TRAVEL. EUROPE
5 Life Lessons from Traveling to Europe on a Budget
Raise your hand if you have also missed the plane
Travelling can be pricey if you sum all the fees: flights, transportation, accommodation, meals, and souvenirs.
Crossing the Atlantic ocean is already an adventure itself from America (the continent I mean). The journey can take from 15 to 20 hours. But if you are cheap then it may take +30 hours from scales and waiting hours.
Once you are located in Europe, it's time to make the most of your time there. Especially when the distance between one country to another may be the same as visiting your grandma in the same country if your country is as far as Mexico.
I was already established in France where I was an international student. My best friend came from Mexico and we lived the dream of our lives: Travelling with nothing more than a backpack and our friendship.
We wanted to visit most countries, see and experience as much as we could. Crossing the Atlantic isn’t supposed to be an everyday adventure. This is the first lesson learned.
The more you want to do, the fewer experiences you get.
Especially on this trip, we wanted to visit as many countries and cities as possible.
Being in Europe makes the world seems so small. Because by midday you can travel from Amsterdam to Greece, pass from cloudy days to a hell of hot weather.
Trying to accelerate your life will not make you take advantage of time in the most optimal way.
On the contrary, you will miss living face-to-face in the present. You will be thinking more about what is coming next and eventually, you will forget to enjoy what you are living now.
It is always necessary to stop for a while and truly enjoy this moment. Get rid of your hustles and live more.
Although I certainly enjoyed this trip, travelling to Europe on a pretty low budget is something I wouldn’t do again. Next time I go to Europe I want to have slow mornings and have a latte before starting the day. Here I tell you why.
Travellers are wild. They will let strangers sleep over without expecting anything in return.
When I tell my friends about the platform Couchsurfing and how it works, I often get questions regarding the fact of sleeping on unknown’s people couches and how secure it is.
Well, you have to read the complete profile and figure out if you would feel comfortable with the host’s company.
Through Couchsurfing, I meet incredible and good-hearted people, it made me stay positive about goodness.
How could a stranger; a person that has any relationship with me could worry about my safety?
A Couchsurfing host may pick you up at the airport, prepare you a warm soup, and prepare the guest room for your stay. A host will also be willing to spend some fun time with you showing their city.
All these without expecting anything in return but your company, your stories, and your gratitude.
Travellers are indeed wild.
When you learn how to flow with the uncertainty, magic happens and life turns to get easier.
Travelling to Europe on a budget was a big challenge. Life gets challenging when our pocket is short of money.
Although there are certain situations money just can’t fix. For example, when the vacancy is full in Amsterdam.
My friend Nydia and I got cancel our stay with a host through Couchsurfing. We tried to get another one but it was difficult as it was a last-minute request.
We kinda freaked out. What would we be doing without a place to stay in Amsterdam for a night?
Well, we are in Amsterdam. A lot of tourists book a hotel for keeping the stuff safe, not really for sleeping. Partying all night long was our plan for that night. What bad could happen? — We thought after freaking out.
At this point, we were convinced we would be spending the night in the streets, aka partying all night long.
By the end of the night, we had a new friend who invited us to spend the night on his couch. We meet Villiam (like William but with V) in a Couchsurfing meeting. We attend in hopes to meet someone who could host us for the night.
The lesson learned from this magic event came after we learned how to flow with life and its different circumstances. Once you learn how to let go of what you can’t control, you will start enjoying life.
Attachment is what makes your backpack heavy.
When you are preparing your backpack for the big adventure, you are positive you will need and will use everything you are carrying.
But when your backpack becomes part of your shadow and your feet are your only transportation, you start to reconsider if carrying another pair of jeans is really necessary.
This travel to Europe lasted one and half months. I considered I was carrying just enough. It certainly came to a point where I had to get rid of that extra pair of jeans.
In another stage of my life, I would grasp on keeping my belongings with me. Same with leaving things behind in Europe when I had to come back to Mexico.
If there is something my Mexican culture highlights every year during Día de Muertos is that at the end of the day we’ll be leaving this world with anything material but the experiences we lived.
The place where you are now is the place where you are supposed to be, regardless if you had another plan.
Raise your hand if you have also missed the bus or the train.
If not, this will happen at least once in your travel life. It is probably you lose your nerve or freak out.
For example, when my dearest friend Nydia and I were in Milan, the metro service was suspended when we were directing to the bus station to get the bus to Venecia. I was mad and frustrated.
At the point there wasn’t anything we could do to change our situation, we were stranded in the Piazza del Duomo. We got the advantage of the free connection and booked another bus. It wasn’t as expensive as we thought it would be to buy last-minute tickets.
We had the rest of the evening to enjoy Milan. And it wasn’t the end of the world.
Once you are facing any stressful moment you will question yourself WHY. And what could you have done to avoid this situation?
The reason, as played-out as it sounds, is that: Everything happens for a reason.
If you didn’t arrive early to get on that bus or that plane is because you didn’t mean to. It wasn’t your time, it wasn’t your fate to get on that exact bus, at that time on that day.
After being frustrated and morosely we finally got into the night bus to Venice. What a blessing! My friend Nydia and I encounter a gang of friends we enjoyed spending our days in Venice. Later on, on the trip, we meet some of them in Spain.
We wouldn’t have met these people if we hadn’t missed the first bus.
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