Something doesn't feel right...is this normal?
 

ok. first off, thanks to everyone who has helped me and actually you guys help everyone...i had after much mulling/research/soul-searching decided to do prague, krakow, budapest, vienna for my next europe trip. relief that i've atleast made a decision.

but here's the wierd part. last 2 trips (london/paris and rome) i was giddgy excited after deciding to go there...couldn't wait. but for this trip, i'm looking forward to going, but not excited. more looking at it as a vacation to relax and see some sites. is this normal or does it mean that i'm really not into going to those places? i'm trying to be excited but maybe because there's some apprehension of the unknown...it's just not the same feeling of anticipation of going. based on your experiences...what do you think?? i hope i explained this well because i'm sure those cities will be awesome to see.

You are right. Those cities are awesome to see. Rome, Paris and London are easy to get excited about because you see images of them everywhere and there is a lot of external reinforcement of the excitement. Many people are like 'ooh and ahhh'. Budapest etc. however is a bit more exotic and many of the less adventurous travelers are not interested and may say "Why?' or 'ick'...you get the idea, right?

My advice would be to do more research on the Internet and look at the pictures of what those locations have to offer. Check out the Pusztas of Hungary, check out the Czech surroundings dig a bit more. You will start to get more excited and some of the normal apprehension that goes along with getting a bit off the beaten track will diminish.

BTW, we used to live in Budapest and went often to Prague. They truly ae amazing cities.

Enjoy!
Jan

just an observation .. for me, it seems like the more i research, i start to feel like i am more and more familiar with the place, so some of the unknown.. and excitement has become subdued.

also, the more you travel, the adrenalin just doesn't rise as quickly since it is all becoming so familiar to me.
just MHO. you will have great memories and probably get more excited as teh date gets near.

Hi ucsun,
Yes I know what you mean, I was the same, but I think its just the familiarity that reduces the excitement first time for everything is exciting i guess.Also I find that if I am very very excited about something it doesn't turn out quite as I had anticipated. If I am subdued about something it usually turns out to be fantastic.Prague is fabulous, you won't be disapointed.

enjoy

Muck

I'm always excited when I travel. Don't know why exactly, but even flying to Raleigh, North Carolina on a business trip gets me going.

Rufus my man! Welcome to Raleigh! If you get excited about that, you are a remarkable person with great inner resources!

But seriously.... (still a little silly from the American-boring thread on US forum) ...

ucsun: There is merit in what others have written, but I would also suggest that you are becoming maybe a bit more seasoned as a traveller, too. And there is merit in not being "giddgy excited" about a trip because you have a better chance of being truly surprised and delighted by the places you will be seeing.

Although I am guilty of trying to plan things to death sometimes, I have learned to try to dial down the giddiness and save some wonder for the actual trip.

Enjoy your trip and let us know how your visit to these wonderful cities goes.

It may only mean that this time around you actually need more rest and relaxation. I'd been there, when the prior months have been so hectic that it has actually taken energy away from the excitement that precedes a great trip. Don't read too much into it; it may very well turn out to be the best vacation you ever had....just because it may be the vacation you need.

ucsun: I know just what you mean but I think, as a previous poster noted, you are just becoming a more seasoned traveler.

BTW:

1. There IS a certain cachet in answering (truthfully) when people ask what you're doing for holidays: "Oh, just the usual -- Europe again."

2. I don't know about you but I don't need any extra nervous excitement in life.

3. If you can calmly and methodically plan a European trip, the trip itself will be all the better, right?

4. PS from Dr. tedgale, Psychologist:
I thought it was all about getting together with your old buddy and hanging out. Are you getting lukewarm about that bit? -- in which case it has nothing to do with the venue

Maybe it is just where you are at right now? Have you been under more stress? working longer hours, etc? Sounds like you even stressed yourself out on deciding on a place to go.

I've had this happen to me, but I have enjoyed the trip just as much, just differently. I plan less. Stroll more. Schedule little. We often think that just because we are in Europe we couldn't possibly sleep in to 10 o'clock or stay in for an evening.

One thing about Europe. If you want to slow your pace, you'll fit right in (probably why it is so appealing to me). I like two hour lunches. Strolls through parks (not because they're shortcuts). Soaking in the beauty of sculpture rather than glass and steel.

Relax about not being excited. Vacations should be about rejuvenation. You will get as much out of that as you will a frenetic pace to see everything you've been dying to see.

The difference may come from knowing less about a place, which makes sense. There's just not as much said about the places you've listed as there is about London, Paris and Rome. Not on this board or anywhere else. Many people might point out that there is a reason for this. There are so many things in those cities, I suspect it could leave a person going "and then we'll do this and then that and then...". Much anticipation.

But I sometimes wonder if backing away from straining at the reins doesn't end up making the trip a little more enjoyable. I've always wondered if big expectations don't lead to either just getting the expected... or disappointed. Fewer surprises when you already expect the world.

I'd read about Budapest for this last trip, but I didn't find my head swirling with antipation of all the things we'd see. It was supposed to just be a launching point for the rest of the trip - we knew what there was to see, but no "I can't wait". We loved it, how relaxing it was to afford yourself the time to wander in the park, or along the river, to sit in Gerbaud and much a pastry. We'd love to go back.

My thoughts are in line with Clifton's.
There isn't as much written about the cities you're going to now, they usually aren't necesarily mentioned in the same breath as Rome, Paris, London, Venice, etc. Some of it is historical, some of it is cultural (we tend I think to become more swoony I think over the cities and cultures with a Romance history, we even think their languages sound 'prettier', and London is, well, London, and that's a lot.) We don't read as much about the Hapsburgs, the Germanic culture, Hungarian history, Polish history, except for the bad parts.

I'm an American, South America is in my own back yard (well, hemisphere, anyway) and I don't go there. Not opposed, just not yet interested enough(or educated enough) to plan a trip. My point being not every place preliminarily gets us worked up into a lather.

I didn't fall in love with Vienna, but it's a culturally very rich city with an amazing history, and world-class museums and concerts. Prague I did not hotly anticpate before I went, but I DID fall in love with it last year, and in fact I'm going back in a couple of months. It's not in my first tier of favorites (that would be Paris, Venice, and London, I just have to keep returning to those cities) but it's in my second tier, and I think it will remain there even if I go to more places.

Relax and enjoy being low key--I'm sure you'll be psyched once you are on the trip.

If you remember, please try to see your upcoming trip "through a child's eyes."

wow...*sniffles*...that was great. thanks. but, what you guys are saying is probably right.

truth be known, i'm a planner...i plan then i plan some more. and combined w/ higher than normal stress and i can see where you guys are going. and it's probably right that i'm also slowly becoming a better traveller (wow that didn't sound right). may need to back off a little and actually take a "real" vacation.

well another point i failed to mention is that i'm the one picking where we're going between my friend and myself. and maybe i'm feeling a little more stress regarding getting it "right". london, paris, rome were in the bag. actually left up to my friend, he'd say that we should go back to those cities and explore more or do more day trips.

maybe i should force my friend to be more involved and that will ease some of the pressure. maybe even go back to one of the cities we've been to if he really wants to go back. i'm more for trying something new, he's more i know what i like/works and let's stick to it.

Dr. tedgale:
you're actually right. i need to keep my priorities straight. actually i will not have seen my BF since the last trip. so we'll have a lot of catching up to do.

SloJan,lincasanova, Mucky, RufusTFirefly, soccr, Chatters, tedgale, cchottel, Clifton, elaine: simply, thank you.

an interesting update:
i called my friend. and mentioned the info you guys gave me on this thread. we had a talk and decided that he likes some of the places i'd decided on, but not all. and that he'll start to plan the trip as well. it's both our vacations so i think this should help. he really wants to go to italy and i'd like to see Eastern europe. i think we'll settle w/ a week in both i think. for him florence is his favorite. i guess back to the drawing board...well i thought i had it, but i think this is for the best. not done bugging you guys yet i guess :)

You've probably already seen this site mentioned, but in case you haven't - check whichbudget.com

Looks like you could get into Rome, at least, on one of the low cost airlines from any of the cities on your list, being unsure of which are off the list now. Could also get to Venice cheaply from Budapest and train from there too. Florence didn't seem to be a direct connect from any of them.

My whole family went to Krakow and Prague in May of 2003. My parents were born in Poland and had horrible memories, but we were going in part to try to find family records. My mom & dad had already passed away. Believe me, I love to travel (especially to Europe, but this one was not making me giddy either. Well we got there and I have to tell you, Krakow is a gem. I liked it better then Prague and I loved Prague! Just do your research and don't worry so much about how you feel now. When you get there, you will have a great time.

thanks for the update, ucsun. i hadn't contributed to this thread though i've been following it. for me, some trips i get more excited about than others. can't say why. but ALL trips i am excited once i'm on the plane.

i think it's good you're rethinking things a bit. i try to pay attention to that 'when something doesn't feel right' feeling. my vacation next month will be to Hawaii because my original plans for Mexico just kept running into all these glitches and hitches, so i simply took the hint and planned something different than i originally had in mind.

suze, thanks. good advice. i guess at this point i'm not sure how to effectively break apart krakow, prague, vienna, and budapest. and still leave some of those for a good trip next time...thanks for the site Clifton. i could just leave the whole 4 cities intact and do them later and try to do florence, venice and another city (a'dam maybe). any ideas of which geographically make more sense? i'd hate to waste too much time travelling between cities just to force some cities to work together.

learning there's no right decision, but the right fit. i'm sure i'll eventually do all these cities, just not in this one trip.

well good news. further talking w/ my friend has yielded a good resolution. we have decided on keeping prague, vienna, and budapest, but will go back to rome for 2-3 days from budapest (w/ london on the way back for 1 day). we figured 4 days in prague, 3 vienna, and 3 budapest. seems doable/good distribution??? my friend wants to leave rome and london at the end so i can live w/ that.

krakow would have been awesome, but the 7 hr train ride was the deal breaker. we decided to do a'dam, krakow, and florence for our trip next year. wow next trip resolved 16 months early.

hi,
If you plan to travel from Budapest to Rome use the low cost airline as they are really chep to book now.
Eg. I will go to Rome next week for 65 USD and that is a return price!
The 2 bigest:
www.skyeurope.com and www.wizzair.com
I have used both of them and they are ok.
Have fun in the ne territories I can tell you that this might change the way you travel.
Tamás

ucsun: you are undergoing a variation of a common experience, that is, the dulling of anticipation based upon experience.

Have you ever noticed that when you drive from one city to another that you find the first journey seems to take much longer than when you drive, say, for the 10th or 20th or 50th time? Why is that? More than likely, this is a similar defeat or distortion of time and distance based upon experience.

Or, as another example, have you noticed that time moves more slowly when you are younger? As we age, the years seem to fly by. Yet we know that any year (except leap years) has the same number of days. Why is this phenomenon so common? Because our memories, like our anticipations, dull with experience.

Don't fret. You will have a grand time. Just relax. Enjoy. Life is too short to be hurried.

I'll be the voice of negativity here.
A couple of times I've started planning trips and after a lot of the preliminary stuff I just wasn't excited as usual. One case in point is Alaska. It sounded great, but no matter how much research and planning I did, I couldn't get as excited as when I'm planning a trip to Greece or to Italy and France, or whatever. I figured it was just that I didn't know what lay in store. We worked to find the "best" things to do, and even went out of our way to drive the "top of the world highway" supposedly one of the great drives of the world. We lined up a couple of the very best backcountry lodges and poured through tour books and recommendations.

Well, guess what. We LIKED Alaska, but in the end, my original feelings were right. While those backcountry lodges were the highlight of the trip, they still didn't compare for overall excitement to some of the out of the way places we've stayed in Europe and Australia, for instance. And the top of the world highway just came off as OK drive, it did nothing for me compared to many of the wonderful places we've driven over the years. The whole trip was GOOD, but in the end, I think my original thoughts were right, and there was a good reason I wasn't getting as excited as usual.

Now that said, my advice is still to go and enjoy it. You won't be miserable, but make the most out of your trip. Possibly there will be things that will be sensational, so focus on those.