As a brief introduction, I\u2019m a 21-year old student from Malta currently enrolled at Maastricht University, the Netherlands and studying International Relations\/Conflict Studies. I\u2019ve been travelling as frequently as studies permit ever since I was old enough to do so alone, planning a mixture of short trips originating from Maastricht and Malta as well as some longer ones over the holidays. So far my travels have been limited to Europe, but not for long. I\u2019ve been accepted for a Semester Abroad Programme at UCLA (University of California \u2013 Los Angeles) from September till mid-December 2013, and so Maastricht University is shipping me off across the Atlantic to chart some new territory.<\/p>\n I\u2019ll talk more about the upcoming trip in a separate post to follow shortly. For now, I\u2019d like to share a bit of my underlying travel philosophy. During the past few years I\u2019ve learnt a few major lessons which have come to shape the way I travel and which have made this trip what it is (or at least what I plan for it to be):<\/p>\n Though I will be using Couchsurfing for most of this trip to the US and Central America, I have decided not to hitchhike for various reasons. Distances are far greater than in Europe and roads can often be deserted with sparse traffic. Besides, getting around by other means of transport there is so incredibly cheap. We\u2019re not talking about a train ride with SBB in Switzerland setting you back \u20ac100 for a 3-hour ride, or even an hour\u2019s journey with NS in the Netherlands costing \u20ac15. We\u2019re talking about a $1 7-hour coach ride across two states, and an entire network of similarly-priced local buses covering most of Central America.<\/p>\n The bottom line; I try to travel as much and as often as possible, and remain open to meeting new people while doing so. I\u2019ll leave it at that for now because La Bella Sicilia awaits. I introduced my trip and some of my previous travels in an interview with\u00a0Cleo Freriks\u00a0of Observant, so feel free to check it out here<\/a> in the meantime.<\/p>\n![\"IMG_4743\"](\"http:\/\/chris-mercieca.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_4743.jpg\")
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