Free to Travel

We have officially decided on our itenerary! It looks like this...

Sept. 17 - Arrive in Madrid,Spain
Sept 18 - Oct 27 - Travel via train, anywhere we please. TBD day-by-day
Oct 28. - Depart Athens, Greece.

Sounds good to me! Basically all of the itenerary planning was useless because we both feel it'll be best to play things by ear when we're there. With a completely open itenerary we can plan more or less time as we get to the cities we want to see.

We will both have a list of "must see" cities, but as far as when we get there and how long we spend in those cities will depend on how we feel that day.

It's the best way to back pack, in my opinion. Iteneraries tie you to a schedule and can end up making your vacation more of a chore. I don't want to get back from Europe and be ready for some down time. Or not be able to remember things from the trip because everything was such a whirl-wind.

I can't even begin to explain how excited we are for this trip. An open itenerary makes it even more exciting!!

Safe Travels,
- Kit

Funding

For anyone interested in pitching in towards the cost of our trip, you can do so at our fundraising website: http://www.gofundme.com/LyallEurope.

For every $5 you donate, you'll get a post card from Europe!

Thanks a million to our friends, family and supporters!!

Safe Travels,
- Kit

"Roughing It"

While pricing hostels and hotels we came across the brilliant idea of camping in Europe. Apparently, most major European cities offer camp sites where you can pitch a tent or stay in a permanent tent for a fraction of the cost of hostels or hotels. A lot of campsites even offer mobile homes you can stay in, pools, clean bathrooms with showers, a kitchen area, and electricity at each camp site. This is not the common American idea of camping. None of that rustic living stuff here!

For about $18 you can get a camp card through ACSI which is a camping association.It gives you a 50% discount rate on camp sites meaning most sites in the off-season (when we're going) will only cost about $17 a night! That's a huge savings versus hostels which can be about $35/ person per night. So $17 for both of us, or $70. Easy to see why camping is a good idea when going for 45 days!

We still plan on mixing it up between hostels, hotels, and camping. I mean, the price is right, but 45 days sleeping on the ground... yikes! This looks like a really great deal though, I'm excited to get to have the true back packing experience complete with camping!

Safe Travels,
- Kit

Eurail Passes

Wow, trying to figure out which pass to get is extremely difficult. We originally thought the 15 days in 2 months flexi-global would be adequate. But then that means only having 15 travel days in 45. Ouch! That doesn't leave any room for day trips or random travel on a whim.

This brings us to the next pass, consecutive travel for 2 months. This sounds good because it means we can travel unlimited everyday. It leaves open days for any spontaneous travel we decide to do once we're there. Also allows for the freedom of staying longer (or shorter) anywhere we plan on going.

Only thing is the cost between the 15 day flixi and the 2 month. But I guess at this point it's go big or go home. I mean it is a once in a lifetime trip, I suppose we shouldn't spare any expenses at this point. The only other option would be to still get the 15 day pass, but then purchase individual train tickets past that...but I think that's about the same price as the 2 month pass. Meh, number crunching is the least fun of planning.

Safe Travels,
- Kit

Né de cette façon... Translators

So after rocking out all morning to Lady Gaga's new single "Born This Way" and news of it already reaching iTunes #1 all over the world... suddenly I was struck with the thought of "Oh crap, talking to people in Europe is probably important."

Thus, today I'll be checking out some translators. Although, I'm not entirely sure why we haven't found/implemented Douglas Adams' Babel Fish. This could minimize a lot of language barriers and would save me upwards of $100 that I'll probably end up spending on a translator. While we're implementing awesome ideas from fictional novels, may I also add that a  Firebolt broomstick would be an exceptional way to tour Europe.

Nevertheless, I am faced with 459 results on Amazon.com when I search "electronic language translator". Here's the kicker, we're going to A LOT of different countries. So I really need to find one that translates (at least) the following: English to.... French/German/Spanish/Italian/Greek.

However, I just found this translator from Sharper Image which translates EXACTLY the six languages I need. Hurray for Sharper Image! This looks like a winner, but of course no matter what fancy gadget you get, you'll never be able to fully communicate when you don't know the language you're trying to communicate in.

Luckily Heather and I both took a few years of French in high school. But that was, well...a while ago! And we'll be spending the least amount of time in France. Ironic I suppose. Meh, C'est la vie.

If anyone can recommend a decent multi-language translator that'd be great! Cause I'm for sure not bringing a dictionary for each country. (Talk about back pain! Eek!)

Merci beacoup mes lecteurs joyeux! 

Bon Voyage,
- Kit

Must See Countries and Cities!

In planning a 6 week trip to Europe one of the first things you need to figure out is WHERE do you want to go and WHAT do you want to see?

To help us figure out the answers to these questions we started out by watching "Passport to Europe with Samantha Brown" on Travel Channel. Then we started stalking the Eurail website to learn more about our pass options (we're doing Global Flexi 15 days in 2 months, btw). Then finally we picked up the newest edition of Europe by Eurail.

Not until we had done all of this did we even BEGIN to brainstorm our "must list". Currently I've got the following on my list:

France: Paris
Spain: Madrid, Barcelona
Germany: Berlin, Munich
Denmark: Copenhagen
Belgium: Brussels
The Netherlands: Amsterdam
Czech Republic: Prague
Switzerland: Bern, Zurich, Interlacken
Greece: Patrtas, Athens
Italy: Verona, Venice, Florence, Pisa, Napoli, Rome

This list is in no way complete, yet. If at all possible we're going to try and get up to Stockholm, Sweden as well.

It'll be interesting to see how much this changes by the time we finalize our itenerary. :)

Safe Travels,
-Kit

So It Begins

After five years of being together, and almost two of marraige, Heather and I have started planning our dream trip to Europe. We are planning to back pack about 10 countries in six weeks. We're just now in the very basic planning stages, so our itenerary is still up for debate.

Originally we were insane and planned on going to or through 18 countries! Eek! That makes my head spin just thinking about logistics. Now I think 8-10 is more realistic. We've both been to France already so that's nice, too many places we'd want to see otherwise.

Currently our top countries are: Germany, Spain, Italy, Greece, Netheralands, Denmark, Switzerland, Belgium, Austria and France.

I plan on keeping this blog to outline the ridiculous amounts of planning and of course all of the fun once we get to Europe. I hope you follow me through the journey! And by all means, if you've back packed Europe, traveled on Eurail, or have any other insights into a great Europe vacation I'd love to hear from you!

Safe Travels,
- Kit




We had the Eurail map blown up and laminated so we could get a clear image of possible routes. Looks kind of awesome in the bedroom :P



7 months, 6 days until Departure.