2 Weeks until Europe!!!

So I will be in Europe for 2 and half weeks exploring cities in Italy, Austria, and Switzerland. This trip has been on my mind for about 5 years now and one of the major steps of making it a reality (besides the $$) was getting into Graduate School. I think of this trip as a reward for my hard work and also an exploration of myself . Plus, with full time school for the next couple years, a trip like this may not happen for a while.

I decided to travel alone for the first 5 days of my trip because I wanted to be on my own itinerary, make my own discoveries, become inspired, more confident and stronger. I have a more reserved personality initially when meeting new people and I'm hoping this will loosen me up a bit.

My solo travel:

Rome for a day
Siena for a day
Cinque Terre for 2 days (staying in Riomaggiore)

I understand that people (mostly my family) have concerns about me traveling solo, what with all the horror stories out there. And of course, I'm taking all the necessary precautions. Really if you look online and check the stats, the good experiences outweigh the bad by the pounds!

If you are thinking of traveling solo, I recommend bookmarking this part of Rick Steve's website for reference:
http://cdn.svcs.c2.uclick.com/c2/bf5f1d205d65012ee3bf00163e41dd5b

I'm trying couch surfing for the first time and am being hosted in the 3 places I'm staying. Part of my thought was to save hundreds of dollars hotel/hostel fees. But more importantly, make international friends and show my family/friends that there are good people in this world that are, yes, willing to offer a stranger a bed for the night without expectation of payment, rather, altruism, courtesy, and gratefulness.

For people that may be weary of being hosted on couch surfing, I have some tips:

• Only message people with profiles that have a lot of positive reviews
• Ask to become friends on Facebook and check out your potential hosts interactions with their friends
• If you message the host and it seems sketch, then bail, no biggie
• Print out the hosts picture, name, address, and phone from a Word doc so your family knows exactly what the person looks like that you are staying
• ask your host to meet you in a public place first so you can decide for yourself whether you feel comfortable

After my solo travel, I'm meeting up with el boyfriend and we are exploring:
Florence
Venice
Salzburg
Biking from Krimml to Salzburg
Murren in the Berner Oberland
Zurich

Most likely, I will not be posting a blog while traveling in Europe. I'm going 1990's style and buying a journal and hand writing my itinerary/journey/discoveries. For me, writing in a journal is meditation and reflection --- the Internet is often distracting. However, I intend to upload my journal entries to my blog (or the good entries anyway, haha).

Post soon!
-Tia