Ladies and Gentlemen, six weeks since I've been back from my month-long tour of Western Europe (new photos in "A European Panorama", under "My Photos" at right), and honestly, I still don't know what to make of the experience. I suppose it would be easy for me to post the obvious--"Oh, it was a blast! Good people! Good times! Such splendor! Such views!"--but, as we do write from the Overground, here (or strive to--ahem ahem), we do like to keep a bit of the old introspective bent on our side, and as a result, I find I have to give the trip, overall, a mixed review at best. This isn't to say, by any means, that everyone on the tour came away with the same feelings that I did--for I dare say that every other person on the tour did, in fact, have an absolute blast. The tour, in and of itself, is a great idea, well-executed. For me, however, at this point in my life--well, it would be an understatement (to put it mildly) to say that I do have a tendency, these days, to attract the wrong set of circumstances at what often turns out to be exactly the worst possible time. And this despite my very best intentions.
So yes, stepping into the Way Back Machine: it was exactly ten years ago that, in between college #5 and college #6 (out of 7 separate undergraduate experiences, for this one--yes, I transferred quite a bit) I opted to take a few months off and travel, thinking that getting out and seeing more of the world would not only give me a much needed break from academia, but, to some extent, renew my faith in the long, hard, and exceedingly convoluted (personal) process that I was going through at the time (this in regard to defining my own identity, in terms of which communities I would, eventually, choose to belong to, and which I would not). The result was that I (in retrospect, rather whimsically) hopped on a plane, flew over to London, and ended up spending, not the one semester off that I'd originally planned, but rather, three. An entire year-and-a-half, with one summer over on the continent in Paris (studying electronic and computer music at Les Ateliers UPIC). Why the change in plans, the extension? For the people, of course--for as it turned out, while I was over there I ended up meeting, hanging out with, and then traveling with, some of the best friends I've made in my life thus far. Everyone was in their early to mid-20s (I was 19), everyone had access to a fair amount of money, and everyone had few if any obligations to hold them down. Take a dozen or two people answering to this description and stick them in a city like London for 18 months, and I'll tell you, you're going to get to know each other very, very well. And you're going to bond. And you're going to have the time of your lives.
Fast forward to ten years later: I've wrapped up a few writing projects, I realize I've been in Manhattan too long (four years) without a real vacation (despite the image my friends tend to maintain of me--that of my living within a perpetual vacation--I can very much assure you that this is nowhere near the truth), and I decide that, yes, wouldn't it be nice if, were I to spend a little time traveling again, and considering that I've no travel companions at the moment, I might, indeed, duplicate the experience I had ten years ago? At least, to some extent?
Now I'll be the first to admit that only a fool attempts to recapture and repeat the glories of his or her past (for me, this would involve going back to the same hostel, as a 29 year-old, and crossing my fingers hoping I'd meet the same sort of people--surely, a ridiculous idea); but here, it occurred to me, that perhaps if I joined a pre-organized tour group, one boasting of a few dozen other young-ish, adventurous strangers, couldn't I re-experience just a little bit of what came before? A few great new adventures, and a few great new friends to share them with?
The answer: yes, and no.
Yes, great new adventures; but, as I soon found, on a tour like this, you're well-advised to bring your own friends. And this, precisely, for me, turned out to be the biggest issue at hand--the greatest disappointment, really--over the course of the next several weeks. Make no mistake, everyone on the tour was great, this I know--but at the same time, I also found that practically everyone arrived already coupled up, or in groups of friends numbering either two or three. After the initial meet-and-greet, people generally tended to stay with what was familiar (i.e. the people they came with), and as a result, the group simply didn't come together, didn't gel, like I thought it would: when left to our own devices ("OK gang, here's the new city you're in, go see the sights and we'll meet back at the hotel at 6pm..."), everyone tended to disperse almost immediately, with individual couples and groups going their separate ways, and in the end, the group as a whole never, really, BONDED as I might have hoped. Thinking back on it even now, I can recall, more often than not, sitting on the bus, looking out the window (admiring the beautiful countryside all the while), and thinking to myself, "I came all this way to have new experiences and to not be alone, and here I am: having new experiences, alone, surrounded by other people."
But then, everyone else seemed to have the time of their lives.
So, is the Contiki experience for everyone? No, but it definitely is very much for 20-somethings that haven't seen much of the world, want to see more, have a bit of time and money, and have a friend (or two) to go along with them. Of course, I should also say here that, of the different classes of tours that Contiki offers, I took the most luxurious option; and of the different itineraries that Contiki offers, I took the second longest one (the longest being a week longer, covering a bit of Eastern Europe as well, but which struck me as simply too much too fast in a single sprint, whilst the next shortest, after mine, skipped Spain and Greece--so indeed, the European Panorama itinerary was definitely the best one the company offered, to which even the tour director himself agreed). Had I opted for a cheaper experience (i.e. the camping option), or a shorter experience (two or three weeks), perhaps I would have met a crowd that was slightly less comfortable, slightly less settled down, and slightly more eager to, at times, go out together more, stay out together longer, and get to know each other a bit better.
Regardless, I find I can't complain all too much: though exhausting at times (and just a bit too drawn out for my taste, particularly near the end--though surely the fact that I came down with a fairly severe case of pneumonia during our final week certainly didn't help matters, nor serve to alleviate my fatigue!), I did manage to get pretty much all of Western Europe in in just under a month and, looking back on it, the sense of familiarity I now have with so many of these places, these cities, these famous landmarks (all of which I'd seen so often before, in films and what not, but had never had the chance to stand in front of and "feel"), does fill me, in a way, with a certain kind of pride. As if my education in What It Is to Be a Human Being had just had one more Merit Badge added to it, what with my having seen so many radically different cultures so close together, and in such a short period of time at that.
For those of you in the 18 to 35 year age range who might be interested in doing a tour of your own (assuming I haven't turned you off to the idea, after having read all of the above!), you can view all of Contiki's itineraries and pricing options here: Contiki Tours
A photo album of my tour can be found here: A European Panorama - 12 Countries in 28 Days
General site update to come soon.
