Most travelers like to immerse themselves in a single place for a long time. Not me; I can’t stand still. I was born at sunrise – 6:10 AM. Fitting, since I had the rest of the day and night to explore this new world.. When I was a child I hated going to bed. My mom says I had a fear of missing out. I don’t think I’ve conquered it quite yet.
I have never held a job longer than 3 years 11 months and 9 days. I have lived in 27 different apartments, not including my time at University, since turning 27. So, that’s 27 different addresses in 10 different cities, 5 states and 2 countries. I have lived in all 4 time zones in the 48 contiguous states. I prefer Mountain Time by the way. The benefits are endless, but most rewarding when it comes to primetime television. Mountain Time allows you to watch the end of EST sports and news and getting to watch the entire PST games and news while still achieving 8 hours of sleep. If that isn’t magic I don’t know what is.
Needless to say I like to keep moving even when I am traveling. Yes, there is something to be said about living in a culture and digging deep into a city or place. It just doesn’t suit me. When I travel I go hard. This includes sleeping on planes, trains or buses, so as to get to a place as quick as possible without wasting valuable time.
For example: my first trip abroad had me landing in Amsterdam. I picked Amsterdam because it afforded me the ability to hit multiple countries via trains. Back then train travel was much cheaper than air travel and you could sleep on the train instead of wasting money and time in a hotel.
Nowadays, I would always recommend flying over rail since the price is far lower and trains have not become nicer, faster or cheaper.
I had 7 days in Europe counting the day I landed. I spent 2 days in Amsterdam. Trained it up to Copenhagen and then out to the Island of Ærø for a 1 night stay. Trained it back to Amsterdam continuing on to Brussels. I spent the afternoon in Brussels than took the chunnel over to London where I spent 2 nights. Turned around and came all the way back to Amsterdam for the day and slept in the airport for a mid-morning flight. This doesn’t include the six hours I got stranded in Munich because I fell asleep on the train to Copenhagen and missed my transfer.
To sum up on my first trip abroad traveling alone I hit 5 countries in 7 days and thoroughly enjoyed all of them.
Since then every time I go somewhere I try and get the most out of my itinerary as possible. Thus, the subtitle to my blog…Onebag Wanderlust…5 Days or Less in One Place.
