Hey

[petros]

I have this big trip I'm planning to Europe for the Summer of 2009... I've never traveled solo before, especially over an entire continent. I'm not exactly new to traveling, but most of it has been with my family.

My mom, who we counted to have traveled to 35 different countries in her life (emphasis on traveled, not just been to), kind of got our family into an international travel groove from as early as I can remember. We've been to Mexico a few times, but that's still so touristy I'd hardly count it. The first major trip I went on was to South America to Ecuador and Venezuela, where we stayed with past exchange students. A couple of years later my grandmother, who was born and raised in Germany, took my cousin and I back with her on a trip, and we went there and to Poland. Then we went South again, to Colombia, Peru, and Ecuador. The last major trip I went on was Costa Rica, and from there I kind of had an itch to travel. My parents are leaving for China in a couple of weeks, but they decided not to make it a family outing... I'm extremely jealous, and I remind them every time I see them.

I'm 19 now and have a strong urge to just travel the world. I'm young, and after college I'll be stuck in some career where I get a week off a year until I'm 30 or something like that... Working sucks, but I have a steady job that pays good for where I am in life right now, so it's hard for me to just drop everything and leave, as much as I want to do it.

This summer I'm trying to go to Israel, then next summer the big one. Depending on how I like that and how much money I can save up, after college I want to do a huge 6 month around-the-world trip.

Thanks for sharing all of your info, so far the planning process has been made easy from reading some of your collective experiences.

[mbo108]

Welcome. Glad you've found the site helpful. Let us know if you have any specific questions and good luck in your future travels.