Join Me Backpacking in August!

Looks like planning.

Random Observation/Comment #201: Over the past 6 months, I’ve become a travel guru. I wonder if I have to wear any special attire.  In boy scouts, the badge I sew on would probably be of a guy wearing a backpack with a hiking stick.  In real life, my uniform would probably include sandals and the same badge, but with me also fighting a tiger.  I could always use that huge Europe Lonely Planet guidebook as my weapon – that’s pretty much the only use I have for it anyway.  FYI, everything in a guidebook can be found online.  I think you’re just paying for the binding.

When I first started planning, there were many – well, I guess they can’t be labeled “mistakes,” but I’ll call them “miscalculations.” It was very – what’s the word I used? – Oh yes, Anal.  The way I did it before, I basically saw everything there was to see through other people’s blogs and photographs.  I used Google Earth, Google Maps, and Street view to actually walk through the major cities to the point where I recognized the exits to the underground stations in London.  Everything about the city was mapped out in my mind before even arriving to a detail that made me wonder why I even needed to go.  It was definitely a lot of work, but it was quite comforting for me (but mostly my parents) knowing that every step was planned along the way.  Since then, I have learned a great deal about traveling and created my own refined methodology.  I’ll try to stay on topic this time and write about this travel-planning process with the results for this August.

Knowing the Givens

It’s very difficult to plan a trip without at least some major givens.  For example, it is essential to at least know: 1) Time allotted, 2) Budget, 3) General area of travel (a continent would be nice), and 4) Personal preferences of you and your travel buddies.  The last part is the most important because you will not be able to make any decisions without at least having some opinion about the place.  If you have a list of dislikes towards weather, cultures, or certain parts of the world, then it will be easier to narrow down your travel location.  If you already have a list of must-sees, than that’s even better.

In my case, I have all of August with a tight budget and the general area of Northern Europe.  I bought a Eurailpass for Germany, Benelux (Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg), France, and Spain for this month so I am much restricted.  Although restriction may sound bad, it is necessary for making these tough choices.

The Eurailpass is suggested for non-EU travelers because you’ll save a lot of money and you don’t have to worry about buying and printing tickets ahead of time.  A spontaneous traveler will appreciate this freedom.  I bought a 10-day 4 country select pass for August.  This means that the two months after activation, I can use any 10 days and take any train (including ICE) for free.  Great deal for only 310 EUR considering some one-way tickets can easily cost 125EUR.

Narrowing Down the Location

Based on your personal preferences, your travel time, and budget, the list of locations for your vacation should start to look a little more manageable.  I personally spoke with friends that have been abroad, or who are from these countries, to get a better idea of the sights that are most famous and most “underground.”  To get this advice, I suggest going to parties and bringing up this travel aspiration.  Surprisingly, everyone loves traveling and has their own little suggestions for places to go and things to see.  The guidebooks can give you this historical background and a few good tips, but I think locals and friends with your common interests can give you a little bit more relevant advice. Plus, if these friends live in the area and have a place for you to stay, it’s a little hard to resist adding this to your itinerary.  For people traveling in Europe, you will probably be using the super-efficient railway system.  Planning your route with this based on the travel flight should also give you a good idea of what you can see.  Remember not to be too ambitious and maintain within the area to reduce time spent on overnight trains.

In my case, I felt the need for a change of scenery.  I had visited so many old European museums and German places that the thought of a sunny beach makes me want to weep in joy.  Not only has Germany weather been overcast for most of the days, but I also haven’t gone body surfing for almost two years.  Yeah, there were those times in Japan, but I didn’t count them because the waves were so boring.  I miss those summers with huge waves and constant fear of jelly fish or crabs stinging me or clipping off a toe.  Good times.  Anyway, I will spend the bulk of my time in Spain and pass through Amsterdam, Belgium, and Paris.  This was partially due to my Spanish group of friends at Hamburg passing their advice on the main attractions.  I originally planned 10 days in Spain, but it kept expanding to more cities and more must-see locations.  Now, I’m thinking 20 days will let me see San Sebastian, Barcelona, Madrid, Valencia, and Ibiza.

Creating a Broad Itinerary

I used to write these itineraries in a word document, but I found that making revisions and seeing multiple overlapping itineraries were quite difficult.  The much easier solution is to keep an excel sheet with the columns: Date, Day of week, IT1: Country/City, IT1: Transportation details, IT1: Activities, IT1: Sleeping location, IT2: Country/City, IT2: (etc.).  With the time available for travel, you could just write out a few different itinerary plans and see which one works best.  To help with this decision, it is important to know exactly the length of the commute and the prices.  If you take all of your desired locations as nodes in a network, you can assign the weight to the line connecting these nodes as the travel time and then use any of the famous algorithms to solve for the best path.  Too complicated?  Just make a circle.  I would suggest flights from major airports like London Heathrow or Paris because the flights are more frequent and therefore cheaper.  Once you’re in the heart of Europe, I would suggest finding an itinerary that maintains the shortest travel times by train.

For example, if you have decided you want to see France, Belgium, Netherlands, and Germany and your flight is arriving and leaving from France, I would suggest a broad itinerary like: 3 days in Paris, 3 days in Amsterdam, 2 days in Berlin, 4 days in Munich, 2 days Brussels, and 1 day in Paris.  Although Brussels and Amsterdam are close to each other, it makes more sense to have a stop between Munich and Paris to reduce the travel time.  This becomes much more relevant for my particular case because a train from Hamburg to Spain takes around 16 hours. Without a stop in Paris, not only would I spend a whole day on the train (which I will probably have to do anyway), but there would also be a problem with the length of usage for the eurailpass (if the train ride is from 8AM to 4AM the next day, you will need to use two days on the eurailpass).

For my case, I will be starting in Hamburg, going through Spain for 20 days, Paris for 5 days, back to Hamburg for 2 days to get my stuff, Amsterdam for 2 days, and then London to return home.  The cities of San Sebastian, Barcelona, Madrid, and Valencia make a weird rhombus on the map of Spain so it’s a little bit difficult to decide which way to go.  I decided to see San Sebastian first because it’s the closest to Hamburg and I really want to jump right into the beautiful beaches and scenery.  After 2 or 3 days there, I’ll go to Barcelona for 4 or 5 days before the locals start their vacation.  Next is Madrid for 4 or 5 days for some culture, museums, and a cheap place to stay.  Lastly is Valencia and Ibiza for some relaxing beaches and party islands for the rest of the time.  This may sound like most of the work is already done, but research on accommodations and activities can change the broad itinerary.

Where to Sleep?

There are loads of cheap hostels in major cities with incredible free tours and maps that tell you all of the major attractions.  I found that, even though I did all my research before hand, I wound up “winging-it” when I arrived because I wanted a local tour guide’s opinion.  I would often arrive to the hostel, walk around for the night to get a feel of the city, and then just go to a free tour the next day to hear some history and ask some questions about places to eat or specific museums to see.  In fact, I think it’s enough to go to Frommers [www.frommers.com] or Wikitravel [www.wikitravel.com] and look at their attractions highlights.  Full-on itineraries are available, but you’ll find that these are completely unrealistic to follow.  Walking around the city with a full path planned and exact places to look makes it seem so robotic. I rather just use my sense of direction to guide my way around the city first.  It’s interesting how getting lost and then looking at the map later after finding your way back makes you more aware of how the city fairs in size.  Anyway, I won’t make generalization because I know some people who are just terrible with directions.

Another option is to use couchsurfing.org.  This is basically a community built on a trust that backpackers and hosts will follow the rules of conduct and provide a place for someone to stay in exchange for some stories and hopes that they will grow their network to allow more couchsurfing opportunities in different countries.  It sounds sketchy, but I can attest that it’s quite safe if you do enough research on the right person and make contact with an open mind and transparent itinerary.

In my case, I know a few people in Spain, so I should be able to save some money on my trip.  To accommodate these people’s time schedules, I also needed to adjust my own itinerary accordingly.  For other cities, I used hostelworld [www.hostelworld.com] to pick the best rating and price.  Since August is peak season for travelers, I would suggest: 1) exchange your money earlier (rates go up in the summer), and 2) make bookings to your hostels earlier (to ensure you get a room).

Refining for the Final Itinerary

To reiterate, the main factors that determine your final itinerary include (but are not limited to): personal preference on weather, festivals/activities in specific places, friends’ accommodations, friends’ preferences, type of transportation (eurailpass), transportation travel times between cities, and whenever you run out of money.  The excel sheet of choices really helps.  Below is my itinerary:

Date	City	Details	Sleeping	Railpass stuff
Sat Aug-1	Hamburg – San Sebastian	16 – 22 hrs need to take day train because eurailpass does not work otherwise	Sleep on train	Railpass3 (3)
Sun Aug-2	San Sebastian		hostel
Mon Aug-3	San Sebastian		hostel
Tue Aug-4	San Sebastian		hostel
Wed Aug-5	San Sebastian – Barcelona	5 hours	Barcelona hostel	Railpass3 (4)
Thu Aug-6	Barcelona		Barcelona hostel
Fri Aug-7	Barcelona
Sat Aug-8	Barcelona
Sun Aug-9	Barcelona
Mon Aug-10	Barcelona – Madrid	3 hours		Railpass3 (5)
Tue Aug-11	Madrid
Wed Aug-12	Madrid
Thu Aug-13	Madrid
Fri Aug-14	Madrid – Valencia	3.5 hours		Railpass3 (6)
Sat Aug-15	Valencia
Sun Aug-16	Valencia
Mon Aug-17	Valencia
Tue Aug-18	Valencia	Take boat to Mallorca or Ibiza
Wed Aug-19	Valencia	15 hrs from Valencia to Paris, 9 hours from Barcelona to Paris – need to take 6AM train
Thu Aug-20	Valencia – Paris	(Natasha will be here)		Railpass3 (7)
Fri Aug-21	Paris	(Natasha will be here)
Sat Aug-22	Paris	(Natasha will be here)
Sun Aug-23	Paris	(Natasha will be here)
Mon Aug-24	Paris
Tue Aug-25	Paris – Hamburg	8.5 hours		Railpass3 (8)
Wed Aug-26	Hamburg
Thu Aug-27	Hamburg
Fri Aug-28	Hamburg – Amsterdam	5 hours		Railpass3 (9)
Sat Aug-29	Amsterdam
Sun Aug-30	Amsterdam – Brussels – London	EUROStar, 5.5 hrs		Railpass3 (10)
Mon Aug-31	London
Tue Sep-1	London – US	LHR – JFK Leave @ 3:35PM, British Airways, Arrive in JFK @ 6:10PM	Plane	Underground

I haven’t booked the hostels yet, but after some feedback from some friends, I can refine this itinerary some more and start making some last minute plans.  It’s important to print out the booking information and relevant maps to get to the hostel.  After that, you can pretty much wing-it.

Many of the anal planning has been left behind.  Based on the research I’ve done, I already know I’ll have an amazing time at each of these places, so I don’t think it’s necessary to list all of the specific activities (and definitely not plan the itinerary down to the hours in a day).  Damn, I was nerdy.

~See Lemons Guru-Travel

Anal cavity searches don’t seem like fun

 

 

Japanese liquid tester

Random Observation/Comment #141: When I first grasped the simple concept of an airplane, I was very excited – I would get to fly to a magical place with unlimited supplies of candy and mashed potatoes.  What I pictured in my mind was a flying carpet, so you could imagine how impressed I was to see an airplane.  The giant wings would be able to fit many more people than a small little carpet.  I actually thought I was going to sit on top of the airplane.  It would be a little bit windier, but I felt like I would get a better view of the clouds.  I think my whole desire for flying was to sit on clouds.

 

I’ve never really been a nervous flier, but instead, I was more of a nervous airport terminal waiter.  I didn’t like the idea of showing to international flights two hours earlier just to – well… sit there and wait at the terminal for two hours.  There are quite a few airport terminal shops to browse, but I’m never really sure who purchases new handbags and pieces of luggage at the airport.  How do these places make a profit when everyone walking the airport is really just trying to waste time? The most thriving business, in my opinion, would be the book stores.  Magazines and short readings could be started and then purchased for the long plane ride ahead.  I would suggest preparing yourself for those book store prices because it’s not going to be pretty.  Hint: Bring your own book.

Before discussing adventures at airports or complaints about the random things (which I’ll leave for the later entries), it’s important to research the rules of the airport.  For international flights, always check-in two hours before your flight.  It’s annoying, but it’s better to be on-time and bored, than late and stranded.

The check-in luggage should be less than 50lbs or else you will be charged for the overweight.  I don’t think they will ship anything that exceeds 80lbs.  Most airline companies permit two forms of carry-on luggage.  The standard bag size for this is 56×45x22cm (22×17.5×9.85in) and should not exceed 40lbs.  You’re going to have to lift this into an overhead compartment, and those delicate flight attendants probably won’t be able to help you with your mass of poorly-packed garbage, so I suggest only carrying the essentials.  The other bag can be a size of a laptop, which will eventually need to be stowed, but can be more frequently accessed during the flight.

In terms of passing the metal detector and handbag x-ray check, all liquids must not exceed 100ml.  You may bring creams, gel, suntan lotions, toothpaste, deodorants, cosmetics, and medicines, but I would suggest placing them all in a separate clear, plastic bag ahead of time so they can scan it without causing too many problems.  Remember that JFK does not allow you to take water from the “outside” into the terminal (probably because they want you to spend more money) so don’t bother wasting money before entering the waiting area.  It’s such a mean trick to put drink machines right before the entrance.

Unless you want to cause trouble, I would suggest leaving any of the items on the “banned list” at home.  The airport security personnel don’t have a good sense of humor and will probably knock you out.  Some of the banned items include:

• Explosives – fireworks, ammunition, flares
• Gas cylinders – any flammable or non-flammable gas cylinders for butane, oxygen, propane, or nitrogen
• Flammable liquids – paint, petrol, lighter fluid, solvents, varnish
• Flammable solids – fire lighters
• Substances liable to spontaneous combustion
• Substances which in contact with water emit flammable gases
• Oxidizing materials – paint strippers
• Organic peroxides – bleach
• Toxic substances – insecticides, weed killers
• Infectious substances – bacteria, viruses
• Radioactive materials
• Corrosives – wet cell batteries, acids, mercury barometers
• Miscellaneous dangerous goods – magnetized materials, dry ice
• Cooking oils

The airport is not scary, but it’s a good idea to know what to expect.  It would be quite a bad start to a long trip if there are complications involving rubber gloves.

~See Lemons Prepare for the Airport

Anal itinerary planning

 

 

Hey, Spot

Random Observation/Comment #136: I think I have a severe case of OCD to the point where I am obsessed about not showing how obsessed I am about a plethora* of different topics.  In a sense, this level of obsession cancels all other compulsive actions and forces me to act normally.  My brain is a mess.

 

I’ve decided to post the results of my research in a series of blog entries (I’ve already done so much work, so why not?).  These entries will give my first impressions of the cities based on the research.  The results of these entries could then be compared to my first-hand experience after I reach these locations.  I will list all of the places that are popular, and then narrow down to the places I’d personally like see.  The last filter will be the places that I have time to see and how I will be able to fit these places into a detailed itinerary.  I would effectively be doubling the size of this blog if I completely do this, so I’ll try to keep it as bullet-pointed as possible.

The subsequent entries will cover the following cities, going in order of my visits:

• London – Bad Food, Worse Weather
• Hamburg – The Long Island of New York
• Munich – From Drinking to Drunk
• Lucerne – Skiing and Beautiful Girls
• Interlaken – The Center of Extreme Sports
• Berlin – Hopefully it can be deemed “the City”
• Prague – Suggested favorite with high alcohol consumption
• Amsterdam – Legal Drugs
• Cologne – A Famous Castle and some roads
• Heidelberg – A Famous University and some roads
• Brussels, Ghent, and Brugge – Beer and Chocolate
• Luxembourg – More Castles
• Paris – Could it be anybody? I need somebody to Love.
• Nice – Wine and beaches
• Dublin – Guinness (period)

Each of these blogs will be separated into the following sections:

• Random Observation/Comment – hopefully relating to the location
• General Research – main places that people have recommended with my opinion for the must-sees.  I will separate these by Regions.
• Optimized Days – places I will hopefully go – resources will be given for maps, itineraries, and general information

Although I like writing, this planning was purely from my hours of reading blogs and copying and pasting ideas.  I like to be thorough.  Hopefully, this will act as a good summary for those who consider similar travel plans.

~See Lemons with First Impressions

*”… I got bling up the ying; A plethora of Porsches; I say anything ‘cause my mouth is remorseless; Even the Source says my hip-hops a vortex; Leave horse heads on doorsteps, my mic-checks cost Corvettes; …MC Chris owns; I want to go to an MC Chris show; but he doesn’t tour so in the mean time; I’m gonna memorize all of his rhymes”