My next adventure

I've been toying with the idea of traveling this summer for awhile. Initially I was determined to save money for future trips by not taking a long vacation. But a couple months ago I heard a story on NPR about how the cost of airline tickets has been plummeting, and it's been a swift tumble downhill from there.

It wasn't long before I had decided that plane tickets were so cheap that there was no way I could realistically justify not taking a trip. So I checked out about eight travel guides from the library and set about trying to find a destination and a buddy. Although I strongly considered Asia (you can get just about anywhere right now for under $1000!), monsoon season and the desire to take advantage of cheap May airfare convinced me to look to Europe. Since no one was able to come with me, I picked Germany.

Germany has actually never been on the top of my list of places to visit, but the more I read about it, the more I like it. There are castles and beer everywhere, which sounds pretty good to me. It's also close to Switzerland and Scandinavia, which are both on my list. So maybe some cross-border hopping will be in order. The venerable and hilarious Rick Steves has a book on Germany, which guarantees that I'll never be short on cheesy, witty observations and local history. Mostly, though, I think I was attracted to the $375 round trip tickets that kept popping up on kayak.com. So I'm going, alone, in 11 days.

I've never really taken a trip like this alone before. My parents are both convinced that I'll hate it. It's true, I think, that enjoying food and "biergartens" would be much more enjoyable with a friend. But I've actually always kind of been fascinated by traveling by myself. Part of it may be that lingering urge to pick up and do something spontaneous and different. Or maybe I like the idea that I'll have a lot of cool looking pictures to share afterwards that no one else will have seen yet. Certainly traveling solo allows me the flexibility to do whatever I want every day. I'm even considering not booking all of my hostels, so that I can roam on whim (so long as I make my way to Berlin the afternoon of May 25th to catch the flight home).

I hope that, journal and camera in hand and Rick-mandated money belt strapped around my waist, I'll really enjoy the experience. And if I hate it, then at least the ticket was cheap.