The Truth about Europe

The Truth about Europe

Europe has been known to all as a special paradise. A supposedly great vacation place where you can travel around the continent with nothing but a backpack. Where did this sick dream come to knowledge? I feel as though my trip could have been a lesser waste of time as it was.

                My realization of the truth of Europe came as I ventured to the great continent itself. The journey started with a long and yet mandatory flight to the United Kingdom, more specifically I was in England. My cousin had a dorm there so it served as our base of operations. I got to experience sleeping in a dorm with several others… terrible experience… I was lucky enough to be able to spend time in Oxford, and spent a four days in London. I saw many famous sites in London, but they look better online. After spending a short week in the UK, my interests shifted from my current location, to Italy.

                My brother, who accompanied me on the trip, suggested we see Florence. Me, not knowing any better, agreed. Florence is tourist central, which makes it the absolute worst place to visit. Rome would have been more accommodating. To be blunt, Florence was jam packed with tourists from around the world. I DID take interest in paintings from Botticelli, however, and the Birth of Venus was quite impressive. The hotel we stayed in was full of mosquitoes, and had no air conditioning. I was hot and sweaty all night, and woke up with over 40 bug bites, courtesy of the mosquitoes.

                Another short week saw us off Florence, and to the Great Swiss Alps! Frankly, I am a huge nature fan and love the outdoors, but this was a whole new level. The Alps were gigantic, 2 mile high mountains. The feeling to look up to those is indescribable. We had to climb up to our mountain hostel, and to make matters worse the air was extremely thin. We took many excursions to locations higher up in the mountains, which enabled us to take beautiful pictures of the areas around us, but only when the clouds were out of the way, which was at 4:00 a.m. The worst part though? Everlasting rain. Every night, I arrived at the hostel drenched and weary. Getting bad to worse, there were so terrible snorers in my hostel. Out of the six nights I was there, I got one night of good sleep.

                With the vacation coming to a close, I slowly learned what I could from this trip. The very first thing that I learned was that Europe is too expensive. Also, I learned the many faults of London, Florence and the Swiss Alps; I also learned that Europe is not a great vacation place. That being said, I can say with great pleasure, that Europe is not the place for a trip. The trip might have been better if the budget given to us had been higher, but unfortunately it was not. Europe was an absolute mess and that is the bulk of what I learned from this trip. Other minor facts, do not buy Korean food in Switzerland, do not stare at an airport security guard for too long, and do not sleep in a hostel, we had a symphony at night with all the snorers. Europe has been known to all as a special paradise. A supposedly great vacation place where you can travel around the continent with nothing but a backpack. Where did this sick dream come to knowledge? I feel as though my trip could have been a lesser waste of time as it was.