first trip of a lifetime

if you think my itinerary for the 2011 odyssey sounds loose, take a look at the one i worked up for the wanderings i did in 1994:
budget - $6,800 (and $1,200 sent home for safe keeping with mom - where ever i ended up penniless, she could purchase my ticket home)
timetable - until the money runs out
type of travel - train and boat
countries being visited - ireland, france, italy, russia, china, and as many as i happen upon in between
itinerary -
    dublin on st. patrick’s day
    paris on my birthday
    rome on easter sunday

that’s right, only three dates in what was planned to be six to nine months of travel!

oh yeah, no taste

i bought a eurail pass and a ticket on the trans siberian train, i had a big backpack, a sleeping bag, copies of rick steve’s europe through the back door, lets go europe and lonely planet china, a handful of phrase books, a walkman (tapes included bjork’s debut, highlights of opera, the best of the disco era, take that’s take that and party, jamiroquai’s space cowboy, the best of beethovan, stravinsky's rite of spring, a mixed tape of gothic dance club hits and three tapes of my favorite 80’s tunes), two cameras (so i could shoot color and black and white film at the same time - thank god for the digital age!!!), some clothes and a journal to record the misadventures of each day. backpack weighed in at 70lbs. idiotic. i have since learned how to pack light, thanks in part to gadgetry.

times two - what a control freak!

back when i let fate determine my path on that trip to italy, i discovered lucca, a city that stole my heart. this armed me with a new sense of adventure and trust in the universe, so my plan for travel was to go to the train station and get on the first train going anywhere and be open to other opportunities that presented themselves.
i think there was a small part of me that recognized this as possibly dangerous, but mostly i was stupidly fearless, i trusted myself to be observant and resourceful and it never occurred to me that i might get into something i couldn’t get out of.

as it turned out, that was usually true...

odds and ends of entertainment

in preparation for the trip i have been stockpiling various bits of media. i found that the easiest way to cure homesickness when backpacking is a visit to the local mcdonald's (i know, yuck! but it really does work) and jumping into a book or a movie. the nook and ipod are getting stocked up with all sorts of goodies.

to this end, i've been gathering book suggestions from friends and family and getting them for the reading gadget. so far i have the complete works of mark twain and jane austin (yay for free books online!), the girl with the dragon tattoo, into thin air, the wizard of oz series, me talk pretty one day, three cups of tea, american tabloid, a is for alibi, saving fish from drowning and the adventures of cavalier and clay. with all the bus riding i will be doing, i am guessing i will get through this list by the time i get to patagonia. seems i won't be able to buy new nook books from outside the us, so i am on the lookout for more!
(if you are hesitant to recommend something, let me just say the last four books i've loved are kon tiki, beat the reaper, where men win glory and generation kill. i am happy to dive into any well written non-fiction on just about any topic, mysteries, spy thrillers, adventures, chic lit, classic kid lit and novels about angsty gen-xers - but in all honesty, i'll give just about anything a gander!)

i've put together a swell collection of movies that i can play on my ipod (star wars, it's a wonderful life, the princess bride, footloose, saturday night fever, mr. smith goes to washington, wizard of oz, the thin man, twilight and the matrix) and tv shows (wonder woman, charlie's angels, starsky and hutch, the bionic woman, dean martin roasts and pushing daisies).
sigh.
one of the things i will miss most while on the road is streaming media on netflix.

i have some great music mixes. a couple of years ago i started making these collections for a friend - 'the last 18', 18 songs from the last 18 albums i had listened to. i have no taste, i like everything, and my music collection is eclectic to say the least, so these mixes were fun to create and revealed little or all about me! (here is the latest: violent love - oingo boingo, hysteria - muse, boom swagger boom - murder city dolls, it's not fair - lily allen, oklahoma stomp - spade cooley, have mercy - loretta lynn, long hard times to come - gangstagrasse, mahatma's message - mc yogi and sukhawat ali khan, right down the line - gerry rafferty, hold the line - toto, let's get physical - the black ghosts, you can't win {the wiz} - michael jackson, sitting, waiting, wishing - jack johnson, mystify - inxs, oh my love - john lennon, people are strange - the doors, bring it to me - she & him, no.3 la campanella {liszt} - andre watts)

and lastly, a whole season of real time with bill maher podcasts! it is so hard to resist listening to them now...