Sabbatical year in Europe

In 2021, my friend Ida and I applied for a DiscoverEU interrail pass. We had heard about the competition through our high school and although I had thought at first that it would be impossible to win, Ida had a good point; That we didn't win at all if we didn't participate. So we did.
Both Ida and I are very curious about both culture, history and new experiences, as well as being very adventurous, and a train journey throughout Europe therefore did not seem like a bad way to start our upcoming sabbatical year, so we applied and – to our great surprise – won.

We spent the summer saving as much money as possible, as well as carefully planning our trip. We decided to travel through Germany, Holland, Belgium, France and Spain, as we knew all along that the trip would led us to going to Spain, as we both majored in Spanish in High School and really liked it. Ida is half Dutch and i had never been there before, why it seemed like an obvious choice. All the other countries were chosen fairly randomly, and in terms of which cities we went to, we didn't so much ask ourselves "Why?" but rather: "Why not?". We took that mentality with us on the rest of our trip, and as a result we met many different people, which was probably the best part of the trip.

We saw so many amazing places and ate delicious food, but the best memories definitely came from the evenings spent hanging out with other young travelers at our hostel. We went to restaurants and karaoke bars and are taking with us a lot of good stories from all over the world. In addition to that we also have some lovely memories and pictures of beautiful places. A canal cruise in Amsterdam, a lookout over Barcelona, cathedral in Valencia and just the whole inner city of Bordeaux. The last one mentioned is probably what impressed me the most; The whole inner city of Bordeaux consists of the same beautiful polished stone,  and tiles with old buildings, bridges and archways. Although Bordeaux was the most beautiful place we were, all the places made their own impression. Dan Haag was adorable, Hannover was interesting and Seville was charming. It's the place that I still recommend people to go to. Plaza de España, flamenco, sangria, tapas and the nicest people of our entire trip. It was the longest stay of our trip and we were not disappointed. The Castle of Alcazar was probably the best thing we saw; Truly a fantastic preserved image of what Spain once was and how it became to what it is today. 

The hardest part of the trip was deciding what we wanted to see. Unfortunately you don't have the time to see everything, but recommendations from other travelers/locals often turned out to the best things we saw. Luckily you can always go back to Europe and visit most of the places again. Ida and I had chosen to book our hostel well in advance, as we wanted to save some money. 

We both had limited amout of time to save up money for the trip, but if I were to go again I would definately work to earn some more money, so we would have more flexibility on the trip, if we wanted to take an extra day here and there. This may also be one of the most important things I have learned through the journey; Planning is not always the right way to go. Sometimes you just have to jump in with both feet. 

If anyone else is considering going on a similar trip, this is probably my best advice. That, and lots of sunscreen and a good power bank:  That's how you get far!

Updated on hétfő, 21/08/2023