Vacation Eve

Hello friends and family! I am so sorry I have been out of touch for such a long time. Life has been amazingly busy lately and so, I decided to start a blog to keep everyone up to date on my adventures!

Today is my vacation eve - what a day! I have been literally working around the clock to get everything settled at work for my almost three-week European adventure. Matt and I have been planning this trip for over a year - well, we've been talking about it since our trip to Thailand three years ago. We decided to go now to celebrate my upcoming 30th birthday, based on the fact that September seems like a nice time to go, and because I have been practicing law for 3 years. That last item is just shocking - I never thought I would be saying that.

Anyway, we have been reading books, watching movies (especially PBS, National Geographic, BBC and yes, I'm sad to say, two Rick Steves videos), researching online, etc. all about the history, geography, people, food/wine, anything we can find about the places we are going - London, Paris, Florence, and Rome. I've never actually done so much research about a place I was traveling to, but it is making the anticipation of the trip all the more exciting. All of this planning for at least the last five months, and it's here! Even more fantastic is that Sam (my brother) and Laura are meeting us there! They will be in London and Paris for a week of the trip.

Matt and I are also in the middle of creating an internet company. It involves a website for 20 and 30-something travelers (just like us!) who want to experience cities like locals do, who don't have kids, and who aren't backpackers but aren't luxury travelers. We are going to start with writers from 12 cities who will write about their cities in a booklet that can be downloaded (for a small fee) as well as regular updates on the website. So, we are taking the opportunity to interview several people in London, Paris, and Rome. We posted ads on Craigslist, went through tons of responses from people all over the world, and sent a letter back to people we wanted to meet for an interview. We asked them to pick a location that they would review in their booklet/blog for the interview and said we would meet them there. We are looking forward to meeting these people, who all seem super-interesting. I'll keep you updated on that as well.

We have reserved our hotels/apartments, a tour of the Vatican and tickets to the Uffizi in Florence - otherwise, we are playing everything by ear. My goal is to go to each of those cities and explore, sit at cafes, live like the locals. We decided to only go to those four places so that we can settle in and wander, rather than just rushing through many cities. The world is our oyster! So fab!

I would love to hear from you if you have any thoughts or if you would update me on your life. Hope all is well with you.

Jessica O.