Pay check please!

I was told from the beginning that the good side of living in Europe is how easy it is to go from country to country. Everyone talked about all the places I would get to see and the trips I could take. It's not that I didn't believe them, but I'm from Canada, and my brain is wired to think that changing countries, or even provinces, isn't quite that easy. And so, with 20 days of vacation per year and only €90 of spending money a week, I didn't think I was going to get very far travel wise. Boy was I wrong.

It started with my pay check (very first pay!!!), which ended up being a lot more money than I thought, although I'm not too sure how I messed up my calculations. So it turns out that teeny tiny €80 a week is no more. This month, I have €195 of loose money per week. My first reaction was something along the lines of "That's way too much money. There must be a mistake." And so I checked, and nope, it's all mine. I'm rich, I tell you! RICH!!! At least for the next month. Not that I'll spend all that money, but having it means the Christmas getaway to Scotland I'm thinking about is already paid for.

Then I had a chat with a guy I live with. He explained to me that for most of the cities in Europe a four or five day trip will suffice. That means I can go during the weekend and I'll only have to take two days off my vacation time. Which sounds good, but had me thinking "Yeah, four days, two of which are spent travelling." Nah-uh. Going from Dublin to another European city only takes a couple of hours. This is where my mind started being blown, because I realized that going to Paris for the weekend really is possible. People use to tell me to go shopping in London on the weekend and I always thought they were kidding, but I don't any more. This opens up so many possibilities. It means I don't have to stay close during Christmas, I can spend Christmas in Germany and New Years in Prague. For a Canadian, this sounds like a life of luxuries. For a European, it's business as usual. No wonder everyone I meet has been all over the place. Now let's get that world map. I have two years of travelling to plan and a whole continent to explore.