Planning, planning, Pa-lan-ing
This summer, I (finally) get to take the trip of a lifetime, though I hope not my only trip of a lifetime. After finishing my Master's in Education this past December, I will be venturing to Europe, to see, explore, touch, and taste The Netherlands, England, Wales, Ireland, Northern Ireland, and Paris.
If you know me, you know I'm a planner. You also know a lot of my "plans" never see fruition. Which is what makes this trip that much more exciting.
My first "plan" started way back last school year, while I was in the thick of Master's degree work. See last summer I was supposed to lead a student trip to Costa Rica. No one wanted to come on that trip, so it didn't happen, which made my travel bug bite me HARD. It's hard to stay home when, in the past 10 years, I've been to Spain 3 times. So I decided that since I would be finishing my degree this school year, I should celebrate by taking a trip.
I knew that I had to go visit Sarah in Holland. So The Netherlands was my first stop. But then I realized, once you're in Europe, travel around, it's super easy. Now this is my first solo trip so I wanted to ease into it gently. My list of countries to explore is long, but I only speak Spanish and English. So the choice was quite simple. As much as I love Spain, I have been there twice in the last 5 years so I wanted to see somewhere else. So it had to be England, and since I was going to England, why not Ireland as well, seeing as how I kind of speak the language (kind of...). Thus the plan was set. Holland, England and Ireland.
I knew that in Holland I wouldn't have to plan much because Sarah would know everywhere to go. I knew I wanted to go to London and a bit about what there was to see in London, but other than the fact that it's the home of Celtic Thunder (my favorite singing group) and it's very green, I knew nothing about Ireland, so I bought a book. I love the TV show Rick Steve's Europe. So I knew I would love Rick's books. The first book I bought was Ireland. I highlighted and paper flagged this book to within an inch of its binding. This was last August. Around MEA time I bought England and The Netherlands books too, highlighting when I should have been grading papers or writing papers.
I made my list of places to visit and figured-out how many days it would take to do all of this, and I decided 35 days sounded just right, and if I left right after school got out, I could be back before my niece Meredith's 5th birthday. Well that plan changed just a bit.
Next summer I will be bringing students to Italy, France and Spain with EF tours. I am a first time tour leader with this company, so they are sending me on an orientation tour. The orientation tour is 4 days in a foreign city with all expenses paid; airfare, meals, hotel, everything. Well they opened a training tour to Paris in July. not a week after I was scheduled to get back from my trip. I asked "I'm already going to be in Europe, can you just get me from Dublin to Paris?" Well it turns out they're not going to do that because a one-way ticket is the same as a round-trip ticket, so they're flying me to Amsterdam at the beginning of my trip! Which means my trip is now 40 days, and I had to delay my trip by a little over a week. I will miss Meredith's birthday and both Meredith and Thomas's birthday party. But I will facetime in to the party.
So now that my planning is almost done, many airplane tickets have been purchased, many train tickets have been purchased, Theatre tickets have been reserved, hotels, and b&b's reserved, as well as entrance tickets to both the Harry Potter Studio Tour and the Doctor Who Experience....I'm such a nerd.
This trip is going to be amazing. Check back for more while I'm on the road I'll try to post pictures and videos so you can see just how awesome a time I'm having.
Laters!
If you know me, you know I'm a planner. You also know a lot of my "plans" never see fruition. Which is what makes this trip that much more exciting.
My first "plan" started way back last school year, while I was in the thick of Master's degree work. See last summer I was supposed to lead a student trip to Costa Rica. No one wanted to come on that trip, so it didn't happen, which made my travel bug bite me HARD. It's hard to stay home when, in the past 10 years, I've been to Spain 3 times. So I decided that since I would be finishing my degree this school year, I should celebrate by taking a trip.
I knew that I had to go visit Sarah in Holland. So The Netherlands was my first stop. But then I realized, once you're in Europe, travel around, it's super easy. Now this is my first solo trip so I wanted to ease into it gently. My list of countries to explore is long, but I only speak Spanish and English. So the choice was quite simple. As much as I love Spain, I have been there twice in the last 5 years so I wanted to see somewhere else. So it had to be England, and since I was going to England, why not Ireland as well, seeing as how I kind of speak the language (kind of...). Thus the plan was set. Holland, England and Ireland.
I knew that in Holland I wouldn't have to plan much because Sarah would know everywhere to go. I knew I wanted to go to London and a bit about what there was to see in London, but other than the fact that it's the home of Celtic Thunder (my favorite singing group) and it's very green, I knew nothing about Ireland, so I bought a book. I love the TV show Rick Steve's Europe. So I knew I would love Rick's books. The first book I bought was Ireland. I highlighted and paper flagged this book to within an inch of its binding. This was last August. Around MEA time I bought England and The Netherlands books too, highlighting when I should have been grading papers or writing papers.
I made my list of places to visit and figured-out how many days it would take to do all of this, and I decided 35 days sounded just right, and if I left right after school got out, I could be back before my niece Meredith's 5th birthday. Well that plan changed just a bit.
Next summer I will be bringing students to Italy, France and Spain with EF tours. I am a first time tour leader with this company, so they are sending me on an orientation tour. The orientation tour is 4 days in a foreign city with all expenses paid; airfare, meals, hotel, everything. Well they opened a training tour to Paris in July. not a week after I was scheduled to get back from my trip. I asked "I'm already going to be in Europe, can you just get me from Dublin to Paris?" Well it turns out they're not going to do that because a one-way ticket is the same as a round-trip ticket, so they're flying me to Amsterdam at the beginning of my trip! Which means my trip is now 40 days, and I had to delay my trip by a little over a week. I will miss Meredith's birthday and both Meredith and Thomas's birthday party. But I will facetime in to the party.
So now that my planning is almost done, many airplane tickets have been purchased, many train tickets have been purchased, Theatre tickets have been reserved, hotels, and b&b's reserved, as well as entrance tickets to both the Harry Potter Studio Tour and the Doctor Who Experience....I'm such a nerd.
This trip is going to be amazing. Check back for more while I'm on the road I'll try to post pictures and videos so you can see just how awesome a time I'm having.
Laters!
i love this. :) cant wait to live vicariously through you! :P :) :)
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