Well there's only two more weeks to go before I fly off to London, and there is a lot to do in the meantime! Who would have thought that preparing for the trip would take so long?
I'm currently a mix of excited and anxious. Its going to be one hell of an experience but travelling by myself is a bit scary!
As most of you know, I've been thinking about taking a trip like this for quite some time, although the trip that I will be embarking on bears no resemblence at all with the original plan! My original plan was to move to France for a year and do something a bit different - like become a tennis coach. Gradually I came to the conclusion that the best way to see Europe is with a backpack on my back...
Here's a broad outline of the plan so far:
First I'm heading to London for a week. The purpose of this is to acclimatise, get over my jetlag and catchup with a few friends. Also high on my list is to check out Westminster Abby as I haven't been there before...
From there its a short Eurostar ride to Paris where I am doing a 13 day "Best of Europe" Contiki Tour. Contiki Tour's tend to polarise people a bit: some say its a fantastic idea but others say its incredibly tacky. I have to confess I was originally in the group who thought it was tacky, but given that I will be travelling by myself, and I don't think I've met one person who's actually been on a Contiki Tour and thinks its a bad idea, I decided that it will be a good way to get into the swing of things... The Tour will take me to Amsterdam, Berlin, Dresden, Prague and Rome and by all accounts should be a lot of fun.
That's all that's booked so far. But before calling me lazy my dear reader you should know that I decided that the best way to do Europe is to keep my itinery open, so if I like a place I can stay and if I don't I can keep going.
The loose idea for the remainder is to go to the south of Spain and from Granada work my way up to France via Madrid. From there it will be (in order) on to central and southern France (especially Nice, Bordeaux, Cannes), northern Italy (Milan and Venice), Switzerland (thanks for letting me stay Mel!!!), Germany, Belgium (I'll be heading to Bruges but I've heard its a bit of a shithole...), back to France (Champagne district, Normandy) and maybe Sweden if I have time. Also want to try and make it to Oktoberfest...
Also hoping to catch up with a few friends when I'm over there (if I can). Back in February, Kylie Bates, Mark Russell and myself vowed to catch up over a drink in Europe. I consider this a binding, albiet drunken, promise... Also look forward to having a beer with Matt Smith in some "exotic location".
Hopefully I will be able to keep everyone up to date via this blog (but to be perfectly honest I have no idea how often I'll be able to get to a computer while I'm over there!).
In any event, stay tuned for heaps of photo's and weird and wonderful stories from Europe!
Anthony
