Dreaming of a Getaway

My mom and step-dad just returned home from a 10-day vacation in Hawaii. They flew to Hawaii and then cruised around to four different islands, ending their stay with a few days in Oahu. I'm a little green with jealousy over their fabulous trip (although they definitely deserved it). Since I cant take my own grand vacation right now, here are some questions about my traveling:

1. My dream vacation would be:

My dream vacation would be to take a month and backpack through Europe. Countries that are on my list to visit are, Ireland, France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Greece and England.

2. The best trip I've ever taken was:

The best trip I've ever taken was to London. My best friend was studying abroad for a semester and I decided to go for a visit over Easter break last year. We crammed in so many things in the 5 days I was there, looking back I don't even know how we slept! Some important stops we made while I was there were: Harrods, a history museum, the London Eye, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, Notting Hill, Camden market, Tower of London, Tower Bridge, Buckingham Palace & changing of the guards, Queen's Gallery, St. Pauls Cathedral, Trafalgar Square & The National Gallery. The most memorable part of this trip was being able to share my friends abroad experience and also attending Easter mass in Westminster Cathedral and another Easter service at St. Pauls Cathedral.

3. The most important items to take on a roadtrip are:

The top five things I would need on a roadtrip would be my cell phone in case I get lost, iPod to have some good tunes for the road, camera to capture the memories, comfortable shoes to see the sites in, and an itinerary. I can be spontaneous at times but I love having a plan of places to see, food to eat, etc.

4. The next trip I'm looking forward to is:

The only trip in my future as of now, is a weekend at home to celebrate my dad's birthday and see the rest of my family. I'm also hoping to make it to Clemson in November for the N.C. State football game and see friends from home.

5. The biggest disaster I've ever encountered while traveling was:

The biggest disaster while traveling happened in December of 2006. My mom, step-dad and I had planned an awesome trip to New York City right around Christmas. Long story short, our first flight was delayed which caused us to miss our connecting flight. After sitting in the Charlotte airport for 6 hours we caught another flight on stand-by and finally made it to NYC at 8pm (Our original arrival time was noon). After deplaning at JFK we quickly caught a cab to La Guardia (our original destination) to get our luggage because that was where we were told it would be waiting for us. Our luggage was nowhere to be found so we trekked back to JFK to look there and found nothing. The customer service woman was a nightmare and no help because it was 5pm and her day was over. After spending over 12 hours in airports/airplanes I was exhausted and broke down. What an awful way to begin such a great trip. Thanks to my wonderful step-dad who located our luggage the next morning at JFK, day two of our trip started off wonderful and the rest of the trip was awesome.