Experience Europe from the Inside: Book Gives Adventurous First Hand Account

Trip: 28 Cities and 15 Countries in 31 Days - Alone

A couple of weeks ago I got a really strange postcard in the mail. Sent from Deutschland, the postcard read "Dear Peter, just a quick note to let you know that there's a copy of this book on its way to you for review - As we speak! I hope you enjoy it." I turned the postcard over to see if I could figure out who this person was, and what book they were sending me. Did I request this book to review? Who was this person named Mick MacO? And for that matter, had someone really found me halfway around the world?

Well, I thought nothing of it and put the card on my desk. A week or so latter, the book showed up in my mail box and I glanced through it. Not thinking too much, I just put it on my pile of "To Read Books" by the bed and forgot about it. After reading Days of Elijah: A True Story, I was going through my pile looking for something new - and different - to read and I grabbed Trip: 28 Cities and 15 Countries in 31 Days - Alone. Over the course of the next two nights, I was taken on a whirlwind journey across Old World Europe.

One of the most popular things for college kids to do is buy a Eurail pass and spend the summer traveling around Europe - visiting cities, staying in hostels, going to the museums, meeting like-minded travelers, and just living life a little adventurously. It is perhaps one of the better college age experiences; a cultural adventure unmatched in many regards. But how do you relate to someone that is planning such a trip what they might encounter, how they might proceed, and what sort of adventure they might be into? Well, Tripis just the answer.

Mick MacO, a shortened version of the author's Gaelic name, provides the reader with perhaps one of the most direct, personable, and realistic written accounts of this rite-de-passage that I have had the privileged of reading. Written in a first-person Irish narrative, Tripcovers the author's journey through the great European cities: Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Berlin, Warsaw, Krakow, Prague, Vienna, Florence, Venice, Brussels, Paris, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and more. But what is even better then your standard travel narrative is that Mick doesn't filter out all of the humanistic components of the trip.

Sleeping on trains (or trying to), meeting interesting characters at the hostels, partaking in the local events, smoking some fine European herb, experiencing the grand Medieval architecture, and the like are all vividly portrayed. Further, because Mick is Irish, you don't get the standard staid description of time, place, event that is so characteristic of many of today's travel stories.

I'm particularly pleased that I read this book now. Why? Well, my younger sister is graduating from college next week - and as you can guess, she has bought a Eurail pass and saved up a couple thousand dollars. She is flying into Frankfurt and from there she - and her college friend - are going to hit the rails and see Europe over the summer. Now I can give her this book to read before her trip so that she can see what may happen. The American mind is very different then the European mind, and this book provides a first-hand account of that difference. I'm guessing that after reading this book she will want to visit certain cities - ones that are currently not on her itinerary.

Trip: 28 Cities and 15 Countries in 31 Days - Aloneis a narrative account of a young Irish man on a journey of discovery across Europe. Because I've been to a few places mentioned in the book I was able to picture myself there. I could relate - I've done similar journeys across the American West. But what makes me really value this book is that it gives the intrepid young adventurer an intimate look at how one might experience Europe free of all the tourist trappings. This is how one should see, and experience, the Old World if they only have a month. Just like for Mick MacO, if they do so they will be reflecting on it for years to come.

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