I’m back and have more or less recuperated from the most amazing, memorable and (These days most people take this word lightly, but still…) EPIC European Adventure!

Before diving into the details of the trip, let me apologize to everyone for not being able to update my blog as I journeyed. Yes… Europe was THAT good. So much so, that I couldn’t concentrate on blogging as I went. The experience was just too intense!

So, here’s what we did. There were three of us who trekked across the Old World. My good friend, Never Winter Again (NWA) along with Pizzarol (Code name explained later), who is NWA’s former co-worker that I have come to call a good friend as well.

Now, I’d like to state this upfront that I do NOT recommend what we did for just anyone taking a trip to Europe. It can get expensive, physically and mentally stressful and may even take away from the enjoyment of your travels. That said, if you are young, single, unburdened by finances and trust the people you are traveling with then by all means, feel free to have an adventure of your own in our footsteps! 🙂

The thing about our grand endeavour (I’ve been to England now and have every right to spell ‘endeavour’ with a ‘u’ 😛 ) is that the only plans we had made was to get in and out of Europe. A flight into Heathrow Airport in London and a returning flight to the U.S. from Arlanda, near Stockholm were the only two things that were set in stone. Everything in between, we decided, would be figured out as we were confronted with it.

That probably makes some people cringe, but we wanted this kind of uncertainty to add excitement to our undertaking.

I shall describe in detail each city we stayed in during future posts, but right now, let me present you with the outline of our enterprise. Upon landing, we spent a couple of days exploring majestic London. Getting the lay of the land, so to speak. Having our fill of fish and chips, we took the Eurostar train under the Chunnel (Tunnel under the Channel, therefore, Chunnel) and found ourselves lost in a dangerous part of Brussels. Recovering from a riveting experience, we acquire a vehicle and make our way up to Amsterdam (Henceforth to be known as Amster-DAMN!), where a good seven and a half hours of my life remain unaccounted for…

From the Netherlands, we journeyed southwards to lovely Paris, where we took on a more cultural tone. After staying in our Five Star Opel, we drove it to San Sebastian, Spain to meet NWA’s aunt. Then, it was back across the Pyrenees and onward to Monaco and Italy. Charming Pisa and Ancient Rome where our hosts in the Italian Peninsula and afterwards we cut through the Austrian Alps towards Germany. Ahhhh… Deutschland, where I have made many good memories and many more good friends. Setting this as our home base, we struck out towards Karlovy Vary and Prague in the Czech Republic to meet and make new friends and to Switzerland and Liechtenstein afterwards.

Lastly, we flew off to lonely Stockholm and spent our remaining two days there before reluctantly returning to the US.

In the coming days, I shall regale you with the tales of our various experiences. Right now though… I really want to update something I’ve been meaning to update for a while now. Last we saw the Travbuddy map, I was at a measly 4% of the World Seen. I am quite glad to have more than doubled that.

Percent of the World Seen after Euro Tour '12