Chicago

I've decided that I'm not really good with names. I sat next to a nice older woman on my flight from Syracuse to Chicago. I asked her for her name and pretty much forget it two seconds later. It was Rose or Blanch or something like that. She has two sons, both of whom got into graduate schools from which I was regjected. How ironic. I finally got up the nerve to start taking some pictures of where I am. O' Hare seems like a pretty big airport. I just hope the 777 in which I'm flying to London is a little more roomy and confortable. This is how it looks from here so far:
Looks sturdy. Hopefully it would bring us down in a water splash of glory.

And I'm off

10:00AM Syracuse.Day one of my trip has been going pretty well. Despite the rain, my departing flight seems like it's going to be on time. I made it trhough security with minimal trouble. They searched my bag for my sewing kit and toe nail clippers, but I was allowed to take them. I'm incredibly relieved. I don't know what I would have done without my sewing kit. So I'm sitting here in the terminal, testing out the capabilities of my laptop, waiting for my flight to come. There's a lot of sketchy older people walking around and staring at me typing on my computer. I should take a picture to show you, but I don't want to be the sketch guy filming everyone ;-). I hope this mistrust isn't rampant for my whole trip.

Packing

Considering what to pack has consumed most of the time I've devoted to preparing for my trip. The difficulty is adopting a lifestyle for an environment I have yet to experience. I've never been to Europe, and I have only a vague idea of what I'm going to do once I get there (travel, take a lot of pictures, and party my ass off). So how can I can prepare for all the eventualities that could occur? How much stuff should I take? What stuff should I take? Fortunately, the path to all wisdom that is Google provided a number of websites (links on the right) about backpacking through Europe with pages and forums devoted to this very topic. With the keen insight of those experienced "professionals", I am boiling down my belonging to the bare essentials. Oh is it sweet... The Backpack. The one thing that every backpacker needs to be called a "backpacker" is of course a backpack. I searched the bags from Eastern Mountain Sports, Eagle Creek, Gregor, and The North Face before finally settling on this monster: Columbia Sportwear: Europacker I figured the 5200 cubic inches would be more than enough to contain my societal existence for two months. The detachable day pack was a definite selling point for me, figuring it would be nice to have a bag to carry a subset of things I would just need while walking around for the day. I purchased it from ebags.com without being able to strap it on first. I was planning on returning it if I didn't like it, but it fit pretty well (I think). I've tested it out on a few weekend excursions and have been pleased thusfar. I do have a couple of suggestions for the bag makers, though. They should have figured a way to put the water bottle holder on the day pack. Also, a few pockets conveniently accessible while the bag is strapped to someone's back would be nice. Lastly, some way to securely lock ALL of the zippers would probably be advantagous (It seems the rope zipper handles could easily be cut if they're strung through a lock). Clothing. My philosophy on how much clothing to pack is that every other needed item should be packed first and then stuff clothes into the remaining space. With that in mind I'm taking the following:

• 3 tee shirts
• 1 polo shirt
• 1 button down dress shirt (Thank you wrinkle free fabric)
• 1 pair jeans
• 2 pairs kahkis
• 2 pairs shorts
• 1 pair of mesh shorts
• 5 pairs of underwear
• 5 pairs of socks
• 1 light jacket
• 1 thin PVC rain suit
• 1 swim suit

Footwear.

Shoes take up an enormous amount of backpack space, but having a good pair of shoes on my feet is probably a good thing given all the walking I'm probably going to do. That means I'm going to need a good pair of sneakers. Also, from what I've been reading, a lot of clubs and bars have dress codes, which would require a decent pair of dress shoes. Lastly, I plan on visiting a few beaches during my trip, for which sandals would probably be good. I've conveniently purchased sandals that will double as shower shoes (who knows what's on the floors over there). So I've got a pair of sneakers, a pair of comfortable dress shoes, and a pair of sandals. That seems like too much....

Sleeping. According to the websites I've frequented, a lot of hostels require(or will sell) a sleep sheet, which is a flat sheet folded in half and sown into a sleeping bag type of thing. I've made my own.

Toiletries/misc. I group toiletries into two groups. First, you have your daily personal hygiene/grooming toiletries and, second, you have your less frequently used need-based toiletries. My goal is to determine how much of both I am going to need to just barely get me through two months. Packing less than that requires me to buy more over there, and packing more wastes space (But, when in doubt, pack less).

For me, the former group consists of the following, which, for convenience, I'm packing into what I hope is a water tight toiletry bag from Eagle Creek:

• Shampoo
• Body Wash
• Face Wash
• Toothbrush
• Toothpaste
• Dental Floss
• Listerine
• Deoderant
• Razor
• Shave Gel

The later group includes:

• Travel microfiber towel
• Sunscreen
• Wet Ones
• Zip Ties
• Elastic tubing clothes line
• Sink stopper
• Laundry Soap
• Laundry Bag (came with Laundry Kit... might be useful)
• Travel sewing kit
• Pepto Bismal tablets
• Band Aids
• Aspirin
• Travel toilet paper roll

Entertainment. I'm willing to bet that I'm going to have a lot of free time travelling between destinations. Hopefully, I'll spent some of that time updating my blog here, but the rest of the time is definitely going to require some form of entertainment. While I far and away prefer female conversation, I am nonetheless packing in case I don't find a good conversationalist. Rather than pack separate books, an mp3 player, and since I enjoy movies, I got what will soon be my trusty 3lb, 10in by 8in, Sony Vaio T250/L (or something like that), on which I will store soft copies of books, music, and movies I'd like to enjoy while travelling (Don't worry Apple, I still have some extra computers on which to store iTunes downloads that you let me borrow... yes borrow... grr). Hopefully, it will take up less space and weight than the alternative.

Security. A lot of the stories that get around fast are the bad ones, involving gypsies, pick pockets, and late night gassings on trains. Unfortunately, having identification and money on me at all times is probably going to be a necessity, and the backpack could possibly favor the attention of Europe's more unsavory population. Thus, I have the traveler's money belt to house my passport, emergency credit card, HI card, ISIC, eurrail pass, and airline ticket (if that's not all digital now). I also might do the whole hundred dollar bill hidden in my shoe.

Packed. Putting it all together looks something like this. Everything fit easily in the Europacker with tons of room to spare. Now, from what I've read, I'm supposed to get rid of half of this stuff, but really that's just getting rid of clothing, isn't it? I welcome suggestions....

The only thing I have to put in the day pack at the moment is my guidebook and my digital camera (which eats batteries like no one's business). It will also be the future container of my laptop once I pick it up from the post office. There's probably a load of papers and infomation I'm going to have to take in the pack too, but I'm hoping to have as much of it as possible contained in the laptop.

Planning

Step One: Time is a Bitch. We get 75 years on this planet if we're lucky. The first two or three, I don't remember, I'll be so torn apart during the last twenty five or so that I'm not going to be able to enjoy life like I can right now, and the time in between is going to be wasted being the system's bitch while I worry about bills, leases, cars, 401K, IRAs, yada yada yada. Thus, now... in my youth, I proudly take a few months to say f**k you to a world that will eventually waste the rest of my life. But when to go? The answer for me worked itself out in choices I made earlier. The coop I took two years ago that pushed back my graduation a semester afforded me eight months this year before I could start grad school, but since I can't afford to spend all that time in Europe, I decided to take May and June off from my current coop for the trip. Step Two: The Essentials. I've had four and half years to think about this trip since I got the idea, and you might think I'd be prepared to the last minute detail... but what kind of recent college graduate would I be if that were true. Nonetheless, no good European backpacker will make it very far (out of the country) without first arranging a few of the essentials:

• Passport
• Debit Card
• Credit Card
• Airline Reservations
• Eurrail Pass
• Time off from whatever it is I do all day

I got my passport last summer (way to think ahead, PJ), and I was fortunate enough to already have some plastic money. Most research I've done suggests also taking traveler's checks, but I like to live dangerously. Besides, aren't those things dinosaurs by now anyway. We'll see how I do without them.

The fine folks at STA Travel were kind enough to find me an open-jawed cheap student airfare (that first takes me through Chicago... :-/) and a Eurrail Pass. I'm not anal enough to quote you my prices on here, though...

Step Three: Extras. I don't know if these extra documents are going to help me at all, but in the course of my planning, I've acquired:

• Hostels International card (www.hiusa.org)
• International Student Identification Card (ISIC) (www.statravel.com)

Supposedly, the former will get me discounts at hostels around the world, and membership came with free travel insurance. The latter will apparently provide discounts at stores and other places, one which is eBags (I didn't get the card until after I got my bag, though).

Step Four: My Shurpa. I would not recommend basing your initial purchasing decisions on the film, Eurotrip. Frommer's Europe is an excellent guide for sites, hotels, and cafe's, but it contains absolutely no hostel information whatsoever (not even Europe on $85 a Day). Consequently, at the suggestion of a couple of forum posts on the subject, I bought europe on a shoestring from Lonely Planet. Not only does it contain hostel information but there is a language guide in the back, suggested itineraries, and generally budget minded writing.

Step Five: Where to go. Well I can get to and get around in most of Europe now. So where do I want to go... I'm not entirely sure. In fact the mystery and adventure of not knowing where I'm going to end up is really exciting right now. ...Ok, that's not entirely true. I am partly an engineer after all. I have a vague itinerary planned to ensure I can get to all the places I want to see, but I have no reservations about deviating from it... at all. For now, though, this is the plan:

1. London
2. Dublin
3. Bath/Stonehenge
4. Paris
5. Bordeaux (one of many wine countries)
6. Madrid
7. Barcelona
8. Cannes/Nice/St. Topez (Can anyone out there get me in to see Star Wars at the Cannes Film Festival?)
9. Pisa
10. Rome
11. Florence
12. Venice
13. Zermat, Switzerland
14. Geneva
15. Zurich
16. Salzburg, Austria (or somewhere in that country)
17. Prague
18. Munich
19. Berlin
20. Amsterdam

Step Six. Where to Stay and How to get Around. As you no doubt have guessed from the HI card I obtained, I plan to spend my nights in youth hostels around Europe. I've read somewhere that there are five big hostels in Europe that everyone should visit, but the only one I can remember is Globetrotter's in Dublin. Hopefully, though, I'll be able to save a little money by sleeping on a night trains traveling between destinations too.

The rail system in Europe seems to be the easiest way to get around, and given the amount of travelling I'm going to be doing, the Eurrail Pass just makes sense.

Step Seven. As the movie says... Let the crazy European sex odyssey begin...