15,852: Number of miles flown
12,000: Number of gravestones visible at the Old Jewish Cemetery in Josefov, Prague, where as many as 100,000 people are buried, 12 layers deep, from the 15th to 18th century
8,800: Hungarian Forint still in my wallet (about $37)
7,445: Number of words I edited, over and over, in Budapest
5,000: Number of people on the Charles Bridge at any given time in Prague (please note this number is in no way factual, but represents how unbelievably crowded Prague was)
1943: Date seen most frequently as the year of death on the pictures of prisoners lining the hallways at Auschwitz; later arrivals and deaths were not documented with photos but with numbered tattoos instead
19:00: Time that Rusalka, the Czech opera by Dvorák, started in Prague; also the time we arrived and begged them to sell us tickets
1,000: Number of hippies living in a commune in Copenhagen called Christiania
120: Turkish Lira spent visiting the major historical sites of Istanbul
108: Dollars spent on a meal in Stockholm
97.3: MB of data used, mostly on Google Maps to help get me un-lost, most of those times in Istanbul
33: Estimated number of miles walked or biked throughout the trip
30: Ballpark number of eye rolls and/or exaggerated sighs at the tourist groups blindly following their umbrella-wielding leaders and blocking paths at every popular tourist attraction
26: Combined number of churches, synagogues and mosques I visited and photographed
25: Approximate number of times I said, “Bye-bye Förbifarten”, a political slogan I saw almost that many times on posters in the subway in Stockholm
21: Number of languages spoken at Auschwitz-Birkenau; also, the number of plaques, in those various languages, inscribed:
FOREVER LET THIS PLACE BE
A CRY OF DESPAIR
AND A WARNING TO HUMANITY,
WHERE THE NAZIS MURDERED
ABOUT ONE AND A HALF
MILLION
MEN, WOMEN, AND CHILDREN
MAINLY JEWS
FROM THE VARIOUS COUNTIRES
OF EUROPE.
19: Number of days overseas
18: Estimated number of Tinder messages received across all cities, not one resulting in a meet-up
14: Dollars spent, total, on two meals in Krakow
13: Number of times I was sure I was going to crash while biking around Copenhagen in the rain
12: Number of castles and palaces visited or photographed
11: Number of flights taken
10: Approximate number of times I got lost in Cihangir, Istanbul; also, approximate number of tantrums thrown after getting lost
9: Times I cried, most of them at Auschwitz
8: Movies watched on flights throughout the trip
7: Number of countries visited; also, number of countries it rained in while I was there
6: Number of books brought with me, plus one purchased in Prague
5: Number of books actually read
4: Number of cemeteries visited
3: Number of naps taken in Budapest, where I crashed after a writing deadline and a morning of walking in the rain
2: Number of Turkish yoga classes attended; one with “elbow” and “low lunge” the only English words spoken in 75 minutes
1: Suitcase, carry-on
Also:
1: Night, spent visiting friends in London
1: Birthday celebrated, my friend’s, in Stockholm
1: Mermaid viewed in Copenhagen
1: Shot of absinthe drank in Prague
1: Nun, photographed, and invisible in the resulting picture, in Krakow
1: Apartment of my European dreams, a penthouse with views of Parliament in Budapest
1: Underground cistern, whose definition I learned while there, in Istanbul
0: Part of me that is left unchanged by this trip
In a trip made up of moments, here are a few of the most memorable.

Photo by Katie Devine.

Photo by Katie Devine.

Photo by Katie Devine.

Photo by Katie Devine.

Photo by Kate Devine.

Photo by Kate Devine.

Photo by Kate Devine.
This post originally appeared at Confessions Of An Imperfect Life.