Day -ii --- Starting my blog & the Schengen Zone

I didn't intend to activate this blog until I left the United States and have been posting most things over on my MySpace Blog. However, today - two days before leaving the States for good - I posted a comment that is relevant for my travels and decided it would be a good way to get started here.

Anyway, the Schengen Zone covers most of the European Union. In order to travel without going to the trouble of getting a long-term visa - which is considerably more difficult - I have to travel in the Schengen zone for 90 days and then hop out into non-Schengen countries for another 90 days. Further, since most countries only give US passport holders 90 days as well, when I hop out of the Schengen zone I have to have access to two different non-Schengen countries to make up for the one day overlap between the 90 days in and 90 days out of the Schengen zone. If I didn't mind being illegal, a lot of this wouldn't matter, but since I want to stay legal, I made a map...