One of the ways I fell into the travel writing biz was that I found myself returning to Europe again and again to volunteer on archaeological projects. I ate and slept locally and interacted with the natives, who filled my head with story ideas. It changed my life. Anyone with free time and some cash can do it.
If you're a student of archaeology, for example, you can excavate the ruins at Ostia Antica (pictures), the ancient port of Rome, for example.
If you think travel writing would make a fine life, you can write your travel memoirs while staying in an 18th century château in France's Loire Valley. Imagine living in a château, drinking some of France's finest wine, and hobnobbing with writers before descending into the harsh writer's reality, the "cheep booze fueling angst and despair" thing. (Don't know the Loire Valley? See our Loire Valley Map.)
You don't have to leave America's shores to participate in the writing dream. You New Yorkers can take a travel writing class taught by the celebrated writer and foreskin chaser David Farley, author of An Irreverent Curiosity: In Search of the Church's Strangest Relic in Italy's Oddest Town.
Don't just think of Europe as a place with a tolerance for nude beaches. There's more to do than taking your clothes off.