In the Beginning...

On July 26th at about 1:15 Central Standard Time my Norwegian Adventure (Norske Eventyr) officially kicked off when I departed from Madison to O'Hare airport in Chicago. After months of paperwork, preparation, planning, (did I mention paperwork?), and packing the 5 month, intra-European excursion began. It will be a journey filled with fun, new, and different experiences, taking me to countries, cities, and cultures that I have never experienced or lived in. It will span from now until after Christmas and be indisputably my biggest undertaking yet. All that said, I cant wait. I don't know what to expect, but I cant wait. I don't think that the true enormity of it all hit until I was about 25 minutes still from London on the plane and we flew over the southwestern English Coastline. It was then as I flew over one of my favorite places in the world, where the rolling hills of the countryside abruptly meet the water in the form of magnificent cliffs, that the thrill and excitement of returning to Europe washed over me.