I like to take books and leave them in hostels for the next traveler. Definitely take a notebook to write interesting customs you come across, usually people will enlighten you to these. Its also good to write e-mail addresses of the people you encounter. Good places to go are : Valencia, Spain; Ljubljana, Slovenia; Prague, Czech; Provence or Avignon, France (I find Paris hard to do backpacking, I tend to want to spend all my time in the Louvre); Munich, Germany. If your headed to to UK, I would spend more time in Scotland than England, the people are a bit nicer, and I would chose Edinburgh over Glasgow there. Have fun and be open to anything!
