Well, it's less than 2 weeks until I fly out and disaster has struck!
When I booked all of my flights back in January, I asked my travel agent if I would need a visa. To which she replied that I wouldn't need one as I could spend up to 90 days in each European country. That sounded fine to me and I completely forgot all about it until last week when I was on the DFAT website looking at travel warnings for Egypt. I spotted a link for visas, so decided to have a look.
The information on their website was pretty hopeless, but from what I could gather, it said that a visa wasn't necessary if you were going to be travelling in the Schengen area (Western Europe) for less than 90 days in a 6 month period. Now this contradicted what my travel agent had told me, which was that I could spend up to 90 days in each country, not overall.
So, getting a little worried, I contacted my travel agent again and voiced my concerns. Once again she said no, you don't need to worry, that the information regarding the Schengen countries was difficult to understand and that I could stay in each country for up to 90 days. I was relieved and started to relax and then on ANZAC Day the disaster struck!
My travel agent sent me an urgent email saying that a client of hers had just come back from spending over 6 months in Europe and she had needed a visa, because you could only stay in the Schengen area for UP TO 90 DAYS!!!! It wasn't 90 days in each country, but rather 90 days overall in Western Europe.
Now, with less than 2 weeks until I fly out I have to go to the Italian consulate in Perth first thing Monday morning and throw myself at their feet and beg for a visa and hope that it can be processed before I go. The problem of course is that a visa can take anywhere between 3 weeks and 3 months to process - time that I don't have. They also send your passport to Canberra to process the visa application, and if my passport doesn't come back before I fly out then I will be staying in Perth a while longer!
If the visa can't be approved in time then I just have to make sure that I don't stay in Western Europe for more than 90 days which significantly curtails my plans. I will still be able to do the Roman dig, the Spanish dig and my tour in Greece, but I won't be able to do all the other things I was wanting to - Paris, Nimes, Madrid, Barcelona, Florence, Venice, Milan and anything else that took my fancy. Instead, between the digs and the tour I have to keep flying back to England, which is an expense I wasn't expecting.
I am seriously irritated with my travel agent right now!
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Saturday, April 19, 2008
21 Days to Go!
In 3 weeks I will be on my way to Europe for 6 months!
Now, it's not entirely a holiday. The main reason for my trip to Europe is to take part in Archaeological digs. I studied Archaeology at uni and will finally get the chance to excavate some of the Roman sites I have studied.
A quick rundown of my itinerary:
I fly into London on 11th May and have a week there. Then I spend the next week or so wandering through England until I get to Scotland and then I have a week in Scotland before I fly to my first dig in Rome - Villa delle Vignacce. The dig in Rome starts in 17th June and ends in 7th August.
After the Rome dig I have about 2 weeks free before my next dig. I was thinking I might see a bit of Italy and perhaps fly over to Ireland for a couple of days in this free time. The second dig is in Kent and runs for 3 weeks from 23rd August to 7th September - the dig is run by the Kent Archaeological Field School. After the second dig I will head down through France and Spain on my way to my last dig which is on the island of Menorca - the excavation of the Roman city of Sanisera. My last dig will take me from mid-September to early October.
After the last dig I have a month and a half to be a tourist and do lots of sight seeing. I will spend a week in Greece, 2 weeks in Turkey and then finally 2-3 weeks in Egypt before I fly home in mid-November.
It's very exciting and scary all at the same time. I've never travelled for such a long period of time before, so it will be interesting to see how homesick I get.
I will attempt to keep everyone updated along the way with lots of posts and photos.
Now, it's not entirely a holiday. The main reason for my trip to Europe is to take part in Archaeological digs. I studied Archaeology at uni and will finally get the chance to excavate some of the Roman sites I have studied.
A quick rundown of my itinerary:
I fly into London on 11th May and have a week there. Then I spend the next week or so wandering through England until I get to Scotland and then I have a week in Scotland before I fly to my first dig in Rome - Villa delle Vignacce. The dig in Rome starts in 17th June and ends in 7th August.
After the Rome dig I have about 2 weeks free before my next dig. I was thinking I might see a bit of Italy and perhaps fly over to Ireland for a couple of days in this free time. The second dig is in Kent and runs for 3 weeks from 23rd August to 7th September - the dig is run by the Kent Archaeological Field School. After the second dig I will head down through France and Spain on my way to my last dig which is on the island of Menorca - the excavation of the Roman city of Sanisera. My last dig will take me from mid-September to early October.
After the last dig I have a month and a half to be a tourist and do lots of sight seeing. I will spend a week in Greece, 2 weeks in Turkey and then finally 2-3 weeks in Egypt before I fly home in mid-November.
It's very exciting and scary all at the same time. I've never travelled for such a long period of time before, so it will be interesting to see how homesick I get.
I will attempt to keep everyone updated along the way with lots of posts and photos.
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