Hemingway Tours Incorporated

Ernest Hemingway was a cool guy. He was also two big buckets of crazy, but we don't need to talk about that. The dude went everywhere. Before planning this trip, I knew about his house in Key West and the famous Hemingway cats (he had such an affinity for polydactyl cats -- cats with extra toes -- that they are now commonly referred to as "Hemingway cats" and something like 42 of these cats continue to roam his home in Key West -- which has been turned into a museum -- freely), I did not, however, truly understand the scope of his European presence.

I knew that Hemingway had spent an incredible amount of time in Paris -- one of the hubs for the Lost Generation -- and that that's where he met F. Scott Fitzgerald and numerous other writers who we all suffered through in high school or a freshmen lit. course in college but will undoubtedly come to appreciate in twenty years or something when we realize what a luxury reading books is. France was not his only haunt though -- he also spent years in Italy and Spain and all of these places heavily influenced his writing. As I am reading my guide books and trying to create itineraries that maximize my travel time in each city, I'm discovering just how many places boast about their connections to Hemingway. Whitney has already told me that we are not traveling through Europe based on famous writers and where they liked to have breakfast or where they once brushed their teeth, but I have realized that there is probably a market for big, old nerds like me.

This revelation has led me to do some serious Google searches where I have discovered that no one has taken advantage of this niche market. I figure that people take Shakespeare tours all around Europe to see the places he wrote about, so why not Hemingway tours? I could make bank just taking people around France, Italy and Spain to give them a full Hemingway experience.

But, in all seriousness, welcome to Hemingway Tours Incorporated.

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!