BootsnAll Travel Network



blog, schmog, fog, bog

If deciding (and planning) a one-year around the world trip isn't time consuming enough, I've decided to up the ante and start a travel blog to help my family deal with the idea of the trip as well as keep up with me while we travel, to have a record of my trip for the future and finally to try to help others with their rtw trip planning. I've searched and searched for helpful sites, and while I've found quite a few that were helpful in their own way, it was difficult to find a site that was specific to the kind of trip we're going to take. So, what kind of trip is that you ask? Well, let me tell you. We're two young-ish kids (25 and 23) who have decided to take a year off from the real world (Gina from job, Steve from school) and travel around the world for a year on as little money as possible. We want to really experience the places where we're visiting--to get a sense of how the people in that country actually live. We're into hiking and backpacking, but also into cultural activities, music, food, and just sitting around. I'll try to post as much and as often as I can... hopefully I'll stick this blog out! I have a lot of websites and books I've been reading that I'm sure might be helpful to other potential rtw travelers out there. So, enjoy, dream, become inspired, and try to ignore all of my quick typing spelling/grammar mistakes! Gina.

Oh cup of many names — for Ladies’ eyes only

February 11th, 2008

Seriously, boys, this post is for the girls. You don’t want to read it. Trust me. If you go any further it’s at your own risk, and I’ll go ahead and throw in an “I told you so” now for good measure.
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The Conditioning begins…and ends

January 19th, 2008

I realized a couple of weeks ago when Steve and I went for a casual walk through some of the nearby neighborhoods (that took us through the Oakland hills and some walking paths that were basically staircases) that I’m not quite in the physical condition that I would like to be for some of the more exciting plans for our trip (like the 4 day Inca trail to Machu Picchu). So, Steve has devised a little conditioning exercise for us.

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Updated Budget (January 19, 2008)

January 19th, 2008

Since we’ve changed our travel plans from our original itinerary, I’ve also updated our budget to reflect the changes, making it (thankfully), less expensive. So, here’s the revised budget.

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135 days…The Official Trip Countdown begins!

January 19th, 2008

That’s right, you know what that means, we just bought our first set of tickets to Peru! (Yippee! Woo hoo! *dance, dance, dance* Yay!)

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We are now Super Humans!

December 20th, 2007

Steve and I are now officially immune to…

Steve: Hep A & B, Rabies (sort of, I’ll explain below), Typhoid, Yellow Fever, Measles, Mumps, Rubella, and Tetanus.

Gina: Hep A, Typhoid, Yellow Fever, Polio, Tetanus, Meningitis, Measles, Mumps, and Rubella.

Yippee!

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Cameras cameras everywhere!

December 20th, 2007

I am having a hard time picking a digital camera to purchase for the trip. There’s so many options to take into account. I’ve never owned a digital camera. About 4 years ago I received a very nice 35 mm camera for Christmas from my grandmother. It was just what I wanted. I had taken a course in photography for my journalism minor while in college, and the crappy clunker digital cameras we were assigned managed to completely turn me off of the things. How very sad. If only I would have taken the time to visit an electronics store and realize that digital cameras had come along way since those old beasts were made. I would’ve asked for a nice digital camera instead. But now my eyes have been opened…surprisingly by Steve’s 3 year old Cannon 4 mp, 3x optical zoom with about a 1″ screen. I really love his camera. It’s small, fairly easy to use, and until the last couple of days I didn’t realize quite what I’d been missing.

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Steve is a College Graduate! Well, sort of…

December 10th, 2007

Saturday was Steve’s graduation. But for some odd reason, UC Berkeley, in its infinite wisdom, has decided that it’s best to hold their Fall convocation ceremony before the students are actually done with classes. So, Saturday Steve “graduated,” and today (Monday) is his last day of classes; tomorrow he has two finals, and next Monday he turns in his last assignment and is officially a college graduate. Sort of sad for Steve in that he had to go through the whole ceremony without the elated feelings of both never having to write a paper or take a test ever again if he doesn’t choose to do so and of being officially free from school. Oh well. We still had fun! And I found out that I can find my boyfriend in a crowd of people who are all dressed the same in a dimly lit auditorium.

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Itinerary Update #1

December 9th, 2007

I’m taking a long-shot guess here that this won’t be the last itinerary change/update. So, I’ve decided to name it the first, numero uno, #1.

So, here’s the updated table:

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Travel blog hiatus explained

December 9th, 2007

It’s been a while since I last posted anything–for a couple of reasons.

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More Gear!

August 28th, 2007

REI is having a big sale this week. We got a flier about it, and as I was looking at what they had on sale, I decided to check out some of the products online to see if any of them had customer reviews. The sleeping bags caught my interest.

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