Today marks 30 days until I head off for London and beyond. Anyone who knows me won't be surprised that I'm deep into researching, planning, documenting, listing and otherwise organising for the trip. But, for me, that's definitely not a bad thing. Last evening's objective was to research some more information about the train journeys I'll be taking. It certainly helped fill in some gaps and reassured me that train is a great way to get around Europe. So now I just need to contain my excitement for another 30 days ...

Although London and Krakow will be the key event destinations on this trip, I'm really excited about visiting Amsterdam and Berlin too. I'll only be in Amsterdam for a few days but I will have a whole week in Berlin to explore and really get a sense of the city, history and architecture.

Unsound Festival Poster

Unsound London Poster

The Unsound Festival in Krakow, Poland in October and the shorter Unsound London a few weeks earlier have been the catalyst for arranging this trip to Europe.  Earlier this year I attended Unsound Adelaide as part of the Adelaide Festival and the experience left me with a taste for more. It may not be true, but it seems to me that similar events don't happen often in Adelaide so I had been lamenting the absence of opportunity. At the same time I had been feeling for a while that it would soon be time to head back to London and Europe. So when I read that Unsound would have some events in London followed by the full festival only a few weeks later I made the snap decision to go for it. I'm a slow, methodical thinker, so making the decision, booking my leave and the return flights all within 48 hours was pretty impressive for me. And probably wise - I might have talked myself out if it by now otherwise.