oh, shit.

i have exactly 2 weekends left in toronto before my big adventure begins.

motherfucker.

i felt like things were trucking along quite nicely: i bought memory cards! rechargeable batteries! i've started telling people at work! i planned to meet a friend in paris! you know, all the important things. like places to stay, itineraries, and a budget.

like i said, motherfucker.

i did do some research hostels tonight though. the thorn tree is an excellent resource. i actually found out about the thorn tree message board about a year ago from a couple who came to eat at east side's in toronto. we got to talking about travel and how much i wanted to go away and they were so encouraging and had such good advice for me - one bit of which was to check out the thorn tree for information. and they were right - i already have a name of a hostel in paris that i'm going to do a little more web research on (the village hostel, which is apparently behind the Sacre Coeur)!

but, one hostel lead does not a trip make. i still have a long way to go to set out some of the key details, though - like how i'm getting back to paris from italy, where i'm staying in rome and for how long, if i'll be able to do florence while i'm staying in arezzo, where i'm staying in paris, if i'm stopping in beaune... etc. etc. etc.

i also want to do a packing dry run - is that too anal?

wait, on second thought don't answer that.