studentsineurope

Latest, Best, Worst and Next: Francis Nicholls-Wunder

Taking European hitch hiking to Central Park in NYC

Latest: Alright here goes…*ahem*…Spain, Portugal, Italy, The Vatican, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Belgium, The Netherlands, England, Scotland, Turkey, Greece, Macedonia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Montenegro, Croatia, Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Poland (in that order).  My last trip through Europe was a year-long escapade that included everything from a London New Year’s to the San Fermin and Oktoberfest Festivals to hitchhiking through Montenegro to couchsurfing in Bulgaria to museum-hopping in Rome to teaching in Slovakia.  My only limits were a few pesky visa time limits and having to keep an eye on the ever dwindling bank account (considerably more resilient on the Eastern side of the continent by the way).  Too much detail for you here, but have a look through  SIE and under the tag Francis Nicholls-Wunder to see a whole bunch of my pics and stories from the last year.  Oh and, by the way, I still haven’t made it home yet!

Best: REALLY hard to choose a favorite!  So instead I am going to give you a few so you can get a broad idea: If only for the miracle of surviving it, my snowy mountain trek with my friends from Sofia in Bulgaria.  The picnicking and amazing food of Spain.  The party, the atmosphere and the beer of Oktoberfest.  My final and favorite class of students in Slovakia.

Worst: The few times I have been completely stranded with nowhere to stay due to either my own bad organization or a problem with my accommodation and or my transport.  Thankfully this never happened through the European winter…I had learned my lesson by then.  Here is a story of such an occasion I had in Spain…

Next: My next trip to Europe is not nearly as travel-hectic as my last.  I‘m simply heading back to the UK to visit a bunch of people I have met at different points in my travels throughout Europe and Asia.  And you know what?  I think I’m looking forward to it most of all.  Possibly the best thing about traveling is meeting new and wonderful people and possibly the worst thing about traveling is that it is often damn hard to see them again.