Schengen Agreement

I apologize for this long post. I needed to just blurt out all my thoughts and get it out of my system before I make up my mind on what I shall do relating to the situation stated below.

The Schengen Agreement is an International treaty signed by 25 countries residing within Europe. These countries work together in many ways for a unified front. Most importantly to me, these countries form together for one travel visa.

When I originally planned my trip to Europe I had wrongly assumed that I would have a 90 day visa for each country. This may have worked a few years ago, but now, due to the Schengen Agreement, I only have a 90 day visa for all of the participating countries combined. One great advantage of this system is that if you live in one of these countries, I believe that you are allowed unlimited travel and work opportunities in the other participating countries. Basically to me it seems like they are sort of making the United States of Europe.

Only about 2 years ago there were only 15 mainly Western European countries in this agreement. This would have worked OK for me since I had planned on moving on to Eastern Europe anyway. However, since then another 10 mainly Eastern European countries have been added on. Some of these include Hungary, Poland, and Czech Republic. Interestingly some of the additional countries have signed the Schengen Agreement are not even part of the European Union. These countries are Norway, Iceland, and Switzerland (which was the most recent to join in December of '08) . Even more interestingly the United Kingdom and Ireland, while partly joining the Schengen Agreement, have both decided at this point against taking part in the travel provisions section.

After doing some basic research on this with the help of the oh so reliable Wikipedia, I thought of my options. My first thought was the basic plan anyone who has an expiring visa thinks of. Leave the country, or in this case countries, with the expiring visa for a few days, and then return to receive a brand new one with a new 90 day limit. Of course though, things could not be that simple. The Schengen Agreement says you can only spend 90 days within a 180 day period. Simply stated, 90 days in and then 90 days out before you can return again.

This is the point I was at when I was in Lisbon, I was quite unsure of what I would do. Only now have I become almost positive of what my decision will be. I had only 3 options to choose from. One would be to simply defy the rules. I know that there are many people who do so and have got away with it, and they say that the worse they do is kick you out. I knew there could be much worse punishment than this and I did not want to risk it and rely on information from other random people. My final decision on this option was made when I flew from Portugal to Oslo and the check in lady clearly went through my visa to check when I had arrived in Europe. Option 2 was to finish out the rest of my 90 days, head to the safe haven of the UK and catch a cheap flight home. I could stay home for a few months and regroup and reorganize to plan another trip in the near future. Finally, option 3 was to leave the Schengen countries and continue traveling.

Option 3 seemed like my most likely choice at first. My first thought was going to the country I skipped, Morocco. Then I realized I would be a bit trapped there. I was not prepared to head south from Morocco, most flights out of Morocco go to a Schengen country, and I was not ready to spend 3 months in Morocco in order to get a new Schengen visa. Then I thought Istanbul, Turkey. In the case of Turkey I had wanted to work my way through Eastern Europe which I would now be entirely skipping. Additionally, from Turkey, I had wanted to work my way down the Israel and Egypt, which I think I have to avoid right now for my mother's sake. So, Turkey and Morocco had similar problems. I think I would much rather come back and not skip so many countries I have so much interest in visiting and return to do the trip right. Plus maybe whenever it is I come back the weather will be warmer and hopefully peace in the Middle East. Lastly, I could just fly off to anywhere else in the world as well. Though I am not much for an overly planned trip as you all probably know by now, I do like to have somewhat of an idea of where I am going.

So it seems that option number 2 is the way to go. This trip has only increased my love for travel. I will be sure to go home and start thinking of another trip. I could come back and do Eastern Europe or maybe visit a completely other area of the world. Only time shall tell for that.

In the good news my trip isn't completely over yet. I have planned a bit of a last minute splurge, well actually I think it will turn out to be much cheaper than I thought. I will be sure to share the details of this once I have everything booked. Additionally, I still have a decent amount of time left on my trip. I have still not booked any flight home and as of now I think I will be coming home in early to mid February. Additionally, I am planning on another short trip to visit sunny Florida shortly after I arrive home!

If you have an opinion on the matter tell me what you all think. Nothing is definite yet, so the possibility to change is always there. Tell me I am making a stupid decision, tell me I making a smart decision, or tell me you have absolutely no idea. I don't care, just be honest.