29 June 2006:Hard to believe! I'm gearing up for one of the biggest adventures of my life thus far! For those of you who haven't heard, I am going to Europe. Yes, Europe. Not only am I going to Europe, but I am going for 6 1/2 weeks! Yes, 6 1/2 weeks. Not ONLY am I going to Europe for 6 1/2 weeks, but 5 1/2 of those weeks I will be on my own! YES, on my own! Let me sum up here: I will be in EUROPE for 5 1/2 (+1) WEEKS on my OWN!!!!
It all started when I had a bit of an awakening in the fall of 1999. I was a student at BYU, enjoying my new job as a secretary in the Office of Research and Creative Activities (ORCA). As is my nature, I was working feverishly to stay on top of my work (all right...I was probably checking my email and planning my schedule for the next 4 years), when my fabulous older brother, Brian, called me and said:
"Hey Amy...I found a $400 round-trip ticket to Madrid. Wanna go?"
WOW! Of course I wanted to go! My incredible older sister, Erin, my awesome younger brother, Eric, and my great roommate, Alicia, came along and we had a blast. There was only one problem....
I got bit. BAD! By the travel bug.
It was amazing to me how a little blue book with your picture and name on the inside could open up worlds to you! I could go ANYWHERE! (Well...almost. I hear those Cubans don't let you in even with a little blue book.) The entire world was at my disposal!
So, the wheels started turning. Classes in art history, humanities, and Spanish didn't help. I wanted to go...and BAD!
The summer of 2002, I did a Study Abroad program in England for 7 weeks which was WONDERFUL, but it wasn't enough. I wanted to be a backpacker. I wanted to be a vagabond. I wanted to cart all my possessions on my back, smell like I'd been in a cramped train car for 8 hours, deliriously stumble onto an obscure train platform, avoid professional pick-pockets that posed as small children, and not know where in the world I was going to sleep that night! I wanted to participate in the coming-of-age experience of a lifetime as a crazy, young, careless (as in, without a care) European backpacker.
Well, years passed. Time flew by. And before I realized it, I was staring my last summer under the age of 26 in the face! Under 26 is considered a "youth" in Europe...which makes train tickets, hostels, and all sorts of other things considerably cheaper. My dream to do Europe on the cheap was quickly fading away as the hands of time ticked onward!
Erin and her husband, Trevor, were planning a trip to England...and I jumped on the bandwagon. And, as long as I'd already spent a small fortune to get across the ocean, I thought: why not stick around and see all those things I've been dying to see? Why not backpack like I've been dying to backpac
k? I had to make it happen! It hadn't fallen into my lap in the last 7 years. Obviously I was going to have to do it myself!So I did. I am. I will.
Europe, here I come!
I leave July 1 and will return August 17. The planned itinerary goes a little something like this:
July 1: fly out of Kansas City International Airport, through Cleveland and then arrive at London Gatwick on the morning of July 2 (with my body, due to the 6 hour time difference, feeling as though it were 2 a.m.)
July 2-8: London, England
July 8-11: Barcelona, Spain
July 11-15: Paris, France
July 15-16: Milan, Italy
July 16-18: Cinque Terre, Italy
July 18: Pisa, Italy
July 19-24: Rome, Italy
July 24-29: Stockholm, Sweden (including the fabulous Fest I Nord!)
July 29-August 1: Florence, Italy
August 1-3: Venice, Italy
August 3-5: Interlaken, Switzerland
August 5-7: Vienna, Austria
August 7-9: Prague, Czech Republic
August 9-12: Romantic Road, Germany
August 12-14: Cologne, Germany
August 14-16: Brussels, Belgium
August 16-17: London, England
August 17: Fly out of London Gatwick, through Newark, New Jersey and arrive in Kansas City International Airport the afternoon of August 17 (with my body, due to the 6 hour time difference, feeling as though it were 2 a.m.)
That was probably WAY more than you wanted to know, but there it is! Welcome to my European Adventure!
