As embarrassed as I am to admit this, before studying abroad I was anxious about almost everything that traveling involves. On the trip to Paris I took with my mom my junior year of high school I think I spent half the time we were there worrying. I was one of those people that focused on the who, what, where, when, why, and how's of travel, and wanted everything planned out. Now, 3 years later, I am here to say to anyone who is like I was, stop. Our lives are full of routines as it is, what time you go to work, when your favorite TV shows are on, homework deadlines, the list goes on. Travel should never be looked at as another thing you need to schedule, as it turns what should be an adventure into "What's next on our list?" So get rid of those guide books with the "Perfect itinerary for blank number of days in blank European City", and learn to let cities take you where they want you to go. While this line of thinking is true when it comes to most (if not all) European cities, my trip to Paris with my brother two weeks ago is the perfect example.

When my parents told me my brother was officially coming to visit, I could not have been more excited, and choosing between him flying into Amsterdam and Paris was an easy choice. I had been to Paris six times already but was still desperate to go back, so it was a given that I would choose my favorite city to show my brother. Other than booking our train tickets and where we would stay, I hadn't really thought of what we would actually do for 4 days in Paris. It wasn't until our last day there, when it was rainy and grey that I realized how bad plans can actually be.

When it comes to Paris and weather you never know what you're going to get. Rain could come unexpectedly, or the days you expected it to rain it could be a perfectly sunny day. On our last day in Paris, as the rain came down and my brother and I crouched under my umbrella, I caught a glimpse of the Eiffel Tower and thought of all those poor people who had planned to visit it that day. I think the worst advice any guide book can ever give is "book tickets in advance to avoid lines." Once you book tickets for something your day now revolves around that, rain or shine. You can't just wander the city, because you may actually get lost and miss the time on your ticket. You can't spend extra time at the museum you thought you'd only need a few hours for, because that would just ruin the whole day. I'm not saying you should go into a trip not having a few ideas of what you want to see, but to remember that most often times it's the things that surprise you that create the best memories.

You may be asking, how does one get the best of the planned and unplanned? It's quite simple, don't plan around the "tourist attractions", and fit them in when they work. The evening my brother and I went to the Eiffel tower we went because it was a clear day and I knew we would be able to actually see the city, and so we went. Going up the Eiffel tower on a nice day without advance tickets can seem impossible, but the stairs hardly ever have a line, and as my brother said, "Even on vacations, you shouldn't skip leg day." So while everyone waited in line for the elevators at the Eiffel Tower, my brother and I were already at the top sipping delicious, granted overly priced, champagne. When it comes to the Louvre, look at the forecast before bed and if it says rain the next morning, get there before it opens. Not only will you be one of the first in lines, but then you have a perfectly good reason to relax, enjoy a macaroon and espresso at Ladurée along the Champs Élysées later in the day. Get off at a metro or bus stop and walk. European cities are full of history; the chances of you running into something you wanted to see anyway are around 99%. On the off chance you don't, your chances of finding a delicious, not overpriced tourist restaurant have now gone up exponentially.

All the trips I've taken this past semester have slowly helped me come to this one conclusion: people need to stop having checklists of all the monuments they need to see, and all the museums they feel the need to visit. I hope that travel can eventually stop being about how many things one got to see, and start becoming about the things one actually stopped and experienced.