Anal Packing Completed (Not Sexual)

 

 

the spread

This entry doesn’t count because there is no random observation/comment, but I just wanted to post the two pictures involving my packing technique.  The “rolling” technique has allowed me to optimize and look like a compulsive freak.  What’s done is done.  Now I will look like a bum for the next week because I packed all my good-looking clothes.

~See Lemons Finished Packing

 

the suitcase

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”

Trying to Solve an NP Complete Problem of Europe

 

 

frustration? a tease?

Random Observation/Comment # 126:  I never seem to stay on topic with my journal entries.  I read a lot of my suggestions from what’s supposed to be “useful to help other people plan,” but none of it is actually straightforward.  I enter a lot of weird commentary that just fills the lines with a horribly foul substance.  It’s not quite bullshit, but you do have to dig through something viscous to find what you’re looking for.  I oddly hope I continue writing this way because it gives me a glimmer of joy, just imagining the readers’ frustrations.

 

To summarize from earlier, I am bounded by a decision already placed into motion (the study abroad thing in Europe) so I researched in every nook and cranny possible to get an insight on different travel locations.  I did not know what I should choose exactly, but I knew I should take my time in each city and look for cities that were highly recommended by people who have my similar tastes.  Germany is a given, since I am centered there, but the bordered countries that are possible by weekend travel are quite numerous.  I could go basically anywhere in Europe because I’m right in the center.  In addition, since I have set housing in Germany, I will actually go on smaller trips based from Germany.  In my special condition (mostly applicable to study abroad students), I have chosen the main countries of Czech Republic, Switzerland, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, and UK.

I chose the UK because of the cheaper flight costs to-and-from London.  Round-trip flights are always cheaper and if I want to travel Europe anyway, I might as well do a one-way flight to Germany and take the train back to London for the return.  I highly suggest considering this possibility: Book a roundtrip to a major airport, fly cheap across Europe, train ride one way back to the major airport while stopping by all of your desired cities.  You should probably check the airfares, but I know London Heathrow Airport is much cheaper because of the high volume of traffic.

Basically, once you have decided your generic path from the airport flights and dates of return, you will be given some restrictions by the transportation and number of cities you would like to visit along the way.  As I mentioned earlier, give yourself enough time to enjoy yourself.  Try to do a few city days and then a few nature walks to balance the week.  Although I will be abroad for 6 months, I will have a few major trips that require thorough planning. 

The weekend trips centered from Germany are quite ideal because I could still experience some backpacking without the heavy luggage.  Since I already know the countries I’d like to visit and the number of weekends I have allotted, I have planned the smaller trips based on travel time and location.  For example, my last trip must end in London for my return flight so it wouldn’t make sense to go to the Czech Republic and then make a “U-ee.”  That’s just inefficient and quite unnecessary.  Plus, the transportation problem (discussed in a latter entry) will make this much more expensive.  Therefore, my weekend trips will focus heading towards the Southern and Eastern areas since my final trip will be going west.

For the longer trips, I planned lightly and accounted for my heavy luggage.  Normally, I would like to stay in different places to make local transportation much easier, but with the luggage, I prefer paying more money in a central location and leaving my important things in a safe place.  I expect to spend a full week in major cities like Paris, Amsterdam, and somewhere in Southern France.  Along the way, I’ll definitely try the beer in Belgium and take pictures of castles in Luxembourg.  These plans are quite broad as of now, but I’m also expecting some change when I meet people abroad. 

Keeping this in mind, it’s also important to be flexible with your planning.  Sometimes the reading material for your city or country may have given you false impressions.  Booking hotels or hostels a week in advance would give you guaranteed spots, but if you want to leave, you should definitely have that freedom. 

There really isn’t an easy way to do this because unexpected weather patterns or other disturbances may drastically change your plans.  It’s impossible to account for everything, but it doesn’t hurt to do more research and have backup plans on places to visit.  Categorize your travel days to minimize your transportation costs and maximize the sights in the area, and include the backup days if weather isn’t on your side. 

~See Lemons Find a Solution that Fits

Making a REALISTIC travel wishlist

 

 

A time traveling dinosaur?

Random Observation/Comment #125:  It’s hard for me to accept the fact that I can’t experience everything first-hand.  I feel horrifyingly hollow knowing this fact.  It’s not even the idea that I wouldn’t be able to experience the differences between growing up as an orphan or as a medieval lord – I realize these are impossible given my current choices and subsequent timeline.  It’s the idea that I won’t be able to live all of the branches that exist in my lifetime.  The “Me” I think of now will only see that one path in the fourth dimension, even though there could have been infinitely more in the fifth.  Let me clarify with an analogy.  If we take these experiences as the pixel count of a simple Snake game (for those in my generation, we played this in high school on our TI-86 calculators instead of actually solving derivatives and integrals), the screen resolution cannot be fathomed.  If I were a snake trying to eat the experiences within my timeline’s ability (in this case they will come up as little pixilated apples), I would need to choose which path to take.  Given my time limit, I can only travel so many pixels my entire life.  Following the game’s rules, my snake tail will grow after eating every experience, but since the size of the board is so expansive, I don’t think that “oh crap I don’t know where to go without eating my own ass” aspect of the game will be taken account.  The new twist, however, comes in the weight of the experiences or the points each apple gives (the tastiness of the apple, if you prefer, since each experience is difficult to put a value to).  My limit, then, is not the amount of apples I eat, but rather the distance I travel.  If I see that I need to sacrifice a lot of “fun” experiences to reach the one in the end, I would have probably died with a shorter snake.  It’s quite unfortunate, but who says the size of the snake counts?  Well, if the size doesn’t count, then what is the ultimate goal of the game?  To tell you the truth, the programmer of this game was cruel, and He didn’t really have an intended purpose – you’re just procrastinating so you don’t have to pay attention during Calculus class…

 

Continuing from my previous post, I have decided to go to Europe based on that stage in my life.  I am ever-so curious and submerging myself into a spectrum of unknown, just hoping for any response.  Europe is broad and nowhere close to a travel plan because I haven’t introduced any realistic restrictions.  The two major ones are time and money.  Although there are other concerns with intensity of activities, weather preferences, and people you know in the area, I’ll let you weigh those independently.  If you already know what you’re looking for out of your trip, it’s highly probable that you’ve considered your time and money aspect within your first narrowing down. 

Let’s say you’re going to see friends in London and you have a week of travel, then you can already concentrate on London locations and nearby flights to a few days in Ireland, or something like that.  If you’re going on a tour provided by Intrepid, then you don’t even have to worry about the itinerary (except for the start and stop locations). 

For those who really just have a lot of time and money, and don’t want to do the whole tour thing, I suggest traveling with a buddy and working out your preferences.  Ask your friends for suggestions and talk to elders about their backpacking experiences.  Not only will you find that old people have a lot of great advice, but you’ll also find that they love talking about their experiences – trust me, it’s endless (don’t give out your number or you’ll be on the phone with your friend’s father for hours, appeasing that grandfather-storytelling syndrome).  It’s very rare that people would just want to pick up and go without some type of restriction, and if you really don’t have a preference, then I’m sure some blog or set of pictures will strike your fancy.  If you’re having difficulty with this step, you’ll really break down and cry when you have to choose the specific cities when everything looks so appealing.

In my case, I will be attending study abroad program centered in Germany, so I already knew I would be Europe (in retrospect, sorry if the last entry was a bit of a sham).  I also knew that I would be starting in March, so the winter season and heavy packing was also a bit out of my control.  The fact that the season is off-peak will also come into account when I decide where to go.

First, focus on the time restrictions and prioritize based on efficiency and personal preference.  In general, I found it too messy to think of the entire problem at once.  Before even planning the flight days, you really need a sense of which area you’d prefer and how you would get around this area.  Start by reading and looking at pictures to wherever you want to go.  I conducted this research phase very methodically by consolidating everything I read online into a 30 page word document.  I copied and pasted Seasonal Attractions and made sure I knew the weather for the countries ahead of time – it would suck to go to London during its rainy/bad weather season (which is pretty much, always).

After considering the climate, I read a lot of tour travel itineraries.  It wouldn’t be too difficult to just download an itinerary and follow the main attractions at each stop.  You’ll have to work out booking the hotel and planning the leaving times for the train or airplane, but you’ll be in control of where you go and what you do.  Most of the time, for the extra money, booking the tour would save a lot of headache.  Plus, if you’re traveling alone, a tour is a great place to meet new people and concentrate on relaxing while going to these exotic places.  I’ve tried the tour life and it’s, for the lack of a better description at the moment, really nice.

After looking at a few tour itineraries, you’ll see a lot of repeats.  Everybody wants to visit those main places to see those cliché things.  Obviously, they’re awesome and a must-see for a reason, but the problem I’ve always had with tours is that “rushed” feeling.  Six cities in two weeks is not enough time for the full experience – actually, one city in 30 years isn’t enough time.  There are so many underground treasures and hidden beauties that escape those camera lenses.  For this reason, I’ve decided not to deprive myself of these experiences that would have been so much more heart-felt if I just spent that extra time digging deeper.  It’s like not scratching that scratch ’n’ sniff sticker long enough to get through the first layer for the full aroma – all you get is that metallic disgustingness, if you’re not patient. 

I expect a much more thorough life-changing moment if I take my time in every city.  I’ve so often mistaken my purpose of traveling – it’s not a checklist, it’s a road strewn with stores on either side for miles.  Why would you want to take a shortcut when every section of road has its set of unique experiences?  You’ll probably read this type of response in many of the tour reactions – “I wish we spent more time in <insert city of preference here>.”  That’s because tours can’t cater to your personality.  If you spend the extra time planning, maybe you won’t need to sit through an architecture exhibit if you prefer nature.  That is, if you dislike uncomfortable situations.  Knowing me, I would probably heat the coals for the brander.

~See Lemons Plan the EuroTrip

Process for Travel Planning

 

 

This picture is the essence of planning (look closer)

Random Observation/Comment #122: I’ve been living vicariously through other people’s experiences and looking through the lenses of so many cameras in the past few months that I feel like I’ve actually gone to these places.  Of course, my senses have not been satisfied with just pictures and descriptions, but this research has started my appetite.   I hope my stomach (a.k.a. external hard drive holding pictures and entries) can handle the 6-month, N-course meal (where N is not limited to counting actual courses of meals that I have in the 6-month period (obviously)).

 

Planning a trip is a mixed bag of treats and mouse traps (I haven’t decided if the original purpose of the bag was to store mouse traps or sweets).  It can be deliciously fun while reading up on the exotic places around the world, but horrifyingly stressful when working out the full depth of choices ahead of you.  When I planned my trip to Japan, I simply booked a 2-week tour and let Intrepid handle the rest of it.  Throughout the entire tour, a single thought about train schedules, hotel stays, or language barriers never crossed my mind.  Now that I think back on all of the things my tour guide helped us with, it was definitely worth the extra money.  Since that was my first trip alone around a country where I barely spoke the language, I didn’t want to jump directly into the deep-end (or jump in without dragging a lifeguard with me).  Besides, the tour took us to all of the remote places that most of the locals never have the chance of seeing.  I went sea kayaking, paragliding, white water rafting, fed deer, built robots, and took +12000 pictures of every nature scene possible.  Wow, 2008 will be hard to top – good luck 2009, you have good potential.  I’d say that getting chopped up at a hostel in London would be a bit of a downer, but at this point in my life, I’d feel dead if I didn’t feel alive (that actually should make sense if you put yourself in my mindset).

It would be quite a long article if I presented all of the details I’ve been struggling with for the past two months to plan my destinations and logistics for this 6-month trip.  As a general outline, though, I think I will cover the following in my however-many-part series of “Preparation Project Clemens-in-Europe 2009.”  I know, I should have been more creative with the name, but “Operation Rename Project Clemens-in-Europe 2009” will execute in the near future.  I’m up for suggestions.

The following are some upcoming topics for the next month (after the thesis, of course):

• Research – Where’s the fun at?
• Travel Wishlist – Where do I want to have fun?
• Narrowed Down Wishlist – Where can I have fun with my allotted time?
• Set flight dates – Free time?  Whatever, just get me out of here!
• See Travel Agency – STATravel – Please, help me, oh wise ones in the corner store by Cooper Union.
• Schedule flights – Discounts are nice…
• Transportation – I know: I’ll just walk everywhere! (BAD)
• Sleeping Arrangements – Camping? Newspapers as a blanket in a park?
• Itinerary – Anal planning? More like, well-prepared… bitch.
• Misc Information About Country – What do you mean I can’t pay with the dollar? That’s like gold!
• Packing – Money; check.  Laptop; check.  Ready! Whatever, I’ll buy clothes there.
• Safety – Don’t die, don’t die, and don’t die.
• Airport Traveling – Anal cavity searches don’t seem like fun (whatever floats  your boat)
• Etiquette – Don’t be that tourist that knows nothing about where they are and how they should act
• Last Minute Checklist – I knew I should have written this down somewhere… “Don’t forget your brain”

Thesis comes first.  I’m so excited.

~See Lemons Apply Dry Wall