Recap

Let's go over a couple of things I've learned from this trip. We can start with some regrets that I have. I regret not bringing my Bluetooth speaker. I didn't bring it because I wouldn't have been able to use it at any of the hostels. But I definitely missed having it around when I was hanging out in my hotel room, chillin. It isn't that heavy and wouldn't have taken up much room at all.

I don't necessarily regret this, but this is something I would do differently. I really wanted to find a direct flight from San Diego to Europe. I wanted to see an airport that I haven't been to before. Going to a new airport in Europe that I haven't been to sounded much more appealing than going to an east coast American airport. Flying to Frankfurt then Milan sounded much more appealing than say Atlanta then Milan. But that 11 hour flight into a 1 hour flight to Milan could have been broken up into shorter flights. I've done the flagrantly long flight to Seoul/Incheon before so I figured it wouldn't be that big of a deal for me. I'm glad that I did it the way I did, but now I've learned that I'd very much prefer to break those flights up into shorter increments. Next time I'll fly to Milan from Atlanta or Miami or something.

I've recently gotten into credit cards. I want to become more financially literate and learning more about credit cards has been my first step. I'm hoping that with my next trip, I figure out how to transfer all of the credit card points that I've accumulated to transfer partners and use those points towards flights or hotels. It looks like flights to Europe from San Diego using credit card points isn't the easiest thing because the few airlines that have those flights have huge fuel surcharges that pretty much negate any benefit you get from using credit card points. Hopefully I can find an airline that will allow me to fly from Atlanta or Miami to Milan using credit card points in a way that is beneficial. Otherwise I could just use my credit card points for hotels.

Each hotel that I stayed at had a bidet. It made me wonder if I would ever use one. I feel like I should be comfortable enough with my sexuality that shooting water up my butthole to clean it shouldn't be a big deal, but it really is. Lol.

Italians smoke so many cigarettes. And just litter them on the ground. I didn't notice this in Germany or in Prague. It's also crazy seeing the cigarette packs that have the crazy pictures on them. They have pictures of people dying of cancer with captions describing how bad cigarettes are. It's kind of jarring.

The guy who checked me out of my Milan hotel was Filipino and recognized my Filipino last name. One thing I've noticed this trip is that us Filipinos are really out here! I've seen many more Filipinos than I anticipated. Random Aunties who are traveling and seeing the world. Random hotel workers. Cooks. I knew Filipinos are prevalent in the hotel business but I never knew we made our way to Europe like that. Let's go Filipinos!

Traveling solo is rewarding in a way that is kind of hard to describe. It's especially difficult to describe the appeal to someone who isn't comfortable being alone. But being alone afforded me the ability to truly dictate every aspect about this trip. If I wanted to go somewhere, I just went. When I wanted. I didn't have to argue over whether it was a good idea or not. I didn't have to work with someone else's wishlist or itinerary. I didn't have to wait for someone else to get ready. I had free reign over doing literally whatever the fuck I wanted, when I wanted. It was AMAZING.

Being alone, I got to pick and choose what I was interested in seeing. I've learned that I don't really care about museums. If it aint the Louvre, then I don't really care, lol. If that makes me uncultured, so be it. I was in a bunch of cities that had great museums, but I didn't care to go to a single one. I stopped by a few but immediately remembered why I don't really fuck with them.

This trip also reaffirmed that I love wonderful views. One of my favorite things to do is to find a dope view and spend an extended period of time hanging out there. I could listen to mood music while admiring the view and feel of the place. I could just listen and people watch. Futurebae better be into hanging out at dope view spots and people watching, cuz it's definitely one of my favorite things to do.

Layovers aren't necessarily a bad thing. I wish my layovers were actually longer than they were, which is funny considering how strongly I felt previously. I always thought that the shorter the layover the better, but it's really not the case. I've never really cared about lounge access (and still don't value them thatttt much), but I'm more open to the appeal now.

I've got a weird case of the travel bug. But I also wouldn't mind not traveling for a while. The only places left on my bucket list as of right now are going back to places that I've been to but didn't spend enough time at. This means going back to Barcelona and Prague. I also want to go to Zermatt, Switzerland. I was hoping to go on this trip. It's a ski resort that has the Matterhorn. But prices were ridiculously high. Hopefully my next trip to Milan will include going back to Barcelona, Prague, and seeing Zermatt for the first time.