Touring Europe

So I'm going to be living (studying abroad) in Bordeaux later this year from August until January... I've never been to Europe so I want to get to travel around Europe as much as possible while I'm there, but obviously I can't go everywhere I want, and my econ classes keep reminding me that scarcity means I might regret going somewhere in lieu of some other place! Here's my for sure list of cities I'm going to visit: Paris, Bilbao, Barcelona, Bologna, Rome and Prague. I might fly first to London instead of going directly to France because flights from San Diego or L.A. to Bordeaux (and Paris) are brutally expensive and my wallet doesn't feel like getting beat up more than it already will (the Euro is worth almost 1.5 dollars)!!!

So if it does work out better to go to London first, I might as well go to Amsterdam and Brussels before getting to Paris and eventually Bordeaux. I really want to see these places, but maybe I might want to save that money to see more of Spain and also to get to go to Portugal. Maybe I might prefer to see the fjords of Norway or Iceland; or go skiing in Switzerland; or visit other major European cities like Berlin, Stockholm, Athens; or venture out of Europe and into Isreal; or go to Ireland and Scotland. Ok those places would all be more expensive than getting to Amsterdam and Brussels from London, but it's still something I'm undecided about.

Man I'm thinking as if I'm never going to get the chance to see Europe again. But who knows, it might be the last time that I get to live there for such an extensive period and while not being tied down by a full time job.

Then there's something else about who I am right now and what Bordeaux will mean because of that: I'm single, I'm thinking I'll still be single by the time I get there, and I'm going to be around a lot of Frenchmen, which needless to say, can be sexy as fuck. Should I limit myself to innocent dating while there or should I become a total whore? Should I keep an open mind and an open heart, open enough for a relationship? Casual sex is not really my thing, but hey I'm only young once...so should I proceed the advances of men even while in other countries like Spain and Italy, or should I stay on the safe side and pass these guys up? Or what if I'm faced with the complete opposite: what if I don't even make one gay friend. Bordeaux is not Paris or Berlin and from what I've researched online (gaybar.com) it doesn't have much gay nightlife and also the University of Bordeaux doesn't even have a LGBT center. Hopefully I'll just happen to come across the right group of people, and in reality that means gay or straight...