As my departure date draws near I thought that running through the planned itinerary and a brief description of why I have chosen these destinations would be fun to look back on later to see how the plan changed (or didn't change) along the way.

So, first up I am headed to Munich to visit Ralf, someone I met many years ago when he was backpacking through Australia with two of his friends - one of whom is the son of one of my fathers old work colleagues. It has been quite some time since I've seen Ralf but thanks to the wonders of the internet and the entrepreneurship of Mr Zukkerburg we have somehow managed to stay in touch and whether he meant it (or was just being polite) I've taken him up on the offer of his hospitality for the first five days of my trip. This, I am hoping, will be a good way to ease into the rhythm of travelling solo (ish).

From Munich I will head to Berlin to soak in the art, culture and the occasional alcoholic beverage in one of the most interesting cities in the world. This will be my first time in a non-english speaking country on my own, could be interesting. As much as I would love to continue exploring Germany, Amsterdam, Belgium etc I have decided instead to make my way straight to Ireland so that I have a few solid weeks to make some good friends, well, good enough to hold my hair back at 11pm on St Patricks day, friends!
Haha, just kidding mum (no I'm not Nads! Winky face, "hashtag" YOLO!)

I've organised a one year working holiday visa for Ireland so that I am able to do some WWOOFing or work/stay stuff along the way. If you've never heard of it before, WWOOFing is basically swapping your labour on organic farms for food and accommodation, it will keep the running costs of my travels down but most importantly it should help me get to experience the places that I travel to and get to know some of the people who live there along the way.

I'll be in Ireland for a while (almost five weeks) after which I will travel to Italy to spend a week in the good company of our friend Tommaso (he did an internship with mum and dad some years ago when he was at uni). With any luck I'll get to see Tommaso's parents again and he's promised to show me some of his favourite places in Florence - nothing better than a local tour guide!

This is when my trip gets serious, well not really, it's just that I've booked an Italian language course at a school in the remote town of Urbania. There's not much to do in Urbania other than learn Italian so I have every intention of immersing myself in it 100% and with any luck come out of it with a day to day basic grasp of the language. My accommodation will be a home stay with a local family and if I ask them to only communicate in Italian I won't have a choice but to dive in head first.

The plan gets sort of sketchy after that, I do have a full Itinerary (Liana style - colour coded, temperature charted etc) and on it the next parts of my journey are to spend a few weeks wwooffing and traveling around italy from south to north and then popping across to eastern Europe to make my way sailing and bussing from Croatia to Greece. After a few lazy weeks exploring the Grecian islands it would be time to make my way to Glasgow, Scotland, to feast in all the delights and excitement of the Commonwealth Games. I worked on the games when they were in Melbourne in '06 and the energy that an event like that brings to a city is electric.

The Edinburgh Festival is next on the list and as I hope to see many of my Australian theatre friends there to delight in all their disgustingly endless amounts of talent I figured an extended stay throughout the festival, sleeping on the couches of their production budget covered accommodation, was only fitting. From the North to the south of the UK was how I plan to spend the month leading out of the festival, zigzagging my way to London to catch up with a few friends an maybe catch a show or two. London would then be the starting point to the only guided tour I'd like to take which would take me through France, Spain and finish up in Morocco. Morocco looks like a beautiful country but not one that I'm game to explore on my own.

Finally from Africa to Australia with a few weeks on a beach in Vietnam on the way home... ya know, just because it's such a hard life being a solo traveller and I'm sure I'll need the rest on my way back. So that's it. THE plan, however as I sit here typing this, only weeks from the starting line I can see so many opportunities to deviate from the script and ad-lib huge parts of the story, most obviously the part where I fly home - Don't worry mum, I will come home... eventually!