Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Why I've started a new blog

I'm starting this blog specifically for my Europe trip in May. I know many people travel to Europe each year and I don't doubt that my experiences will be similar to others who write travel blogs, but I wanted a place for family and friends to keep up with my journey.

So welcome! I'll be updating here instead of my normal LiveJournal blog (which is private) and posting pictures, experiences, thoughts, adventures and just reflections of my trip. I'm pretty far along with the planning process at this point but I still have a bit more left to get together before I leave. More specifically: my passport!

I had to order another copy of my birth certificate, which was from Maryland. Of course I realized I had lost my birth certificate during the worst time ever - the east coast snow storm. Finally 2 weeks later it arrived in my mailbox and I'll be heading to the local post office to fill out the forms this Saturday morning.

Soon I'll update more about my trip and where I'll be going as well as my itinerary. Europe in 5 weeks seems like a lot of time (and money) but I know that there is so much more to see over there. A common thing I've heard is that travelers rush from place to place too quickly and never really have the time to experience the culture except through a snapshot. Rushing around sounds unpleasant and while I'm still covering a lot of ground I've focused this trip on 4 countries and mainly, 4 cities. I'll be staying in smaller cities for 2 days and others I'll be at for 4 days to a week.

I've always loved reading travel memoirs and other people's experiences so I have small hopes that this blog will be inspiring to some and a light, entertaining read to others. Or, in the case of my parents, know that I'm safe.

More soon!

2 comments:

  1. In addition to Couchsurfing, I thought I'd also give you a heads up to this site which is really good for finding a travel buddy should you decide you are sick of solo traveling:

    http://www.travbuddy.com/

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  2. Cool, thanks! I think I'll meet some people on the bus tour but I have no idea if we'll get along. I get grumpy w/out enough sleep :)

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