My Final Eurotrip Blog
By: Matt Batty
Tags: Backpacking, Europe

July 23rd, 2010

I met a lot of people on my solo trip through Europe. The Facebook group I started says I met 182 people in 70 days, and those are just the ones whose actual information I was able to gather. These are the people that defined this amazing journey across a continent, one in which I set out on alone…

I met other Americans from dozens of US states… the crazy trio from Seattle, the adorable sisters from Cali, the journalist from Atlanta. Some were seeking cultural experiences like myself, and others with the intent of causing alcohol-induced brain damage (I’m obviously guilty of this too).

I met Canadians from every province, and yes, they are all hockey-crazed lunatics (one of which turned out to be my itinerary-planning soul mate! We met up in five different countries!) I met two Finns who taught me more about European people in three days then I had known my entire life. I met a bunch of Belgians that can’t stop dancing, and have a fondness of beer that makes Americans look like school girls.

I met a Spanish rugby team that enthusiastically kept an entire hostel awake, but apologized for it the following morning and invited me to their tournament. I stayed with a French couple who were incredulous of all things American, yet after meeting me, have a better idea of why we are such a proud nation. I met two Ecuadorian guys who had been backpacking and working local jobs all over the globe for so long, they couldn’t remember their home addresses (they estimated being gone for three years). I met a couple of South Africans who wear soccer uniforms to work, and fear of a rugby renaissance in America (all we need is 15 studs out of 350 million and we can take the world!)

I shared a 6-bed hostel room with five Hungarian girls, who read bible verses to each other every night before bed in their native tongue. I met an Argentinean travel guide who was so enthusiastic about his job, I took two of his tours. I met a Dutch quantum physicist, who chose to follow a career as an electrician because physics made his mind race so furiously with ideas, he could never get anything accomplished. I met a 20-year-old English soldier relaxing on a patio outside of a bar, who on his 21st birthday, was willingly heading back to Afghanistan to continue the fight against the Taliban (he was originally sent over on his 19th birthday… not to mention he was missing a few teeth from an IED blast).

I met two British girls who accompanied me for seven days over mountains and across beaches (and laughed my ass off when they cut up their bed sheets to make English flags for the world cup). I met three lunatic Aussies that party just as hard as me, with all of us easily finishing a Century Club. I met an American and Chilean who made such an odd travel couple, but felt like my brothers by the time they left, especially after narrowly avoiding death several times while bombing around Barcelona in go carts (me and this same Chilean would later wreck havoc on Athens with a bottle of ouzo in hand).

I went scuba diving with a Brazilian, and got inked with him as we disturbed two octopi having sex. I got a random ride to a massive club with three Canadian girls from an Italian who didn’t speak a word of English. I rode quads over the Greek islands with a Kiwi, and went sky diving over the Swiss Alps several days later. I tore my MCL the next day canyoning, and wasn’t even bitter about it because of the friends I met that night while dancing on crutches!

I met a group of ‘frolicking pterodactyls’ in Budapest, and literally had one of the best weeks of my life with these loons. I couchsurfed with a handful of the sweetest people in the world, who willingly let me into their home for free, and in the end, became some of my best friends along the way. The Turkish girl in Berlin who took me to an outdoor karaoke jam, the German girl in Bruges who took me on a beer tour and to a Boombal, the sweetheart in Munich who taught me so much about German culture, and to the fantastic trio in Budapest, who not only threw me a party, but instantly became friends for a lifetime! And while I met all of these people, I chronicled all of it in a travel blog…

I kept this blog for several reasons; I wanted to have an extensive travel journal of my accounts, so in years to come I could recount the great times. I also wanted to provide an unbiased account of my interactions with people from around the world, so that anyone following my tales could maybe learn something about a foreign culture. But most of all, I kept this blog to inspire. I set out on this journey alone with the hope I could meet everyone in the world. Obviously, that is impossible; but wherever I saw a smile, I approached and befriended. And in doing so, I became a better person these past 70 days. So, to everyone who read these posts, I thank you for your interest. However, I propose to you a challenge. Far too often do we become complacent in our jobs or our current academic endeavors, and completely forget how amazing this world is. I ask you to pick up where I left off and make your own stories. I had hoped that these posts would inspire you, and if I can just get one person to travel overseas, then I have accomplished my goal. I’m not saying you need to go solo for 70 days to 14 countries; of course, a trip of this magnitude is incredibly intimidating and daunting to some of you. But instead of upgrading your 60-inch plasma screen TV to a 72-inch screen this year, why not take that money and go somewhere! Anywhere! Get out of your cubicle, put down your servers’ apron, close that calculus book, and go meet someone that you would never meet in the states! I promise you it will be one of the most enriching experiences of your life. So again, I thank everyone for following me, and even those of you morbid assholes that only checked to see if I was dead! But now I sit back and hope to sometime soon be regaling in your travel blog.

Au revoir, ciao, auf wiedersehen!

-Batty