This post is also available in: Italiano (Italian)

By mistakes in travel I mean mistakes in planning, in choosing accommodations, but mostly in ignorance in choosing destinations, especially one.

First stop, Annecy

I remember as now the departure of the trip to Annecy and Geneva in the third grade. A classmate had a huge boombox; we listened to cassette tapes.

The first one we listened to so much on that trip began with Walk of the Life by Dire Straits

This song since then I have always associated it with the departure of a journey.

I wanted to go back to Annecy at all costs despite not being on the road at all, just to walk where years earlier I had taken a few steps with someone who had teased me like never before, but with whom I fell madly in love.

Throughout the trip I had in my mind another one, whom I had met in college, but still one with whom there was never anything. When I arrived at the North Sea, at the farthest point I had ever been, I wrote her a poetic and studied postcard to which I never got a reply.

My mistakes on the road as a super clueless person

Everything was new to me, and of course I made many mistakes on the trip and learned a lot. In particular, the biggest lesson as a traveler was undoubtedly that at least the way I am, I have to inform myself and plan. Although then I am always well predisposed toward the new things, the unexpected and the changes of plans that happen punctually.

For not having organized myself (in the times without the Internet it was more difficult anyway) I paid the price of not having booked accommodations or at any rate of not having assessed distances and connections well. In Calais I wandered a couple of hours to find a hostel, while in London I had chosen a cheap one, but a long way from the center and also from the first subway stop.

But among the mistakes on the road, the most glaring one was undoubtedly in route planning for which I relied on two road maps (not even railroads); I did not even buy a guidebook.

I would have lost the war as the famous one with the moustache

As mentioned, one of the goals I had set for myself was to visit the sites of the Normandy landings. I arrived in Calais where I was surprised to find no museums or monuments. I entered a military cemetery where the headstones were almost all from World War I; yet, I knew that thousands had died, could it be that they had all been transferred to their home countries?

With my great ignorance of the time, I made the same mistake as the most famous of the Nazis. These apparently were also deceived by the activities of the famous spy called Garbo.

I did not have to deal with any Garbos; naively, looking at the map, I had estimated that the landing should take place at the point where England and France were closest and not hundreds of miles further west. After studying some history, I returned to the Normandy that most interested me in 2010. To be fair, of history then I studied quite a bit, and with World War II as a topic I could now even participate in a TV quiz show!

The wrong piece of Normandy if nothing else was near the Channel Tunnel, one of the experiences I absolutely wanted to have. It was really strange the realization that we were underground and also under the sea, I could not share it with anyone since my Asian neighbor stared straight ahead the whole time without ever moving his head, he seemed petrified.

Still speaking of mistakes on the road, I still feel 30 pairs of underwear on my back.

I remember like it was now when I went to buy my backpack that I still have and sometimes use, but only for road trips. It is the current icon of my blog. Now, for public transportation trips, I prefer to have a lighter one and wash my clothes. I had filled it up with about 30 T-shirts and underwear, then lots of pants and a few sweatshirts, because I rightly intended to change every day and hadn’t even considered washing anything. It was so heavy.

Home trip Making the Interrail: France, UK, Ireland

Previous stop Sleeping in hostels, particularly in the 1990s

Next stage

Trips taken, travel stories divided by continent

Countries visited in my travel stories

Anecdotes, divided by type in travel narratives

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Fabio Viroli

Ho sempre avuto tante passioni, ma da sempre più o meno latenti, le principali sono viaggiare e scrivere. Tra le altre cose ho una laurea in psicologia; ho fatto per più di 30 anni l’allenatore di basket; leggo tanti libri; sono stato molto appassionato di sport e di musica rock; e faccio improvvisazione teatrale

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