Intro to EuroTrip 2011

My entire life, I have always wanted to travel. I have been on a number of road trips, and while in middle school, I was fortunate enough to be an exchange student to Barcelona, Spain for two weeks, not once, but twice. After that, my desire to go back to Europe, to see more than just Barcelona, was concrete. I asked my parents year after year about letting me go, but something always came up. "Not enough money", "We have plans this summer" yada yada. By senior year, I had practically lost all hope that I would ever get to go, but I still began bringing up talks for the first time about a EuroTrip, and much to my suprise, my parents were totally on-board. I got a job in November to save up, recruited another friend to go with me, and started planning out the trip for months in advance. Finally, on June 7th, I waved goodbye to my family and boarded a plane for Paris. I would be gone for 35 days and would visit Paris, London, Brussels, Amsterdam, Cologne, Zurich, Venice, Naples, Rome, Florence, Nice, and last but not least, Barcelona. Sitting on the tram, it finally began to sink in what I was about to do. The longest I had been away from my family was a little over two weeks, this was much longer. To be completely on my own though, that I had never done for more than a weekend. It was going to be tough, but I decided that no matter how hard it got, or how tired I was, I wasn't going to quit, I wasn't going to call home for help, and I was always going to leave my bed and go see the world. My next posts will outline some of my adventures and experiences I had over those 35 days. Now, who is ready for some stories? ;)