Road trips. I love them. They are one of the most gratifying things to do, whether with friends or as a lone wolf. They’re also one of things that I miss the most here in Europe. Certainly, the various highways in Europe are some of the best and you can drive 130 km/h (in the USA, you can hit at the most around 115 km/h). Road trips in Europe, however, lack the same emotion that a road trip in the US does. Let me explain.
Typically in Europe, you are forced to bring your food with you whenever you set off. In the USA, you can leave with a cooler full of beverages and a plastic bag full of snacks and when you actually need a real meal, you just have to wait until the next exit on the interstate. You don’t even need to bring the cooler or the snacks. There are gas stations and grocery stores all over and you can eat and drink to your heart’s/wallet’s contents. In Europe, you have to take whatever chances you have and proper fast food is hard to come by. There’s also simply no variety. No sub sandwiches, no burgers, no fried chicken, no pizza - none of it. Certainly you find European attempts at these great American road trip treats, but that’s all they are: attempts.
Driving through the USA also offers so many opportunities to interact with the areas you are driving through. European highways are too often set aside as if those that use them are lepers and scoundrels that must be separated from the sensible members of society that prefer to stay home or take a train. In the USA, when you’re on the highway, you fly through the cities and the towns and the countryside and even at the exits it’s not strange to find a local selling his home-grown produce. You can pull off at an exit, drive into town and see what’s going on. Simple as that.
Cars also mean an entirely different thing in the USA versus Europe. In the USA, the automobile is freedom. Pure, unbridled bliss. One of the first things your average American teenager does is go on a road trip with his friends. If he hasn’t been arrested for driving like an utter moron or already crashed the family car. In Europe, it’s much more different. A car is something that is needed, not wanted with the same passion in the USA. Most cars in the USA are also personalized in some way, true extensions of an individual’s own personality. In Europe, if you want to modify your car, you have to try and hide it from the police and maybe even bribe the local inspector to make sure that your car retains its authorization to be on the road.
That being all said, I can’t wait to do a proper trans-European road trip, to cross as many countries as possible before reaching my destination. Just remember this to make any road trip the best possible road trip: it’s not the destination that is important, but the journey in getting there.
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