I originally began writing this back in 2009 right at the beginning of that year. At the time I had just gone through the most challenging year of my life. We did indeed visit Brussels in March 2008, later that year, I had to undergo a kidney transplant which was hit or miss. Just before the operation we booked a trip to Italy not knowing whether we’d ever be able to go… But as you may already know, the transplant was a success and we’ve begun really travelling. We haven’t done all that much of Europe but have gone further afield, Mauritius confirmed to me that I’m fit and able to take on anything.
So let’s turn back the clock and publish this old draft!
Last year I came up with a challenge for myself and a project at the same time which would involve gradually visiting as many (if not all) of Europe’s great cities over the course of time. This project kicked off with Brussels back in March. It seemed fitting that the European capital would be a good place to start and indeed it was. I funded the trip out of stock sales, made money back through the publication of an article and stock sales since then. This has persuaded me to carry on.
The rules are simple, I start off with a budget, a tight one, fund a trip (Brussels was the first one), make some money out of it and repeat. The money making would be through stock sales, articles and so on. The premise being that each trip would help fund the next, ad-infinum.
I had to put this idea on hold for health reasons but I am now rekindling the whole thing, as once again I have some budget for it and once a couple more invoices have cleared, quite a bit more to spend.
Earlier in the year I didn’t have a name for the project but now I do and it will also become the blog tag for it. Its simply called Eurocities. It will become a big subject here, as it will be one of my main projects for the new year.
I am hoping that other spin-off projects will also come to fruition alongside it, as I will be touching base with a few magazine contacts etc.
I haven’t yet mentioned some other aspects of the “challenge” element of this project…
It will have to fit in with my full-time job (I am a semi-pro photographer after all). Most trips will be day trips or weekends. The budget will be tight, so no fancy hotels although there will be a couple of exceptions to this. Travel method will mostly be by train if not exclusively. Once the initial “pot” of money has been exhausted, the project cannot continue until the “pot” has been replenished!
So there you have it a project with a challenge element to it!! It will be journalised in the blog and this will result in (fingers crossed) a book.
To summarise the whole ethos of the project is to prove that you can travel around Europe as a photographer by making money out of each trip to continue funding the rest of it!!
I said there will be two exceptions in terms of staying in nice hotels and so on. Well yes, there will be. We will be visiting Sorrento again this coming year (all booked) and staying in a very nice hotel but this will be a holiday!!!
The first day-trip is likely to be Lille via Eurostar in early 2009. Currently possible to get there for about £55 return per person.
The aim of each trip will be to take a lot of shots, trying to get new angles on spots that are already well photographed.
The question I am now asking myself having let the cat out of the bag, is will this work out? How far will I get? How many destinations will I/can I achieve in a single year? Lets not forget it’s not my intention to achieve all of this in one year, this is an ongoing concept which may span several years in total.
I am excited just thinking about it and I haven’t booked anything yet! Will keep you posted and by the way other people are welcome to join me on some of the trips I take, as the adventures will as much be about people as they are about great buildings, landmarks and history combined.
