I haven’t done an overseas trip in a good few years, I did a trip through Italy in 2009 and then did Amsterdam, Munich, Riga and Paris in 2010, both were fantastic holidays with a week work as well, this time it is just a holiday. I was maybe gonna plan a trip to Japan this year but haven’t given that much thought at all, but that’s not going to happen now as things then changed plan wise … I got an invite to a buddy’s wedding in Dublin in July so that was when I started really thinking about a trip overseas – but to Europe instead.
I looked at the calendar and started to think about what else I could do around the trip. That’s when things started snowballing. I enjoy my sport and love watching motor sport so I checked what options there was around that, and there were a few bucket list options. I’m going to the MotoGP in Assen, seeing the Tour de France go through London and then going to the German Formula 1 Grand Prix in Hockenheim.
So here goes ... I leave Cape Town on Wednesday 25th June and arrive back on Saturday 9th August. Yes - you read those dates right, I’ll be out of the country for 6.5 weeks, it used 33 leave days from work, I have the leave days so I may as well use them. I’ve been working OT at our maintenance slots for past year or so and saving that money to pay for stuff, so even though I don’t like loosing 1 Sunday a month it is worth it for the reward at the end.
As a high level summary this is where I am going and what I will be doing (in some cases I only have a day in a city but I’ve looked online at what I want to see in places and I think I have enough time for what I need to do) :
I’m going to be using Airbnb for my travel needs this time round, I’ve have done lots of playing with how things work online and I’m dead keen to see how well it works in practice. Is going to save me a LOT on accommodation for a trip of this length (about 1/3 the cost of hotels). I’m using the odd hotel along the way for logistical reasons.
So far I’ve booked all my accommodation and the main travel is booked, the odd bit of travel I can only book when I am in the relevant country, so there is still that to be done. I’ve packed my iPhone with useful travel apps generally and some specific ones for info in the cities where I will be.
In the time between now and then I will be doing the normal checking out stuff online and seeing what I wanna see where and making notes etc. A few friends have been away and just got back and visited quite a few of the places I’m going to be going to so will be keen to hear and see stuff from their travels and pick up some pointers/tips.
I’m going to try and share as much of my experiences as possible using this blog (hosted using free hosting at Xtreemhost). Some people use Facebook, some use Instagram, others use Apple’s iCloud and Photo Stream. For me the blog will work the best. I did it this way in 2009 & 2010 and it is a great way to share my trip with friends and family AND also use it as sort of a personal journal which I can look back on in future to remind myself of what I did and saw and little quirks that you may not get from a simple photo sharing concept.
Update: moved the hosting to my own server years later.