Q:

A: All great cities—ambitious, but doable. I’ve never been to Amsterdam (just great stories from fellow travelers) but I’ve lived in London and Florence, and visit Barcelona regularly. The first thing to consider is amount of travel time. I generally prefer to travel at a slower pace, moving from a city after a minimum of four days. A traveler tends to cover more sightseeing ground and has more food/drink/music/nightlife opportunities with more time. So try to spend larger chunks of time in each city, if you can. Moving from city to city isn’t too complicated—it just takes lots of planning.

Here’s a (quick) run-down of what I’d do:

Fly from the U.S. to Dublin (if you can, try for March 17 on St. Patrick’s Day). Dublin is one of Europe’s most expensive cities, so try renting an apartment to save money on a hostel while you’re here (try http://www.airbnb.com/). From Dublin, fly Ryan Air (http://www.ryanair.com) to one of London’s three airports: Gatwick Heathrow, or Stansted. While you’re in London, here’s a few of my favorite free things to do. If you can, try to stay at least a week because there’s so much to see. Definitely check out the London Eye (tickets are about 20 GPB) a Broadway show (buy tickets at Leicester Square) and all the free museums.

When you’re ready to move on to Amsterdam, fly from London. I don’t know much about the city because I’ve never been there, but the Travel Channel has covered it pretty extensively. Check it out: http://www.travelchannel.com/topics/amsterdam/index.html

From Amsterdam, fly to Florence. Florence is one of my favorite European cities, and if you’re at all an art buff, food lover, or wine-o, it’s the city for you. Here’s what to see and do when you get there.

Florence (or Rome) should have cheap flights to Barcelona—one of Spain’s coolest cities because it has Parc Guell, Sagrada Familia, and of course, the ocean. Here’s what to see and do there.

If you plan to fly into Dublin and out of Barcelona, you can probably find cheap tickets since they’re both larger Euro-travel hubs to the states. Otherwise, I’d book one-way tickets (quite easy to do on European airlines, since most tickets are two-part go/return anyways). This way, you can determine  the cheapest days to fly and the duration you want to stay in each city. Traveling in summer will be warmer, but way more expensive since it’s high season. Traveling in winter will be cheaper, but some things may not be open and if you’re looking for fun nightlife summer is generally better across the board.

Helpful Links…

Ryan Air http://www.ryanair.com

Easy Jet http://www.easyjet.com

Hostelbookers http://www.hostelbookers.com

Skyscanner.com http://www.skyscanner.com

Myrtle Beach National Golf Course, Kings North, South Carolina

Arnold Palmer, regarded as one of America’s greatest professional golfers, returned to Myrtle Beach National Golf Club in 1996 to participate in a course-redesign that now includes its island green and South Carolina-shaped sand traps of Hole 3; a tempting short cut on the island fairway of Hole 6; and over 40 sand traps guarding the fairway on Hole 18. The course has been awarded the Top 100 Courses For Women, in America’s Top 10, and South Carolina’s 1997 Course Of The Year. Amenities include a bar, restaurant, showers, water hazards, pull carts, a driving range, and a chipping area. Skills a little rusty? Book a lesson with one of the course’s teaching pros to brush-up before you tee-off. More info here.

Rio Salado Golf Course, Arizona

If you’re looking for a quicker game, head to 9-hole Rio Salado Golf Course in Temple, Arizona near Phoenix. It’s a newer public golf course that opened less than 20 years ago, and measures 2,700 yards from the longest tees. The course features two sets of tees for beginner and intermediate skill levels. For just $19, you can book a tee-time and hit the course seven days per week, year round. Not only is it cheap, but also you don’t have to worry about dress code here, so if you’re swinging through Arizona and want to golf a quick game, Rio Salado Golf Course makes a nice, 9-hole pit stop.  More info here.

Pebble Beach Golf Course, California

Just 19 minutes from the nearest major airport on the Monterey Peninsula, this seaside 18-hole course offers a reduced fee at twilight, and is open January-December.  Call at least a day in advance because this $495.00 green-fee course fills their tee-book fast. Located close to Cali’s major cities, Pebble Beach Golf Course offers accommodation so you can stay right next to the course (ideal for early a.m. tee-times). More info here.

Brandon Dunes Golf Resort, Oregon

Brandon Dunes Golf Resort is your best bet if you’re looking for a golfing weekend sans big city. Over three hours away from Eugene, OR (the nearest major city) and Mahlon Sweet Field Airport, Brandon Dunes Golf Resort is literally in the middle of no where, and for good reason. For a green fee of $275.00 (reduced for junior golfers), you can set a tee-time up to 21 days in advance. This Scottish-themed golf course aims to put the game back to its Scottish roots: its fairways sweep Oregon’s rugged coast in four distinct courses, and players walk miles over the course of the game.  More info here.

Hiking and Camping in Soller

Soller is a doable day trip from Palma, but with the extensive, unnamed trail network, you could easily spend a few days hiking up and down the mountains. Trails are typically well marked with wooden signposts and red lettering/arrows. If you don’t want to camp or sleep for cheap in Mallorca, check out one of its Refugis (modest guest houses with cheap accommodation): http://www.conselldemallorca.net/?&id_parent=491&id_section=3198&id_son=3204&id_grandson=4021

About the Train:

For 10 euros one-way, the train takes you through farm land, almond orchards and olive vineyards, and up the backside of the mountains to the city. It runs from Placa Espana in Palma a few times per day and schedules vary according to fiestas and weekends. It leaves from the wrought iron gate to the left of the main train station. You won’t see the same views if you take the 35 minute bus from Palma, so taking the train (at least one way) is worth it. The train stops in the center of Soller, and the Port de Soller itself is an additional 3km walk/hike, well marked by wooden signs. Regular return buses run from Soller to Palma and cost 2.50 euro.

After nearly four weeks in Palma, I no longer need a map, I walk everywhere, and was even able to give directions to a German tourist the other day—a true sign, for me, that I’m rooting down. So far, so good. The weather is completely opposite than the arctic Minnesota and New York I’ve known. It’s October, almost November, and I’m still swimming in the Mediterranean, wearing shorts, and running in a tank top. We figured out the train and bus system, and I finally got my dose of the woods this weekend. We camped (illegally, we discovered) near Soller in the mountains. Stories about all of this to come, and until then, here’s a photo preview of my tropical new home. Visitors welcome.

My interest in moving to Spain started in Athens, Greece, on March 23, 2010. I met Olga outside a metro stop. She noticed my Syracuse University sweatshirt, tossed her 75-liter backpack down, and stuck out her hand. She planned to attend SU for grad school in the fall, she said. Eying her backpack, I asked what she was doing presently. She said she lived and worked in Spain, and traveled on the weekends. She told me about Cultural Ambassadors, a program through Spain’s Ministry of Education, that brings 2,000 American and Canadian college graduates to Spain to teach English. I jotted the name of the program down in my journal, and we went our separate ways. The idea of moving to Europe post-graduation seemed half-baked, but over time, travel looked better and better against the drowning media job market. At least, in theory.

In Minnesota in December, I cut the sides off a Super One paper grocery bag. I spread it out on my kitchen counter top, and scribbled ideas for my future, organized by a color-coded Sharpie system. Yes, the red, green, blue, black, and yellow words scrawled across the brown paper looked childish. But it helped me see the bigger picture: magazines I could work for, grad schools I could apply to, cities I could move to, and in the center, in red capital letters, I wrote SPAIN.

I applied to Cultural Ambassadors in January—letters of recommendation, college transcripts, essays, a letter in Spanish (a language I barely speak), finger prints, an F.B.I. background check, medical authorization forms and so forth. As my ideal placement location, I opted for Mallorca, one of four islands in the Balearics, an archipelago in the Mediterranean Sea. I chose Mallorca not because I did my research (I was too busy with school to take the time), but because a quick Google image search revealed a tropical island. Easy decision.

To my surprise and delight, the program accepted me in March. I received a letter from a school offering me a teaching position there.

Then came the hard part: navigating the bowels of American and Spanish bureaucracy to obtain a visa. I collected the required hodgepodge of documents, some notarized by state, some by the government, some by both. I spent many afternoons running errands, printing off and FedEx-ing paperwork, Google-ing appropriate notaries, booking plane tickets.

Because my permanent address is still in Minnesota, my closest consulate is located on Michigan Ave. in downtown Chicago. It’s required to apply for, and pick up, your visa in person. This demands two separate trips. Two separate plane tickets. On June 10, a week after I moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico for my stint at Outside magazine, I flew to Chicago to submit my application.

To my dismay, I needed a second F.B.I. background check notarized by the F.B.I. and stamped with an Apostille of Hauge, an international convention of 72 countries that now requires this security stamp. On June 11, I submitted the background check request.  Then, the waiting game began. I ran to my Santa Fe mailbox each day. Thrust in my key and jerked it open. Empty. Empty. Empty.

Each night blurred into the next. I stared at my ceiling, wondering if this would all work out. Fiercely hoping it would. Yet, knowing though my future was at stake, the process was 100% out of my control. Talk about frustration.

So, I went deeper. I booked my one-way ticket to Palma, Mallorca. Still no visa. My F.B.I. background check was four weeks overdue. Still no visa. I called the FBI for answers. One F.B.I. customer service rep told me to wait another week—time I didn’t have.

So I hung up. Redialed. This time, Sonya answered.

“Listen Sonya,” I said. “I’m waiting on a background check that’s weeks overdue. I need this piece of paper to get my visa. I have to go to Spain.”

Perhaps the desperate pleading in my voice stirred something in her bureaucratic soul. “Well, we don’t normally do this, but…”

After another afternoon of sending notarized letters with my eyeballs glued to the fax machine progress bar (please go through, please go through), and she expedited yet another background check. The document made it through Washington D.C.’s mail aeration system (anthrax precautions) with FedEx’s “overnight” service, arriving four days later in Santa Fe.

Time was running out. I had three weeks until I was supposed to be on a plane to Spain, and still no visa. So, I booked a triangle-trip of one-way tickets from Albuquerque to D.C. to Chicago and back. If this was going to happen, I had to do it myself.

Confused yet? I was a bawking chicken flying around the country with my head cut off.

I slept on friends couches, worked for Outside from coffee shops, butted heads with stubborn state department representatives, and resisted the urge to reach across the counter to stamp the background check myself. Surely, that’d be cause for jail-time.

I experienced bureaucracy at its finest. It’s neither easy nor cheap to obtain a visa. The application process is far from transparent. Rules change and invisible barriers are thrown up on a whim. And even if you advocate for yourself, you still could end up visa-less, scouring the annals of our government for more information.

But, after nearly $1,000 in plane tickets, three background checks, six days living out of a gym bag, and hours of waiting in line, I got it. I GOT IT.

When the young Spanish man stuck my visa into my passport, I pressed my face against the glass barrier between us; my excited breaths fogged the window. Part of me wanted to trace the letter “V” for victory in the condensation on his window. But instead, I said (or maybe, yelled), “Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU.” I think I scared him a little bit. He seemed glad when I left. But I didn’t care. Eighteen months of tasting Spain in my dreams, an idea that would’ve folded into failure with one missing stamp, came to fruition on Friday. Finally.

I have nine days in Santa Fe to clean my apartment and move out. Somehow, I’ll fit my tent, sleeping bag, sleeping pad, and enough clothes for eight months into my backpack. I drive ten hours to Phoenix, literally leaving my beloved New Mexican desert in the dust. I fly to New York for a weekend of ‘see you soon, then’ and hugging friends goodbye. On September 26, I board for Madrid. On September 27, I land in Mallorca.

I don’t have a place to live yet. Everything I own will be crammed into my backpack. I don’t teach. I don’t speak Spanish. I don’t know what to expect. I don’t have a return plane ticket. At times, I wonder if leaving everything behind is foolish. I don’t have a single answer. But perhaps not knowing—walking face-first, full speed into the pitch black—is the greatest adventure.

People tell me I’m crazy for taking this risk. But I say, if not now, when?

And at least I have a map.

Hotel Booking: They want to fill the rooms anyways, so why not bid online the day of check-in to get a better deal?

Bidding online for hotel rooms was a concept I hadn’t tried, until a few girlfriends and I went to Vegas earlier this month. Our trip was a throw-together fiasco for my birthday and we decided to play things by ear. Of course, we drove down the Vegas strip that Friday, not knowing where we would stay, and anxious to get settled. Our three smartphones nearly over heated we had so many google windows going searching for a room. We were exhausted from the four hour drive from Phoenix and we all badly ached for a shower. Desperate and not finding a hotel room for under $300/night, we went to Priceline.com. On their website, you can bid for hotels based on rating (1-5 star hotels), price range, and location. We wanted to be close to the strip, wanted at least a 3-star hotel (but couldn’t afford a 5-star) and we needed to check-in asap. Eventually, after some finagling, we scored a room for two nights at the Candlewood Suites, right behind the Flamingo. We paid $80 per person for both nights. Not bad.

How it Works: You click your rating (3-star hotel), location (near Las Vegas Blvd.) duration of stay (two nights) and enter your bid i.e. how much you’re willing to pay ($50/night is a good starting bid). Then Priceline finds a hotel who accepts your bid, you pay, and get the confirmation reservation.

The only downsides? Priceline’s app for Blackberry is slow and tough to navigate. And when you book, you can’t see the name of the hotel until after your credit card goes through.

A:

Finding the right backpack is crucial. When you carry a lot of weight inside, it should sit correctly on your hips and the chest strap should fit snugly. Some packs allow you to adjust the straps from the inside, fitting it to your shoulders. Therefore, there’s really no way to be sure if a pack is right until you put weight inside and try it on. Camping and adventure outfitters like REI are a great place to start looking because they carry many brands. Typically the larger the pack, the more expensive it gets. For a small frame, I’d recommend no more than 75 liters since you can pack lightly and probably shouldn’t be carrying much more than that anyways. Packs are expensive, but once you buy one that works for you, it’ll last you years, and when it comes to hauling your things around, spend for quality gear that fits and works. Don’t skimp on your backpack, or you’ll regret it later.

Marmot Freya 35

Marmot makes the Freya 35 is 3.4 pounds, 35 liters and $99. It’s simple and logically designed, with a removable lid and framesheet, it can also transform into a lighter, less bulky daypack.

Eagle Creek Salta Vita

Eagle Creek makes the Salta Vita, a more expensive (but worth it) 65 liter, 5 pound pack for $225. The Salta Vita has all the features of a good multi-day pack, like a cushy canted waist belt and dedicated hydration pocket. It’s built for travel, with a suitcase-style U-shaped zipper and a backpack-strap stow-away panel that zips over the suspension system when you’re flying.

REI Cresttrail 65

REI‘s Cresttrail 65, a 4.9 pound, 65 liter, $229, provides a pillowy waist belt that moves with your hips, and sits snugly on smaller frames. An eggcrate back panel helps circulate air. Side zips offer easy access, and the four pockets on the front and lid keep stuff organized.

Osprey Verve 13

Osprey makes the Verve 13, a 13 liter, 1.6 pound, $94 hydration pack that doubles as a day pack, so if you’re not doing a lot of backpacking and would rather carry a suitcase or duffel, this pack is a great addition to your gear. It has a stiff spine and compresses evenly while draining. Plus it has a fabric-lined sunglasses pocket and the magnetic bite-valve attachment on the chest strap, complete the package.