Planning for a(nother) Trip to Europe

You'd think I'd have it to a fine art by now, and maybe I do...since fine art includes the likes of Jackson Pollack; messy and erratic on a big canvas. As my partner likes to note, planning a trip takes me longer than actually taking the trip. But, of course, I enjoy it.

I relish the obsession which supersedes all "real work" and keeps me focused for countless hours...well, actually, weeks...reading through travel books, pouring over maps and web surfing for recommendations of places to go, or avoid, how best to get there (for example, I've read that the bus is faster and cheaper than the train between Madrid and Granada), sourcing discounts and deals, writing to pensions and vacation rental companies (there is no centralized service, each requires their own forms or emails), and seeking personal connections in my now fairly-determined itinerary.

As a long-time member of Servas (www.servas.org), a 50+-year-old international host/traveler organization, based on the Gandhi quote "Peace is built one friendship at a time," I began reading the host books for France and Spain, as if they were novels, deciding which hosts I might want to meet and stay with for two days. Many hosts live in rural areas that require a car to visit, or are not on my route. After identifying several, I composed emails introducing myself, explaining the purpose my trip and requesting certain dates to visit, and sent them off. Surprisingly, few responded, or emails bounced back, and it started to feel like an exercise in futility. Of course, it is August, when many Europeans go on holiday and presumably do not check their email.

Then I discovered Couch Surfing (www.couchsurfing.com), an innovative internet "project" loosely based on the Servas model but for a younger audience and less formal. More than 400,000 people worldwide have signed up in less than 3 years to offer a "couch" (i.e., place to crash) or to meet for "coffee or a drink." It too is about cultural understanding and peace building.

As a couch surfing (CS) host since July, we've already had 3 different "surfers" stay with us in Santa Fe, 20-somethings who were smart, considerate and fun guests (you can read other people's reviews of them online at their CS profile page). So I've spent hours culling through the 1000+ CSers in Barcelona alone, and made many inquiries in each of the cities I'll be visiting, but again without much response.

After a while, all this solicitation begins to feel like cold-calling: a waste of time and I give up, book my pensions and hotels, rail and air tickets and hope Serendipity finds me. However, I did arrange two CS experiences -- one in Toulouse and another in Amsterdam, both also happen to be Servas hosts as well.

It is less than 3 weeks before I leave for a month and most of the sleeping and transportation portions of my trip are planned, with the exception of 5 days between Granada and an early-morning flight out of Barcelona. I want to leave that open, to see what I feel like after 3 weeks of traveling. "Maybe I'll go to Amsterdam or maybe I'll go to Rome and rent me a grand piano and put some flowers 'round my room..." or maybe I'll find a quiet beach and just relax.

I still have a book about the Prado to read and I'm halfway through Orwell's rather dry "Homage to Catalonia," and more research is definitely required on every stop's highlights. A table in my office is covered with guide books, print-outs of receipts and itineraries, my purse-size umbrella, electrical adapter, European cell phone, passport, pocket-sized journal. Don't touch!

I'm beginning to feel a bit organized, but I haven't even begun to pack and there are dozens of checklist items to accomplish before I leave. I can't imagine not spending this time planning...it's simply too much fun to dream up a trip, learn about places, compose a plan (always changeable, of course), and then, finally, find myself there.