Last week, I wrote an article called “Five Destinations to Visit for Under $30 USD.” One of the places I listed was Greece, which brought a lot of pleasantly surprised comments from readers. Most people never think of Greece as a cheap destination, lumping it in with the other Eurozone countries as overpriced. However, I’ve been to Greece twice and think it is a highly underrated budget destination, especially for Europe. One commenter didn’t agree. He wrote: “Greece is definitely [...]

One of my favorite cities in the world is Amsterdam, and it has nothing to do with the colorful red lights that are so characteristic of the city. What I love about Amsterdam is that it reminds me of home with its brick buildings, open skyline, history (the Pilgrims came from Leiden before they landed on Plymouth rock!), and similar attitude towards life. Over the years, I’ve visited Amsterdam on many different times and I’ve spent countless hours walking the [...]

Budapest. The beautiful city on the Danube. It’s a city I’ve never heard anything bad said about. “If you love Prague, you’ll love Budapest,” people would tell me. And they were right – I did like Budapest, though not nearly as much as I like Prague but that’s another story. This story is about Hungarian folk dancing. Before I went to Budapest, I called a friend of mine. “Do you still have a friend in the Tourism Budapest office? Do [...]

When I was growing up, I wanted to be an archeologist. I loved history and the thought of uncovering temples and tombs in jungles excited me. I used to read books on Greek and Roman history and have discussions with my history teacher, even as young as 13. In short, I was huge a geek from the get go. Being such a huge history geek, visiting Pompeii, the city destroyed by Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D, as always been high [...]

During 4 years of European travel, I’ve stayed at more hostels than I can think of. Ones I won’t ever remember, ones I wish I wouldn’t remember, and ones I wish I could stay at forever. I love hosteling. I would never want to stay at a hotel as I find hostels great value and great places to meet people. Here are my favorite places to rest my head when I go to Europe: Kabul (Barcelona, Spain) Kabul is tied [...]

Europe covers a huge area of the world where prices can fluctuate widely. For 20 euros, you can get a private room in Greece. For 20 euros in Paris, you may get 16 person dorm room. You can eat for a few Euros in Spain or Greece but a sit down meal in Italy will cost around 15 Euros. So thinking about how to budget for your European trip can be quite difficult. But let me share my experience and [...]

I first came to Italy in 2006. It was one of the first stops on my just began round the world adventure. Italy was everything I thought it would be and more. If there was a country that lived up to the hype, it was Italy. Backpacking around Italy, I spent most of my time in the north. Whenever I Kept trying to get further south, I always found an excuse to stay somewhere longer and I never made it [...]

Most traveling around Greece tend to focus on the Greek Islands and for good reason- they are beautiful, cheap, relaxing, exciting, and did I mention beautiful? It has always been a dream of mine to spend a summer slowly moving from island to island, getting to know the character of each while also working on a great tan! This summer I had planned on doing just that but like all the best laid plans, it didn’t work out and I [...]

A few weeks from now, I will turn one year closer to 30. It’s a reality that isn’t sitting well with me. At the beginning of the year, I decided I would spend the summer in Europe, with most of my time spent on the island of Ios in Greece. During the summer months, the island becomes a haven for young backpackers seeking to soak up the sun, water, and the suds. I knew there wouldn’t be another chance to do [...]

I’ve never really eaten much Greek food. All I ever knew about it was that it has strange names, gyros are really good, and I like Greek salad. I’m currently in Greece visiting the Greek islands and on this trip I was determined to dig into the local food. So far all my meals have involved traditional Greek food with every meal being a revolving door of new dishes. My thoughts? Greek food is delicious. There’s a lot of variety, [...]