In the Beginning...

Okay, so maybe we won't be wandering in the desert for 40 years (hopefully), but it feels almost Biblical as we start our own adventure. Holly and I are on the flight to Houston, where we will catch a flight to Buenos Aires. We said our (slightly tearful) goodbye to her mother as we entered the airbridge for the first of many flights over the next 9 months. The anxiety I felt before we left Holly's mom's house for the airport has been replaced by mostly excitement and, surprisingly, a calmness. Holly is her usual outwardly calm self.

Flying with only carry-on bags didn't last past our first flight. The flight from Salt Lake City to Houston is 3 hours on a commuter jet. Seriously?We don't rate at least a 737? The lady at the gate said our bags wouldn't fit in the cabin, so she gave us checked bag tags. We didn't believe her, but, of course, she was right. Lesson learned, listen to the flight attendants. We took out the essentials and then I struggled my way back up the aisle to deliver our bags to the guy waiting on the airbridge. Hope this isn't some kind of omen about our luggage.

I guess I should be soaking up every aspect of this journey, but right now I won't be too disappointed when this flight is over. Holly has been reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and now is resting. I was building my adventure reading list, pulling recommendations from the latest issue of Outside magazine, before I started writing. Excited as I am about the forthcoming big adventures--Antarctica, Machu Picchu, New Zealand--I am also excited about the mundane--having coffee in the morning, reading great books, writing this blog. Undoubtedly, being able to share the mundane with Holly, wherever we are, is what makes it exciting. While this flight may not be exciting me, I hope I never forget what a joy it is to go on this big adventure or share my life with someone so special to me.

Before the Big Trip

As the day of our departure draws near (8 October), we are thinking more and more about our big trip. I (Michael speaking) will use this blog entry to capture our thoughts about getting ready, another lesson learned, and talking to people about the trip. No pictures for this entry, unless we can get those cool MRIs that show brain activity.

Getting Ready
The first element of getting ready, beyond deciding to go of course, was deciding where to go. I read in a book I bought, The Big Trip from the Lonely Planet, about identifying the trip's pillars, the must-stops. The idea is to then plan the rest of the trip around them. Either during the planning or the trip itself, any changes that need to be made should be done to the other stops but not the pillars. After some thought, I decided my pillars would be Peru, Argentina, Antarctica, New Zealand, and Nepal. I added in other locations that enabled me to travel completely around the world and visit all 7 continents. Once Holly joined the adventure, we re-looked at the pillars and other stops. Eventually, we decided to drop Nepal as a pillar and not plan anything beyond New Zealand (more on that in a bit). We kept the other pillars and the desire to circumnavigate the world. We'll figure out the other stops as we go.

The next step was to work out the timing and make the travel arrangements. I initially read about two options for buying the airplane tickets, choose all the stops and buy the RTW ticket or buy the tickets just prior to leaving for the next destination. With my initial pillars and other stops decided, I started shopping for RTW tickets. That went out the window when we changed the pillars. Although buying last-minute tickets gave us flexibility, it was definitely going to cost more. It was about that time I read about a third option, buying multiple trips at once. Seems pretty obvious, I know. The challenge is figuring out the timing and finding the best price. Thank goodness for the Internet. Between using the multi-stop tool Indie and other sites such as Kayak, we were able to buy our tickets for South America and New Zealand at what was hopefully relatively reasonable prices. Since we will be in New Zealand for 6 weeks (or longer!), we can decide then where else we want to go and still be able to buy our tickets ahead of time.

We haven't gotten very far with finding places to stay, just a hostel room in Buenos Aires and a hotel room in Ushuaia. We discovered hostels aren't as cheap as they once were, especially if you want a private room. On the flip side, they aren't the grungy, bare bones refuges where you may share space with the resident cockroach anymore either. I expect we will stay in a mix of hostels and hotels throughout the trip. We may even throw a house or apartment in there when we get to New Zealand.

The last main part was all about stuff, taking care of the stuff we have and getting the stuff we need. The timing of the trip is especially good for me because one benefit when retiring from the military is the government will store your stuff for up to a year. So I just had to have the movers pack up most of my stuff and then leave a few things with my mom that I needed afterward. Not nearly so easy for Holly. She had her stuff picked up by movers over a month before we were leaving Germany. So she needed more things in the interim plus those things she didn't want to be shipped with her household goods. After shipping 10 boxes and $370 in postage, we were down to the things we could take in our suitcases. Unfortunately for Holly the government won't store her stuff, so her brother is storing the five cratefuls of her stuff.

The second half of dealing with stuff was getting the things we need for the trip. We decided early on to travel using only carry-on sized bags. That put a pretty firm limit on the number of things we could take with us plus limiting the size and weight of those items. REI.com, sierratradingpost.com, and backcountry.com became our friends. Finding the right stuff has been challenging though, so we will probably be shopping right up to the day before we leave (Update:  we bought over $400 of stuff at REI but still need a few more things. Thank goodness for the gift card from Betty and Joshua.)

The Need for Down Time
It became obvious as we traveled across the US that we need down time in our travel schedule. We flew into Charleston when we left Germany because that is where Holly had her car shipped. We played tourists there for a few days, taking in the sights and tastes of that area. We then drove up to Alexandria, VA for 3 days of sightseeing and visiting my friends. Then we drove to Ocean City, MD to spend time with Holly's brother Casey and his family. We're glad we made all three of those stops. However, we were grateful for the down time we had when we got to my mom and stepdad's condo in Michigan after 10 hectic days back in the States. It was nice to be somewhere we didn't feel like we were tourists. Recreating those conditions while we are on the road will be a challenge. We will attempt to do that by spending 6 weeks or more in New Zealand and spending some of that time (2-4 weeks) living in a rented house or apartment so that we have a place we can call home. If that works, I'm sure we will repeat it at a later time during our trip.

Talking about the Trip
A running joke with Holly and me is how do we respond when people ask us where we live. We still haven't figured out the right answer to that question. Typically we'll chuckle and offer up that we are nomads. Not surprisingly, people ask us about the trip when they hear we are going. I love how excited they get for us. It helps me appreciate the wonderful opportunity I have to take this trip and gets me excited again about it. At times I have gotten caught up in all the minutiae and forgotten that this trip is a pretty big deal. Also, I am very lucky that I can do this and I have such an amazing travel partner to share it with.

Travel Resources
lonelyplanet.com - Source for travel advice and guide books. Also hosts forums where you can talk to other travelers. Mixed feelings about their material among RTW travellers.
bootsnall.com - Fantastic independent travel site! Hosts the Indie flight planning tool. Very responsive to questions.
REI.com - I prefer shopping in their stores, but you can find great deals online and returns are easy.
sierratradingpost.com - Holly bought many of her clothes on this site. Never been to one of their stores.
backcountry.com - Great deals and they are quick with shipping. Plus, who doesn't love their goat stickers?
hostels.com - My first stop for finding hostels, reading reviews, and reserving a room.
hostelworld.com - Another great site for information on hostels.

Our Practice Trip

Welcome to our travel blog. Holly and I will be using this to document our various travels. I hope you will enjoy reading this as much as we enjoy sharing our experiences with you.

Holly and I visited Venice, Rome, and Pisa for our last trip in Europe before we leave Germany. Typical of most Americans living in Europe for a few years, we had more places to visit than we had time to travel. Italy made the cut. Normandy, Budapest, Warsaw, and other places will have to wait until the next time we can be in Europe.

When I told our friends we were going to Pisa, to a person they said more than a few hours there was a waste. However, Holly has relatives in that part of the country, so that part of the trip is more about seeing them than sightseeing. There were no such reservations voiced about visiting Venice and Rome and for good reason.

San Marcos Piazza in Venice

8-10 August

Enjoying our somewhat unusual gondola ride

Holly and I both LOVED Venice. We enjoyed the usual attractions of Venice, but both of us fell in love with just walking around the city and enjoying it for itself. The architecture is exquisite, colorful, and constantly photo worthy. The romance of the city is palpable. Not that we minded. We saw many of the tourist sights:  San Marco Square, Rialto Bridge, Bridge of Sighs, and many old, beautiful churches. We also took a gondola ride. Holly had reserved a ride for us at 7:30 in the evening. When we arrived, there were already about 30 people waiting. All total, we filled 12 gondolas with 4-6 passengers in each. As Holly described it, we looked like an armada moving down the Grand Canal. One of the gondolas had an accordion player and a man with a concert hall quality voice. We were serenaded by them throughout the ride. We cruised a few hundred meters down the canal before turning around and entering the narrow canals that wind their way throughout the city. Our armada and musical accompaniment were very popular with the tourists, Holly and I are prominently featured now in many people's photos of Venice and our musicians regularly received applause from the walkways and bridges above the canals. We both would eagerly return to Venice just to soak the city in again.

10-13 August

The Colosseum from Palatine Hill

Holly making a wish at Trevi Fountain

Rome is dripping with history. There are of course the famous historical sites--the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, the Pantheon, etc.--but there are buildings that precede the US by a thousand years around every corner. In addition to the three I mentioned, we also saw the Fountain of Trevi, the Spanish Steps, the Palatine, and Vatican City. We tried to take the USO tour of the Vatican Museum, Sistine Chapel, and St Peter's Basilica, but the tour was sold out. We settled on one by What a Life Tours. Not the best tour I've ever been on, but it was well worth the 46 Euros we paid for each of us to skip the long lines outside the chapel and basilica. Both of us were amazed by how clean Rome is. We rarely saw any trash on the ground. We were also grateful for the many water fountains around the city, especially since it was in the high 90s (over 35C) the days we were there. If you go there during the summer, I highly recommend carrying a water bottle with you so you can fill it up often and stay hydrated. We were satisfied with what we saw, but we easily could have stayed there another 3 days and not seen all the historic sites.

13-15 August
We stopped in Pisa and visited the famous square where the tower, cathedral, and baptistery are. No, we didn't take any "holding up the Leaning Tower" pictures. After a short visit to Pisa, we went to Holly's cousin's place in the Italian resort town of Castiglioncello, about 30 minutes south of Pisa by train. We were definitely there during the high season, the beaches were packed. During our time there, we mainly visited with Virginia (Holly's cousin) and her family and relaxed. We also ate a lot. The food on the entire trip was scrumptious and Virginia ensured we ended on a high note. Spending too much more time in Italy would have been hazardous to our waistlines.

I am taking away two main lessons from this trip. First, Holly and I make great traveling partners., which is good since we plan on spending 9 months circling the globe together. We are both easygoing and have similar outlooks on the joys (and challenges) of traveling. The gondola ride in Venice was a perfect example. I think we enjoyed it more than anyone else in the group. We were laughing at how it was a bit cheesy, especially when we thought the ride was just going to be a few hundred meters down the Grand Canal and back. We have yet to see how we handle adversity, but so far so good. Second, I realized air conditioning is more important to me than I thought.

Our world adventure is off to a good start. We're about to leave Germany and start a whirlwind tour of the US. More adventures to come...

Traveling Resources

RyanAir.com: The primary budget airline in Europe. I won't fly with them though without buying either priority boarding or a reserved seat. To me, 7 or 10 Euros per person per flight is a small price to keep my sanity and not have to stand in the ridiculous line to board the flight.

Booking.com: Awesome website for finding hotel rooms and, to a lesser degree, hostels. Expanding beyond Europe since it was purchased by Priceline.com. We used it to find the place we stayed at in Venice, Antico Fiore. The hotel was a little difficult to find, but the room was great (had an AC unit!) and breakfast was delicious.

http://www.blackberryhouse.it: The place we stayed at in Rome. Great price and great location, but not the best place either of us have stayed. Don't recommend staying there in the summer since the room didn't have AC or a fan and someone kept turning off the hallway AC unit at night.

http://www.pensionesignorini.it/contenuto.aspx?id=16: Virginia's place in Castiglioncello. Beautiful little B&B in a seaside town and I can promise you you will eat very well if you stay there.

Triposo for iOS: Fantastic app for finding things to do in multiple cities.

Trip Advisor Rome City Guide for Android: Nice guide to sights and anything else you want to do in the city. Especially loved the compass tool to help us find restaurants (even if they were closed for vacation).