Escape Dreams

As long as I can remember, and quite often in the last few years, I've had escape dreams. I either get in a car and drive or I get on an airplane or I walk somewhere very far away and find paradise. Paradise usually looks something like a combination of Manhattan, Key West and a small town in Maine and the watery borders of this perfect place are shaped very like Long Island. In any case I am far, far away in a magical, perfect place. In real life, escape has not been so easy and in very bad times I looked forward to sleep every night and to my escape dreams.

This May I am flying away to look for the places of my dreams and I am not going to let anything stop me from escaping, if only for three weeks. I am going to Europe when the semester ends and I am hoping to have the best time of my life. I have never been out of the country and have only seen a few of the states, mostly on the east coast. I have always wanted to see Europe, particularly the places where so many of the characters in my favorite children's novels lived: England, Scotland, Switzerland, Sweden and so many more. This will be a three week trip and my finances are limited so my destinations and accommodation styles will be likewise limited, but I'm hoping for a very satisfying and liberating experience. The plan is to record my great adventure on this blog through pictures, movies and writing about what I do each and every day. We will see if this happens. My partner Jeff is staying home and will be able to follow me online through this blog and this will be our main way of communicating when I am unable to contact him by Skype or other method. I'm going to try and get used to keeping up with blogging by regularly updating this blog with the exciting news of my trip planning progress. The first step is deciding on the exact travel dates and cities of arrival and departure and buying my airplane tickets. Did I mention that I am afraid to fly? That's another blog entry right there...