My Europe trip is coming up just around the corner! I can't believe that I'm leaving in just 2 and a half months! With another trip to a second look weekend for med school and Molly's graduation, and possibly a trip to looking for housing for next year I bet the time will just fly by.
The planning for my trip is going quite well, though it stresses me out that there is just no way I can get to every single place I want to visit. Currently getting to everything I want to see in Croatia is my stressor. The trains take a while to get places, and Dubrovnik is quite far south and not on a train route, so I will have to either cut it out, fly there to avoid backtracking and then take a bus to Split, or backtrack through all of Croatia. I am leaning towards options 1 and 2 right now.
The beginning of my trip is completely planned out since I am going over with my dad (whom I have learned to be an obsessive over-planner when it comes to big trips!). I am sure I will appreciate being able to pack everything in to short amounts of time, but the amount of things that are already planned are a tad bit overwhelming right now. Anyways, we are flying into London and then taking the Eurostar train to Paris. I'm pretty excited for that because we get to travel through the Chunnel! We will spend three nights in Paris where I will finally get to return to Laurent, my most favorite restaurant in the entire world. It has been eight years since their glorious food has graced my palate, and I cannot wait to indulge again. In fact, re-visiting Laurent is most of the reason we are going to Paris at all! We are also going to visit a bunch of museums, hit up the Moulin Rouge, etc.
After Paris we are taking a flight to Cork in Ireland. This will be my first time visiting Ireland, so I am pretty excited. My dad is basically golfing every day, so I will have plenty of time to explore on my own in Cork, Tralee, Waterville, Ballybunion, and Lahinch. I think we are going to visit Galway for a day as well, which should be fun. When we get to Lahinch we are meeting up with my grandparents who are golfing there for the week with other members of their MacKenzie group (Alister MacKenzie is a famous golf course designer who designed our country club along with many famous courses including Augusta National, Pasatiempo and of course the Old Course at Lahinch). My dad and grandparents leave at the end on the week, at which time I am starting my first solo backpacking adventure. I am going to Dublin for two nights to see the other side of Ireland, with a possible day trip to Belfast since my train pass gets me there for free.
After Ireland I am all set to fly to Athens! I have studied a lot about ancient Greece and I am so excited to see some ruins and the National Archaeological Museum. I'm spending two nights in Athens as of right now, and then my trip becomes more of an idea than a plan (at least until mid June). I have to get to Beograd, Serbia before the end of May to visit my friend, so I have to hurry through Greece and Bulgaria a little bit. I plan to stop in Kalambaka and Sofia and possibly Thessaloniki on my way up to Beograd. After I see my friend I have about two weeks to travel around before I have to meet my cousins up in Glasgow, Scotland. I plan to see Croatia and Slovenia and make my way up to Germany to stay with my godmother near Stuttgart.
Once I get to Glasgow my plan is once again solidified for the next two and a half weeks. My cousin Kelly and I are visiting Kelly's sister Christine in Glasgow for a few days and then taking a mini road trip down the UK to London. I think we plan to stay with family friends for a night or two during the mini road trip to cut costs and allow us to see more on England. Once we get to London we will spend a few nights exploring the capital before we fly to Sweden for Midsommar! Our relatives (I think 3rd cousins) are picking us up at the airport in Gotebörg and driving us back to the small town they're from on the west coast. It is one of the most beautiful places I have visited and I am excited to bring Kelly there for the first time! We are going to celebrate the national holiday there and spend a few days with the fan before we head back to Gotebörg to fly to (most likely) Hamburg, Germany. From Hamburg we plan on going to Amsterdam and Brussels before Kelly flies back home, at which time I will have just ten days left to pack in everything else! I think I am going to try to see Bruges and Luxembourg, hit up Euro Disney, and visit some friends in Spain before I head back to London to catch my own flight home.
Basically there is still a lot to do, but I hope to make a lot of my set plans when I am already over in Europe so I have the flexibility to be a bit spontaneous. I'm getting more and more excited every day!
No comments:
Post a Comment