My sister and I finally set off into the sunset on our Euro-Adventure this Sunday—although I feel like we should have been there and back about a thousand times already, with all the planning.

From back in February, when we really started searching for flights and hotel reviews and travel plans, our itinerary has morphed into something that we’re pretty happy with—but planning certainly didn’t come without its stresses.

Firstly, when it is the first time you are traveling alone with your sister, your parents are bound to have something to say (I’m talking to you, Dad!). First it was the “suggestion” that my sister and I both watch the movie Taken before our trip. You know, the one where the daughter gets kidnapped in Paris and her dad has to go all kung fu on her kidnappers to get her back? Thanks for the scare tactic, Dad!

Then there was the phone situation. It was important to our family that we have some sort of access to a working phone while we’re over there, and since our phone service plans do NOT cover us in Europe, I had to have a Global phone overnighted for tomorrow afternoon at the cost of $1.30/call or text, plus the $20 overnight shipping fee. I would suggest looking into phone service weeks in advance of a trip, if that’s something you’re worried about or are interested in having.

Thirdly, there was this little, troubling issue of a volcano in Iceland, which has been shutting down European airports intermittently over the past few months. That’s worrisome enough, without the small fact that our layover into London is actually, you guessed it…..in ICELAND.

So in came the travel insurance policy. Luckily, World Nomads offers an extensive policy that suits my (and my just-graduated-from-college-sister’s) limited budget. It covers things like erupting volcanos and health issues abroad.

Then lastly, and just this morning, came the realization by my boyfriend that I had indeed booked the correct hotel name that my sister and I had in mind, it was just, you know, the wrong actual hotel. The one I booked was outside of Rome by about 40 minutes. Luckily I hopped back on Expedia and canceled our wrongly-booked hotel, while booking the CORRECT hotel on 1 800 Hotels. Needless to say, this was stressful. I mean, I’m resourceful. My sister is resourceful. Had we arrived in Rome and realized we booked the wrong hotel, I would have eaten the fee and booked a new hotel. Still, I’m glad he caught it before we left. I guess sometimes an editor is useful when making travel plans…

With everything booked and bought and converted, our final trip looks like a flight into London, a train from London to Paris, a flight from Paris to Rome, and then a flight from Rome back to the states. I’ll try to blog when I have access, but if not, I’ll have plenty of photos when I return.

Till then, bis bald!