90% and Two Months to Go !!

Well I have hit the 90% savings mark for my trip to Europe, that is a big milestone. Can't wait to hit 100%, which I will be able to do with the work I get at the Bulk Barn. Which is awesome, it has been a long road, but will be well worth it.

On the subject of long roads, the time until the trip is quickly passing by. Today marks the start of the two month count down until we leave. Every day I talk to Melanie, and we are getting more excited by the day. Two months is not a long time.

On a side note, I only have 5 more days of class and my last exam is on the 13th of April so University will soon be coming to a close. Scary but exciting!

Great Gigabytes Batman!

Man you can turn almost everything into a exclamation by Robin. Anyway I finally found a great deal on digital memory for my camera. Futureshop had 1GB cards on for $15 a piece so I picked up three. I know have 5 gigabytes (gigs) of memory for my camera, and hopefully that will be enough for the trip.

Just so you know how much 5 gigs is, this will be enough for me to take 3500 11x14 or 4750 8x10 photos. I know that might seem a bit extreme, but I don't want to run out and I don't know how easy it will be to transfer pictures to a CD while I am over there. I figured if we are over in Europe travelling for nearly 80 days this will allow us to take 50-60 pictures a day, which should be plenty. I know most of those pictures will never be printed, but can be sorted through when we get home and you can't have to many pictures especially of a trip like this.

Anyway I now its not very exciting, but some news that I was happy about. A funny fact that Chad will appreciate, one of these little cards that you see in the picture (which are about 1-1/4'x3/4'), holds ten times the amount of memory that Chad's first computer had. Mind you that computer came out about 15 years ago, but still it is pretty amazing.

Passport

Yeah!! My passport arrived in the mail this morning, which means I am able to actually go on this trip that I have been planning for a year now. The Post lady knocked early, while I was still being lazy in bed and I almost didn't answer the door, until I realized it could be my passport. So I jumped up and called after her down the hall. Anyway it is pretty cool, I now feel official, when people ask for my passport I can slide it across the desk to them... I know that sounds dumb, but you always see people on the movies having to hand over their passports, something that as a kid I remember seeing as something exclusive or a ticket to am adventure. I hope you know what I mean so I don't sound completely crazy.

I was waiting for my passport to arrive for a couple of reasons, not just the fact that I need it to travel, but so to purchase our train tickets. I figured that I should wait to get them until I had my passport in hand cause the tickets would be a waste of money if I couldn't use them. So I should be buying the tickets in a few days. I am debating between two different kinds of tickets.

1- The first type of ticket lets you travel as much as you want for two months all over Europe
2- The second allows 15 days of travel within 2 months

I am leaning toward the second option as it is about 40% cheaper, and chances are that is the one I will get,cause even if we use up the 15 days the cost of buying the tickets that we need would not add up to the cost of the first type of ticket. I will let you know when I get them.

Mount Vesuvius !!

Well the other day I was reading an article on Mount Vesuvius and realized that it isn't that far out of the way, almost on the travel path actually, and I was stoked. I am sure you all know the story of Mount Vesuvus and its famous explosion that covered the town of Pompeii and Herculaneum and has since become legend, especially since the towns were rediscovered in the 1700's and excavation revealed the tragedy of it all. The fragile ash casts of people hiding and belongings left where the stood, there was a movie on the discovery channel a few years ago about it. You can read more by click on the links in the previous sentances. Anyway, it is a pretty cool place to go as much of the towns have been uncovered from the ash and debris that covered them. I guess it is one of those places that is so traggic and morbid that you have to go see it for yourself, kinda like when you are watching something disturbing on TV but can't look away.

The ironic part is that the current city of Naples is not that far away from Vesuvius which is still an active volcano and has erupted as recently as 1944, though not to the magnitude of 79AD. There are many sensors around the volcano and experts believe they can predict an eruption up to two weeks in advance, so there isn't a whold lot to worry about, but evacuation plans are in place. Maybe there will be an eruption when we are over there that would be cool, as long as we are at a safe distance.

A view from Pompeii

The Crater ..

Mount Vesuvius with Naples in the Background

Less than three months to go.

Wow, time is really flying. February has gone by really quick and I am certain March will go by even quicker with only four weeks left of school. I ran into a friend, Thea, the other day who had just returned from a trip to Europe and China and had a short chat about her experiences while over there. Thea said that the daily budget I have projected should be good, which is a relief as I wasn't totally certain if it was enough but she said it was a good amount. A tip she gave me was to have a short piece of cable that could be looped through our packs and tie them down while traveling on trains or buses. Just something easy that would prevent would be thief's from simply picking up the pack and walking away, sounded like a fair idea and it would allow for a bit more relaxation. Don't get me wrong I don't think Europe is crawling with thief's, but you never know and when everything you own is in one bag you don't want to risk anything.

I am hoping while we are over there that we might be able to take in a music festival, the idea occurred to me the other day when it was announced Aerosmith was coming to town and we weren't going to be home. I thought with all the large cities over there we would be bound to come across something good. Anyway I just wanted to check in and let everybody know what was going on, and as you can see there isn't much right now, just school and work. Will write something proper soon.