Halifax & Bubbles

This is the morning before we leave, thinking things over in my head, and I am increasingly anxious. We arrived in Halifax yesterday, catching a ride down with Melanie's cousin Natasha. We arrived around noon and spent the day walking around Halifax. The best part of the day was when Melanie and I, went to eat lunch. We went to eat at Bubbles Mansion, a restaurant run by Mike Smith who plays a character called Bubbles in a TV show called the Trailer Park Boys (for those who don't know). Anyway the restaurant had various outfits and things from the show, on top of that the food was really good. While we were there Bubbles was actually hanging out in the restaurant, so it was lucky we were there when we were. I didn't go say hello or anything, but it was cool to see him.

Today, we plan on getting a few last minute items and relaxing before we have to go to the airport. I think we have gotten everything, but will probably miss something. Luckily they do have stores in Europe so I am sure we will be alright. Next time I post I will be in Europe!!

Getting Closer

Well the time until departure is coming quick. We finally finished packing, and have moved our things from Charlottetown to my grandmothers basement in Kingsclear, NB on Sunday. It was a long, long day, moving everything. In the morning Melanie and I woke up sick from what we suspect were some bad re-heated fish and chips. We were both vomiting and trying to pack when we felt a little bit better, luckily by noon and the time Melanie's brother arrived, we felt much better. We left Charlottetown around four, drove to Rexton dropped a few things off had supper, and were off to my grandmothers. We didn't finish unloading the truck until 11:00 that night. So with the loading, unloading, being ill and packing we were tired. Needless to say we have had lots of sleep since.

I had a little scare this morning when I wrote to the B&B we are supposed to stay at on our first night, and they responded saying that they had no such reservation. I panicked, and than realized that I had written to confirm the wrong date. I wrote back and they confirmed for the correct date. Currently we are settling in to life for the week at Melanie's parents, and organizing the belongings we brought for a short stay once we return.

Not very exciting stuff.

So Busy...

Well just a few notes for those interested:

- I got my Camera back today after its unfortunate fall. Works like a charm.

- I was able to get Medical Insurance for Melanie and myself today from the co-operators, by far the best price and has all the important stuff covered

- I am really busy right now packing for the trip, it is really crazy right now. You wouldn't believe the amount of garbage a person accumulates after living only four years in the same place. The only thing I like about moving is having the chance to sort through things and get rid of it all.

- We booked our first four nights in Paris on the weekend. We got a really good price, and it is a private room with an en-suite. Hopefully we will be this lucky all the time.

- And lastly... We got our rail passes on Monday! We are now mobile and able to get around Europe. Can't wait to get on that first train!

So we have had lots of excitement and craziness to keep us busy, but we are moving forward which is the main thing. Write again soon.

First Nights Accomodation

Well, I made the first nights reservation today. I booked us in at the Clare House in Dover for the evening of the 29th. Hooray!! It was actually a bit of a rush when it was confirmed. Silly, I know but oh well. This is their website, a really quaint little place.

So Much Planning.... only 3 more weeks!!!

Well I am back, a personal note first off. As I mentioned in my last post way back in March, I was finishing classes and was looking forward to exams. Well they are over and exams went well, I studied way more than I had to. Knowing that these were the last few exams made me a bit nervous as I knew I had to pass or graduate at a later date. Don't get me wrong, I have never failed a class or come close to it, but for some reason I was extra nervous. Anyway, graduation is this Saturday, and the family is coming over for it. Its which is going to be fun, to bad the apartment will be half packed but that doesn't matter.

Back to the trip, part of the reason I have not been writing on the blog, is that I have been trying to plan the trip itself. It takes a fair bit of planning to be able to line up train times. For example, when we land in Heathrow we have to: Walk down to the "Heathrow Connect" train that will take us to Paddington Station, then we have to get on the Bakerloo subway line which will take us to Charring Cross station, where we can finally catch the train to Dover where we will stay for the night.

The connections and whatnot doesn't intimidate me, its making sure that we get to Charring Cross station on time so we can make it to Dover at a decent hour. We will only be there for the night and we want to have some time to see the cliffs, and catch dinner. The next day it’s up early, probably about 7:00 GMT (3:00 our time) for a "Full-English" breakfast, and off to catch the ferry to Calais and then off to Paris!

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.

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.

"Silver Jet, Way Overhead..."

Well we did it!! We bought our tickets!!

Wow, I am really psyched now, this is the first really big investment of our trip. The packs were expensive but could be used for other purposes. The tickets well they are a lot more, and they can only be used for one thing. The departure date is Monday May 28 and we come back the 13th of August.

The flight over is a night flight; we leave at 10:45 and arrive at 8:35 local. The flight time is 5hrs50min, but with the time change we arrive latter. I like the idea of arriving in the morning, as we will be able to see London as we come in, and we might be able to get some sleep on the way over (doubt it), and will let us have a full day right from the start. The flight back lands at 2:25, so that is pretty decent as well, will hopefully be able to get home the same day. It will be a full day, but we will be use to long days by then.

You can see our seats in the picture below. They seats are both closer to the back; I didn’t want to sit to close to the wing as it might obscure our view. Melanie has the window seat on the way over. I remember flying over London on the way home we went into Gatwick Airport and I got a beautiful view of London and it is something I will always remember, so I wanted to make sure Melanie has the same chance I did, to see Tower Bridge as you are coming in for landing.
I can’t wait, and I know Melanie can’t either. It is taking the big steps that really get you excited.

Another 767-300 ER (367) cruising

An Air Canada Boeing 767-300 ER (367)

Our Seats !!

Here are our seats on the plane. Click on the picture for a better look if it is to small.

A few more things to take

Well I finally sent off my passport application today. I had it reviewed at the post office as there isn't a passport office in PEI. It costs an extra $15 for them to review it, but they check the picture and application for any issues and guarantee it won't get rejected so its worth the extra money for peace of mind. As a result of my application I had to get a government piece of ID, so instead of getting just an ID, I thought that it would be the perfect time to get my beginners drivers licence. So now I can finally drive a car legally. I know its a bit late, but like I have said all along I have never needed it and the money always had a better place.

I also bought a nice summer sweater to wear while in Europe today. I have a good shirt folder that will keep wrinkles out of clothes (thanks Chad and Heidi), but I thought a nice sweater would be something that I could wear to a restaurant and wouldn't need to be ironed. We also picked up a couple of cheap bed sheets that we will fold in half and sew up to make a light sleeping bag. This light bag will help us keep clean as we will be sleeping a lot of hostels and will save us money as many hostels require people to rent linen if they don't have their own.

So we are slowly picking up things along the way to take with us on the trip. Can't wait to get my passport back, they said it should be back the first week of March, so even if its late there will be time to spare.

Another Step Closer !!

There they are !!


We got our packs. While home for Christmas, Melanie and I bought each other the packs for our trip as Christmas presents. Mine is the red one and Melanie has the gray/grayish blue one on the left. I hope you can make out the colours well, my monitor is kinda old and the brightness is going. Anyway we are pretty psyched about getting them as they are one of the most important things to get before going on the trip, next to tickets.


The packs are made by Asolo, I had never heard of them but the packs looked nice and appeared to be nicer than the ones available on a hiking website I was looking at. My pack (the red one) is pretty nice, I got it from the Radical Edge. It has a pocket for a water bag, a built in rain cover, sleeping bag compartment, and a good sized day pack. It is a travel pack and has handles on the side and top, and the straps on the back can be zipped up in a bag to prevent them from being caught in conveyor belts.


Melanie's is a travel pack so has the protective cover as well, and built in rain cover too. Her pack also has a day pack and a removable toiletry pack which is nice, and will save us having to buy one a nice bonus.


We also got some things to take with us on our trip for Christmas as well. I got a nice Swiss Army knife from my Grandmother, a small sewing kit, a couple of good travel books, and a really cool clothes folder from Chad and Heidi that keeps clothes wrinkle free. The clothes folder will come in handy when we are going to the different restaurants that Melanie wants to go to, as the restaurants she would like to go to wouildn't allow dirty hikers to come in.


That's all for now. Hope everybody had a great Christmas and hope you have a great New Year as well.

A Camera for the Trip

Yeah I know my blogging sucks. Excuses, busy, school......

Anyway I recently picked up a camera for my trip !!! I have been wanting a digital camera for a while, and finally decided on one. It is the Canon S3 IS, it is an ultra-zoom point and shoot, and is considered the next best thing to a DSLR, or a camera that allows you to change lenses.

I like the camera alot, it has swivel screen as you can see in the picture. I like the swivel screen as it allows you to shoot at many angles, and when you close it the screen is not exposed and that means less scratches. The Camera also has a strong zoom for its size 432mm zoom on a traditional film camera (that's alot). There are also macro or extreme close-up features and manual zoom as well.

In short I really like it, and as it can shoot pictures that can be printed at a 11x13 size, if I take an really nice pictures they can be framed for really nice decorations. I also picked up a 2gb memory card wich can store 1500 pictures, which is pretty sweet as well.

If you would like to read further about my camera check out the reviews here, and here.

25%

I am getting there. A milestone, but a long way to go. I hate saving money but it will be worth it when I get there. Two months in Europe is going to be awesome, I hope everybody has been enjoying the blog so far. I know updates have been slow to come at times, but there will be more regular for now on, and much more often when Melanie and I are making our way. Be back with another update soon.

Oh well...

Just a quick note. A couple of posts back I mentioned that I applied for a job in South Africa, and much to my dissappointment, I did not get it. It would have been cool, but I guess it was not meant to be.

For something interesting, here is a picture of the Alcazar of Sergovia just outside Madrid. The plateau that it is on has been the a stronghold since Roman times. This Alcazar was built in the eleventh century, and is said to be one of the many castles in Europe that Walt Disney used for inspiration.

Crossing my fingers

First of all I must apologize for not updating the blog in the past two weeks, I have been slighty distracted in the past few days.

As some of you may know, I am in the Cooperative Education program at UPEI, and recently there was a pretty enticing position advertised. The job is an international postion in Durban, South Africa. What is great is that travel and accomodations are covered (not usually the case). The postion involves working with a non-government organization, helping to promote good goverence and institution building.

Durban is an port/resort city on the Indian Ocean, and as you can see in the picture is a rather nice looking place to go for a swim. If you can't tell, I am pretty excited about the possibility of getting the opportunity to go there. Who knows, I may have to change the name of this blog.

This is the reason I have been neglecting my blog, writing my cover letter and tweaking my resume. The deadline for applications is the 2nd of June, so hopefully I will get called for an interview and then who knows.

Will write an update this weekend about Europe. Probably about food, so Melanie may have to help me.

About my blog

As mentioned in my initial post, this blog will follow the preperation for my trip to Europe with my girlfriend Melanie. The expected date for the start of the trek is in May of 2007, after I graduate from UPEI with my BBA, and we would likely return around the end of August though dates are flexible as we don't want to rush. The blog will cover any exciting news and information that I find out during the planning process, like exciting locations I discover, or ways I find out to save money and cut down on expenses.

There will be many random posts, but I will also try to do brief bios on each country we plan to visit. The bios on each country will allow for lots of feedback, and cover information such as:

• important history
• local destinations
• hotspots
• travel information
• and anything else I think may be of interest

Theblog will also be used by Melanie and myself while in Europe, to relay information and experiences to everybody about what we have been doing and seeing on the trip. The blog will allow us to keeping in contact with everybody as writing to everybody would be nearly impossible, though we will seend out lots of postcards. I hope that this blog will be interesting and would be happy to hear any suggestions.