One Week Left!

The title of this post is pretty self-explanatory. We leave one week from today!! Glorious.

The Fault in Our Travel Plans

If you have any awareness of pop culture, and especially if you're a preteen girl, you know that the movie adaptation of John Green's insanely popular novel, The Fault in Our Stars, hits screens tomorrow. Or, if you're me and you go to an advance screening, then it was tonight.

Movie review and spoilers aside, this movie is about two kids with cancer who end up falling in love and it's tragic and poetic and happy and sad and absolutely everything else you could want in a YA novel. So, why am I writing all about this on my travel blog? Because part of their love story takes them across the Atlantic and straight into the heart of Amsterdam.

Do I intend to reenact the novel while abroad? No, I do not, because it was sad and I'm going with my sister and not my "not-boyfriend" (spoiler alert: he quickly becomes her boyfriend). There is also a scene where our two young friends make out in the Anne Frank house and I really don't intend on doing that on this trip or ever BUT, in all seriousness, it has officially made the waiting even harder.

This movie was an emotional rollercoaster (it is not, as one character says "A rollercoaster that only goes up" because this thing dives, twists and flips for exactly 2 hours and 10 minutes), but in between her tears, Whitney leaned over to me and said "17 days," and if that just isn't the coolest thing I've ever heard, then I don't know what is.

Our Homes Away From Home

We are not so homeless anymore! We are still slightly homeless in Rome and Naples, but we have booked hostels in Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin and Venice.

Not going to lie, it was (and continues to be in the case of Rome and Naples) a pretty stressful process and isn't really helped by the fact that we're trying to book these places so close to our actual trip, but it feels really good to know that we have some place to stay. I think we found some really nice hostels too, so I'm really excited (wait...when am I not excited?).

I'll write when I have found somewhere to stay in Rome and Naples...or maybe I'll never write and will just end up spending the last week of my trip wandering through Italy, begging for shelter...

"Hi. Do you speak English?" -Whitney on an international call to France. Cool story, bro.

Why Paris?

I mentioned in my last post that I was promised a trip to Paris when I was 16, but I didn't explain why. You're probably thinking "It's Paris! Who needs a reason to go?" Well, yes, that too, but Paris is the closest thing I have to a lifelong dream.

The idea of a "lifelong dream" is a silly one to me, because I was not born with an intense desire to travel or to become a movie star, but I think having a singular dream for 15 years (roughly 2/3 of my life) merits the use of that term. So, why is this my dream?

When I was seven, I was a member of Girl Scout Troop 4771; one of like 19 Girl Scout Troops in a town that barely has 19 girls but, numbers aside, that year, the Troop Leaders decided that at the end of the school year, we would have a World Culture Night. Each troop was assigned a country that they would research and eventually present to the rest of the Girl Scout community in Cohasset, Mass. In case you haven't figured it out, my troop was assigned France and in our first grade brains, that really just meant Paris. We worked on our presentation for the entire school year! I'm pretty sure I spent more time studying France than selling cookies that year. We all made our own shirts and wore red berets and it was just fantastic. I'm sure we earned some merit badge along the way, but that detail has been forgotten while the ideals they were trying to instill -- a respect for foreign cultures and a desire to see the world -- has lived on.

Now, why am I writing about this? Partly because I assume that people care about everything I think and do, but mostly because I found a picture from World Culture Night when I was cleaning my room. Not only was it nice to remember my little nugget self, it was a great reminder of why I'm going on this adventure and what I hope to gain. I hope I can make little Thomson proud this summer.

Nugget Thomson and fellow Girl Scouts - circa 1999

 P.S. We're still homeless. Hostels should be booked tomorrow!

Remember me?

The blog is coming back! I'm currently preparing for my big European adventure! It's only about 6 (almost 7!) years late, since I was promised a trip to Paris for my 16th birthday, but that detail is insignificant compared to how excited I am.

Whitney is studying abroad in Rome for the entire month of July, so we have concocted a most glorious plan, where the two of us are going over two weeks before her program starts. Together, we are going to Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin and Venice before circling back to her final destination, Rome. The fun for me, however, does not stop there, because just as we will be arriving in Rome, my mom will be as well! My mom and I will tour Rome for a few days with Whitney before her program starts and then (after much debating about where my mom and I should go), we will be on our way to Naples! So lots of Italy for me!!!

We still have a ton of planning to do (we are currently homeless in each of the cities we are visiting but that will change...I hope), but the anticipation is heading through the roof. Although I don't plan on blogging about packing, hotel arrangements or guide books as religiously as I plan on digitally cataloging my trip on this open forum, I figured that there might be time for a few good posts between now and the trip, thus making it time to reawaken the beast. 

Just so you know:
Departure date: June 17, 2014
Return date: July 8, 2014

Ciao!

The Ukraine

This is a bit of a false alarm, because I'm not traveling at the moment...

My dad is leaving on a business trip for Ukraine this evening and I am green with envy. Not a pleasant shade of green either, we're talking Margaret Hamilton's Wicked Witch of the West green. Even though my dad will be spending about as much time on the plane as he will on the ground in Kiev, I still have a lot to be jealous of.

It would really stink if my dad was just going to Europe, but the fact that he is going to Ukraine kills me! Why is this a big deal, you may ask? I'm not Ukranian, I don't know anyone who is and I don't think I know anyone who has gone to Ukraine (other than my father when he arrives tomorrow evening). It is a big deal because one of my alter-egos is Ukranian. Her name is Katya and she is a Ukranian, rapping spy who is obsessed with yaks. My sister also has a Ukranian alter-ego named Polina and we are both very attached to these characters we've created. (I will add here that we have both been crushed by the revelation that there are no yak in the Ukraine. I'm not sure why we thought there were, but we did, and this news has been earth shattering). So, Chuck is going to "The Motherland" without me and I'm very upset about this. (In full disclosure, our real motherland is actually a Fatherland, because we're German, BUT Chuck will also be going to the Fatherland, because he has a layover in Munich).

I'm also super jealous because my dad's trip to Ukraine means that I will be the last person in my family to travel to Europe! My mom went in high school, my sister went last summer and my dad is going now. I have wanted to go to Europe (specifically France and even more specifically Paris) since I was seven and even though I have had amazing trips to Australia and South Africa (which are arguably more exotic and exciting locations), Europe is still my dream! I was actually supposed to go to Paris for my 16th birthday, but it's been almost six years now and I still haven't gone. Even Pink and Goldie (the stuffed bears my dad has taken with him on business trips since I was little) will have gone to Europe before me. You can see why I'm upset by this.

So, the moral of the story is, Dad, buy me something nice!