First of all, I would like to quickly introduce myself: My name is Tim Freer, and I am a rising junior at UNC Chapel Hill. For the mildly curious, I have an info page. For all of you, I am here to blog about my travels in Europe.
It’s been an exhausting but exciting summer for me. My neck is sore from craning over my laptop so much. My fingers are bruised from searching Google too frequently. My eyes are bleeding from scanning too many informational journals and maps. Intense research and planning have rudely butted into what should be my well-earned summer laziness. However, my suffering will be well worth the trouble: this upcoming fall, I have been granted the privilege to study abroad in Brighton, England at the University of Sussex.
That said, I will be leaving for Europe long before my semester begins in early October. A good friend of mine who is also studying abroad (I will refer to him simply as “Ben”) and I have been hard at work planning a backpacking trip across mainland Europe beginning in mid-August.
Laying the groundwork for this segment of my adventure abroad has not been what most would call “easy.” It was enough of a hassle trying to choose from the countless tantalizing cities in Europe that we could visit on our limited schedule… The rest was less fun and more time-consuming.
(For those interested, I’ll go into more detailed discussion on our planning in an upcoming post, which will be more geared towards the specific sites we used and recommendations I would give for other travelers out there.)
Now, at long last, we have finished the majority of our planning (though we still don’t know where we will stay the night in some cities). Our current travel itinerary includes, among other things:
- The Tomato Throwing Festival (”La Tomatina”) in Bunol, Spain (Aug. 26)
- Train to many of the major cities in Italy (Rome, Florence, Venice, etc)
- Hiking in the Swiss Alps
- Oktoberfest (Sep. 19)
The goal of my blog will be to describe my experience abroad: its ups and its downs, its highs and its lows, from the moment I leave until the moment I return… providing my comments and insight along the way.
Also, I’ll be taking a digital camera on the trip with me… Sure it won’t be the real thing, but I have no doubt I will get to see some beautiful scenery and famous landmarks throughout my trip. I will try to post pictures of our travels AMAP (as much as possible). I can’t wait to hone my photography skills!
