To beer, or not to beer? That is the question.

Oktoberfest runs from September 18 - October 4 this year. I'll be leaving Dublin on September 26, which means if I tweak my plans a bit and either fly there directly, or head there right after Paris, I could catch the tail end of it.

Pros

1. Oktoberfest!
2. In Germany!

Cons

1. Change in plans would make my loop around Europe a bit trickier.
2. It's probably been impossible to get a room anywhere near it for months now.

I guess we'll see how I'm feeling at that point... I really don't want to get too much planned out in advance, so that I've got plenty of freedom to switch things up for events/places like this. Any thoughts?

Part Next

Not sure if it actually counts as Part II, since I still won't be to the continent. I decided to skip Glasgow (mostly because I hate it) and spend an extra night in Edinburgh... looks like there are a couple distilleries in the area for scotches I haven't tried yet, so those may be worth a visit. I'll be spending the next couple nights in Oban, giving me time to visit the distillery (probably my favorite) and spend a bit of time wandering the town. Unfortunately, it looks like the Laphroaig distillery out on Islay will have to wait for my next visit; it's too much of a pain to get to and from by public transit, and I really don't think I'd do so well with a rental car over there. Much of my driving is done by habit/muscle memory/whatever, and if I ever got tired or distracted I'd probably revert to driving on the right side of the road and wreak all sorts of havoc.

Also unfortunately, I don't actually get to skip Glasgow completely, but luckily it's a quick stop. I'll be hopping a train for the city in the morning, getting there in the afternoon, and taking off for Dublin that evening. My hostel is just a few blocks from Trinity College, which I hear all sorts of good things about. As I mentioned before I'll also be stopping by the Guinness brewery, and hopefully the Jameson distillery as well; don't like it as well as Laphroaig, but it's a consistently good whiskey. I'll be spending four nights there, so I'll probably be taking a few day trips too.

That's it for now, but stay tuned for more exciting updates!

And so it begins

And unlike my other blogs, I'll probably use the shift key on a fairly regular basis. Unless you stumbled upon this site accidentally, you're probably aware that I'm planning a trip to Europe at the end of this summer. I've been unemployed since the end of February and figured that this would be the best time to do it: while I've got no kids or job tying me down, and before I run out of money and have to rejoin the real world. I'm hoping to be there for at least a month, and unless you've decided to come along, this will be the best way to keep up with where I'm at and what I'm doing.

Part I: The Big Picture

Right now, most of what I've got is a general idea of where I want to go. I'll be starting out in the UK since I've been there before and am at least semi-familiar with it; England and Scotland will be the main features, with Ireland (where I haven't been) a definite stop and Wales (haven't been there either) a possibility. From there it's on to Paris for a couple of days--preferably via the Chunnel--and then most likely down to Switzerland, where I'm hoping to meet some relatives and rest up for a few days before moving on. I've been told by several people that I need to get into Spain as well... it's definitely not at the top of my list, but if I do make it there I'll probably continue down into Portugal to see Lisbon and the remains of the Lines of Torres Vedras, and possibly down to Gibraltar as well. Otherwise, I'll continue through Switzerland into Italy to see Rome and Venice, then take a ferry to Greece (if there is still a Greece) to see Athens and Rhodes. Since I'm hoping study Byzantine history when I finally get my ass in gear and get to grad school, I also want to spend some time in Istanbul (was Constantinople, now it's Istanbul not Constantinople) and see what's left of several once-great empires. After that it's up through eastern Europe, with possible stops in Prague and Vienna, before visiting a few of the castles dotted around Germany and then finishing up in Berlin. Unless, of course, by some miracle I still have some money, in which I'll swing through the Netherlands to Amsterdam and up through Denmark to Copenhagen, and I'll head home from there.

Part II: The Little Picture

So far I've got the first little part of my journey actually planned out. My flight leaves Sea-Tac on the afternoon of September 12, and after a brief stop in Iceland puts me down in London the next morning. I'll be spending three nights there in a hostel right across from the British Museum, then hopping on a bus up to Edinburgh for another three nights in another hostel, this one just a couple blocks from the castle. After that I plan to head to Oban to visit the distillery, although I may have to spend a night elsewhere (either one more in Edinburgh, or maybe [yikes!] Glasgow) so the hostel there will have an opening and I don't have to spring for a hotel or B&B. I'm also hoping to make it out to Islay to visit the Laphroaig distillery, but it's looking a bit tricky to get to and from there, so I may just head straight to Ireland from there. In Ireland I plan to base myself out of Dublin; I want to visit the Guinness brewery and Trinity College (home of the Book of Kells), and based off information from a friend who's spent time there it sounds like Ireland is smaller than I thought, so day trips shouldn't be hard to pull off.

Part III: Then What?

Still working on that part. I'm trying to walk a fine line between planning everything out ahead of time--which, barring any horrible accidents that put me behind schedule, would maximize security--and figuring things out on the go, which would make things a bit more stressful and possibly more expensive, but would leave me plenty of freedom to change my mind and make it easier to adapt to anything that may come up.

Thus ends the first post. I'm guessing that all the others will be significantly shorter, at least initially. I plan on taking a copious amount of pictures but won't have any way to upload them until I get home, so I'll probably insert them later, and you'll have to read through everything again to see what I was talking about.