so what?

The only reason I'm happy it's my birthday is because it also means ONE MONTH til I land in London!

Got my Euros and my Pounds. They sent me 10 crisp 5 notes in each currency, they are really fancy! I don't remember Pounds being so fancy. And Euros are oddly small. Interesting.

one month to go!!!

yippeeeeee!

Got my reservation for the excavations tour underneath St. Peter's Basilica! Lucky me! I'm very excited, it should be cool. The email confirmation says it's not a tour for people who are claustrophobic. Eep. Well I'm not, so I should be OK? LOL.

I decided to get 50 euros and 50 pounds to arrive with. The exchange rates stateside are awful but what can you do. People on messageboards suggest just waiting til you arrive to get your money from an ATM but my gosh, I can't imagine traveling with NO cash for the place I'm arriving......justincase. So, I ordered it online. How odd is it that you can order cash online as if it's a purchase. They're being a bitch though because I have bar review classes and they require that *I* am the only one who is allowed to sign for it. Ok it makes sense since it is cash inside the package, but still. paaaaaaaaaaaaaaainnnnnnnnnnnn.

I got cute Crocs sandals..... but I hope they end up being comfy. I didn't realize they might not be so good til I wore them outside, so I'm stuck with them. All I'm really worried about is blisters - I know my feet are gonna hurt no matter what. So we'll see.

Ordered my international SIM card for the phone Alina lent me. That should come soon, hopefully it works!

Gathering lots of restaurant recommendations and the like from the amazing tripadvisor message boards. got the best pizza places in rome and not-so-outrageous places in Copenhagen, good places in Florence, etc. It's nice when the recommendations come from the people who actually live there, especially in the really touristy cities!

2 months

I land in Europe in 2 months woohoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now if only the time (and huge exam) in between would fly by....

Go Me!

I booked a train ticket from the Austrian Railways in German today. I am so proud of myself! ha. i hope i did it right LOL but hey by booking early I saved 20+ euros. That'll get me lots of pizza and Gelato in Italia mmmmmmmm hahahahaa.

I also emailed the Vatican (yes the Vatican) to try to take a tour of the excavations under St. Peter's Basilica. Yes, that's where the Popes are Buried. Should be kinda neat if I can get in (they let tours of 12 people in and only up to 200 people a day so you have to ask early and hope and pray you get a reservation).....so we'll see!

I've decided to take my mom's camera - it's smaller, lighter, and has 2 more megapixels. Cool.

Damn, still over 2 months awayyyyyyyy.

Wow, it's been a month since I last wrote here, well that's good that means the next 2 months will also be quick!!!!!!!

Slight change of plans!

so I looked at the website of the hotel I had picked for Copenhagen (it's not supposed to open til May), hoping to see if they had put up any pictures. Well not only had they not, but it now says June. So i'm starting to get nervous and I look up my 2nd choice hotel - it's similarly well-located (yet further from the "Red Light District"), but a bit more expensive. So I wasn't sure. But I decided to check out the travel sites and Travelocity had it for even less than my first hotel! so I decided to book that one.

So, The Square Copenhagen it is! looks swanky, eh? hahah.

A bit nervous about booking through another site, but I didn't have to pre-purchase, I actually deal directly with the hotel, so I figure, why not. I will just confirm with the hotel and hopefully it will work out fine! :)

Holy maps!

I went to Barnes and Noble yesterday to check out their travel/maps section. There are like 15 kinds of maps for each city. Holy crap, I have no idea which maps are good! Just for sheer coolness factor, I am leaning towards this kind that just pops out and is handheld so you don't look like an idiot standing on the street corner. ha. Plus they are small and wouldn't take up too much room.

I ordered a cool-looking guidebook using my lexisnexis points. HURRAY for free things!!

I also ordered a suitcase that looks good for the trip using my Westlaw points - DOUBLE HURRAY for free things that would otherwise be expensive (80 bucks off ebags |: )

(really none of this is important, I just didn't want nat to batch at me again d: )

DAYUM!!!!!!

So I was doing a bit of research and for kicks I put in my dates into the website at the hotel I'm staying in in Florence. I'm paying 75 Euros a night. it's now 115 euros. UNBELIEVABLE!! Lucky me. hahahahahahaha.

Putting together some tentative itineraries. B/c I'm bored. Yay.

Oh, take the poll ;)

More stuff down!

We booked all the intra-Europe flights - 5 for me, 3 for Amanda. Some ended up being a little cheaper than we first thought. Woohoo!

It wasn't without annoyance, though. The last one i tried to book, the credit card company didn't like. Ended up using another card, so will be charged 3% extra in the conversion, oh well. And one of course, I was a monster idiot and put my first name in the last name box. but luckily b/c I called within 24 hours, I could cancel and rebook. Woohoo!

And now we just have to find some fun stuff to do. Amanda found some things in Barcelona and Lisbon.

Is it July 28 yet???????????!

Hell yea (and thanks)!

Got my plane tickets, could actually hold them and look hahahahaaha. Called each airline and confirmed my seat reservations. Kick ass. Both people I talked to were so nice, if their airlines are anything like they are, the plane rides will be part of the whole experience LOL!

And thanks to those who have had trouble accessing the blog. It means a lot that you care enough to go through hoops to be able to read it :) I promise to try as hard as I can to be entertaining hahaha

128 days and counting!

Air tickets booked

I called Alitalia, who assured me that after I get my tickets from Expedia, I can call and guarantee myself an aisle seat. so ok fine, for $1083, I have my tickets. I have heard good things about Virgin Atlantic, I hope they are as good as people say :)

my first overnight flight, wtf am i gonna do with myself for 10+ hours? lmao. maybe a miracle will happen and i'll be able to sleep? hahhahahahahahahahhahaaha

only thing left to purchase is the flights during the trip. Most of those aren't too terribly expensive.

EEP IT'S REALLY REAL NOW!!!!!!!

Suck it, Expedia

Expedia is a piss-off.

So I was all excited when I found my overseas flights on expedia for about $1063. Several hundred cheaper than buying directly from the airlines. I've never used expedia before but other people tell me they've never had a problem with it. Maybe they've never tried to do the kind of trip I'm trying to do.......

So then I go to book, and I can't get e-tickets because it is two different airlines. That means an extra 20 bucks for paper tickets that I just have to worry about not losing for 45 days across 10 cities, lines to wait in, blahblahblah.

Then I can't even pick any kind of seat for the Rome to Boston return trip. Nine hours (after what's going to be an exhausting 45-day trip) sitting in a seat I'm not comfortable with (I prefer aisle seats especially on these big planes where there are only two seats there anyway)???? I don't think so. So I try calling expedia to see what's up and after waiting like almost a half hour I get a woman who must be in India or something and pretty much can't speak English. She puts me on hold about 10 times (ok more like 5 but still) and she tells me that Alitalia just doesn't provide them the seating charts so I can just get my seat the day I travel upon check-in. I'm like.... WHAT? That's not good enough for me. maybe some people are, but I am not ok with the prospect of showing up to the airport, exhausted and looking forward to getting home to the States for them to tell me I am stuck in between 5 people in the last row right by the bathrooms and drink carts. NO thanks.

So I'm getting to the point where for the extra money I would feel better about paying more just to buy directly from the airlines. The weird thing is, I'm not even sure how much more. Alitalia has two sites. a general one and one for the US. on the General site, it is like, much cheaper for the same flight, they charge in Euros but even with the current exchange rate it's like $150 less for the exact same flight. Would they even let an American buy tickets on their generic international flight?

But my thrifty self is having a problem with the thought of paying an extra $275 or something just to avoid these annoyances.

OY VEY.

Hotels

Hotel Reservations are being made. Finished 9 of 10 so far and the last is in motion. I am proud of myself for finding affordable, nice-looking, well-located small hotels in each city. Was not easy but was fun reading reviews and seeing how people's actual experiences differed from how the hotels' websites made things look. Because many of the hotels I found were so small, I have dealt directly with a few of the innkeepers. Some of them appear to be pretty much the nicest people ever.

The whole thing feels real now!!! :)

Final Official Itinerary (edit march 6, now including the 10 lucky hotels, which have all been confirmed!)

• Fly into London leaving July 28, arriving late morning July 29
• Stratford-upon-Avon (3 nights) - The Emsley B&B
  
• Lisbon (5 nights) - Residencial Florescente
  
• Barcelona (5 nights) - Apsis Hotel Splendid
  
• Brussels and surrounding areas (4 nights) - Brussels Welcome Hotel
  
• Amsterdam (4 nights) - Hotel Orlando
  
• Copenhagen (5 nights) - Hotel Guldsmeden AXEL
  
• Vienna (5 nights) - Hotel am Schubertring
• Venice (4 nights) - Ca' Dei Dogi
  
• Florence (5 nights) - Hotel David
  
• Rome (5 nights) - Hotel Paba
  

Welcome!

welcome to the new location. blogspot/blogger is a lot easier to post on. Plus I like the idea of having it private, it's easy enough for me to invite anyone who wants to read it!

Trip is shaping up, Amanda's gonna come for a couple weeks. can't wait!

Don't forget to see the old stuff here http://www.freewebs.com/europe2007/index.htm