My Backpacking Memoirs

In 2017 I embarked on a three month backpacking trip around Europe. Motivated by the many accounts of travel from within religion, I went to learn. But what I experienced was not what I was expecting. This was my first time leaving the UK since I was a child and my expectations of travel and Europe were wildly out of touch. I met more people in these three months than I had in the previous ten years and had many new experiences. I was naive and many of the people I met on my travels could tell just how naive I was.

Overland by bus, train and ferry through 17 countries:
England, Scotland, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Austria, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy and Switzerland.

To 35 locations:
Liverpool, Manchester, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Paris, Brussels, Antwerp, Ghent, Bruges, Amsterdam, Berlin, Dresden, Leipzig, Frankfurt, Prague, Krakow, Brno, Bratislava, Vienna, Budapest, Timisoara, Sibiu, Brasov, Bucharest, Sofia, Thessaloniki, Litochoro, Athens, Delphi, Naples, Rome, Venice, Milan and Lugano.

It is an account of backpacking around Europe, both the best and worst of European backpacking hostels. Long bus journeys, hitch hiking and plenty of walking.

I'm not proud of my behaviour or the events surrounding this three month period of my life, but I am proud to have forced myself to do it. I hope that my story will reach people who are in similar positions to what I found myself and to plant the seed of travel as a solution to those problems. Sometimes running away is the solution.

It has also been several years since my backpacking trip and I find myself constantly trying to piece my memories together. Not always knowing what city or even country a memory occurred. I feel like my memories are deteriorating so I decided to document them before fall apart completely. I'm not a writer at all and I have tried to be as honest as possible, to my own downfall. I'm open to any advice about how I can improve it.