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.

"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.

Cafe Florian in Venice

Venice, the city of canals and gondolas. A place I can't wait to go and see.

I was watching one of my favorite travel shows called "Backpackers" (on the Outdoor Life Network) the other day, and the were visiting Vienna. Anyway, while there they visited a cafe called "Cafe Florian" and it looked really cool. It is the oldest cafe in Europe founded in 1720. The interior has a really cool ornate look that probably hasn't changed since it opened, and it has a seating area outside in St.Marks Square, with about 100 chairs, the type of cafe seating so often seen in pictures of Venice.

It is supposed to have some great coffee, and I thought it would be a great experience. The only thing that takes away from it is that the coffees cost around 7 Euros, which translates to be about $20 Canadian it will have to be one of the luxuries on the trip. As you can see from the pictures below it is a pretty cool place. Hopefully the coffee will be worth it. The guys on the show had this to say, "I don't know anything about coffee, but this is really good coffee" so I guess that kinda sums it up. I will be sure to let you know. On one final note looking for famous people that lived in Venice and may have had a coffee there I found out that Casanova actually lived in Venice from 1725-1798, so he probably went here. Pretty cool. Anyway hope you like the pictures.

The exterior of Cafe Florian in St.Marks Square

The entry way...

An interior shot, it's really amazing

Cafe Florian, looks like it hasn't changed in 300 years

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.

Trying something new...

Well, I have decided that posting regularly has not been something I have done lately, and I need to make a change. So for now on instead of trying to put up posts following the route that we are going to take, I will post differently. I received three different guidebooks for Christmas and thought that I might be able to post more often if I post interesting information that I read in them and post any other interesting things I find out during my preparations. I need to read the books so this should help me get through them as well. So here is a neat budget saver that I just read.

Dublin Area Rapid Transit (DART)

This a neat trick on how to get a scenic trip around Dublin. The way you get to see Dublin is by boarding the local rapid transit system or DART train as seen above, which is laid out on a track along the bay. The trick is when you by your ticket you tell the cashier that you are going to the next station, but you don't get off right away. The rail line runs back and forth, so you can simply ride the entire system and then get off at the station you bought the ticket for once it comes around again. The entire trip costs 89p. How cool is that! Since we will be visiting Dublin towards the end of our trek, this may be something that we choose to do to save a few pounds.

Hope you liked the new posting idea.

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.