Hayes: Great trips should be with friends

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

According to Herman Melville, the true places can’t be found on any map. In spite of this, I’d still rather carry the maps. I’m cautious like that.

If all is going well, I’m in Amsterdam at this very moment, strolling down the Rembrandtplein or visiting the Van Gogh Museum. I’m towards the beginning of a four-week trek across Europe, which is how I’m spending my spring break.

My best friend and I have been planning this for nearly as long as we both planned to study abroad. We evolved from looking up hostels and train fares in coffeeshops to actually booking hostels and buying train tickets. Our parents didn’t really believe what we were actually planning until we finally did it.

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I picture us exploring the places that aren’t on the map.

There’s something amazing about putting together and planning a journey that makes me giddy. The anticipation is almost as amazing as the actual experience. While my friend researched every hostel in Europe, practically, I painstakingly plotted our course and labeled maps. The result is something that’s uniquely ours, something that no one else can ever really share.

Our trip is elaborate and far-flung. It begins in Paris, winds through Germany and Italy and ends in Lisbon. It involves numerous churches, art that will probably make me cry when I see it and landmarks that helped shape western civilization. Yet at the same time, it’s still just us. Two college girls who a long time ago thought it’d be fun to go backpacking.

When I imagine our trip, it becomes hard to see all the landmarks. I mostly just picture us wandering foreign streets. I picture the two of us fumbling with our French and German, making a meal of cheap wine, bread and sausage, running to make the trains and dancing in nightclubs. In other words, I picture us exploring the places that aren’t on the map.

I’m glad that we have the combination of both the known and the unknown on this trip. Obviously the Eiffel Tower, Brandenburg Gate and the Forum will be where we expect them to be. However, it’s the expeditions down the back roads that I imagine will define the tour. It’s these jaunts that will set our experience apart from all the others.

I appreciate the fact that most people will never have an opportunity like this. However, all the Monet paintings and palaces in Europe would be meaningless without a true friend to share them with. A night at home with a friend can be greater than touring the Vatican alone. I suppose I’m just lucky that I get to have both, although I’d choose the former in a heartbeat.

Hayes is a Lenexa sophomore in journalism and political science. She is studying abroad this year in Reading, UK.

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