It is amazing how much money Marinites  spend on trips to Europe. They come back with colorful stories, all espousing the differences between continents, and why life in Europe is so much better. The buildings are older, for example. There are more trees. The beer tastes better and so does the chocolate. And then there is the ultimate marvel -- it always comes out, eventually.

"The public transit is amazing. We never even had to drive. I can't wait to go back to Europe, so we won't have to drive."

For travelers on a budget, you can mimic this experience, without even buying a plane ticket. It can be nearly as amazing.

Here's how. Let's say it's your friend Wanda Jane's birthday on Saturday, and she's having a big lunchtime birthday party at a restaurant in downtown Santa Rosa.

"Oh man," you say to yourself. "I so want to go, but if I drink wine, I can't drive. I'll hurt somebody." You look into carpooling, but none of your other friends want to battle the weather and traffic along the 101 corridor. You also would like a nap.

What do you do, stay home? No. Ride the bus. Now you can turn your dream for adventure into a mini-vacation, pretending all the while that you are traveling in Europe. The experience will be almost nearly the same, except that you won't have to wait in customs and you won't even need a passport.

Here is how you do it, as illustrated in a our example trip taken last week.

First, you need to get to the San Rafael Transit Center, located at Third and Hetherton Streets. Although there are no trains once you get there, it is almost just like any major train station in Europe. There are several platforms, with adequate signage telling you where to stand to catch just which Golden Gate Transit bus that goes to whatever town. In addition to Santa Rosa, there are buses that go all the way to San Francisco, and even the East Bay.

If you're coming from San Anselmo or Fairfax, you can take an easy bike ride over there, which is also just like what they do in Europe. Really, the similarities are never-ending. You can even park your bike on the front of the bus, for no extra charge.

Once there, all you need to do is wait thirty minutes, or possibly less, for the next 70, 80, or 101 to Santa Rosa. Most leave on the top and bottom of every hour, or close enough.

The buses are clean, the seats are fully upholstered, comfortable, and they recline. You can fall asleep at your leisure, without worrying about killing anyone. The advantages are vast.

But you won't want to sleep, because then you'd miss the views heading up 101, which, at least in our journey last Saturday, with the morning mist and drizzle blanketing  the rolling green and sleepy cow-filled pastures north of Novato, mirrored almost exactly what one might see traveling through, say, Scotland. Possibly.

"God dammit, are we downtown?" said a haggard, partially toothless man in the seat behind me. We had just arrived at the Santa Rosa Transit Mall.

"Crap. I missed my stop!" he yelled, spitting into my left ear canal, but the hearing did come back, later.

A scene like this might destroy anyone's European dream, but if your imagination's strong enough, you'll recognize there are many Europeans who also sleep through their stops and scream about it; it's simply that as monolingual Americans, we don't understand them -- reinforcing the lie that nothing ever goes wrong in Europe, ever.  

So, now you can use your understanding of angry, hung-over men, to embellish your fantasy that not only are you in Europe, but you also speak the language of the natives.

Our journey to Santa Rosa lasted only one hour and sixteen minutes and we arrived a half hour ahead of schedule, right downtown.

"Oh my gosh," I said, calling my friend Moonbeam who was waiting at nearby Treehorn Books. "This is just like traveling in Europe."

"Katie? Are you okay?" she said. Moonbeam has lived in Europe, and speaks at least three languages. I decided to change the subject, never to broach this topic again, lest she burst my bubble and remind me how bad our public transit is compared to Europe.

You can have this imaginary experience driving a car. But the traffic, the focus it takes to avoid accidents, and the noise coming from the radio, make pretending that you're somewhere else very difficult. But as long as you're not in a rush, and you can keep your mind just open enough, you can travel to exotic places like Santa Rosa by bus, and easily believe that you are in one of the most beautiful places on earth. Not because you're pretending, but because you're actually there.

And that was for thirteen dollars, round trip.