precisely two weeks

It is two weeks until I get on a plane and go to Europe for two months. I have been furiously studying and writing up until today, trying to finish a miniature version of my thesis for my supervisors before I go - and suddenly, there are no more major hurdles to cross before I go. It's frightening.

Because I'm a history geek, I thought I would share with you some places that I am DETERMINED to visit.

Krakow, Wieliczka salt mines, where salt has been produced since the 13th century. The miners themselves sculpted these salt figures around the mine. COOL.

An abbey somewhere in England. This one is Rievaulx Abbey, but I'm happy with any, really. This will only happen if, at the end of my trip, I have enough money for it.

Tower of London. Everyone who's been there who I've talked to has said it's not all it's cracked up to be. And still, I want to see it. Gruesomely enough, I just think it would be amazing to stand in the place where Anne Boleyn lost her head, or where Elizabeth I was imprisoned.

Budapest, Statue Park, where the Soviet-era statues are kept.

And because I'm a history geek with a particular interest in Marxism: Karl Marx's grave, Highgate Cemetery, London. Actually I'm planning on visiting a whole heap of cemeteries in London.

Jane Austen's grave, Winchester Cathedral. Self-explanatorily cool.

The Church of Bones, Kutna Hora, Czech Republic. Since I have a taste for the grotesque, how could I NOT visit a church that is decorated with human skeletons, some from the Black Death or the Hussite Wars?

Auschwitz-Birkenau, or Oświęcim. Poland. Not at all cool but just something that I think I need to see.

This is all on the assumption that I don't lose all my bags, or get robbed, or do something really stupid within moments of getting to the UK, and turn around and go straight home.