‘I read more maps than books.’

It’s been a while since I updated this and a lot has happened in the last month. Only two months to go now and actually running out of thing to organise. Hurray!! Inca trek to Machu Picchu booked (9th June- if anyone wants to join us, hehe), the decision to bring a laptop or to hang in internet cafés every now and again was made and, thanks to a lovely work bonus, I got myself the yummiest little Asus netbook, shoes sorted, most equipment sorted, first aid kit sorted… just a few bits and pieces left to do.

Soooo….. shots! Yeah, they officially suck. For me anyway. Day one was last week and just after I get one injection into the left arm and two into the right the doctor tells me I’m a bleeder! Great! And then my right arm goes dead straight away which is fun cause I have to sign a form and then have to go pay and enter my pin in the laser mashine. Tripping over my own foot didnt help, the receptionist asked if I needed to sit! Oops.

Aching all over the next day felt great too. In bed I could feel the backs of my knees and my ears and my toes all hurting at the same time. My right arm was pretty tender for another few days. Now day two is tomorrow and I’m dreading it.

Uh, I’d love a jagermeister!

AAAAAHHHHHHH!!

YYYAAAAAYYY!!!

😀

2010 is finally here. Not long now. It’s the third of January now and I haven’t even thought about new years resolutions, new beginings, what to do with my life… the normal things that run through my head at the start of a new year. It’s a weird feeling! All I’m thinking about is travel insurance (still not organised!), visas, vaccinations and all the bits and bobs I’ve left to get.  And the best feeling in the world right now is looking forward to not having anything set to do for a long, long time 🙂 Just hanging with Brian, choosing what to do for the day, meeting new people, trying some new food, running for probably the wrong bus, not knowing what that dude is saying to me…..

Even the thought of work tomorrow isn’t bothering me like it usually does. Saying this I know I’ve had a few days off but I can finally see that light at the end of the tunnel. Going to step up the savings now. Start ticking off the checklists in the travel books and on the travel forums and blogs I’ve been reading.

Hurray for 2010 🙂

my head hurts 🙁

Seriously. Trying to decide which travel insurance to pick is a pain in the ass. I really, really don’t want to read 74 pages of the policy’s wording for all the different providers! There’s been so much crap to read through we’d planned to get our insurance straight after we booked our flights but we got fed up with the overload of information so ran away from it for a while! Crap, this sucks. Down to two but still, like, I dunno, I don’t care anymore…

Just over four months to go now and I know that’s still loads of time but I wanna stay working as long as I can, to get paid as much as I can so I don’t have to go home early… so I’m doing all the planning now. Our insurance is the second last expensive thing to get organised, booking our tour trek to Machu Picchu will be the last, so it’s all coming together really. YAY 😀 Brian, hurry up with that new passport!

oooo….think we’re down to one now. I like the look of www.worldnomads.com and Brian agrees. The headache is nearly over. Fingers crossed.

Just got myself a lovely picture of my route. Isn’t it beautiful?

So the general plan is… fly to Rio in Brazil on the 22nd of April 2010 and over the next two months head west through Brazil, Bolivia and Peru and then south through Chile. Two months is very short for this huge continent but sadly cause of budget we don’t think we can stay any longer.

Next flying from Santiago, Chile to Auckland, New Zealand. Only decided to stay a short ten days here. We had trouble deciding weither to do a six month stay in New Zealand or Australia but in the end Oz won cause of the weather!! We want to get a working holiday visa here so that we can settle for a few months and live in one of the cities and earn a little extra spending money. So we fly into Brisbane, Australia where I’m going to meet my thousands of relatives and then see where Oz takes us.

Just after New Years 2011, we will hopefully head for Bangkok, Thailand where we’ll spend the next two months travelling around south east Asia. Then a flight to Singapore which we’ll explore for a few days and then onto Mumbai, India where we have about a month or a month and a half to explore. Flying home from New Dehli, India.

So thats the jist of the trip. With our ticket we can change our dates but not our destinations so things can still change a bit. 🙂

Just sitting at home having a lazy Sunday, doing my usual research and reading about the trip and realised it’s exactly 5 months to the day we go. AAAHHHHH 😀

So with five months to go I’ve a few things done. Got my backpack, a Berghaus Jalan 55l and got it pretty cheap on the internet. Yay! 55l might be a bit big for me but I’ll have to wait and see. Got a few bits and pieces too… my handy Sporkfff, toiletry bag ( its got cupcakes all over it, haha), silk sleeping sheet and maybe one or two more things I can’t think of…

I keep wanting to go out and buy everything I need but have to remind myself it’s still quite a while away and calm myself down. Seriously like, I’d have everything bought for my first-aid kit and all assembled in a small tuberware container and waiting in the cupboard if I didn’t stop myself!! Loser, ha!

Here at home in Cork we just had a bad couple of days weather-wise. Rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain!! Pretty bad floods and everything. Makes me look forward to getting away from the cold and rain and winter and everything a little bit more.

Mmm… only 150 days to 20°C+ and Rio sunshine…

So just booked our flights a few days ago and remembered I had started this. Better get the hang of blogging before I go or else this won’t happen!

So… Ive always enjoyed travelling and since I started college five years ago I wanted to travel the world. Never really thought of how or when but just that I wanted to do it. So when college finished myself and Brian decided that careers, mortgage etc. were WAY too ‘real world’ for us so we started saving most of our wages and began planning our trip.

And four days ago it all became real. Cork – London – Rio de Janeiro – overland to Santiago – Auckland –  Sydney – Brisbane – overland to Sydney – Bangkok – Singapore – Mumbi – overland to Dehli – London – Cork. Leaving 22nd April 2010. Back some time in April 2011. Sounds CLASS. Woo hoo! Haha.

213 days and counting

just threw this blog together this minute, dunno if ill actually use it. not that into blogging but the idea interests me. travelled before around eastern europe in 2006 and a tiny bit of california in 2007 but never kept a diary, only threw a few things into a envelope (bus/train tickets, cards from places we ate, beer mats, etc.) so would have liked a diary to look back on.

heading away on a RTW with Brian but not for at least six months if all goes well but of course im getting excited and organised a little early. very me!

just cant wait to get out of here.  🙂