This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at WPUNJ chapter.
Some people said I was crazy and others shared my excitment when I told them I was going to take a semester off from school and backpack across Europe. It has been a dream of mine, and I was not going to live my life with it remaining just that — a dream.
It has been almost a month and my equally-daring travel partner, Andrew, and I have been to London, England and Madrid, Spain. We have been staying in hostels, but currently we are staying with a relative of Andrew’s in a small apartment South of the city. It’s amazing how much you can learn from taking a six hour flight over the Atlantic. Here’s some of it — the funny, the random observations, the life lessons, and the life-changing memories.
1. The glorious part of backpacking is the spontaneity. One day you can be in one place and just because you feel like it, you can pick up and go somewhere else. However, workers at customs don’t want to hear, “I came here because I felt like it.” The very first lesson I learned on this trip was to have your story straight when it’s your turn in line at customs. They want to know the exact address of where you’re staying, the amount of money you have, what you plan on doing while you’re there, how you plan on getting around, how long you plan on staying, etc. If you’re traveling with someone else, they want to know how much you know about the other person. They asked me about Andrew’s bank accounts, his job and his motives behind just about, well, everything.
2. A lot of people here own little dogs. Cute dogs often wearing sweaters.
3. A lot of people here own little cars too. I have yet to see a pick-up truck, and SUVs are rare.
4. A very large part of the population smokes.
5. Croissants are super popular. Combine the popularity of bagels and donuts in America and you get croissants in Europe.
Side note: They sell individually packaged mini-croissants at the supermarket, which have become my new addiction. I’m considering smuggling them back into the States. It would totally be worth having that attempt on my rap sheet.
6. Despite the popularity of this breakfast food, breakfast in general is sadly really unpopular. There aren’t restaurants serving an “All-American Breakfast” with omelettes, hash browns, and pancakes. Toast is the norm here, which is hard for me because breakfast is my THING. As a result of this unfortunate reality, I have been forced to eat a lot of toast as well as the European version of Cocoa Krispies.
7. Food is extremely cheap in Spain. I did a good amount of food shopping for Andrew and I and it only cost me 18 euros (approximately 20 USD). British pounds on the other hand are a racket. A regular sized can of Pringles was 9 pounds (approx. 13 USD).
8. Burger King has a big dessert menu here. It’s fantastic! They have these things called gofres – a waffle, drowned in chocolate syrup with vanilla ice cream on top. It’s out of this world.
9. I’ve been here for a month, and the toilets still confuse me. First off, they all have a button on top instead of the little handle on the side us Americans have. Some toilets require you to hold down the button until your stuff goes down and some of them you can just press, release and you’re good. Some of them have two buttons. Apparently, one button uses more water than the other (less water for liquids/light waste, I’m assuming?).
Side Note: I’m not going to fully explain the toilet situation in the house I’m staying in. All I’m sayin’ is that the flush is a chain you have to pull which is dangling from the ceiling. Watch out for the water that will spray on you from above.
10. In Spain, you’re allowed to throw your garbage on the ground in bars.
11. In general, the people have been extremely kind, despite any language barriers. Every person we have approached has gone above and beyond in helping us, even strangers on the street. Not everyone in this world is so bad after all!
12. The tap water in Madrid actually tastes like normal water. They don’t pump water with fluoride. As for London? One of the hostels we stayed at had a huge sign above the sink saying not to drink the tap water. I listened.
13. Spaniards are obsessed with anything ham: sliced ham, ham museums and pig legs hanging in windows of shops. They have ham with breakfast, lunch, dinner and even a snack. Ham, ham, ham! The stuff is all over the place. But I’m not complaining; these people know how to work the jamón.
14. Despite the frequent sightings of backpacker hostels, there is a minor stigma attached to backpackers here. They are sometimes associated with gypsies/thieves/homeless people. However, we have not experienced anything worse than catching some dirty looks on the street.
15. You have to pay for bags at the supermarket. They’re quite cheap but it’s definitely an incentive to bring your own reusable ones and be a good global citizen.
16. Everything closes early. We learned this the hard way on our first night in London. We got in late from our flight, and we were starving. Thinking we could just stroll down the street and get a quick bite, we ended up walking for about 25 minutes to a 24-hour supermarket, in the middle of nowhere. I definitely did not realize the amount of 24-hour businesses we have in the U.S. It was inconvenient for us at first but think about it: do we really need that much accessibility 24/7?
17. DISCLAIMER: This one might gross out people who practice exemplary hygiene.
When you’re backpacking, you really learn about what needs to be cleaned everyday. I’m talking showers, people. Hot water is a hot commodity in hostels, and it’s completely non-existent in my current location. It’s total ice water. I could try my hardest to muster up the guts to get my whole body under that water or I could think of my priorities. Do my legs really need to be cleaned? No. My shoulders? No. My armpits? Yes. My feet? Yes. Any place that secretes sweat or exudes an odor, clean it. Everything else? In due time.
18. Gone are the days when I wear a shirt for 4 hours and into the hamper it goes. I brought 2 pairs of pants and 5 shirts with me on this trip. Andrew brought half of that. Most washing machines and dryers in hostels cost precious money and the apartment I’m in has no dryer which means the clothes get hung outside. Therefore, washing our clothes is a rare occasion. Our rule of thumb: If it doesn’t reek or have a distracting stain, it’s still wearable.
19. Don’t keep all your valuables in one place. Shortly after instagramming the photo below, I lost my wallet along with my credit cards, driver’s license and student ID. Fortunately, my passport and most of my cash were in a separate place so I wasn’t completely screwed.
20. In London, they call escalators “lifts,” restrooms “toilets,” and exit signs say “way out.”
21. In Spain, they pronounce Wi-Fi as “Wee-Fee”. It’s the best.
22. Okay, maybe I’m just not listening hard enough, but I have yet to hear that “vosotros” form we were all forced to learn in Spanish class.
23. A tip for all my potential backpackers out there: when staying in hostels, research which ones offer a backpacker’s rate. Both Andrew and I did all the research in the world prior to this trip and both of us had never heard of it until a hostel employee told us about it. Hostels are cheap when compared to regular hotels but regardless, the money adds up when you’re staying in one everyday. The backpacker rate can be up to 50% less than the regular rate at a hostel. The only downside is often times you are not provided with bed linens or the breakfast that’s free for everyone else may not be free for you. However, the one-time purchase of your own linens and the low cost of hostel breakfasts makes it out to be a pretty good deal in the long run.
24. The biggest lesson I’ve learned on this trip is to never put your dreams aside because it’s not what others expect from you. There are too many people out there who have “travel the world” on their bucket list and will never cross it off. It wasn’t easy to put in that leave of absence from school, leave my blow-dryer and nail polish behind, pick up and go to a foreign place. I’ll admit it was very scary but it was also the best thing I could have ever done.
25. If you ever get the opportunity to travel abroad, don’t think about it – just do it!
We were smiling because we had just devoured a gofre.