Backpack Europe: Travel Friends & Acquaintances

(Oct'09)

Post Travel Insight

One of the nicest thing traveling backpack Europe, was meeting and having good times with new friends in different places. Sometimes we get to exchange emails and sometimes we don’t. Sometimes we parted unexpectedly before exchanging emails and sometimes we may have exchanged a wrong email spelling or address.

Nonetheless, some we keep in touch , some we hope to keep in touch and some we hope to get in touch again sometime, somewhere in the future.

Backpacking In Paris my dorm mates were a friendly free-spirited Spanish girl and 2 nice Brazilian girls. Thanks to the Spanish girl, I found my way around Paris more conveniently. We both went to watch the Moulin Rouge Show and had a great time.

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Cycling in Costa Brava, Spain, I was privileged to cycle with a team of 9 friendly, fun and warmth British. 

There were also “cycling heroes” (hehe) in the team who taught me how to play with bike-gears and gave me some pushes as well as lift when I ran out of energy after cycling several hours especially on the first cycling trip.

Actually I felt rather embarrassed about my lack of stamina after not cycling for more than a decade! Also I got myself many colorful bruises knocking against the pedal and a scar too! We were covering around 40km per day each cycling trip. We were cycling on rock, mud, sand, uphill, against the wind, in the rain, in flood water, etc. etc.

The cycling lead-guide was a nice humorous soul, telling us all kind of funny stuff. Thumbs up for the 2 assistant-guides too for being very understanding and supportive throughout the cycling trips.

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Backpacking in Rome, upon arrival at the hostel that I have booked online, I found out that the females dorms were full and has left only one night availability. Tired of moving hostel, after the first night, I ended up sharing mixed-dorm with an American-Chinese girl, a Canadian man and an Argentina man.

On the first night , I shared dorm with 2 Brazilian girls, one of them was a friendly open minded girl who walked around naked in the room. (Something Asians are not so used to! I’m speaking for myself only :). Anyway not much chance to get to know any of my Rome dorm mates since we were on separate itineraries.

I signed up for walking tour in Rome and met a nice Aussie couple and 2 American girls. 

We ended up walking as a small group almost every famous spots in Rome for 2 days!

In the train, on my way backpacking to Venice, I chanced to meet a few warm and friendly passengers. Two I will not forget. One is this warm hearted and trendy looking senior Italian lady who was traveling on her own. I thought she was around the age of 60 but in the course of our conversation, found out she was actually 80+! 

The other is the photographer of this picture. He was a nice rugged-looking Italian man who taught me quite a bit of casual Italian words in the train. (Too bad, didn't get to snap a photo of him.)

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Backpacking In Lucerne, I chanced to meet many Asians. My dorm mates were 2 adventurous girls from Korea and a Chinese girl from Geneva.

Going up Mount Titlis to try out the exciting Ice-Flyer and Snow-ride. I met a beautiful looking Syrian couple, a pleasant Australian couple and a Greek solo traveler who loves having his photos taken, much more than me! Haha.Needless to say, we have great fun posting and snapping each other photos on top of Mount Titlis. Unfortunately, the ice flyer and the snow park was closed for repair.

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Traveling to Salzburg, I joined my 2 Malaysian friends who went there 2 days earlier. On the whole, I enjoyed Salzburg a lot, partially due to the guide, partially due to the mesmerizing sceneries and mainly due to the fun companionship from my 2 friends.

In Salzburg, I chanced to meet up with four of my long lost 
siblings traveling with their spouses!. Hehe just kidding… because so happened all 5 of us shared the same surname as me and all from Malaysia! What a small world!


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I met this very friendly lady in my flight traveling to London. Chit chatting with her in between naps seemed to have shortened the flight journey.

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A german girl from Munich whom I met on the Tetravision bus from Stansted to London. Thanks to her I managed to find my way from Liverpool street to my hotel in Warren Street on my first day in London.


Footnote on Backpack Europe Oct'09:
If you happened to spot yourself in some of the above photos, leave me a comment to let me know if you like me to increase the size and resolution of your picture here in this blog...  ;) hehe