9 more days to go!

With only nine more days until I go to Europe life is getting a bit crazy! Anytime I even think about sleeping I freak out about what I still need to do for my trip. Needless to say I didn't sleep in today and instead bought more flights, a rail pass and am now "set" for my trip as far as dates and times are concerned. So my current itinerary looks a bit more believable now than it did a few days ago. Now it is starting to feel like I am actually leaving.
On March 27th I fly to London, England
March 30th I leave London and fly to Oslo, Norway to visit Gunnar my 4th cousin and family there.
I will catch a train that same day and head to Bergen, Norway where I plan on staying for a few days and Gunnar who seems so great is going to take time off of work to show me where my great grandfather lived in Laksevåg and of course show me around Bergen as well.
Gunnar is leaving Bergen on the 4th to go on holiday so I will be using my rail pass to go back to Oslo and hang out until the 6th of April when I go to...Maryland! er Ireland!!!
From there I will be going to southern Ireland where the wind comes from Spain! I plan on working on the organic farm for a week then possibly to the Aran Islands where an old roomate is also working on an organic farm to visit and see the area around Galway. So after my whirlwind tour of southern Ireland I will head back to Dublin and hang out with friends for a few days until we go to our school in County Donegal...where the wind comes from Iceland brrr!
That is my plan so far .. subject to change the next time I can't sleep ... or maybe not.
Thankfully the end of the quarter is bringing my stress level down a lot and now I am able to read my travel guides without feeling guilty for neglecting Seamus Heaney.
Oh, if there is any confusion over the name of my blog, Maryland, the best explanation I can give is this: My amazing active listening skills, riding a duck (tour), a smart ass friend, and two guys who I thought were from Maryland (listening skills!) but they were from Ireland and yes, they had very thick accents.
Before I forget, I feel obliged to comment on the fact that today is St. Patricks Day. As much as I would like to be annoying and blog about how St. Patrick is the one who brought Christianity to Ireland, got rid of the "snakes" by suppressing Irish culture and how annoying Irish stereotypes are...I won't go there. All I can say is I am not wearing green as a silent protest, and also because I wore my green shirt yesterday :)