Planning a backpacking trip in Europe

I've been wanting to go backpacking for years now. Finally, after three summers of working in research labs, I've amassed sufficient funds for a trip (well, barely). And, now that I have graduated from university, I feel like I can justify a bit of a holiday. Honestly, planning and dreaming about this trip really helped me get through this gruelling fourth and final year of my degree.

Growing up, family trips were always planned by my mum. All I had to do was, well, show up and enjoy the experience. I'm not the most...traditionally organized type of person. Planning a long, solo backpacking trip in Eastern Europe was a new, challenging experience for me. I guess I'll share some of the websites and resources that I found particularly useful.

Quiraing, Isle of Skye, July 2018.

A friend recommended skyscannner.ca to me, a website that helps you find cheap flights. I was able to get my flight to Greece for only 440$, and my return flight from Poland for around 560$, which I thought was pretty good.

For inspiration on places to visit, I talked to friends who had previously traveled to Eastern Europe and I searched the Internet and places like lonelyplanet.com.

Initially, I was just going to book my flights and go with the flow. Be a true, spontaneous, backpacker. However, not having a plan actually kind of stressed me out. What if all the good hostels were fully booked and I got off a train and had no place to go??

I am planning on mostly staying in hostels, so of course I used hostels.com and made sure to read the reviews. As a young female traveling alone, I wanted to make sure I was staying at safe places! For a few of the more remote or less touristy locations I will be visiting (Herceg Novi, Montenegro; Poprad, Slovakia; Jezerce, Croatia) I decided to opt for AirBnb. A bit pricier, but it's worth it for the privacy and security in my opinion.

Next, I had to figure out how I could get between all the different locations I wanted to visit. I have a fairly ambitious itinerary planned, staying only 2-4 days at each destination. I wanted to make sure it was indeed feasible to get from Point A to Point B in all instances, without paying exorbitant prices for flights. When I was planning a trip to California last summer, I discovered a website called rome2rio.com, which helps you find transport (train, bus, ferry, cab, flights, etc.) from Point A to Point B. I used this to look at bus routes and schedules, which gave me a realistic framework and timeline for booking my accommodations. I didn't want to book all my hostels and then later realize I had no way to get there in time!

Los Altos hills from my northern California trip, June 2018.

Keeping track of all these bus options, hostel information, etc. can be difficult. I usually use OneNote (Microsoft) for a lot of my notes. My handwriting is kind of messy, and besides, it's much easier to copy and paste information or web links into a OneNote page on my laptop. Another cool thing about OneNote is that it syncs automatically to your other devices (like a phone) through the Cloud.

Along with keeping personal journals from an early age, I also loved to make travel journals for our family holidays. I would usually do some research beforehand on the place (such a nerd), because I find having some background knowledge about the history, wildlife, art, culture, etc. of a country or area really allows you to appreciate it more fully once you are there. Anyway, I love to draw, so I would fill these travel journals with writing about what we did and sketches. Continuing this tradition, I purchased a beautiful large Moleskine sketchbook (I love Moleskine notebooks and journals; it's a weakness) to document my travels this spring/summer. This time, instead of my usual chaotic fashion, I want to try to make my travel journal fairly aesthetically appealing as well as detailed and informative, a bit in the style of a bullet journal. I'm planning on working on it while on buses and trains, or when I have a bit of downtime in the evenings.

Planning my trip and starting my travel journal with some tea.

Yesterday, I went to Mountain Equipment Co-op (MEC) in Ottawa to get some important travel stuff. My family does have a couple backpacks, but they are not women's backpacks, and last time I used one it did not fit right on my petite frame even with the straps tightened all the way. So I purchased my own backpack, a 44 L (which apparently is just small enough to count as a carry-on) Osprey women's backpack. I also got some packing cubes and a travel towel. I did a dry run last night and miraculously fit all my stuff inside the backpack! I say miraculous because I have a terrible tendency to overpack. At least summer clothes are not bulky.

Packing cubes, travel towel, 44 L Osprey backpack.

Some of my other travel essentials include this adorable chubby green S'well bottle which I use for water as well as tea, my passport, sunglasses, woven bag (in case I buy some fruit? To carry my towel or other miscellaneous items? Not entirely sure but I love it, it's from Anthropologie, which has a drool-worthy collection of reusable lunch containers, cutlery, metal straws, travel coffee mugs and more), Fjallraven mini Kanken backpack, foldable straw hat (both from Nordstrom), travel sketchbook and smaller travel notebook (for rough notes), writing implements, reusable metal straw and cleaning brush, scrunchie and little scarf. I'm also planning on bringing a reusable plastic fork, knife and spoon as part of my efforts to reduce my plastic waste.

Travel essentials.

Alright, well that's all I have for you today. I'm going to workout then go buy a few other travel items (shampoo bar, etc.) and figure out some plans for the upcoming Mother's Day.

If you are here and reading this, thanks!

#travel #ottawa #travelplanning #travelplans #europe #backpacking