Getting Ready!

Okay, so let the official countdown begin! Ian has officially 65 days before he leaves for Europe, and I have 67. Reason being, he's traveling with his little bro for 2 weeks while I travel with my mom for 2 weeks. Both of us will be hitting England and Scotland separately during these 2 weeks, plus Ian and Dillon will be visiting Ireland, and my mom and I will be going to Wales. We're both excited about these first trips, and will meet up in England on June 26.

From here, we'll kiss my mom goodbye, and then takeoff just the 3 of us. With Dillon, we'll visit Bruges and Brussels, in Belgium, and Amsterdam in The Netherlands. Then we'll fly to Dro, Italy to meet Ian and Dillon's super-Italian relatives that live there! We'll stay in a bed and breakfast there, on their property from what I understand, for about a week. Then Dillon will fly home, and Ian and I will fly to Krakow, Poland.

We'll be in Krakow for a couple days, and then take a day trip to Auschwitz. This is probably in the top 10 most exciting destinations for Ian and I on this trip, because I think we'll both be very moved and humbled by our visit to the concentration camps, and I think we'll be changed by it.

From here, we'll take the night train to Prague, Czech Republic. I hear Prague is beautiful, so we're looking forward to our few days there. Next is Munich, Germany, and then on to both Salzburg and Vienna, in Austria. From here we go to Budapest, Hungary, and are both really looking forward to the thermal baths there!

Then there's the lonnnng train ride to Venice, Italy, where I told Ian we HAVE to take a Gondola ride. Then we're off to Rome, which is officially my most looked forward to destination of all. So much history! From Rome, we go to Florence for a couple of nights, and then we stop in Pisa for a quick Leaning Tower picture, while on the way to our relaxing bed and breakfast on the cliffs of Cinque Terre. Cinque Terre is a beautiful city in Italy and our bed and breakfast is rated one of the best, and we got the BEST room in the place! Our travel agent, Leslie (awesome, btw) recommended a B&B for this part of our stay for some relaxation time. We'll be there for 4 nights, meaning we will have spent about 20 days in Italy, which is almost nothing compared to all there is to see, but I'm glad we're spending a decent amount of time there.

Continuing our "relaxation week," we travel from Cinque Terre to Interlaken, Switzerland. Here we will also stay in a B&B which will be a nice change from 16 bed dorm rooms in hostels. Interlaken is absolutely beautiful, and only about 11 km from THE most serene, gorgeous city, Lauterbrunnen. Seriously, go google Lauterbrunnen right now and look at the pictures; you'll see what I'm talking about. So we're spending 3 nights here, and then traveling to Spain.

We'll be in Barcelona for a few days, Sevilla for a few more, and then Madrid. We leave Madrid on August 17th, which is myyy birthday! So we'll have to party it up around midnight in Madrid, and then fly to Paris, France, and party some more! How many people can say they partied in 2 European countries on their birthday?! So, like I said, we'll travel from Madrid to Paris, and hang out in Paris for a few days. Then we hop over to Ireland. Ian should be a pro on Ireland by this time because he will have driven through it for about a week with Dillon at the start of the trip. We'll be there for about a week I think, hitting Dublin for sure, and then whatever other cities Ian discovers in the first leg of the trip. Then we fly back to London, and then back home to San Diego!

Sound good? Busy, I know. Luckily we never spend less than 3 nights in a city, so it's a decent pace, I think.

Oh yeah, and we're going to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico in exactly 1 month for our friends' wedding. Hence the username TheWanderlusters. We simply can't stay in one place for too long! We both hope to update this blog as we travel, I think most of the hostels have internet. Check back for pictures too! The majority of the updating will start in June, as the trip gets closer. See ya then!