Rick Steves
When I returned home from studying art history in Rome and backpacking, my friends asked, “How was your time in Europe?” I didn’t even know where to begin summarizing the four-months of stories and reflections that left a lasting impression on me. Since most of my friends were not interested in viewing all 2,200 of my digital photos, I ultimately chose a few must-tell stories: the Tuscan family who took me in when I got stranded in their hill town; camping overnight in the queue for the Wimbledon tennis tournament; my private tour of the Sistine Chapel; visiting the Dachau Concentration Camp; and hiking in the Swiss Alps. These life-shaping experiences helped communicate the larger story of my time abroad.
Every year, Europe draws 1.7 million Americans between ages 18 and 29, as well as hundreds of thousands of Canadians, Australians, and Brits. Whether it’s an obligatory one- or two-month backpacking tour, or studying or working abroad, young people are flocking to the continent. Despite the power struggle between the European Union and the United States, Europe’s old-world charm, rich history and natural beauty still draw young adults across the political spectrum.
Europe From a Backpack collects these must-tell stories of young adults backpacking on shoestring budgets. The contributors capture life abroad: engaging in the culture, sleeping in streets and hostels, living with a host family, train-travel debacles, romance, and an outlook of taking each day as if it were the last. This book is organized to reflect the countries most visited by young travelers: United Kingdom, Spain, France, Italy, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, Greece and so on. Stories range from a harrowing attack in Morocco to bribery on the Moldovan border; bicycling through Austria to running with the bulls in Spain; painting the Eiffel Tower to an awkward proposition on the train from Budapest to Vienna. Reflections on each city attempt to draw out the themes of the major cities in Europe. From a night at the Hofbräuhaus in Munich to a whirlwind tour through Berlin, one is able to recall a prior trip or get a foretaste of the adventure that awaits.
Why are so many young people going abroad? Dr. James Clowes, director of the University of Washington’s Comparative History of Ideas program, compares traveling abroad to one’s first childhood sleepover at a friend’s house. In many ways, it’s sensory overload. Not only does the sleepover family have a different set of rules (your friend can watch PG-13 movies) and values (they pray before meals), they eat strange food, the house smells funny, and they have four dogs. All that your senses recorded became clear when you returned home to what you consider “normal.” Whether you live with a host family while studying abroad or take a two-month backpacking trip, what you see, smell, taste, hear and feel will leave a lasting impression on you.
I invite the reader to travel vicariously through these stories and see how the ordinary becomes extraordinary. Travel always places one at a new point; and the result is quite often a new view. May they motivate and inspire you to travel abroad.
Mark Pearson
Seattle, Washington
Copyright 2007 Pearson Venture Group