Certainly Haven't Left Yet...

Hello, and welcome to There and Back Again!  This blog follows my brother, Matthew, and me on our trip around Western Europe.  We plan to leave a year from this August, so the posts of this blog will be pretty spotty until then.  In fact, I doubt I will reccomend it to anyone until shortly before we leave.  However, until then, this blog will follow our preparations, and any tips we come up with on the way.

Our trip has grown from two months to three and a half, and we simply can't let it grow any further!  It was three months for a while, two for mainland Europe and one for the UK and North Ireland, but only a month seemed too short for this latter portion.  Our goal with this trip is to reall "be" in the places we visit.  Every trip around Europe I've ever been personally told about has been described as a "whirlwind."  They describe days of waking up, heading out with a camera, and photographing landmarks.  Every day.  However, my old high school history professor, Mr. Zippi, keeps a photo of a little room with a window and a sink on his classroom wall.  He took this photo from his bed upon waking up, in Paris, to an entirely free day.  He claims there is nothing better.  This is the type of trip we want to have.

Our plan is to only schedule one purposeful excursion per day, and include what we have termed a "chill day" besides that.  We want to explore museums and stand beside landmarks, but we really just want to be there.  Most mornings (which must cease to be most mornings pretty soon, if we want to save up for our trip),  my brother and I head to Bru, our coffeehouse, and just relax.  We often talk, but sometimes we are quiet, and sometimes Matty destroys me at a game of chess.  Our dream is to wake up in Warsaw and wander to a corner coffeeshop.

So, our dream is six nights in most mainland cities, and four nights in each Island city.  Though I'm pushing for more on the Isle of Skye.  Anyone who knows Matty and I will align urbaness with him and rurality with me.  And Skye presents the most likely chance of proving my second sight.  And yes, I did name this blog.  Anyway, that's the dream, and we're goimg to do our best to make it happen.