3 Days Away!

We leave Thursday, that's three days from now.  It's kind of like graduation, it doesn't feel like it'll actually ever get here, except... I graduated 3 weeks ago.  As of two weeks ago, we booked our hotels and hostels.  Then, a few days later, decided to start our trip earlier, changing flights so we can leave in 3 days as opposed to 7.  With that addition, it becomes exactly 2 weeks that we'll be in Europe.  Now, as I type this, I've just finished typing up the itinerary for my parents (and maybe Blair's) who all can't seem to stop mentioning the movie Taken.  Yea, that's really helped me feel safe - the one sorta scary movie I've ever seen.  With that aside though, we've got it all booked.  Our expenses are paid and the only things we have to worry about now is how to get around each city (mostly trains and busses) and our food/attraction costs.  The plan is to start in London, spend some time exploring before heading over to Zurich where we want to take a day hiking in the beautiful landscape.  After there, we'll head to Rome then Barcelona then Paris before circling back to London a few days before we depart for home.  We're staying in a mix of hostels and hotels, some with private rooms, some shared.  It kind of depended on price, location, and reviews for where I chose in each city.  I'm actually really excited to see what the hostels are like.  The ones we chose in London (the first time) and Barcelona have really great reviews and say they are fantastic places to just sit at the bar and make friends from other countries.  I think that's going to be half this experience, especially since we aren't getting many days in each city.  Otherwise, now that I have the itinerary typed up and have slowly double checked everything, the tickets, hotel stays, and flights all line up like they should, helping me think that maybe, just maybe, I'll rest a little better before it's time to leave.  Now that it's all lined up and I'm checking things off my list of tickets that needed printed and copies of documents that need to come along, as well as charging my camera and saving information to my iPad, I'll end today's preparations there.  Tomorrow, we find out how well a notorious pack-rat can fit two weeks worth of supplies into just a carry-on.