One of the things I envy about people who live in Europe is the ease with which they can travel to their neighbouring countries. From the alignment of immigration and passport control to common currency and a somewhat unified transportation system travel can be easy for Europeans. Living in Berlin is no barrier for France cycling holidays, hop on a train with the bike, hop off and start riding to the next faery tale chateau for some wine and cheese. Don’t worry about paying for exchange and finding someone to convert your money for you, they will be using the same bills and coin as you.

Photo Credit: minikti

The easy of train travel in Europe makes any destination accessible at a comfortable travel pace. If quick is needed, then the myriad of discount airlines are happy to load a flying sardine can up to capacity and whisk you away for a weekend dinner in London. Sure there is the pain of passing through airport security but different country, no immigration. Just walk out and hail a taxi and be on your way to that dinner reservation.

Photo Credit: gorgeoux

I always feel like I’m missing out compared to many of the Europeans that I have met because I only speak one language. It seems that regardless of what country they come from they all speak at least two if not four different languages. Zipping about the continent and being able to talk to people at the destination in the local tongue without fumbling through a phrase book to determine the correct word for left versus right must be nice. And even if the local language is not known, it is likely that there will be something common in the eight or ten different languages that they each speak.

Photo Credit: willsfca

Of course I’m envious, but this is likely a whole bunch of grass is greener. Either way, I will live in Europe at some point and zip off to Rome for lunch and laugh at a joke made by my German butcher.

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