My 3 month Euro Trip

Note: there were way too many photos taken to be captured in this blog, checkout my instagram for a chronology of all 90 days — @tcit6

Setting the scene

I received letter in the mail regarding the wedding of my good friend John. This was an ordinary save the date that I had been accustomed to, however the location was set for Cyprus, a small island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It was a little under a year out so committing to it and planning the logistics was both complicated and a bit stressful. I wasn’t even sure where Cyprus was before looking it up, but I was really excited nonetheless.

If you’ve read my most recent article you can skip this section, but I’ll try to summarize it quickly for those who haven’t. At the time I received this letter, I had just torn my ACL and set my goal to become a bodybuilder within a year. This date became my “work back date” that I would use to make my schedule over the next 10 months or so.

I selected bodybuilding competitions 1 and 2 weeks before I would fly to Europe, to be able to arrive a little early and have time to explore prior to the wedding itself. Having this date so far out made planning a lot easier, and so began that phase.

Finding a Travel Buddy

Given that work remote was becoming increasingly the norm, I figured I owed it to myself to give it a shot, and what better place than from Europe. The plan was simple in theory — go to the wedding, and travel, having the time of my life, and work when I’m not — but if you know me, you’d know I did not want to go alone. I have traveled before alone, but this was a whole new level, especially with my goal of hitting 3 months and touring all of Europe.

I had a +1 to this wedding as I was previously in a relationship when I received the invitation, so I used this as part of my incentive to find someone to travel with. I did a road trip with one of my coworkers,

Mitch, who later became one of my best friends, from Seattle all the way to Texas, and it went super well, so he was my first and only needed candidate. I extended him an invite and said it would be a once in a lifetime opportunity and as Homer Simpson said, “there’s a moment in every ‘relationship’ that I need you to do this with me.”

The timing couldn’t have been more perfect — he was living in Seattle, the summer was coming which he didn’t care much for, and his lease was set to expire the week I had intended to start the journey. He accepted, and over the next few weeks we quickly got everything together and had many calls to plan and book as much as we could for our trip in advance. We ended up booking the first 6 weeks, including all logistics and even some activities before even arriving, so that made life a lot easier. He simultaneously managed to fully move out of his apartment, sell and store his furniture, and make it to good old Newark, New Jersey in time for our flight to London.

Part 2, first stop: London + Cyprus

Getting to Cyprus is a bit of a trek, so I figured making a pit stop in the way would make life and travel a bit easier. Fortunately, my sister lives in London and crazily coincidentally was out of town the week I was set to arrive, so we flew in and stayed a few days to do some London touristy activities. I won’t go into too much detail here as there wasn’t anything too exciting that we did given the little time we had.

A few days later we took our flight to Larnaca, Cyprus we were greeted by crazy hot weather. We hopped in our rental car at 1 am on the thankfully empty roads as we learned to drive on the left side of the road for the first time. Every time I wanted to turn I accidentally activated the windshield wipers but became a natural by the end of the trip.

We made our way to our lovely Airbnb that was baseball-throwing distance to the beach. We walked out on to the balcony where we caught the ending of a local musician wrapping up a concert on the beach.

We toured the strip that went for a mile in both directions, filled with all types of restaurants on the inland side and local stalls and shops of all types on the sea side. We got some snacks and retreated to the room for an early night given that we were exhausted from a long day of travel.

We awoke the next morning to a very warm Mediterranean sun and walked down to the local strip. In the morning we saw the open shops all offering competing smoothie options, which was heaven given the heat. We grabbed our smoothies and took them to the beach where we there was already umbrellas and beds setup, a characteristic abnormal to Americans.

We laid in the sun till lunch, where we went on to have our first authentic Cypriot meal — we started off with a Greek salad, side of Tzaziki, and finally a slow roasted local specialty, Lamb Kleftiko. All the food was delicious and really set a positive tone for the upcoming cuisine throughout the journey. This took place at called Mizzui.

Overall Larnaca did not have tons else to offer, so we went over to Ayia Napa or Agia Napa as the locals call it. This is much more city and youthful vibes, still surrounded by amazing beaches. While touring around the new beaches we ended up discovering cliff jumps, of which we both never had done before. We saw some other guys doing it so mustered up the confidence to follow suit. Our first jump couldn’t have been more then 12 feet or so, which was nothing to brag about, but after a few more jumps we felt ready to continue walking up the cliff in search of higher. Unfortunately or fortunately, the next safest spot to jump was around 25–30 feet (very hard to estimate). This took a lot longer of staring at the edge and contemplating many things, but our friends from the first jump arrived in the nic of time and led the way. The large difference in height was correlated to the increase in fear, thrill and excitement. We had the choice of returning to the beach or taking it one step further, which we couldn’t say no to. Our last jump was between 35–40 feet or so and it was incredible and a really good fear to conquer.

The next day I had to pay a visit to a blood specialist — if you read my previous articles you’d know I had some complications during my bodybuilding training, so I wanted to keep an eye on a few blood-related metrics. In America, I would have to schedule a doctor appointment, then get a blood test scheduled, then wait a week, and a few months later get a bill from insurance. Here I showed up to the lab, told the doctor exactly what tests I needed, got the work done, and got an email within 3 hours of my results. Doctor Georgallides was one of the nicest gentlemen I’ve ever met, and we bonded over NJ because he spent a few years there for school and had cousins that owned a restaurant, which I plan to visit some day.

Later that day we returned to check out some new beaches and try some water sports — we had wanted to do else boarding but the waves were to choppy so we did parasailing instead which was quite fun. After this we took a stroll through a sculpture park which was pretty cool with a bunch of art imported from all over the region. Later that day we took a recommendation for a big dinner from our parasailing instructor, which was great because we only had a small breakfast that day. It was an Amazing mezze dinner with food that came out what seemed like every 3 minutes and it was a true test of strength and endurance… I don’t remember the name but wish i did.

The next day was the day before the wedding so we wanted to keep things a little more low key. We went over to our new Airbnb in Aya Napa, went to the local gym, and later spent some time walking around the city. For dinner we went to an amazing authentic restaurant called En Yevo Tavernaki, I would highly recommend! At night we went to a lively outdoor Night club / cocktail lounge where most of the wedding attendees our age were present.

Finally, the next day we dedicated entirely to the Wedding, which truly was a whole day event. However the days leading up to this were filled with lots of conversations about our sickness. I caught a cold right before leaving America and unfortunately also immediately shared it with Mitch. The timing couldn’t have been worse as we the wedding was just a few days away and the concern of COVID was an all time high.

In both London and Cyprus we tried to quarantine and do as many outdoor activities as possible. After the symptoms persisted we decided to get multiple tests, wherein we were both negative, despite the fact that all the symptoms were almost certainly an indicator that we were. We tested again and again the day before the wedding and we were both negative once again, so we went to the wedding which was a blast and I’m so glad we made it in our awesome suits that we spent many hours trying to procure to have the perfect material and color scheme.

Greece

The next day we left Cyprus for our third country, Greece. On our flight we sat next a man named George from Crete who gave us tons of local recommendations which we were able to take advantage of. We landed in Athens quite late, and took a taxi to our Airbnb. We went out for a walk and found a super nice authentic restaurant in walking distance called El Greco.

We went to bed shortly after so we could take on the day early, where we were able to see all the major sites. We started off with the most touristy of all, the Acropolis. We spent some time there and the ventured out into the mountains where we saw this monument along with the sculpture referred to as the birthplace of Democracy. We grabbed some lunch and then took a lift to the highest point in Athens. Here we stayed with hundreds of other tourists awaiting the sunset over the city. After this we returned to our stay so we could get an early night sleep before our ferry ride to Naxos, our first Greek island.

Quickly after checking in to Naxos we went right to the beach as we heard they were beautiful — and they were. We stayed for hours, got lunch on the beach and waited till sunset. We took a taxi back and got dinner near the hostel that we stayed called the Zeus Hotel, which was a fine and well priced accommodation.

The next day we started off with a trip to the gym, which was surrounded by open windows peering out to the sea. I’ve never had a workout experience as refreshing as this with sea breeze and amazing views. The next few days were quite repetitive, but relaxing. One of the beaches we discovered had wind surfing, so we opted for a lesson which was pretty fun.

Eventually we shifted to Thira, Santorini after a long ferry ride, which was definitely a change in pace. We stayed in an expensive Airbnb, because there were wasn’t a cheap one to be found. We knew this wasn’t a beach place at all, as we were up in the mountains, ironically so as it’s considered one of the honeymoon capitals of the world.

In Santorini we did the famous hike from Thira to Oia, which was about 5 hours long in the heat up and down the mountain pathways, through small villages, passing many churches and amazing scenic views the entire way through. We got to the castle view point to see the famous sunset where thousands of tourists flocked from all over and congregated on top of each other, some waiting hours to secure the perfect seat.

At the tail end of the journey we were literally running to make sure we made it and we caught up to a couple doing the same. We linked up and formed a train, pushing our way through the crowds of people walking in all directions, which I couldn’t imagine why they’d be there and not go enjoy the sunset. We unfortunately got separated and didn’t see them again.

After the sunset we enjoyed our most expensive meal at a high-end Greek fusion restaurant called Roka, where we experienced our first wait, which was well worth it. We followed this up with dessert from a slightly hidden underground bakery before calling it a night.

The next morning on a random early morning jog I bumped in to the couple from the previous night out far from city the city center. I took their contact info, and later became great friends, with Eman, the Italian Australian and his lady. Together the 4 of us went to the “dangerous” red beaches where we sipped on drinks under the red cliff side mountain.

We then took a pit stop at the heart of Thira before continuing on to our final destination Greece, the independent Island of Crete.

Crete, Greece

We landed in Heraklion and then immediately made our way over to Chania, the main western city, where most of the happening spots were. Here we stayed at the Cocoon Hostel, which was an electric time — it brought me back to the days I stayed in Hostels around Asia. Entering the hostel we were greeted by guests all hanging out in the main lobby, which we knew was a great sign. We walked around the local city in search of a quick bite, where we found Delish, a high end fast place which became a staple for the remainder of the trip.

Having a car here was a smart move and a huge “flex.” We made some friends at breakfast and posted in the Hostel WhatsApp group chat we were headed to Elafonisi Beach, wherein a few folks joined us for the day trip. It was quite a long ride, filled with many twists and sharp turns in the mountainside, but was well worth it.

The next day we followed a similar fashion, but this time went to Balos beach. Another beach with warm, crystal clear water. We increased the size of the group so much after socializing, we ended up creating a caravan of 3 cars and a ton of people. Later that night we didn’t want the party to stop, so we rallied a bunch of people to head to the only real club in the area called Click. We were certainly exhausted from long day in the sun, but there was such good energy we couldn’t say no. In the back of the club we saw cages, and Mitch and I exchanged glances before becoming the life of the club. Both our shirts magically got ripped open, but thankfully there’s no known footage to share with our grandkids.

Unfortunately, we forgot we booked a hike tour for 7 am. We arrived back home at 5 or so, so 2 hours of sleep prior to a 10 mile hike in blistering, unshaded heat definitely wasn’t our best decision. Thankfully we survived — the name of the hike was the Samira Gorge and I certainly wouldn’t recommend it.

Naturally after this tour we decided to stay as the last few days really took a toll on us. The next day we went to say our heartfelt goodbyes before making our way to Turkey.

Turkey

I had from many people heard Istanbul was one of the most gorgeous and welcoming cities in the world, so I made sure it ended up in our list. Here we came to tour the beautiful religious architecture and a cuisine rich in flavor and spice.

We stayed at the second home hostel, which was perfectly located near all the major tourist attractions and public transport. It definitely was a stark contrast from our previous hostel, but still ended up having some common areas where we were able to meet a bunch of people and build a nice group to hang out with.

Each day we’d start off going to the local gym, then having a big lunch, and continue on to see the magical sites — mainly mosques, among some other precious viewpoints of the city. The city sits between the border of Europe and Asia, so you can spend a day in both continents switching by taking a short ferry ride. The tourist part is mostly in Europe, where we saw the Aya Sofia and Blue Mosques, which is why it’s considered the religious side. We then spent our nights eating local authentic meals and going to some clubs around the Asian side where things get a little more wild. We did a pub crawl followed by a late snack until 530 AM — it was really funny walking back slightly tipsy while people were starting there day headed to the local mosques.

Our last day we went to the grand bazaar, played soccer with some locals on the streets, repeated one of our favorite skewer meals which only had one item on the menu, and ended off with a traditional Turkish dance show at the HADJAPOSHA. After this we packed our bags and took flight to Albania which ended up being a travel journey in itself.

Nonsensical European transportation

Low and behold — Greek transportation continued to prove to be among the worst and most disorganized travel locations we’ve ever dealt with — I’ll explain and you can be the judge.

We were leaving Turkey for the southwest beach / port town of Saranda, so instead of flying direct Albania we flew back to Greece, specifically corfu which is just a short ferry ride away. We had a connecting flight from Athens to Corfu and that’s where things got interesting.

At Athens checked our bags as we had done numerous times in the past. We got to our gate early and every few minutes we looked at the board by which our flight departure time continued to get later, without us ever being notified there was a true delay. Then as always we were all rushed and crowded into the final gate area even though the plane was not ready to be boarded. We eventually took off quite late and of course missed our next flight. The next available flight to Corfu wasn’t until the next day, so they were obligated to put us in a hotel, but we’ll get there later.

The bat phone

Naturally we wanted to collect our bags to take to the hotel, and they weren’t at the baggage claim, so we waited 30, minutes in line and we’re told to go out to the information desk. We did this and they told us to go back into baggage claim after security, so we need special permission to return. We were given a note card with our name on it and we went to a long empty hallway with just a door and phone at the end of it — we were told to pick up the phone and say our name, by which a security guard on the other side would greet us. This later became known as the bat phone. We queued up again for an hour while many angry customers were trying to as well locate their lost luggage.

When we got to the front we were told there was no immediate information and to go wait in the waiting area, so we did this for 2 hours, returning multiple times to get status updates, and we kept hearing “we are still waiting for updates.” After 7 hours and multiple trips in and out of the claim area using the bat phone each time, we were told our luggage was locked away because it was behind security due to the nature of a connecting flight and it could not be retrieved, but that it would accompany me on my flight the next day — what a freaking waste of time.

A woman named Rachel from NY was in the same boat, and all together the 3 of us hung out for hours to pass the time. Together we left for our accommodation and you would expect us to be in a hotel 5, maybe 10 minutes way, but no, they decided to put us up in a so-called “resort” 30 minutes away. We were fed up and got dinner and some drinks and went to bed, just to wake up a few hours later for the next flight. We asked for a taxi service to be there in the morning and the receptionist replied with “if you’re lucky.” You can imagine at this point we were really ready for the damn beach.

The Ferry and our luggage

I landed in Corfu and took a taxi to the ferry ticket office, which was the only place to buy tickets for ferries as they were too technologically incapable of having online tickets. Not a big deal, right? Wrong — the ferry ticket office, as you can imagine where this is going, was over 1.5 miles away from the actual single entrance to the ferry port.

Now don’t forget about the luggage… Mitchell chose to bus and not fly with me because of his ear issues. When I arrived in Corfu I looked for my bags and to no surprise they weren’t there. I found an agent and she said “oh you had a connecting flight yesterday right, don’t worry, a bunch of bags came here last night.” What that means is everything that jerk told us at the Athens airport was incorrect and we wasted 7 hours for no reason. Now to end this catastrophic travel, I was with my luggage and Mitch’s — 2 giant 65 L rucksack packs I had to carry the mile plus in the 90 degree Greek heat. The ferry was an hour late, but once again, never surprised.

Albania

I originally suggested we go to Albania because a few years earlier I had been traveling around Eastern Europe and spent the evening with an older couple for a cooking class. They said they had vacationed in Greece many times before and that they found Albania to be just as nice, so I figured we not add the stop — although if I knew what it would take to get there from above I may have reconsidered.

Albania was meant to be a short relaxing beach stop, which it was. We had a balcony overlooking the local port beach where we ended up spending a lot of time. Of course, we found a local gym, where we would start our days and then lunch and beach and explore some local bars at night.

I actually found a coffee shop by day cocktail bar by night that overlooked the beach with impeccable wifi, I was able to work and take some meetings here while being hit by the Albanian sun and sea breeze.

We went down to Ksamil, which didn’t look anything like the pictures. By and large we didn’t do much and really just caught up in sleep. We should have rented a car, but as always, hindsight 2020 — and with this briefly stop over, on to the next one!

Italia

We left Albania via ferry back to corfu and then took a flight to Naples. Here we toured some great castles and had some great gelato and food before continuing our way south.

We took stay in Sorrento, a slightly more far out part of the well known Amalfi coast. This was a really cool city very high upon a hill. Here we had really phenomenal gelato and lots of various lemon related meals and desserts as they are known as the lemon region, which is where Limoncello comes from. One of the restaurants we went we waited in line for 45 minutes but it was well worth it.

We spent the next few days touring around Sorrento, and made a pit stop in Capri. It was a very short journey because we had a terrible tour guide, who brought us to a crappy lunch that took hours for acórese sandwiches, leaving us a short while on the amazing island itself. We took a day tour to the city of Pompeii and Mount Vesuvius, which we were able to climb to the top of. The city was magical, but Vesuvius views left a lot to desire.

We moved a little more down the coast to the actual town of Amalfi itself — wow I thought Greek transportation was bad, but don’t get me started on Amalfi. One of the wealthiest areas of Italy and the worst, nonsensical transportation systems ever. You can only buy bus tickets at the stations, but how we were supposed to know this, I have no idea. We got to our Airbnb which was a few kilometers from the station, and we’re stuck there all night because we didn’t have bus tickets, and there wasn’t a restaurant in sight. I jogged over to the emerald grotto which I guess was cool, but touristy for sure so don’t go out of your way for it.

The next day we asked our Airbnb host to actually give us a ride down to the station so that we could get many tickets to have as backup. We explored Amalfi for the day, and went out to Ravello countryside to the east. It was pretty and small, not sure if worth the trip far up there.

The next day I made my way to the famous “Sentiero degli Dei” or “Path of the gods” hike. This was another difficult transportation situation, so instead of dealing with multiple buses, I hiked an hour vertical, mostly steps to the beginning of the hike where I needed a small breakfast as I just completed a harder hike than the home itself — definitely don’t recommend doing the first part for beginners. The hike itself was quite nice and has stunning views the entire way, and is beginner difficulty overall. With multiple stops I did it in 1.75 hours. At the end ending above Positano, there’s a few places to get snacks and smoothies to refuel.

Then you have the choice of walking down to Positano or taking a bus — I was looking for extra cardio so it’s obvious which I chose, mounds regretting it after discovering that step 850 was only halfway there — my knees weren’t happy at the end of this day. I spent the day exploring Positano, enjoying some wine and dinner overlooking beautiful views. We returned to the Airbnb after long waits for the buses, to pack our bags, before beginning a long day of travel to Boom Belgium, for the most incredible part of our journey itself.

Tomorrowland

We met a guy named Hani in Turkey who sold us on Tomorrowland — it wasn’t that we needed convincing, we just didn’t want to go without knowing others and we weren’t sure if we could get tickets. There was only one place to by resale, given that that concert was 2 weeks ago when we started this thought and the 600,000 tickets sell out in minutes months in advance. We were willing to pay for it — the problem is on the official website it literally said “resale is not allowed…” but we said screw it let’s take the risk, and we’re so glad we did.

Hani greeted us outside Tomorrowland entrance with bags full of supplies for us to setup camp, literally. After getting settled we grabbed a bite and went to the first event of the festival, the gathering, where they “set the stage” for what’s coming. This was a “chill” opener for what was about to come. We retreated to the tent to begin the real experience.

To no surprise, I started each day with a visit to the gym, some breakfast, some hanging out, napping, exploring, until the actual event really started midday. Everything i mentioned above all took place in the confines of the land itself, spanning multiple square miles filled with truly everything you need to survive for a few days. There were giant bath houses, places to brush your teeth, food from around the world, indoor and outdoor showers, merchandise shops, first aid, obviously plenty of bars, you name it.

After a late lunch, applying lots of sunscreen, and packing the Fanny pack, we took our 45 minute or so walk to the other side of the land where the ACTUAL festival was — a land filled with enormous stages, adorned with art installations in the most random places. Everywhere you looked you would see something you wouldn’t expect, and every few hundred meters another stage bigger and more unique than the last. We would bounce between various stages, drink and dance the night way, until returning to our tents around 1 AM, waking at 7 am due to the heat captured by the tent and the sunlight to do it all over again.

To summarize — it was one of the coolest experiences I ever had in my life and I hope everyone who has an interest gets to experience it some day. I will definitely be going whenever I have the chance, because it was truly magical and one of a kind.

Belgium

After TML we figured hey, we’re already in Belgium but have no idea what it actually looks like, so let’s explore! We googled “what to do in Brussels,” because as the capital we thought hey, why not visit, we typically had great success in every other capital previously, as you would make the same suggestion in America.

Glad we did our research because the results returned that it was one of the most boring capitals in all of Europe-so we decided to go to a neighboring city called Ghent. Wow — what a stark contrast. Our Uber dropped us off at our hostel in every direction we were dwarfed by amazing buildings, churches, castles, etc. dating back hundreds of years, perfectly preserved.

We spent a few days here touring around the city, taking boat tours, and sitting in the churches to just admire the most beautiful churches and cathedrals in the world (that I had experienced and would love to be proven wrong).

We took a day trip to Bruges, a rival city from back in the day in terms of trade and today in terms of beauty. We had a similar but still enjoyable experience to that of Ghent and recommend both. There continued to be some of the largest and most intricate designed churches I had ever seen. When I was younger and did a trip to Italy and Spain where we also saw a bunch of churches, I wasn’t able to have the patience to appreciate this beauty that is well preserved for hundreds of years, and really happy I had another opportunity to do so. To end the day we got classic Belgian waffles and some blonds to end the night (the beers that is).

Luxembourg

The next morning we took a long train ride out to Luxembourg. We were headed to Milan and figured we were close enough to stop by here to check another box. It was a nice city to walk through, and also crazy expensive. We were quite exhausted and even a bit ill so we didn’t get to do too much, which isn’t saying a lot because there isn’t much to do anyway. I wish we had a little more time because this felt incomplete — there were beautiful castles and hikes, but maybe if I’m ever in the area again I’ll dice it another shot.

Milano

The next morning we took a quick flight back to Italy, but this time to the north. we wanted to continue to hit the parts of Italy we had never been, I.e the most typical of Florence, Venice, and Rome.

If you read my previous blog you’d know why I especially wanted to come to this region — my whole family had just gone here and I wasn’t able to join. We stayed at the Ostello Bello Grande and toured the Duomo of Milan, climbing the steps and enjoying the statue filled rooftop with views of the city. This was by the far the largest cathedral we had been in to date, and it was immense. We spent a few hours here before going for local Italian dinner and eventually a bar crawl — that ended up being a bust so we retreated early.

The next morning was one I was very excited for — a day trip to Bologna. Here we were going to relax and enjoy some of the food in Italy, which we definitely did. The two restaurants we went to were called La Montara and Osteria 15, both delicious. Bologna is a very nice quaint city and well worth exploring.

Milan / Switzerland

We had one last day in Milan and didn’t have anything planned, so we woke up and took a day trip to southern Switzerland. Just 1.5 hours north of Milan are the castles of Bellinoza. These were super picturesque and really a great start to our imminent Swiss venture. After the castles we continued on to a traditional stone village of Switzerland called Foroglio. This was super cool and had a giant waterfall just behind it. The city looked like it was right out of medieval times and definitely worth a visit.

Proper Switzerland — Interlaken

We packed our bags to officially relocate to Switzerland where we would remain for the next 2.5 weeks — by far the longest of any destination. It’s hard to keep track of everything that happened in Switzerland — the days were so long and filled with so much adventure, I’ll just detail a normal day and then list out as much as possible.

• Have a coffee and protein shake
• Take a beautiful train ride to some mountain
• Hike and have lunch at the summit
• Return to Interlaken and do an outdoor adrenaline based activity (outdoor is also the name of the company!)
• Dinner and work
• Repeat!

This country was jam packed and we covered so much of it in such a short time and didn’t even scratch the surface of what all there was to do.

List of mountains and hikes we visited in no order:

• Jungfraujoch
• Oechenesse
• Eiger
• First
• Matterhorn
• Manlichen

Trains + Furniculars + Toboggans:

• Schynige Platte
• Gelmerbahn
• Glacier express

List of activities we did in no order:

• parasailing
• Canyoning
• Hang gliding
• White water rafting
• Via Ferrata mountain + rock climbing
• Canyon swinging
• Bungee jumping

Small city stops

• Murren
• Lauterbrunen
• Zermatt

The ONLY activity we didn’t do offered by this company was sky diving, which is definitely in the plans for the future!

I know these seems like an underwhelming section but by far the coolest part of the trip — everyday we were surrounded by gorgeous views and packed in tons of adrenaline, from dawn to dusk we got so much done and barely wasted any time.

After almost 2 weeks in Interlaken we went to Luzern further east where we set out to see a few more famous mountains. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t great so we were quite limited with options. I spoke to the jostle receptionist and she recommended a full spa on top of mount Rigi with amazing views — so I did one more hike up to it to really deserve the spa and mineral bath and it was well worth it — I don’t remember the last time I felt so relaxed.

For our last day in Switzerland we decided to end in Chur where we could visit the not so well known mountain called Saxer Lucke which was a truly stunning and worthwhile trek. We also went on the Adventure toboggan Pradaschier — the longest coaster of its kind in Switzerland, another highly recommended attraction.

Croatia

I added this to the list because I heard the beaches and nightlife was great here. We ironically chose to fly into Dubrovnik because we heard it was famous. Don’t get me wrong — it was very pretty, but there is quite literally nothing to do, unless you’re into the game of thrones show, because a big part of it was filmed here. We did a tour around the city which was chill, grabbed some food, stopped at Lokrum island for the rock beach where we all fall asleep. We spoke to the locals and discovered a club called Revelin which was located inside a castle and honestly had the best DJs we’d experienced since Tomorrowland.

I should also note we stated in Hostel Anna in the middle of old town of Dubrovnik. This was quite an experience and helped build our social circle — the host is Sasha and his mother Anna, both with super interesting stories, some you just have to experience for yourself. We were greeted with a homemade shot of Rakia before we even paid — so we knew we were in good hands. The rooms are small, but lots of fun people end up there and would recommend.

Pit stop in Bosnia

We were itching to get out of Dubrovnik because we struggled to find things to do, and fortunately there were 2 other travelers in our hostel, who didn’t know each other, coincidentally in the same boat. After joining us for the day activities in Croatia they both told of us of their interests in going to Mostar, Bosnia, so we decided to tag along with no plans.

We arrived at Hostel Miran, who was the name of the host and had very similar vibes to Sasha — another hostel I would recommend. We went to a popular and authentic restaurant called Sadravan before calling it a night from a long day on buses.

The next day we took a series of tours offered through the hostel, by the brothers who owned it. The first half of the day was split between castles, old war ridden towns and ruins, and waterfalls. The latter half that was really special was the “war tour” where we learned about the most recent war in Bosnia — quite a bit of significant history unbeknown to all of us. We said our heartfelt goodbyes to Miran and returned to Croatia, but this time to the north starting in the more well-known city of Split.

Croatia Part 2

So geographically it made more sense anyway to go to Mostar, Bosnia before ending up in the famous port city of Split, Croatia and eventually the island of Hvar. We arrived at white rabbit hostel, dropped off our bags, signed up for the pub crawl as we always do and then went to get a quick bite. Trying to get some protein in and a filling snack I got a kebab, as I have 1000s of times in the past, although this time was different. Apparently, unbeknown to me, there is a big problem with undercooked food and food poisoning in this region, and I found out too late. My next next 2 days I was bedridden and a very unhappy camper, but always gotta stay positive.

Once I was better I rejoined the group and We took a day trip to the island of Brasch. This was very family oriented island, but still a nice beach. Ironically, on our last beach of the day trip, 20 minutes in to lounging we got hit with a full on proper lightning storm. We just enjoyed the experience hiding under our umbrella while everyone ran like maniacs around us.

Given that I didn’t make it to the first pub crawl I was determined to make it the second time — not for the crawl itself, but because the last bar in the agenda was Carpe Diem, a club on an island. Eventually I did — and it was a really cool experience. We stayed till about 4 am, which was still hours from closing time, but it was worth the battle against exhaustion.

The next day we rented a car from split and toured the nature parts of Croatia. We drove out to a hidden gem called Izvor Cetina, or river spring Cetina. This place us also referred to as the eye of earth as it looks like a legit eye from over head. After this we went to Krka National park to see the system of waterfalls which were also really cool. You bike or walk a few kilometers to the entrance before you get to the little village around the waterfalls. We ended the night in a hostel / hotel type of room that a hid a disco ball so that was pretty funny.

Slovenia

Slovenia was added a little last minute — we didn’t know much of anything about the country at all, but knew the surrounding geography was amazing as it shared in the alpine range, so we decided to pay it a visit.

We spent a long long day bussing up from Split, Croatia and arrived to the capital of Ljubljana, to what would be the cleanest city of our entire travel. We walked the streets the next morning experiencing many beautiful trees, the river that had multiple paths through the city, and pretty architecture.

There was a young Ozzie in our room named Tom and we invited him to join us. We went to the Skojcan caves which were a bit further out but well worth it. Traversing over 1.5 hours and a few kilometers we got to see one of the largest cave systems in the world.

Tom had an interesting story with sharing — he just finished 1 year of college, took a year to work and save up, and then embarked on a 3 month euro trip. He met a girl on his travels he fell for, and they would go on to travel quite a bit. She was an artist and they both came on the trip with the goal of returning with a tattoo — and the two 18 year olds thought it awesome to capture their amazing experience together with ink. The even crazier part is that Tom agreed to getting a matching tattoo, albeit inconspicuously on his ankle, before knowing what it would be — I guess that’s young love and trust — I hope things work out for them, but if not, it’s a pretty memorable story!

The next few days we spent touring combinations of hikes and views of the alps, specifically the Triglav pass, and plenty of Slaps, which is Slovenian for waterfall. All of this took place in the north and northwest parts of the country, with the furthest point just 2 hours out of the city. We rented a car which was definitely needed. We also paid a visit to a small port town of Piran where you could see the Italian coast if you squint — a quaint, quiet and romantic town.

The last day we went up to see the small villages in the northern plains in the mountains called the big pasture plateau in Logar valley.

At night I received a text from my father with a contact card — apparently one of his good friends from 40 years earlier lived in Slovenia and was in a Beatles cover band. He invited me to hang out with them backstage and see them perform — growing up a Beatles fan, this was a really cool experience and they sounded amazing!

Also want to note that the capital city was a huge cultural melting pot of phenomenal dining options!

Munich

We took the train to Munich, of course with delays we missed connections, just our luck, but we had been used to this at this point. A few hours on the trains allowed us to get a lot of work done which was needed.

Mitch had a lot of work to do so I did most of my touring on my own — Munich quickly became one of my favorite cities — it was similar to Ljubljana which I really liked, but bigger, more lively, and more full of historical architecture.

I started off by going to the BMW welt and museum which was cool overall — but I had seen enough cars at this point and they didn’t have as many concept cars on display as you would have expected.

I continued touring around all the major tourist attractions, just taking my time, stopping and grabbing pastries randomly as the bakeries are really good in Europe and I figured might as well enjoy my last few weeks before returning to a much needed diet.

There were churches, governmental buildings, palaces, and so much more to see. I even went to the gym one of the mornings and it was high tech as well, just like in Switzerland.

One of my new good friends I met in Switzerland, Kyle had given me a full 2 day itinerary and he was spot on. The final thing I did was head to the English garden where I got to see a bunch of people surfing in the hectic city river that topples over a small ridge creating an awesome for this sport — a relaxing sight to watch while hanging out and having coffee or reading.

Last stop — Berlin

If you asked me at the beginning of my trip, 3 months earlier, if I had the energy to partying in Berlin, the city where techno was invented, I would have said of course. Fast-forward — on the train to Berlin, after 11 weeks or 85 days of non stop traveling, this was going to be a challenge, but nevertheless, not one we’d back down from.

Before the idea of Tomorrowland conceptualizad, Berlin was meant to be somewhere in the middle of our journey, you know where energy was still at all time high. However, we agreed that because we were in Europe together, 2 people who love to club and rave, we might as well go for it because although we could come back to Berlin, it’s more valuable if you go with the right people.

Thankfully we We arrived in Berlin Wednesday night and no clubs were open so at least we got to get a little rest before the imminent series of events ahead.

Thursday we woke up and toured around the city and then around 11 PM took to explore the clubs, starting with warmups that were “easier to get in to,” which I’ll explain.

Berlin is a major tourist city, but it’s club scene doesn’t take to the liking — the thing is, they don’t need or want more money or patrons, they have plenty and are happy with their regulars, which is why getting into Berlin clubs is not so simple, especially if you’re not from there and don’t speak German.

Oh Thursday night fewer clubs are open and are more laid back, so we took advantage of this and went to a few bars and clubs until around 530 am, ending at About Blanke which was a cool top club as well. I toured around the whole day once I finally woke up, at whatever time that was, until Friday night, where the real challenge starts.

If you’re into the club scene you’ve heard of the famous Berghain, pronounced Ber-highne, and if you haven’t you should look it up. They set the tone for exclusivity in the city that would be widely adopted by all the top clubs. Here they prefer mostly black attire, why, I don’t know, but dressing properly is just a small portion of the process. You wait in line for anywhere between 1–3 hours where the real evaluation goes down. The bouncers are trained to look at you and see through you, right into your soul, and determine if they think you belong. One of the bouncers is named Sven, who is actually regarded as the most famous bouncer in the world.

NONE of us were prepared for these club rules and regulations, so Friday just before closing we were running around the city trying to find discount clothing and thrift stores to get an outfit that could possibly get us in to these clubs — most of ended up with women’s shoes as they were the only option we had on such short notice — but to Berlin dress code, this was not really out of the norm at all and the least risqué of some of the things you see people wearing in the club queues.

Low and behold after only 2 attempts for me and 5 for Mitch, neither of us made entry. You can go back every few hours, ironically and wait for bouncer line changes or just the hopes of them forgetting you. The toughest part is you don’t really know why you got denied.

So Friday we started here and after getting denied as expected we went to another club called Sysiphos where we didn’t know but if you say you’re a group of 3 guys, you also get denied, which happened to us because a guy from the hostel joined us.

Another thing to note is that If you’re lucky enough to pass the visual evaluation, you then may experience the interview process where they could ask you anything along the lines of who you’re there to see, why you’re there, why you’re by yourself, how old you are, etc. Lastly — there is a 0 tolerance for photography in the clubs and they put stickers on your phone; if you’re caught you’re immediately ejected and probably blacklisted.

Anyway — I had a friend meet up with me who wanted to go the club called Tresor, who loved techno like Kanye loves Kanye — so I ended up arriving at 1 am or so, getting in the club after 2 am, and leaving at 10 am, ready to pass the heck out.

I barely had time to tour Saturday as I woke up so late, so Saturday night we returned to the war zone, dressed all black ready for the final battle — Here we waited 2 hours this time for Berghain as Saturday and Sunday are even bigger party days than Friday. As you guessed, we didn’t get in — so it’s 130 am and we headed to another club where we’d ride out the night until 5 am.

TL;DR — if you’re going to Berlin to party, do your research on all the clubs of interest as each spot has its own requirements.

Sunday afternoon I walked around to enjoy the nice weather and my final day in Europe on this trip — where we ended at the famous Hofbrau haus for some pork knuckle.

Sunday late night rolled around and the thought of one last club hoorah crossed our minds… but our bags were packed and it was NFL Sunday, so we had enough excuses to find sufficient satisfaction with our experiences. We found a few Americans and local Germans who were mega NFL fans, where together we cheered for the NY giants, perfect for me, and against the infamous packers.

The next morning we said our good byes and came to America — and that is the story of my 3 month euro trip.

Thanks for reading, reach out if you have any travel questions and stay tuned for a future travel blog (: