In Which I Plan My International Vacation

My husband and I are planning a trip to Europe next year. It's kind of a big deal.


First off, we'd be leaving our lovely little one in the care of close family and friends for the approximately 3 weeks of galavanting we've got planned. I'm sure it's going to be one of those things where we get all panicked and worried about leaving her for so long, and she'll be totally fine. Right?

Then there's the fact that I haven't been overseas before. I can count the number of times I've flown commercially on one hand, and I am a bit clueless as to how any of this is done. 
It's not that I've never been anywhere. I've driven up and down the east coast about a dozen times and have lived in a few different places. I've even been way up north to Canada (no great feat when you live in northern New England) and visited with family there, and I've been in plenty of awkward language barrier situations. 
I just know there's a ton of little things to know about and things I need to have and places that I absolutely must see and things I absolutely must not say or things I need to have for flights or crap I ought to just leave in the states ... The whole thing is just exhausting. The worst of it? We don't know what we don't know, so how would I know what to even ask about? 


It's not all that dire, though. We have a dear friend in Berlin that we can stay with for a little while. We'll likely fly in to Berlin and recover from the jet lag, and be belligerent Americans until we wear out our welcome. That's a start, anyway. 
We'll end up in France at some point as well. My husband lived in France for a year in high school. That was back in the pre-EU days, so I'm sure some things have changed. He'd love to go back, and I'd love to see France as well. We'll try and make it a bit of a second honeymoon, as our first one was an epic failure. More on that later...


We're trying to figure out how to cram in lots of places to see with the down time that we will need to drink wine and eat cheese. I'm most excited to be as immersed in the culture of these places as an only-English speaking American tourist can be. 
Hopefully, we'll look more like Rick Steves and less like Snooki and The Situation.

Got some travel advice for us? Feel free to post in the comments section. Ciao!