upcoming european adventure

It's nearly 3 weeks before I even leave for my grand European adventure, and I'm already posting comments here. How's that for blog value? I say it's hella value. You see, planning for my trip to Europe is consuming nearly as much time as the actual trip will...so I figured I would keep my loyal readers informed about my preparations. Please, try to calm yourself. I know this is all very exciting for you. I was initially planning to leave my trip itinerary extremely flexible with few details planned in advance, but that changed once I realized that many of the hostels in the big European cities fill up very quickly during the summer (I've already had difficulty getting reservations at some of them). Also, the Eurail pass I purchased only allows me 5 travel days, so I figured it would be a good idea to figure out if I could get to where I need to be going in 5 days. As some of you know, I'm going to Europe because I'm going to be presenting a couple of papers at the World Conference on Acceptance & Commitment Therapy, Relational Frame Theory, and the New Behavioral Psychology in Linköping, Sweden, and figured I should explore a little bit while I'm there. And since I'm flying in and out of London, I had to make sure I could get from there to Sweden with my Eurail pass. It turns out that I can. Neat. In addition to purchasing several items for my trip (such as a backpack, good walking shoes, guidebooks, small and portable farm animals, etc.), I've also spent a good deal of time working on the details of my itinerary, researching hostels (there are lots of web sites and guidebooks with useful information about them), and making reservations at various hostels. Of course, I also set up this travel blog ("blog," incidentally, is short for "web log"...it's like an online journal or diary) and whatnot to keep my fans, friends, and family members informed about the greatest journey of my life (thus far). This way, I don't have to feel guilty about not calling/emailing/contacting a single damn when of you while I'm over there. The Lone Fox is on the prowl, baby, and I don't have time for individualized communication shenanigans. Okay, I should really go get some work done. Either that or gaze longingly at my new travelin' shoes (which arrived in the mail today...I had to order them online because I couldn't find my size in the local shoestores) for a few hours.