London!!

So as you can see fro brownsteins earlier post, we arrived- tired and jet lagged- to foggy Londontown at about 6:30am local time this morning. We decided to buy an unlimited Tube pass so that we can use the subway as much as we want while we are here.

Being here is like being re-united with your father who left you minutes after you were born. You don't really know that much about each other but you can see the similarities everywhere. The city is organized and polite and the views are some of the best.

We spent the day walking around, getting our bearings straight and touring the British Museum- an absolutely insanely large museum that chronicles basically the whole of human civilization. At one point we decided to just take a one hour nap so that we could decompress from the plane ride. 3 hours later we all awoke laughing, but feeling much more rested. It's been a long day.

We had a great dinner at an old pub located in the west end near all of the theaters. I got chicken pot pie which was to die for!

1st two to sleep in London

First beers of the trip

Let it be said that I bought the first round.

First one asleep on the whole trip.

Things to know/watch for...

There are a few things that we'd like you to know and watch for throughout our adventure.
1. We have taken varied sizes in regards to our backpack choices. In increasing order: the bear, Greg, and then Dave. It'll be interesting to see how this affects cleanliness, back pains, and overall moral
2. Facial hair is another varied quality between the 3 of us. A good indicator of how long we have been traveling will be the bear's facial hair
3. We welcome any requests for specific pictures or videos. We'd love to make this blog somewhat interactive, so feel free to suggest or request your own little picture souvenir. Nothing that will get us in trouble please.

We are in the car on the way to the white marsh megabus stop, thank you Patty Lessans. And so it begins

-Steven Friedman
410-967-0974

Game time!

On way to the bus!

1st Entry from Dave

Hey everyone!

This is a test entry to make sure I have access to the blog. This is the first time i've ever blogged so you'll have to cut me some slack as my posts might not be as awesome as greg's who is an experienced travel blogger. As our journey takes shape I'm sure i'll find my groove and you'll enjoy hearing my point of view of this trip as I know I have enjoyed following all of greg's adventures.

This is by far the biggest trip I have ever been on. I have had this trip in mind for almost 2 years now and it hasn't fully hit me that i'm leaving tomorrow. I'm sure as I sit on the plane stuck between greg and steve (yes I was put in the middle) I will look at the two of them and laugh. I'll laugh because I can't believe how lucky I am to have the opportunity to travel through europe with two of my best friends.

To all of you who will follow us on our adventure, I hope you enjoy this blog because it's gonna be legen-wait for it-dary!

Here we go!

I have the feeling I get every time before a big trip: excitement, nervousness, worry. Tomorrow will begin one of the most adventurous trips that I have ever done with two of my best friends. This has been a trip that has been physically being planned for the past few months but really been talked about for years. The fact that it begins tomorrow is seriously insane to me.

While I have been lucky enough to travel to many different places I have spent very little time in Europe and look forward to exploring it over the next two months. We have armed ourselves with a Eurail pass and also plan to use planes and boats as well.

Tomorrow morning we take a megabus from our homes in Baltimore to New York Citayyy. We plan to hang out on Manhattan for a few hours before heading out to JFK airport where we board our flight to LONDON!

Talk to you tomorrow after we hit the road!

Intro

I'm sure that at some point someone, while reading this blog, will think to themselves Wow! These 3 guys are really good at planning a trip through Europe! They must have really thought out the intricacies of their itinerary!.

Rest assured... this is not how it happened...



4 or 5 months ago, Dave (one of the men), Me (also a man) and Steve (The Bear) sat in Dave's basement in front of an iMac open to a Google Maps displaying the entire continent of Europe. Back then my geography was way off- I couldn't find Copenhagan on a map for the life of me, and yet we sat there, pointing out cities that we wanted to one day visit. As the list numbered somewhere close to 25-30 cities, we came up with our first route possible route, starting in London and Ending in Portugal (the trip has changed significantly since):





When someone would suggest a city that was off-of-the-beaten-path, we would laugh, and then include it in the itinerary. We nixed nothing and considered everything. Over the next weeks, we read up on places and tweaked and altered the plan again and again. Truth be told, while we are leaving tomorrow, the plan is still not set in stone. It probably will never be; that's the beauty of the trip. We hope to hit cities from London to Amsterdam, Prague to Madrid. Swiss alps, Greek isles, French towns we can't pronounce... it's all there. Knowing the personalities of the three of us, there will probably be surprises and disappointments along the route, but such is the life of someone who is traveling through Europe.

So come along and join! We will be updating the blog with the funny stories we acquire over the next two months, as well as less desirable things like our feelings and our thoughts on french people. The blog will be written by all 3 people (you can see who wrote it at the bottom of the post) as much as we possibly can (do they have wifi in europe??)

ENJOY!


--Greg