Notes from Abroad

I’ve had this trip stewing in the back of my mind for a few months now, but all of a sudden I realized that it’s only about 2 months away and I haven’t done -any- actual planning. Not good, Jenn. Not good.

It’s time to get serious.

I was at the campus bookstore the other day and they had some travel guides on sale. $4.00 a piece. I, of course, grabbed a few: Let’s Go Western Europe and Let’s Go Italy. Sure, they’re the 2006 and 2007 editions, but come on, how much do the Roman ruins really change in 2-3 years? The books were pretty useful, but I think they’ll be even more useful once I nail down a preliminary itinerary and time frame so I can look up more specific things.

I think the hardest part about all of this was the sheer scope of the trip. Where do you even begin? (Answer: at the beginning), but where is the beginning? So many questions to be answered.

Last night I spent some quality time scouring the Lonely Planet forums and I have to say that it has been pretty much the only useful place I’ve found so far! I feel like I finally have some direction and a starting point. I’ve got out the post-it notes, my white board has been repurposed as a trip planner, and I’m ready to get down to business.

First steps:

• decide if I want to stay in Rome for an extended period of time as I originally planner or if I want to spend the entire time traveling.
• set down actual dates and find plane tickets
• figure out some sort of budget to make sure I don’t get stranded in Europe (not like that would be completely terrible!)

Hopefully I can dedicate some time this weekend to getting that stuff sorted out. If time works out the way I think it will, I have less than 60 days to plan this whole thing, and that doesn’t count the days where I actually have to focus on schoolwork (ha!). It’s going to be fun though!

Tags: Planning