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Related: Culture Forums, Support ForumsYoung people traveling all over Europe, really common?
During my European trip, I constantly see young people (under 25 mostly) in my hostel, in the airports, in the buses, on the trains and trams, and on the streets with backpacks and other luggage. I always knew people camped and backpacked across Europe but now I see it constantly.
Did you and/or your friends do this too?
JI7
(89,237 posts)i don't know about other countries but at least in the US i think young people do things like travel, eat out than earlier generations did. but at the same time they are less likely to buy a house and spend less on housing and therefore stuff to go in the house and upkeep and more on the experiences.
even though i never did it i know a lot of people who have and continue to do it. these are not people with much money either. they just spend very little on certain things and when they travel they do it as cheap as possible such as staying in hostels .
GentryDixon
(2,946 posts)We had Eurail passes, a Frommers, & backpacks stuffed with winter clothes, as we left the day after Christmas. We were both in our 40's at the time.
We had a whirlwind 10 day adventure starting in Paris, going to Switzerland, Austria, Germany, then back to Paris. We never knew where we were going to lay our heads until we got to our stop. We only had trouble in Heidelberg getting into our first choice, but they sent us to another hostel which wasn't too far away.
By the time we got stateside we felt like we had walked half of Europe!
CottonBear
(21,596 posts)I want to take my 9 year old son on a backpack trip abroad. He has cousins in England and I have my German friend in Munich, who we could visit as well.
CurtEastPoint
(18,609 posts)Which stands to reason, as, well, we are in Europe so one would expect to see more Europeans. Tons of German and Nordic kids.
Voltaire2
(12,939 posts)DFW
(54,268 posts)Summer of 1970, 1971 and 1973.
By the time it was 1974, I was spending more time in fewer places, mostly West Berlin. Good thing, too, since that was when and where I met Mrs. DFW!
malthaussen
(17,175 posts)... I sometimes think Europe must be, like, 50% wandering 20 year olds. I, however, had to wait to over 30 to get there, and then only the UK.
-- Mal
DFW
(54,268 posts)I don't know beans about the UK. Well, not a whole hell of a lot, anyway. I was always drawn to places that spoke other languages than English. As you know, I even ended up marrying one of friendly natives and ultimately moved to her country.
malthaussen
(17,175 posts)She went to Germany with her best bud circa 1970 and met this guy; came back the next year to live with him and eventually get married, and he bailed. Left her pregnant, too.
Your story is much nicer.
-- Mal
DFW
(54,268 posts)I guess you can marry the wrong person almost anywhere if you work at it........
mitch96
(13,869 posts)I knew quite a few people that did it. I never did. Eurail pass, back pack and a few hundred bucks. One of my friends worked in a vineyard in France, Biked thru the alps and lost her virginity on a beach in Greece.. Sounds like a great book..!
m
greatauntoftriplets
(175,727 posts)I was there for several months, mostly traveling alone at age 22. I am fortunate to have relatives in two countries and was based with one cousin.
nocoincidences
(2,215 posts)glamorized backpacking around Europe.
Funny and loving movie told via the various European trips that one couple takes over the course of their lives.
DFW
(54,268 posts)I will never forget the scene where they park their rent-a-car on top of a hill and forget to set the brake. While they get out to have an argument, it then rolls down the hill and destroys the barn of a farmer, who then squeezes them for twice it's worth, right before the town bureaucrat determines they must pay an extra 10,000 francs (old francs, 100 new--as of 1960--francs) tax. When they ask WHAT tax, the guy shrugs and says, just tax.
Some aspects of Europe, and France in particular, haven't changed at all.
nocoincidences
(2,215 posts)CottonBear
(21,596 posts)I stayed in youth hotels and hostels. I had a backpack, a Eurail pass, a Youth Hostel Card and a copy of Lets Go Europe. I ate on the go and visited lots of museums and historic places. I was in my very early 30s: no pets, no kids.
I had a great time! I met a German girl in London who is still a friend of mine today! I later visited and stayed with her and her family in their lovely home in Munich.
In addition to my London and Western Europe travels, I visited Prague, Budapest and took a ship (free passage on the deck with a Eurail pass) to the island of Corfu. Greece, where I stayed at the Pink Palace Hotel. 🛳🏖🍸🍷☕️🍺🍾
I met all kinds and ages of people doing the same type of cheep travel. There were older folks (70s), moms with young kids and high school kids in addition to college age and young adults.
DFW
(54,268 posts)Communism had just fallen, and both places were eager for western ideas and people. Optimism reigned.
A friend of mine from Puerto Rico met his German wife on Corfu 3 years before I met mine in Berlin. VERY small world.
In 1973, I took an overnight ferry from Italy to Bar in Yugoslavia to meet up with a college classmate and her family. After 2 days in Petrovac na Moru, I went up to Zagreb, because I had heard there was a thriving youth scene there, and I wasn't disappointed. I fell in with a small family of Croatian students and one guy who joked that he was almost as much of an outsider as I was. I asked in what way? He said it was because he was a Serb, and everyone laughed. It was a big joke then. Twenty years later, they were cutting each other's throats and shooting each other down in the streets. It wasn't such a joke any more. People can be SO fucking pig-headed sometimes.
CottonBear
(21,596 posts)Traveling from East Berlin to Prague by overnight train in late October was like traveling back in time to the 1940s or 1950s.
By complete chance, I met up with 2 travelers from the US at 5am in the train station when I arrived. They were also from Georgia in the USA! What a coincidence! It was the national holiday and everyone was off work and everything was closed.
We three walked alone through the city for hours: across the Charles Bridge, to the Golden Lane and the castle hill, to the Old Town Square and to Wenceslas Square. Around 9 or 10, we found a shop open in the old town square area and we got a nice warm cup of coffee.
President Havel gave a televised speech to the nation that very afternoon, which we watched on a TV at a youth hotel on the outskirts of the city. He announced the Velvet Divorce. That night, there was a huge gathering of 1,000s of people in Wenceslas Square where the Velvet Revolution had taken place. There were memorials to those killed in the Prague Spring uprising. Candles and flowers and speakers... It was a very amazing event to experience. They were planning the Velvet Divorce.
The city and country had not yet been populated by Americans and Western Europeans in the post-communist era. It was a unique time and place. The city was beautiful.
cemaphonic
(4,138 posts)It was a pretty amazing time and place, although by then American tourists and expats were already all over the place. I even found a pretty good Tex-Mex restaurant.
The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,570 posts)It was pretty common then, too. We mostly stayed in youth hostels (which were kind of primitive at the time).
UTUSN
(70,638 posts)steve2470
(37,457 posts)Pros: great price, great location, clean, 24 hour staff, videocam security, showers, communal kitchen, private lockers that can be locked
Cons: Noooo privacy with 7 other roomies, ever-present possibility of petty theft, unaccompanied women need to be brave and vigilant
DFW
(54,268 posts)Of course, that was 47 years ago! It cost about $2 a day, and I remember the morning coffee and tea tasting HORRIBLE because they made them from the sulphur-laced water coming right up out of the ground. Iceland was fascinating, and at age 19, we survived the 3 days in the hostel just fine, but I think for my next trip (my wife has never been there), I will spring for somewhat more comfortable accommodations.
steve2470
(37,457 posts)The nights in Prague, Oslo, Amsterdam and Copenhagen in a private room I have relished greatly.