Lindsay and Ryan Do the World 2008/09

Holy crap. Its here.  Its 1240am and I’m not tired at all!  I just finished packing some last minute things.  I think I have everything. I hope I have everything. 🙂

I had dinner with my aunt, mom and sister tonight and had to say bye to Ash.  That was a tad sad.  My mom is driving us to the Hamilton airport tomorrow.  I don’t think I am going to let her come into the airport with us.  Too sad. 🙁

I get to see my brother in less than 24 hours!!  I can’t wait for that.  I’m not even that excited for the rest of the trip right now because I just want to see John.

I will write again when we get to use an internet again.  Who knows when that will be.  Probably not till we get to FIJI! OMG. FIJI. lol November 9.

ttys

Our going away party is tonight at the Collins.  Quite a few people are supposed to show up so we are really looking forward to it.

This afternoon, I was going to do a practice pack…I just wanted to write and say that I laid out all the stuff that I want to bring and it was quite overwhelming! I thought no way all that stuff is going to fit in this tiny bag, but it DID!! My mom helped me roll all the clothes and it made so much more room, less wrinkles too!  I am sooo happy I don’t need to buy another bag! lol.  Its pretty tight and I could and probably will remove some stuff but at least it  zips up.

We leave in 5 days!!!  Ryan’s last day of work was on Friday.  He seemed very happy to be done.

I was making a map of our route for our party so everyone has a better idea of where we are going….I was looking at it and I couldn’t believe how far we are going! I can’t even explain the feeling.  I have wanted this for as long as I can remember and its finally happening. 🙂

I will write again in a few days before we leave! omg.

Lindsay

October 20, 2008

WE LEAVE IN 10 DAYS!!! ahhhhhhh!!!  🙂  I am done work now. It feels so great to be done work.  I have been busy getting last minute things together.  We have been booking our first few nights in each place.  We booked our hostel for Auckland today.  We have logged so many hours on the internet, its ridiculous. Ryan has 5 more days of work left.

Ryan bought a new camera today and then we bought an 8GB memory card too.  haha.  It will hold 4500 pictures. We also have four 2GB.  That means we can take 14000 pictures on this trip.  LOL.  I wonder if we will take that many in one year??!! Most likely. 🙂

I  am getting so excited.  Words can’t even express it!  I need to do a practice run on packing my bag.  I got to do that soon to see if I need to buy a bigger bag!! lol

Hey!

We just got confirmation for are around the world flights!!! I cant believe it, We leave in 24 days. Today I booked the flight from Calgary to Vegas. the trip is really starting to come together. We are going to book the hotels tonight for L.A. and Vegas. There’s so many things to do and it seems like were running out of time. Im SOOO EXCITED I can hardly wait last week I let New Electric know I was leaving. They want me to come back when I’m done traveling so thats pretty good. Well I should be writing again in a couple days as we have more details worked out. 

October 2, 2008

 We are finally in the month that we are to leave! 28 days to go! 8 days of work left!

We booked our flight to Calgary this week.  We leave from Hamilton to Calgary to see John on October 30, 2008.  Then we are headed from Calgary to Las Vegas for a couple days.  While we are there, the Grand Canyon is only a 4 hour drive away so we are going to spend a day there.  I have been there once about 11 years ago with my family but Ryan has never been.  I keep telling him its going to take his breath away (literally!) He just laughs at me.  He will see! 🙂  After Las Vegas we are going to spend a couple days in LA from November 7 -9.  I am hoping to spot a couple celebrities. 😛  Our flight leaves from LAX on November 9 to Fiji.

 We are having a going away party on October 25 at the Collins so we can say bye to everyone.  I am beginning to miss my friends and family already.  But I keep reminding myself that its only a year and then we will be back.  The time is going to fly by!

 I keep having nightmares about how I am going to pack my backpack! OMG.  I should start now!!

This is Ryan. I am excited!

September 19, 2008

OMG!  I said that I was going to lose my mind when we booked the flight! Well, its true!  I can’t concentrate on anything except the countdown.  41 days to go!  17 days of work left! lol  YESS.  Right now I am more excited to quit work actually.  I am giving them my notice next Friday.

 So here is our itinerary:

Los Angeles to Fiji -November 9

Fiji to New Zealand – November 16

New Zealand to Cairns – December 9

Melbourne to Thailand – June 12

Thailand to Cairo – June 22

Cairo to Athens – June 27

We are then travelling by train, plane or automobile through Europe and then flying home from Dublin to New York City.  We will be back in North America around October 9, 2009!

Ryan’s last day of work is October 24 and I haven’t seen my brother in like 10 years it feels like (its actually been just over a year) so we are going to go crash at his house, eat his food, use his hydro and water before we leave for Los Angeles!  John won’t mind at all! 🙂  I am so excited to see him!!  If I don’t see him now, I won’t see him for over two years and that is just way too long.  Plus, Ryan hasn’t met him yet!  So off to Calgary for a few days we go.

Well, that is all for now.  I will write again in a few weeks to let you know how the packing is going! Man, that is going to be a task and a half!

August 13, 2008

Ryan and I applied for our Working Holiday visa for Australia just last night and this morning we both received an email saying our visas have been GRANTED!  I almost screamed! LOL.  I guess there is an electronic thing attached to our passport now so when we arrive in Australia they just scan it in.  I am just so excited that I want to tell everyone! 

My travel agent is working on finding us flights right now so I will write again when we decide to buy our RTW flight! oh boy!!!

Prior to Departure – August 11, 2008

I have always wanted to travel the world, it has been on my mind for the last few years and now the time is right!  I can’t explain how excited I am.  I have saved up enough money, sold my house and am starting to plan our trip.  I am looking into RTW flights right now. I have sent a few emails to various travel agents and they are helping me plan the best route.  Here is a rough itinerary that my boyfriend, Ryan and I are thinking of:

Toronto – Los Angeles – Auckland – Cairns – out of Perth – Bangkok – Cairo – Athens – travel through Europe via train – England – Ireland – Scotland – Toronto.

We are very flexible on these places and do not really want to have a strict schedule.  We are also planning on getting Working/Holiday visas for Australia because most of our time is going to be there.  Ryan is an electrician and he hopes to do some of that while we are there.  I will do whatever.  I am a law clerk in Canada right now and the last thing I want to do when I am travelling is sit in an office! 🙂  I will do anything, fruit pick, walk dogs, clean hostels….we will see.

Well, that is about it for now.  I will write again in a few weeks…hopefully we will have our Working/holiday visas for Australia by then!

PS – About two weeks ago we bought our backpacks! That was exciting!