Time to See the World

Classes have ended, papers are passed in, exams have been taken, and rugby season is over. So, what's next? Well, it's time to see (some of) the world. With just under a month and half left abroad, some friends and I have made plans to take on Europe in pursuit of adventure, beautiful places, interesting people, and whatever else our travels have to offer us. The first part of "Eurotrip '11," as we have decided to nickname it, is taking place between April 15th and April 24th, when my friends Katie, Caitrin, and I will travel from Galway to Amsterdam to Berlin to Prague to Krakow. We're leaving Galway at 2:15AM tonight and taking the bus to Dublin Airport, where our flight departs for Amsterdam at 7:30AM. We will not be back in Ireland until nine days later, on Easter Sunday, when we return to Dublin at 10:30PM and catch the bus back to Galway. In between, we will be using the Eurail system to make our way from city to city.

I am anticipating that the response to where I'm traveling will surely be "but, why there?" My answer is simple and rhetorical: why not? The girls and I made a laundry list of all the places that we would like to visit and then narrowed it down to two trips covering nine places through compromise and financial reasoning. I've heard mixed reviews on all the cities I am visiting, but I'll never really know what to think of them unless I visit myself, right? So bring on the canals of Amsterdam, the remnants of the Berlin Wall, the capital of the Czech Republic, and Easter in Poland! My expectations for the trip are great and varied; I anticipate excitement and fun mixed with inevitable confusion and stress. I really can't emphasize enough how much I am looking forward to this trip, mostly because I am getting the chance to visit all sorts of places that I've never been and partly because it is something that I feel is really "adult;" a real exercise in independence. I have attached a map to provide a visual of my traveling route. 

I am not taking my laptop with me on my trip and therefore will not be able to blog until I get back. So please excuse my absence, but I am sure that I will be writing up a storm once I return. So here I go, backpack on, camera charged, and passport in hand. Until then, Happy Birthday Mom! And a Happy Easter to everyone!

Love and making moves,

Haley