Going to Europe in September!

It's now official: the other day, Candace and I bought our tickets for our first European trip together (also my first time back since I moved home from the NL). The trip came about during a discussion in which I lamented the fact that I wanted to make two trips to Europe: one by myself to see a bunch of small Dutch towns I never made it to and to catch up with friends, and one with Candace to show her where I lived and some of my favorite cities in Europe. Then it occurred to me that, if she was okay with it (and she was), I could fly to the NL alone and stay there five days or so doing some of the stuff I wanted to do, and then she would fly solo to the NL and I would pick her up, beginning our trip together (flying home together). This clearly saves me a lot of money and makes it possible to accomplish both goals.

The basic plan is for me to do my thing for five days, pick her up, show her around the NL for three days, and then spend three days in Belgium on our way to Paris and London, where we'll spend a total of six days. I'll be gone for 19 days, but Candace will only be gone for 14, so she'll only be missing ten days of work, which isn't so bad, all things considered.

The flights weren't too bad (total multi-city itinerary was around $850 p/p), and we're planning on (hopefully) staying with friends during my stay in the NL and then mostly staying in hostels for the rest of the trip, cutting costs. Overall, we're expecting total costs to be somewhere between $2000-2500 p/p, which seems like a lot until you realize that this includes a two to two and a half week stay in Europe visiting Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris, London, The Hague, Antwerp, and perhaps a few smaller Dutch-speaking cities.

On top of all of this, as fate would have it, I'll be in the NL on the two-year anniversary of my departure, which is kinda nice if you find anniversaries to be sentimental like I do. Sure, it's going to hit my wallet hard, but I've asked for my birthday present from my parents to only be whatever amount of money they can afford to help me with on my trip. Ultimately, I feel as if I don't go now, I'm not sure when I'll actually be in a much better position to return to my favorite countries in the world any time soon.

Can't wait! Time to start planning details!