[00:00] My three month itinerary in Europe was all over the place and there's a lot I would probably change if I can do it again. So today, I'm gonna share with you the exact route that I took. So hopefully you can do it better than I did.
[00:12] For most of my trip, I traveled by train.
[00:24] And so I got a Uriel Global Pass, which allowed me to travel as much as I wanted by train for three months. This gave me the freedom to be very relaxed with my schedule and basically just go wherever I felt like going.
[00:36] That was a really attractive option for me because I didn't really feel like planning that much beforehand. The very first place I went was Stockholm, Sweden. My brother married a Swedish girl and so her family's all there.
[00:48] Going to Sweden where I had some family was a nice way for me to ease into the trip before being dropped off at the train station and being completely on my own. From Sweden, I took a train down to Berlin rather than having to go strictly via land,
[01:01] which would have taken a lot longer. The particular train I took actually got on a boat and floated across to Berlin. That was a pretty crazy experience all in of itself being on a boat inside of a train.
[01:13] It was pretty weird, but it was cool. So I arrived in Berlin and Berlin felt like the real start of my trip. I was in Berlin for a few days. I went to some museums. I went and saw the East Side Gallery.
[01:25] From Berlin, I went to Munich where I just spent a few more days exploring. The first few days were a little difficult just as I was getting adjusted to everything. Up until that point, I didn't really connect with anyone that well.
[01:37] It did definitely get better as I went along. So the next place I went was Innsbruck Austria. Up until this point, that was probably my favorite place. I am Ben too. It was just really beautiful there. Lots of great nature to experience.
[01:49] I stayed at some good hostels. I made my first real friends of the trip, which was nice, so I had people to explore with. After Innsbruck, I was still hungry for more nature, so I decided to go to Zurich, Switzerland. Zurich, for some reason I thought,
[02:02] was gonna be super outdoorsy and have like the Swiss Alps all around it. But that was a misunderstanding on my part. So I decided to keep moving pretty quickly and I went on to Latterbrunen, Switzerland next.
[02:15] Latterbrunen was the most beautiful place I've ever seen. And it's one of the places that I still find myself thinking about, probably the most often. So while I was there, I just did some hiking. I went to the top of the mountain
[02:28] where they filmed a James Bond movie. Of everywhere I went, I wanna go back there as soon as possible. From Latterbrunen, I kept going and I went to Venice. One of my favorite things to do was just ride around on the water taxis and it's taken
[02:41] these breathtaking views of the city. When you're booking your accommodation in Venice, I recommend trying to stay on the main island. I accidentally ended up on a smaller island, which just means you have to take those water taxis
[02:53] every day to get to the larger section. My other tip for Venice would be to try and visit in the off season just because it is so famous and there were a ton of people there when I went. From Venice, I went to Rome.
[03:06] Rome was awesome, it's been a few days there. So the Colosseum just got to take in all of the incredible history that's there. After Rome, I went to Florence. Florence caught me by surprise a little bit. It wasn't really high on my list or anything,
[03:19] but it was a really cool city. And I loved learning about the history there. I did some walking tours that were phenomenal. From Florence, I headed to Lovanto, which is directly beside Cinque Terre. Please forgive my pronunciation of that.
[03:32] But it's this string of five cities that are really old, but they're all connected by trails and so you can hike between them. They have the super colorful buildings on the coast and just some really nice beaches.
[03:44] So this is where things get a little bit crazy. I decided to take 19 hours over the next two days and get to Barcelona. I had a quick stop in France, but I didn't really see much there. I'm more just stayed the night
[03:57] before I continued on to Barcelona. A lot of my time was spent just hanging out with friends while I was there. I wish I had gotten out to explore a bit more. From Barcelona, I went to Paris, France, where I went and saw the Eiffel Tower, of course.
[04:09] The metros were a little bit tricky in Paris. So I recommend reading up on that before you go there. From Paris, I went to Amsterdam and the Netherlands. I didn't really have any expectations for Amsterdam going into it.
[04:21] So I was surprised just how beautiful the city was. One of my favorite memories on my trip was just renting some bikes and just going around and exploring the city. After Amsterdam, I decided to head back
[04:33] towards Eastern Europe and visit some countries I hadn't visited before. On my way towards the east, I visited Berlin again. I was adjusted to being on my own at this point and so I think I was able to experience it a bit better.
[04:46] After Berlin, I went to Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic. I spent a few days there. I went to some massive cathedrals. I really enjoyed seeing the architecture there because it was very different from anything I'd ever seen.
[04:58] My next stop was Vienna, Austria. I went and saw a random opera that I can't even remember the name of, but it was a fun experience. From Vienna, I went to Salzburg, Austria, where they filmed a lot of the movie The Sound of Music.
[05:11] I was in that play when I was a kid and so I did a tour just revisiting a bunch of those sites. From Salzburg, I went to Blood in Slovenia. This was another surprise favorite on my trip. First of all, it was really cheap.
[05:24] I didn't have to spend that much money while I was there, but then also there's just a ton of super outdoorsy stuff you can do. You can go kayaking in the lakes around the church. I went canyoning, I went hiking.
[05:36] There's just a ton of nature to experience there, so really glad I stopped there. So next I made my way to Split, Croatia. Split was a beautiful city. I had a really unique charm to it and it had really nice beaches.
[05:49] I spent several days there just relaxing, eating some really good seafood. From Split, I went and stayed in Havar, which is a small island, and that was more of the same, just enjoying some cool beaches.
[06:01] My plan was to fly out from Amsterdam, so I knew I needed to get back there. From Croatia, I made a quick stop in Frankfurt, Germany. I accidentally booked my hostel in the red light district
[06:13] and I arrived there at night. I felt a little bit unsafe in that situation. I recommend arriving during the day and making sure you book your hostel in a good area. After Frankfurt, I headed to Rotterdam in the Netherlands.
[06:25] This was another surprise for me. I didn't realize that they had such unique architecture there. I ended up staying there for a few days just because I thought it was so cool. After Rotterdam, I headed back to Amsterdam.
[06:37] Amsterdam was by and large. One of my favorite cities for the whole trip and it's where I needed to fly out from. So it just made sense for me to spend the last few weeks of my trip there. I ended up getting an apartment and I got a little part-time gig volunteering
[06:51] for an author and photographer. So I was able just to go visit museums and explore the city more so than I had been able to explore some other cities that I visited. So as you can see from my lovely illustrations
[07:03] I've provided, my trip was kind of all over the place. And if I had known where I wanted to go from the outset, I could have saved myself hours of train travel. But I did enjoy the trip, the freedom to go wherever I wanted
[07:16] and just to travel as I felt like it was really nice. If the idea of making up your trip as you go appeals to you, I made a video about the URL paths that I use that you can check out right up here. Oh, that was a lot.
[07:30] That was a lot to cover. Hopefully that wasn't boring for you all. If you did get something useful out of it, please give me a thumbs up. Consider subscribing if you haven't already. I'm gonna make some more videos on other trips I've taken in the future.
[07:42] So be on the lookout for those. But thanks for watching. I'll see you guys next time.