Marian, I'm glad you provided the epilogue because I wondered if you kept in touch with any of those people. And I must say, you seemed like one wild woman. Oh, and I liked the National Portrait Gallery.
I couldn't open the link to your report just now - probably too many people trying to do the same. I'll try again soon. I remember when you first mentioned you might post it. It got me thinking that I no longer have any idea where - if anywhere - I might have any accounts of my first trip to Europe, which was about the same time.
I have some vivid memories, such as waking up in the middle of the night on the train from Paris to Rome and seeing my first Alps in the bright moonlight. Nothing written though.
How lovely Marian! Thank you for the retro trip report! I went to live in Scotland,by myself; when I was 17; (to go to college); and your stories reminded me of traveling around the UK on my own. Hitchhiking in the Highlands was popular !!
What an interesting read. It brought back memories of my youth, sort of in reverse. I grew up in London, but spent a lot of time on 'the Continent' with friends, mostly in Spain.
At 22 I came to Canada on my own, the first stop in a plan to work my way around the world - I had no fear in those days!
I would be horrified if either of my daughters had similar plans today!
Marian how did you remember these details - did you keep a diary?
Sheena
Posts: 2175 | Location: West Vancouver, B.C. Canada | Registered: 28 February 2004
Marian-- Reading your trip report was deja vu. I, too, did a solo European trip in 1964 (right after college graduation and before entering grad school at Cornell), and went to some of the same places. I, too, was a New Yorker, and carried the Frommer book around like a bible.
I arrived slightly later than you did, mid-late June, and went over by a student charter boat (a miserable 10-day trip), but like you started in London. From London, I went by train to Scotland (Edinburgh, Glasgow, and a spur of the moment trip out to the island of Oban). I'd also done a trip to Stratford and to Oxford, with some women I'd met at my hotel who'd rented a car. Then I was off to Paris for a few days. I think the highlights of Paris for me were just walking around, visiting the Louvre, and getting in to see Marcel Marceau on a last-minute student ticket deal.
From Paris, I took the train (I think it was actually the Orient Express) to Budapest, where my mother and her family had emigrated from in 1923. I was there almost a week, and got the chance to see all of the few relatives who'd manage to survive the war (my mother's family is Jewish). I only knew a few words of Hungarian, and only one second cousin spoke English, but we managed. (Oddly enough, even though I know no Hungarian, I heard it so much growing up that I'm told I have very good pronunciation--mind you, if I read something out loud I have no idea what it means.)
After Budapest, I took an overnight train, changing in Zurich, to Italy, where I stayed with a friend and her host family in Genoa and at their summer home in the mountains nearby. She was participating in the program called "Experiment in International Living," which placed American students in people's homes over the summer. The hosts kindly took in another "daughter" for a few days. I took the train back up to Paris, and flew home from there.
Your report really brought back the flavor of those times. Like you, I looked for lodging at most places when I arrived. I stayed at a nasty hostel in Paris (near Bl. St. Michel) but quickly found a hotel on Bl St. Michel after a night at the hostel. I well remember the pesty men in Paris, and the fact that any conversation (including a nasty brush off) was just seen as an invitation. I did have people to look up and meet in a few of the places I went, and, like you, met some others in the course of my travels. The only place I really disliked being alone was Paris, and that was largely because of the "pests" and the fact that the French back then really were snotty about foreigners' attempts to speak French. I'd only had 2 years of college French, and was very intimidated.
We were in France last May, the first time I've been back there since 1964, and found that the language attitudes were much improved. People definitely tried to understand me, though many did correct my errors. And, of course many more people now speak English.
Thanks so much for bringing back the feel of the "old days." It's hard to believe we did all that traveling without set plans and reservations, at the height of the busy tourist season. With the ease of planning over the internet, I'd never think of traveling like that again in Europe(I'm way more risk-averse in my older years, and planning is half the fun now!)
Thanks again.
Posts: 172 | Location: Bangor, Maine | Registered: 02 March 2006
Thanks to all of you for your kind comments. And thanks to Shannon, Kim et al (which means, especially, Maureen ) for pushing me to do this.
And yes, Sheena, I kept a very detailed diary. I wrote in it practically every day, especially early on in the trip. As to brave, yes, I guess so, but no one ever pointed that out at the time. And my parents had essentially no contact with me, except for a few postcards, for close to two months. I'd be a wreck now if I didn't hear from my daughter at least every few days, and she's 34!
Pemquid: Maybe we passed each other on the Boul' Mich! And as for "Experiment in International Living", of course. Very big thing back then. Funny that you were heading for Cornell; I did my first two years' undergrad there. Then I returned to NYC to finish up at Barnard.
And I remember hitchhiking with 2 very nice American soldiers in Germany when my sister and I ran out of money for the bus!!! Can you imagine your daughters doing that now?! Ahh the good ole' days, when I only had enough money to buy a baguette, some cheese and a cheap bottle of wine for dinner!!!
Marian, how lovely! Thanks for sharing this with us. I'm amazed that your diary was so detailed. I've browsed through your report, I now have the kettle on to boil and after my vanilla rooibos tea is made, I'm sitting down to read your delightful report properly!
"Life is either a daring adventure or nothing." ~ Helen Keller Brenda
I don't think it's just a question of being more cautious as we age, though. It definitely was a more innocent time back then, and far fewer people from the U.S. were traveling to Europe.
I know we all did a lot of things then that we'd never recommend younger folks do today. But what a sense of adventure! And all the people I knew who hitchhiked all over Europe (we didn't) - and elsewhere, including Nepal (my cousin)!
Incidentally, I had a very good friend who was working at the "Experiment in International Living" in NY about that time.
I know we all did a lot of things then that we'd never recommend younger folks do today. But what a sense of adventure!
I think perhaps the point is that, for various reasons, we were much less dependent on our parents. At 23, I had been living on my own, financially independent, for at least a couple of years. It never occurred to me, or any of my friends, that we needed to discuss plans with our parents. So we were responsible, if young, adults who lived our lives as we saw fit. I had grown up in New York, learned to take care of myself, knew how to use public transportation, was aware of my surroundings, etc. And I lived in the Village on a decent street in a tiny crummy apartment that I could afford by splitting the rent with a good friend.
So, Europe beckoned! And I, the product of a liberal-arts education, and a love of art that had begun with museum trips with my father when I was a very young child, wanted to go to the source. Who was to say no? (Interestingly, in my memory we went to the various museums often; it's of course possible that we only went a couple of times. )
And Annie is right that transatlantic tourism was not yet the industry that it is now and has been for at least 30 years. Middle class Americans did not yet travel to Europe, and so accommodations were either the old luxury hotels or the old crummy sort of places that I stayed in. The price of gold was fixed, currency did not fluctuate, the dollar ruled, and so travelling was cheap.
Another good reason for our college students to keep writing journals nowadays...I keep telling mine, "Write down your first impressions...in a few months it will all seem normal." I still have my two piece luggage (light blue)bought for college from Sears that I came to Italy with in 1965.
Sandy, Maureen, Mary Jane, thanks! And Maureen, it's you who helped me find my diary, remember!
Yes, good notes are important. As I reread my trip journal, i was surprised to see how many detailed first impressions I had in there; I could remember them as I was reading. And some of the same prejudices --- I've never really been a great fan of the Michelangelo David, and am still moved by the Bernini "Apollo & Daphne" and love the Canova Pauline Bonaparte. I think when I keep trip journals now they are not nearly so detailed. Keep the students working, Mary Jane!
Hmm --- my suitcase may have been a particularly unattractive shade of blue too. More likely from Klein's (anyone remember S. Klein Department Store on Union Square?) than Sears.
(anyone remember S. Klein Department Store on Union Square?)
Of, course! Although we (my mother and I at least) were more likely to go to the one in Hackensack, as we were living in Teaneck. (That was actually before all those mega-malls opened further down Rtes. 4 & 17 in Paramus.) More evidence of my advanced years!
Marian, that was the most entertaining trip report I have ever read. I have to first ask, what is a "mod"? I can't imagine staying in a place with no shower facilities at all and how brave you were to sneak out on Gianni and take a taxi with no money. Thank goodness for the marines! I can't ever imagine being that brave.
After doing the math, I realized that I moved to Hawaii on my own at about the same age that you were when you experienced your amazing European adventure. It took me 16 more years to be brave enough to travel to Europe on my own.
Thank you so much for taking the time to submit this trip report. I think you should publish it. It was definitely a great read!!
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