Friday 18 November 2011

Whitby - 3 days to go!

Vicki and Rogue off for some last minute Whitby time :)


Our guest room, and everything that I'm packing! (cat carrier not included)

Hey everyone!

We're starting the 3 day countdown over here :) I just realized I should probably google some Portuguese/German/Turkish phrases so I can actually get out of the airports (actually, this blog just underlined "Portugese," so apparently I'm just learning how to spell their language now. Oh boy, learning curve).

I've already been back to Canadian Tire to buy a bigger bag. I originally thought that I was going to skate by with a 35L daypack, but that was total craziness. I feel much better with my new 65L bag. I also bought two 8GB memory cards for my camera, so I have 10,400 photos to capture this 6-month trip with. That should be enough, right? It's about 57 photos/day. Yeah, that's totally doable. So what am I bringing with me? 3 pairs pants, 2 sweaters, 3 T-shirts, 1 pair shorts... and whatever underwear and socks can be stuffed in my 1L water bottle (what a fantastic idea, it's not like the airports let you put water in them anyway). A bunch of miscellaneous stuff like a head lamp, iodine tablets, a compass, bandaids, an aluminum blanket (for when I get lost in the mountains of Nepal trying to find bigfoot). I got a great 0C, 2lb sleeping bag from MEC that will be packed in my carry-on. Don't check anything you don't want to lose! If the airlines lose my checked bag I'll just wear my sleeping bag like a moo-moo (who needs pants when you can drape yourself in couture goose feathers, am I right?). I spent all morning looking for my Europe/Asia adaptor plugs before I realized that my camera takes batteries. My two degrees are serving me well.

This week has been a whirlwind of last minute packing (oh my gosh, I definitely need a whistle!) and cramming in get-togethers with friends and family. I'm still finding time to take Perogie (Rogue) for walks and do some half-hearted exercising. Today is actually my last day at GoodLife, it's all plyometrics from here on out. Anyone have any good hotel workouts? I've written a couple down, but it will be a struggle to make myself do them. I hit the treadmill yesterday for 15 minutes and had the old man wheeze by the end. Why must the cardio leave you so quickly? I thought I was just going to wear my hiking boots but I'm thinking I'm going to have to pack my runners, otherwise I might not exercise at all.

Anyway, I'm hoping you all will email me while I'm away. Send me funny youtube videos, local news stories, everyday life updates. I will know what I'm doing, but I want to know what you're doing! Hopefully you get a kick out of reading this corny blog, I will try to update it faithfully. Apparently my first hostel has free internet stations, so I really have no excuse. For those of you who don't know, I'm flying to Portugal (Lisbon), Germany (Dusseldorf), Turkey (Istanbul) and Nepal (Kathmandu). I have until May 21rst, 2012 to explore and my volunteering in Nepal ends April 5th, 2012. I'm thinking maybe Vietnam after? I don't know, send me your suggestions. I think I could be persuaded back to Cambodia, or maybe Jordan? OR MAYBE EVERYWHERE!!!!!!!! But only if I find evidence of bigfoot in Nepal and become fabulously wealthy by selling my pictures to some trashy tabloid.

Later days!
Vicki
P.S. What are your best travel tips? So far I've got "keep your eyes peeled, every awesome situation starts with the phrase 'hey, what's going on over there?'" and "trust your gut and be safe, and if all else fails, remember that no one wants to attack/rob the crazy person."

1 comment:

  1. Travel advice from Cheryl : Do not let your backpack get higher than the height of your head. It throws off your entire centre of balance and makes walking very difficult. However, you'll definitely have a sufficient amount of clothes for your trip

    Travel advice from Katie: Always bring an extra pair of underwear in your daypack. You never know when that lactose-intolerance will strike with a vengeance. And cleaning up is harder in those small foreign bathrooms that you have to pay to use.

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