To blog or not to blog

Going to Europe. Back in May. Peace out!

Get ready

I finally purchased my ticket to Europe. While it set me back quite a bit (although a bit less than it would have been without assistance - thanks Bekah...err...I mean Anonymous!), I think my finalized skeleton itinerary is set. Now I just need to fill in the details exactly (with guidance by Rick Steves, I will prevail!) and I will be well on my way to an amazing trip.

My current break down is as follows: April 10th to 15th in England, April 16th to April 19th in France, flight out the night of the 19th to Prague, the 20th and 21st in Prague, the 22nd to the 24th in Austria, and the 25th to May 3rd with Hannah and Kim in Italy! I'm getting a pretty good start on locking down the minutiae to make this trip as awesome as I think it can be, but man, am I excited. It's already the best ridiculously large sum of money I've ever spent, and I haven't even taken the trip yet!

Kim and David go to Italy!

Oh my god, we're going to Italy!

It's been discussed frequently lately, but still no official word as to whether or not it was going to be true...until today. What's the news?

Kim is coming to meet me on my Europe trip!

I will still be spending at least the first two weeks of my trip by myself, but for the last week or so in Italy (my dream location), I will be joined by my wonderful friend Kim for the entirety. We'll share gondola rides, scooter ventures, Capri, architecture, and care free lifestyle together for a week. Not only that, but it will be the first time in nearly seven months that I've seen one of my best friends and it will be in the place I've always dreamt of going.

I'm so excited I can barely contain myself.

Hooray Europe trip 2009! You're going to be so awesome!

It's official

I had a meeting with my boss yesterday over something else, and I broached the question of a lengthy amount of time off (3 weeks to be specific) so I could go to Europe some time in April through June of next year.

"Do you have the vacation time?"
"Yeah, enough for that and plenty more."
"Oh yeah, you have like 5 or 6 weeks saved up, huh?"
"Yeah."
"Well sure. That sounds great. Feel free to take it off."

I then proceeded to gleefully jig in his office as my boss looked on laughing.

Now I just need to drop some serious bank on a ticket and wrap up that whole passport thing, and I'm doing this, but for real real. Consider me excited.

If not now, when?

I want to be in you!

I'm twenty four years old and I've never been out of North America.

That's really bizarre to think about, especially considering I've wanted to travel since I was little. For some reason I always have wanted to go to Italy and rent a Vespa and just travel around cities, enjoying the warm weather and a nice book while downing some delectable (and strong!) coffee, drinking in the culture and the history that comes with it.

Yet, here I am, nearing a quarter century old (it's more fun and dramatic to put it in that sort of perspective) and I've yet to leave the confines of the continent.

I know there are plenty of other people my age who haven't had the opportunity to travel either, but why not me? I have nearly thirty days saved up of vacation time. I have a ton in savings. I am entirely fine with traveling by myself. The desire is there.

All I know is I go on Facebook and I see friends making trips to Thailand and China. I check out blogs of my friends and they're posting pictures from the surely wonderful trips they take to a large portion of Europe. I read Bill Bryson books and he goes pretty much everywhere you can think of (and plenty of other places that you can't).

It's time to make the leap.

I just checked up on rates for traveling to London from Alaska (London strictly as a starting point, I mean come on, I have to go there right?), and they aren't that bad. Around $1,400 round trip. Totally affordable.

I'm going to ask my boss what the odds are that I can score three weeks off sometime in early 2009. Considering the job I'm doing, I'm going to hazard a guess that they are high.

Finally, as a Christmas present to myself, in the next few days I'm going to take some time to go to my local post office. It's about time I got myself a passport.

I'm going to ride a Vespa in Italy!