Am I Crazy?

[treeswithoutleaves]

Ok, here's the deal. I have a plain ticket that flies in Belfast on the 16th of June, and out of Rome on the 10th of January. Right away we have a problem. From what I understand, the UK (including northern Ireland), unlike the Schengen zone, allows visaless stays of up to six months. Unfortunately this ticket is for a period of time that is just shy of seven months. Now, I'm not planning on spending much time in the UK anyway (not more than a few days most likely), but do you think this will be a problem at customs? What if I tell them I am going to spend some time in mainland Europe?

[treeswithoutleaves]

Ok, that was only the first part.

Scenario: nineteen year-old American male with limited traveling experience (actually lots, but none solo backpacking), limited funds, in Europe for seven months on his own. Will it work? I plan on doing some WWOOFing to save money and have a place to settle down every once in a while, and sleeping outdoors--couchsurfing--scrounging food--hitchhiking as much as possible. My only regret is that I don't have a skill I could use to make some money busking...

Anyway, I guess I don't really care about whether or not it's going to work, because it's going to happen regardless. What I would really appreciate is advice, of basically any sort. Saving money on the road, good places to go that would be friendly to the inexperiened vagabond. What to bring, what not to bring. Locations of squats, food not bombs, etc..

Really, any scrap of information that might be useful would be awesome,

Dylan

[GoKrazy]

First of all - welcome to the boards!

If you are going to be spending only a short period of time in UK then I wouldn't worry about the visa restrictions. As for money on the road - you can always try to pick up odd jobs along the way to make a few bucks to suppliment your budget. I know that a lot of people in France and Italy help out on the vineyards picking grapes during the harvest. It's hard work in the sun, but you can make some money. Also there are the usual waiter, dish-washer, handyman type positions all over the place. Also I'd be careful where you sleep outside (if at all). It can be dangerous depending where you stay. At best you are running a risk of getting robbed while you sleep.

Fore more info read up the other forum postings - there is a lot of information there along with the links on the front page of the site. Best of luck!

[omisan]

Dunno where you're from, but as a 'Merken I can easily reset my visa-less limitation by leaving the EU for a couple of days and coming back - so take a train into a non-EU country for a little break, and you should be set... i think

[space virgin]

^Sadly, not anymore. Now you have to leave for 90 days before you can re-enter the EU. I *think* you're allowed to escape to the UK for that duration since we have a different leave-to-visit policy with them (6 months as opposed to 3).