What Am I Doing Here!?

So Winter Camp was this past weekend and my family and all my best friends were there, and for a third straight year, I missed it. I'm also going to miss an annual hockey trip that will take place in a few weeks, as well as the birth of my first niece/nephew in about a month. So, here I am, sitting in the hotel for what seems like the 50th day in a row, trying to decide what the heck I'm doing here, missing the good stuff at home, NOT doing anything here. But, again, it dawns on me that I'm doing exactly what EVERYBODY back home wants to be doing. So, I must continue on, be happy that I'm here, and figure out how to make the most of it. So that's the task right now. I'm trying to figure out how to make the absolute most of out the rest of my time here and I'm coming to a dilemma that you all can help me with, I think.

I've brought back to England a book, "All My Road Before Me," by Lewis, and it's basically the diary he kept while in school at Oxford from 1922-1927. The coolest thing is reading through some of his days and having him say, "Walked to Cornmarket, dropped of papers to be typed. Walked through the fields to Shotover; the school children on holiday made for a loud walk," is the coolest thing ever because I know EXACTLY where he's talking about and probably the routes he took to get there from his house in Headington. It's just so cool to be living his life 44 years after he died and about 80-odd years after he himself did it. So trying to mock a few of those days is a new goal, as is trying to accumulate £2,100 before March 17th. I think if I can do that, then I'd have enough to quit work and start my travels a couple weeks early, giving me seven full weeks of world travel before coming home to the American soil. £300 a week could tide me over couldn't it? Sure it could, how couldn't it!? That's about €450ish/$600 a week, so that should DEFINITELY do. So let's hope for that! But the part I'm at here in the planning process is where I'm hitting my dilemma and where I need your help. When I came here, I wanted to see as much as I could, just spreading myself thin, trying to hit as many places as possible. But now, I'm thinking I might just want to take it slow and spent a little more time at locations I like, instead of trying to just hit as much as I can.

For example, I would like to go to Oporto, Portugal, origin of port wine. Why? Because I like port wine. I don't speak Portugese, but that's half the fun. So I'm justified in going there because I have a reason and a desire. But Casablanca? It's out of my way, probably pretty costly, and the only reason I want to go there is to say that I've been there, and only that because of the movie. So I don't really have a reason to go there. Then there's the whole argument I brought about a few posts ago about America having all the scenery that Europe does, yet doesn't have the history, so I should enjoy all the history I could while I'm here. Well, to tell you the truth, I'm not really too into history unless it affects me personally! I'm sure seeing Normandy or Auschwitz would touch me, so I wouldn't mind seeing those places, but to see where Winston Churchill or Mussolini was born doesn't affect me, therefore I wouldn't care to see those places.

Basically, what I'm getting at, is I would love to be able to enjoy ALL that I can while I'm over here, yet at the same time, I'd love to just spend a week traveling up the coast of Ireland, then hopping to the Scottish Highlands for a week, then spend a week traveling through Belgium, Holland and Germany into Switzerland and spending a few days just cooped up in a cabin in the mountains not doing anything. Then I'd make my way down the coast of the Eastern Adriatic through Croatia, Montenegro and Albania into Greece, just soaking up the April sun as much as it will let me. That's something I'd like to do. But then I' wouldn't get to see Spain or Portugal or much of France, or any of that. So basically, I'm not sure if I should just go ahead and try to see as much as I can, regardless of whether or not I really have a reason to go, or just take it easy and relax the whole time I'm traveling. You all let me know while I look at pictures of the ocean, Ireland's green hills and the monkeys of Gibraltar.