dreaming of europe

302 days = 43 weeks = 10 months

Thats how long is left until I leave for Europe. It almost seems ridiculous to be counting down this early but I really can't help it. Every other minute I'm thinking about places or weather or packing, I naturally love to plan stuff and this is a pretty big thing to plan :)

So...

I will be travelling with 4 male friends from uni (James, Paul and Brad who will graduate at the end of 2007 and Simon who graduated with me at the end of 2006) so there will be at least 5 Civil Engineers on our Contiki tour :P

We plan to leave Brisbane on Boxing Day, obviously don't know flights etc. yet but we're hoping to fly with Emirates because I've heard a lot of good reviews about them. They have great in-flight entertainment and food and it will enable us to stop at Dubai for a few days on the way home (Dubai is a big deal in the engineering world atm).

Then we have 5 1/2 days in London to see the sights and take one or two day trips away from the city. Stonehenge is a definite on all our lists and possibly Cambridge, Oxford or Brighton. We should be staying at the Royal National Hotel (which features the Contiki Basement downstairs) to make thing easier on our morning of departure. We'll be having New Years in London which will be exciting, though we'll have to remember to celebrate our 'real' New Year at 2pm London time :)

The tour we've chosen to do (well the boys chose and I decided to tag along for...) is the Contiki Winter Wanderer departing from London on January 2nd. The tour runs for 24 days, so it goes for most of the month of January, and includes overnight stays in Paris (France), Lucerne (Switzerland), Lyon (France), Barcelona (Spain), Nice (France), Florence (Italy), Rome (Italy), Venice (Italy), Vienna (Austria), Munich (Germany), Prague (Czech Republic), Berlin (Germany) and Amsterdam (Netherlands).

So as far as planning goes, I have started saving for the trip and working out what I want to wear, because all girls know that clothes are important :). I've decided to limit my research and reading up on towns and countries so that I don't lose excitement too quickly. First, I'm reading up on London and working out what places I'd like to see while I'm there and marking them all in Google Earth. Then once I'm done with that (and only then) I'll move onto Paris. I'll get to see the most of London because I'll have more than one full day there, my itinerary for all the other cities will have to be prioritised because there is no way I will be able to see everything.

So thats it so far. I'll write about London soon :)

Oh, and my master literature review is still coming along...nowhere near as interesting as planning a european holiday...