Official countdown: 12 working days, 4 weeks to liftoff

State of mind: same same - disbelief/anxiety/extreme excitement in sporadic but equal doses

Outward appearance: Blank face/panic face/stupid grin on face - in sporadic but equal doses.Frequently dressed in newly purchased 'won't wear til Europe' clothing.

Behaviour analysis: smug "na-na-na-na-na-na" comments not amusing desk bound friends, unreasonable emotional outbursts confusing boyfriend,constant brain-farts not helping to disprove blonde stereotypes.

I can't believe how quickly the last few weeks have gone, and also finding it hard to believe that this trip really is just around the corner.

Had a slight planning hiccup last week; all the lists in the world could not have saved my frazzled brain. We got a little starry eyed and trigger happy, and booked flights, ferries and accommodation for Greece before realizing that we would now be overstaying our Schengen 'visa' and that my spreadsheet actually quite clearly said "no" to this little adventure for that reason.

I might take the opportunity to go off on a tangent here and have a little (massive) rant about the Schengen zone (well, my understanding of it anyway). When the Schengen agreement was signed, the intention was to allow peeps to travel freely though Europe by eliminating border checks, a good thing for travellers and Euro tourism. At the time, a handful of countries joined and Australians were able to spend 90 days in this zone within an 180 day period, visa free. Now, something like 26 countries have joined, with more members pending, but the limit remains the same. The effect being that our ability to travel and spend our tourist dollars in this zone i.e. most of Europe, is really quite limited...contradicting the original purpose don't you think?

Additionally the Schengen conditions are widely misunderstood or misapplied. We've heard that the conditions are never enforced and that many have spent months in the zone without consequence, mainly because tracking is difficult and the border officers simply don't bother. But it's certainly not a risk we are willing to take, because if you do come across someone who takes their role seriously, overstaying can result in a fine and a ban from the entire zone for a loooong time. Considering that we plan to pop in and out of Europe while we live in the UK for up to 2 years - really not a suitable outcome!!

Hopefully the agreement is reviewed in near future and the limits are extended (even if it means a visa cost or border checks, I'd certainly be willing to pay for the opportunity of extra time). Currently France and Germany are threatening to pull out of the zone altogether due to lax application/lack of border checks allowing illegal migrants to disappear deep into Europe. Gah. Sort your stuff out Schengen!But err...thanks for having us all the same ;-)

End tangent. Back to Greek booking tragedy.

After beating myself up for a couple of days and with a little coaxing from friends I came to accept that travel cannot and will not always go to plan, and that's no big deal and half the fun (apparently :-P). So I've mostly taken care of the not so fun part where over organization came back to bite me in the ass (i.e. I've had to contact all those pre-booked hostels to reshuffle dates etc). Although we lose a couple of days in a few cities, and a few dollars, it's really not a bad thing as we now get to skip out to Ireland for about 8 days to get back within the Schengen limit. Life's tough, ay?! ;-)

This weeks mantra: If Plan A falls through, chillax, there are 25 more letters in the alphabet. Or, if you like, we could go with the old 'when one door shuts another one opens'. Either way, all is peachy with two new and exciting additions to our itinerary and only 4 weeks to go! Awesome :-)