We leave in one week.
As it stands now, we have just about everything ready to go. We've packed and unpacked and repacked our backpacks a few times now (try saying that five times) and have discovered that we only have about 45 lbs. of stuff to cart around with us. That's probably about 1/2 of what we had when we travelled through Europe in 1998 so we're doing pretty good!
Since we have our travel guides read, our bags ready, our traveller's cheques and Euros bought, our crisp US dollar bills sorted from the worn ones (which we will leave behind), and our website ready, the biggest task we have left to do is to choose the music that will be, in essence, the soundtrack of our trip. We have four cards for our MP3 player and estimate that will give us room for approximately 135 songs. We have a lot of picking and choosing to do. It's very difficult, for a couple of music fanatics, to go through song lists and decide what songs you will want to listen to while travelling and those you will not have the opportunity to listen to for months and months.
But that's just something to keep our minds occupied while somehow covering up the excited feelings and anxiousness we have about leaving!
Some of you know what our first stop is and others have no idea. So we'll even out the playing field and keep everyone one step ahead.
Our first stop is Amsterdam. We arrive there early next Friday morning and spend the weekend there. We stayed in Amsterdam back in June of 1998 on our trip through Europe and it remains one of our favourite cities. Last time we were there, we arrived at night with hostel reservations that were not held for us and let's just say, Amsterdam is FULL in June and July. A man in the train station said he rented out rooms in his apartment to backpackers. Our only other option was to stay at a severely overpriced hotel which went way over our $50/day budget (Canadian dollars, I might add). So, against our better judgement, we took the stranger up on his offer and he drove us to his apartment. There were three American guys staying there too but we had our own room. It ended up being safe, quiet, and a great place to stay. We drank Heineken, ordered pizza, and watched the World Cup with our roommates.
Learning from this lesson, we booked a budget hotel in Amsterdam way in advance (with a credit card) this time around. The sad thing is we'll probably spend less money on accomodations the entire time we're in Asia than for these three night in Amsterdam! Such is the drawback to European travel.
One final note. Some people refer to the Netherlands as "Holland" because historically, this region of the Netherlands has been where the majority of people have settled and where the most economic activity has occurred. However, Zuid- (South) and Noord- (North) Holland are only two of the twelve provinces in the Netherlands! So, it's akin to calling Canada "Ontario" or the US "New York" which would, no doubt, annoy a lot of people. So, next time you think of the Netherlands, for goodness sakes, don't forget the other wonderful provinces like Zeeland and Flevopolder! :)
tothesea,
k&m