everything into a single trip. Considering that a decade passed between England and Germany, and nearly another decade has gotten away from me since Germany, I have to sadly acknowledge that I may never make it back to Stonehenge or Berlin. But I don’t regret for one moment the way I handled my earlier travels, not when I consider that I still have a pretty good mental map of Cambridge and Munich. I know those places; they both feel like real towns in my memory, rather than just “destinations.” To me, it was worth it to not see everything in the country in exchange for spending enough time in one spot to acquire some small sense of what it might be like to live there. My best memories of both of those trips are mostly of just sitting in some public space, soaking in the atmosphere. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to have that kind of experience again, given the demands of a grown-up life — stupid responsibility! — but I’m incredibly grateful to have had it twice before.
Darn, now I’m feeling all wistful and wishing I was wandering down some mysterious alleyway in a place I’ve never been…
(For the record, that quotation came from an interview with a footloose young woman who talks about traveling solo to Paris over the holidays…)
