Itinerary

23 hours until departure.
I have yet to book a return flight, but I'm figuring on late August.
That gives me about 90 days.
Here's the current plan (subject to change without notice):

Israel [May 31st - June 12th]
Organized tour throughout the country via the Birthright Israel Program. It's nice having others plan things for you.

Turkey [June 12th - June 27th]
Backpacking with two friends throughout the Eastern half of the country. General route consisting of Istanbul, the Aegean Coast, the Western Mediterranean coast, central Anatolia (Cappadocia), then back to Istanbul.

Bulgaria [June 28th - July 5th]
My solo journey begins here. I intend to make my way up the Black Sea coast to Varna, then head inland towards the capital, Sofia, and perhaps a town or two in the Southwest as well.

Macedonia [July 6th - July 9th]
Alexander the Great. That's about the extent of my prior knowledge of this country. Sometimes it can be fun to have almost no expectations about a destination or experience.

Albania [July 10th - 15th]
Albania is no longer the poorest nation in Europe. Sorry Moldova. Still, one guide book described it as "challenging, infuriating, and utterly enchanting."

Montenegro [July 15th - July 17th]
The newest country in Europe...

Croatia [July 18th - July 24th]
The southern half of Croatia, the Dalmatian coast, was one of the most stunning locales I visited last summer, and as of now I see no reason not to spend a few days back there this time around.

Italy [July 25th - August 2nd]
This part of my journey is very open-ended, save for visiting a friend who is working at a restaurant in a small Italian town about an hour south of Florence.

Montpellier, France [August 3rd - August 25th]
After spending nearly two months on the road, it should be a nice change of pace to settle down in a single location for a few weeks. I'll be taking french classes a few hours a day, but not much else the rest of the time. I'm very excited.

Paris and Homeward [August 25th - 28th]
I might spend a few days in Paris before catching a flight home.

Endings...

Though I intend for this blog to serve primarily as a journal of my whereabouts and wanderings this summer, I see no reason not to begin it now, at the end of things. Okay, it's not really the end of things, but I will be done with college in a little under two weeks. I will no longer be considered a 'student'. Chances are, I'll never again have to write a 15-20 page paper (size 12, Times New Roman) about "The History of Playgrounds," be responsible for identifying different categories of Gregorian chant, or be expected to explain the physics of cloud formation (never really got this one anyway).

I'm not going to try to editorialize about what this ending means. I imagine I won't really grasp how much things have changed until many months after it is over. It is often difficult to appreciate the value of something until it is lost.

As much as I am in semi-denial about college ending, I am also incredibly excited for this summer and beyond. I move out of New York in mid-May and intend to be in motion more or less through the beginning of September. Based on my experiences last summer, I won't come anywhere close to keeping in touch with people as well as I would like to. I see this blog as a chance to at least share a few words about what I've been up to. I'm still deciding how frequently to write, what kind of subjects to write about, what style to use, etc., but I imagine that will all develop with time. For now I just want to develop a rhythm of actually posting entries.