I am the type of person who likes to plan. I live for it. Some may think I have control issues but that’s fine, I just see it as being ~organized~ However, constantly having a set plan can be stressful and quite frankly can end up disappointing. I remind myself to relax and go with the flow more often, and this abroad experience has helped me with that greatly.
Pre-planning is important but so is having wiggle room in a schedule! I have just returned to Florence from the best trip I have ever taken and will look back upon for the rest of my life. I learned a lot from the planning process and will share that in this post. I will write all the fun details of my spring break adventures separately.
For starters, Europe makes travel unbelievably easy and affordable. I will never get over it. Going back to the states will be frustrating in the sense that flights are so costly and there are very few trains. For example I took a flight from Dublin to Glasgow for 15 Euros! I know these cities aren’t that far apart but still, so cheap and only 45 minutes! I do not think I’ll ever find a deal like that for flights between major cities in the U.S. (But if you know of any, by all means let me know!)
Apart from the affordable airfare and efficient train system, my friends and I were lucky enough to have the freedom in Ireland and Scotland to actually rent a vehicle. I put aside any of my nerves surrounding potential issues with the car or unforeseen accidents and it was 110% worth it. After relying solely on public transport for two months in Italy, driving a car on our own schedule was refreshing to say the least.
And on that note, I use “schedule” very loosely. Going into this trip we had our rental cars as well as the hostels and airbnbs booked, but everything else we planned as we went! We had ideas of the things we wanted to see but no concrete plans and that actually turned out amazing! We were able to ask the locals all their recommendations and we could pick and choose our adventures as the opportunities came along. I probably wouldn’t recommend this laissez faire approach for every trip but we had a phenomenal time! I felt relaxed by not having any real itinerary to follow, yet we still saw so much!
Stay tuned for my post about the adventure itself!