When I studied abroad, the woman who headed up the International Programs office, Cherie, always had a selection of journals available to the students who would be studying abroad. She always was interested to see which journal the students would choose. The one I chose when I studied in Scotland had an Irish blessing on the cover. I didn't use it as a journal, I already had one of those. I used mine for my after-semester trips. I called it the Book o' Fun. It contained all the addresses, flight information, hostel contact information, things to do in the various cities we visited, notes, a list of our spending, etc.
It's the way I like to travel. I don't like having everything planned every day, but I do like having ideas of things that we could do, restaurants to check out, sites to see etc. The most important thing is to know where you are going to sleep, and have a backup plan just in case. When my sister and I went to Spain, we booked a hostel for one night in Barcelona. Since we got in late, it was nice to have a place to crash. The next day we debated whether we should stay in Barcelona or head to Madrid. We weren't tied to Barcelona, but we had a safe place to sleep that first night. We ended up going to Madrid where I had lists of hostels and fun things to do already prepared. We had no schedule, we just wandered around. Occasionally we would check the list for fun things to do, but it was just relaxing the way it was.
It's the way I like to travel. I don't like having everything planned every day, but I do like having ideas of things that we could do, restaurants to check out, sites to see etc. The most important thing is to know where you are going to sleep, and have a backup plan just in case. When my sister and I went to Spain, we booked a hostel for one night in Barcelona. Since we got in late, it was nice to have a place to crash. The next day we debated whether we should stay in Barcelona or head to Madrid. We weren't tied to Barcelona, but we had a safe place to sleep that first night. We ended up going to Madrid where I had lists of hostels and fun things to do already prepared. We had no schedule, we just wandered around. Occasionally we would check the list for fun things to do, but it was just relaxing the way it was.
I decided to do the same thing for our upcoming trip to Hungary. So, here is our Book o' Fun, the Honeymoon edition. It's a lot of work, but it's totally worth it. I'll post more pictures after the trip when the pages are full.
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