Nearing the end

4 days until my final paper is due.

6 days until my last exam.

7 days until I pack up and leave Cortona.

8 days until my Mom arrives.

32 days until I arrive back in Canada.

Total trip. 94 days. Would someone please explain to me where the time has gone?

As I slowly trudge through final papers and final exams, I realize that I'm reaching a milestone in this European adventure. By next weekend I'll be finished school for the semester, beginning my 6 month "summer vacation", and waiting for my Mom to arrive for our Mother-Daughter attack on Europe.

But FIRST. I must finish that paper. And study for final exams. Argh I hate this part.

But AFTER. A whirlwind three weeks of bonding time. Greece-Italy-Austria-Czech Republic-London-Home. I'm so excited!

Coming Soon

Today Erin and I went to Spoleto, and it was well worth it! We got up bright and early, and finally arrived home 12 hours later. I'll save stories for when I have a chance to upload pictures.... so that post is in the near future. The reason I'm giving you advance notice, is simply because I don't know when I'll get the chance to do so. Here is why:

• I still want to do a day trip to Siena... possibly tomorrow (Saturday). Problem being: no one else wants to go tomorrow, so I'd be going by myself. Not a big deal, but I'm also exhausted from today and would love to sleep in. ("So go another day!" You say. Not as easy as that sounds.)
• Next weekend: Feb 4-6 = Cinque Terre
• Feb 11-13 = Rome
• Feb 18-19 = Pompeii
• Feb 25-27 = Carnevale in Venice
• March 4-6 = Rome
• March 10 = Finals, March 11-12 pack up and leave.
• March 12-April 4 = Travelling with Mom
• April 4 = Coming home.

And I STILL want to do: Siena, Assisi, Perugia...

So WHEN? This is the dilemma. So. Pictures and stories of this past week and weekend will be coming soon.

Hello again.

Well I suppose it is time to brush off the dust from Cobblestone Chronicles...

Departure date: January 1st 2011, 4:00 pm

Return date: April 4th 2011, 5:10 pm

Destination: Italy

From January 3rd until March 11th I will be doing school - I am taking three courses while I am away. Classics 355 - The Roman City; Classics 478 - The power of beauty; Int 125 - Conversational Italian.

From March 12th until April 4th I will be travelling with my wonderful Mother. The plan is to show her around Italy (my first love), check out a few new places together (including Greece), venture back to my second love - London, and then come home to our very lonely significant others.

This is going to be an adventure of a lifetime, and I am unbelievably excited! I am definitely nervous to travel for so long by myself, but I am also looking forward to the independence. The past few months, weeks and days have been spent getting details into place. The closer departure gets the more nervous I get! What if I forget something extremely important??? What if I simply forget to pack it? This is so new, yet somewhat familiar. I am glad I backpacked Europe with Colette in 2009, because I feel so much more confident in my preparations this time around.

Tomorrow!

Tomorrow is the big day! I'm still completely in shock that we're actually doing this. It has always been a dream of mine to travel...especially to Italy. But today I got thinking about the things I'm going to miss while I'm gone...

my family

my bed & pillow

home cooked meals

my cellphone

my ipod

Leia (our dog)

popcorn

Tim Hortons

Okay I'm only gone a month...but these are important things that I don't often go for long without! I'm NOT going to miss this ridiculous weather as we wait for Spring to decide it has arrived. Nor am I going to miss work. Not that I don't like work (for those coworkers that might be reading), but time off will prepare me for those long days of teaching lessons waiting for me in July.

Hopefully the weather will be gorgeous over there. Supposedly spring is one of the most beautiful times of the year in Europe. The picture at the top of this post is one I found of spring in Spain. I can't wait to see these things myself!

Forecast for London when we arrive?

Tuesday: Drizzly, cloudy, mild High of 18 C, Low of 9 C

Wednesday: More sun than cloud High of 19 C, Low of 10 C

Not too bad...I'll take it!

Itinerary/ 3 More Days

Monday is take off. I'm all packed and ready to go (I think)... so how do I spend my day? I have one more shift at the pool before Monday, so that leaves alot of time to do, well, anything! And yet my day is spent sleeping in, eating a healthy breakfast of bacon and eggs, tanning (I'm pretty dark now ...for me), lunch, and ellen degeneres. 1000th episode today, and I'm happy to say I have probably only watched a dozen or so. (Happy because if I had seen all 1000, that would have been 6 years of watching ellen faithfully every single weekday) She's very entertaining though. When I can, I look forward to that hour in my day. The day usually finishes off with me making supper (now that I'm done school) and relaxing with my family. Last night I watched Twilight with my mom...she's reading the series and needed to watch the movie. I've seen it 4 times now. :D Tonight I think I'm going to ride along with my Dad as he seeds for his seasonal boss. Brings back memories from growing up, riding along in the combine. I'm looking forward to some good quality Daddy/Daughter time.

I get distracted easily. Maybe it is just easy to write and keep writing. Half the reason for posting today, was to put up a basic itinerary for the trip. Let you in on how the month is going to be spent. (Approximately) We are trying not to have deadlines, because we want our trip to be as spontaneous and as "whatever we feel like doing" as possible. Even still, here is what our month looks like:

Monday May 4, 2009 - Boarding our flight to London at 7:50 at the Edmonton International Airport. We arrive in London at 11 am the next day. (Gotta love time changes)

Sunday May 10, 2009 - Flying to Rome, Italy. We're spending two (or so) days in Rome, taking the train to Florence (2 more days there) and then to Venice (again a few days).

May 16th or 17th - See what I mean about not knowing 100% our days? We're taking the train to the South of France, probably Nice, Cannes, Marseille, Avignon. Basically the French Riviera. This will probably be a few days shy of a week.

May 22nd or 23rd - Off to Spain. A few days in Barcelona, Valencia and Madrid.

May 28th (Probably) - Taking the train up to Paris. Last few days of our trip will be spent here.

May 30th - I fly home. Colette meets up with the group she will be taking a couple classes with. She returns home June 30th.

Again, I think Colette has a better idea of exact days, but we're trying not to restrain our time schedule too much. I hope this gives you a better idea of what's happening!

4 More Days

I've been counting down for about 32 days. Thats alot of days to count down! Planning since February (Reading week to be exact). Sort of a spontaneous decision on the way up a chairlift at Marmot Basin - Jasper. And now here we are. 4 MORE DAYS!! My backpack is almost packed...and looking at it lying on the floor, overflowing with clothes and goods, I wonder how I'm going to carry it around without falling over first. Okay, I confess. Its overflowing because I unloaded it again - still not sure which jeans are coming and which jeans aren't. I think I have a shopping obsession. I went into Edmonton today to pick up a couple last minute things, and ended up buying another pair of jeans at American Eagle. They fit great and look awesome! So now I'm switching jeans every 2 minutes, trying to decide which pair looks better, which pair is more comfortable, etc. I really need to stop spending money BEFORE I leave. That cash is supposed to be for those Italian shoes I'm set on purchasing...