Sunday, January 04, 2009

Have Bags, Will Travel

Hello darlings,

So now that we've officially stepped into 2009, I'm going to try to do better on this blogging thing. First things first...I'm going to give you a spiel about my goals for this year. Last year when I did this on Meander, I ended up attaining all of my goals. The only thing that I didn't do was learn Spanish---everything else was reached.

I bought a car, traveled abroad, started school again, got a house, got rid of toxic friends, mended broken fences with certain people and establish good relationships with others. All in all, 2008 was an accomplished year.

For me 2009 is a year of promise, a year when I'm going to be knocking things off my 30 things to do before 30 list. Traveling the world has always been a huge thing on that list, but I've yet to do major traveling. Sure I've been to Canada, Mexico, Amsterdam and a bunch of African countries...but I haven't really traveled enough in my mind to become a World Traveler. My friend Rhia last year threw caution to the wind, cashed in her life in the US and moved to Sweden. I asked her why she did this, and her response was why not?

Life is too short. Way too short. I have to live my dreams now, in this very moment. So this summer, Norio and I are going to Europe.

I'm still in the planning stages but by March we will have enough saved up to be gone for 6 weeks-2 months. If anyone has suggestions of great places that we should visit or things that I should know, please email me. I'm a novice at the Grand Tour thing, and I'm totally not the 'roughing it' type...my princess tendencies get in the way of that. I want a comfortable and classy trip all the way! I think my main problem will be limiting myself to only 1 suitcase. I'm the history, landmark buff while Norio is the language, culture buff. Hopefully Europe will be big enough for us to align the two!

Here's the tentative itinerary...

• London: 2-3 days, drive to Rouen (I'm dying to see Stonehenge), and Scotland (Hadrian's wall area).
• Spain: Especially Madrid & Monaco
• Italy: we'll probably spend a week to 10 days here...Italy has so much to see; Rome, the basilica, coloseum, all those cathedrals, Siena (his choice), Venice.
  
• France: Duh! I want to go to Paris, what's a Euro trip without Paris?? The Louvre is calling me!
  
• Switzerland: Lake Como/Zurich area. Norio has family there that we have to visit. He wants to spend a week there
• Greece: Off the beaten path, yes I know, but I want to go to Athens dammit! Maybe even Pompeii.
  

I guess this trip we're going to be focusing on Western Europe and we'll probably have to do the Eastern side another time. Okay, this is the tentative itinerary, and I still have to factor in dates, travel plans, accomodation etc. But we're so excited and I'm absolutely over the moon.
Posted by Vixen @ 9:45 AM :: 6 trainees letting it rip!

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