Tomorrow is almost here!

For those of you who don't know, I will be leaving the country tomorrow to take on my dream of backpacking Europe with my best friend for 3 months. After our trip, I will settle in Madrid, where I will teach English for a school year. It has been one looonnnggg road to get here, though, let me tell you. If you've never applied for a National Visa before, I can honestly tell you that it is not a fun nor easy process. I won't go into all the boring details, but it involved getting a physical, having a notary notarize something "incorrectly"... which led to getting yet another physical and finding a mobile notary at the last minute, making last minute trips to the Secretary of State in Des Moines, applying for a background check, figuring out what an Apostille is and how to get two of them, and driving to Chicago and back with my sister to walk in and out of the Spanish Consulate all in a total of 4 minutes. FOUR MINUTES. But we made the trip worth it by getting some stress-relieving shopping in :)

Running on 1 hour of sleep, but so happy to have my Visa!

I applied for my Visa three weeks ago and these past three weeks have been very stressful... I checked my email constantly, waiting for an email from the Spanish Consulate letting me know that my visa was ready. They told me it would take 3-4 weeks and I thought, there is no way that I will get it before my big backpacking trip in 3 weeks. I thought I was going to have to fly back to the U.S. for just one day to pick up my Visa in Chicago and fly back to Europe... another thousand dollars that I do not have. But as I was checking my email in the bathroom (don't pretend you've never done that before) right before I boarded my plane to Boston this past Wednesday, I GOT THE EMAIL! I started screaming, ran out of the bathroom jumping up and down, and called nearly every member of my family with shaky hands. I had to make a quick decision whether or not I should even board the plane to Boston, since now I had to go to Chicago. I decided to get on the plane anyway and then we just sat there for 2 hours on the runway. Side note: I have the worst travel luck.... ever. The plane came back to the gate and I ran off as fast as I could, applied to get a refund for my ticket, got my baggage, and booked a ticket for the overnight Megabus from Omaha to Chicago. I arrived in Chicago the next morning at 7am, walked from Union Station to Michigan Avenue to get my Visa, took the train to the airport, and then flew to Boston (after sitting on the runway for another half hour. I swear, every time I get on a plane I cause some big storm to happen.) I finally made it to Boston on Thursday and have spent the past couple of days with Pia's family in Rhode Island.

so happy to be with my best friend on the beach in Rhode Island

 Pia and I fly out tomorrow afternoon! We're flying from Boston to London, with a layover in Reykavik, Iceland for 16 hours. Our itinerary consists of 15 countries and 21 cities all within about 3 months. It's going to be one crazy adventure, but we all know that there will be some good stories to come out of it!

I won't have my laptop with me, but I plan on blogging from my phone or hostel computers as much as I can so I can keep you all updated on what's going on with our travels.

When Pia and I end our travels in Munich during Oktoberfest, we will head to Madrid for about a week and I will look for a place to live so I can start my new job on October 1st!

Wish us luck tomorrow :)

Shea