So You Want to Go to Europe....

Here I am, a girl who has been to Europe all of one time, and I want to give you advice. Obviously, you're skeptical. That's okay, I would be too. I have very little expertise to speak of. However, my credentials include three weeks in Europe, three countries, six cities, numerous museums, churches, and tourist attracts, and (this is the big one) spending less than two hours of the entire trip in lines. Altogether. In the entire three weeks. You will wait longer than that in line at the Louvre if you go at the wrong time. 
Our trip was FANTASTIC, and absolutely the best time of my life. We didn't get pickpocketed or sick, we only got the slightest bit of jet lag, and we got delightfully lost (which is a must, if you wish to truly experience Europe). It also did not rain during our entire three-week escapade. Granted, that was all luck. If you are visiting England for more than a few hours, you are usually guaranteed to get some rain. 
I'm sure I will post about our trip multiple times, but for this first post, I'm going to let you know what I think helped shape our trip into the Excellent Adventure it was. 

1) We bought a good travel book, but we didn't spend the trip with our nose in it. 
If you spend the entire day following your book, you are only experiencing what other tourists experience, because they probably have the same (or a very similar) guide. If you get off the beaten path, it will very likely enrich your trip. Not to mention that it's easier to soak up the culture if you're not surrounded by tourists in fanny packs and socks/sandals. 

2)  Take pictures, but don't view your entire trip through a camera lens.
If you go to the Louvre, you will see breathtaking pieces of art, but you will also see tourists who insist on racing through the museum, photographing EVERY. SINGLE. THING. You can try to do that, but the Louvre is ginormous. If you manage to get a picture of everything, you deserve a trophy. Of course, in my opinion, that trophy should say, "What a waste of time," but whatever floats your boat, I guess. It's perfectly appropriate to take a picture of a piece of art or a landmark that particularly holds your interest. See? 

I LOVE this picture. I looked at it for about 10 minutes because it was just so interesting. (That, and the comments were in French, so it took me about that long to deduce what was going on: "Is the man getting stolen away by the guy in the cape? What is the caped crusader carrying? Are the younger guy's wife and children trying to protect him from the flying demon man? WHAT IS HAPPENING? Oh, wait, it's called Le Déluge. That sounds like it means "The Flood." OH! There's a flood! I see it now.")
The thing is, you can take pictures all you want, but I can guarantee you that pictures will not do these sights justice. Enjoy them while you can.

3) Do as many tourist attractions as you would like, but don't spend all your time on them.
This kind of goes along with #1. Decide what's important to you, and plan a time to do it, but then spend the rest of your time walking around. Yes, just walking around. Your feet will get tired, and if you were not wise in choosing your footwear, you will get a blister the size of a hubcap and you will whine and the hubs will say, "I told you that you should have brought better shoes," and you will say, "THE LOCALS DON'T WEAR TENNIS SHOES." Ah, but the locals also don't walk approximately 28572324 miles per day. Ahem. I appear to have wandered off topic. Anyways, seriously, walk around and go into the little shops or a pub (especially in London), or get some gelato (especially in Italy) and just soak it all in. 

4) Learn some of the language. 
Really, why are you so pompous and pretentious that you would expect the locals to speak YOUR language? Especially since we're from 'Merica, where we expect everyone who comes into this country to speak "Merican" (which, by the way, isn't even a language). I read horror stories from tourists who complained how rude the locals were, but while we were there, almost everyone was perfectly polite and very helpful. Any time the hubs and I ate at a restaurant, we greeted the waiter/waitress and tried to order in their language. Most of the time, they could tell that we spoke English, and they immediately switched over. Yes, you will probably cringe at your terrible accent, and yes, you will probably mispronounce many many things (my rule of thumb is that you only pronounce about half of the letters in just about any French word). But you will leave feeling like you conquered something, and that feels pretty good. 

There are so many more things I could go on about, but considering my post history, I probably should save them so I have something to write about from time to time. I guess the take-home point is don't be a typical tourist. Don't wear a fanny pack, don't yell when you're talking (seriously, I could always hear the American accents over everything else. Why do we talk so loud?), and don't buy food from places that have their English menus displayed outside (spoiler alert: their food is not very good, and their prices are very high). Try to live like a local, and it will be the trip of a lifetime.