Man, time flies!

My next epic trip is just one short week away!

I’ve spent the last couple of weeks getting my ducks in a row getting ready for not only my trip but also my move out of my place at the end of the month.

Since I’ll be gone for 4 1/2 months I’ll be packing up all my stuff and storing it at my mom’s place while I’m away.   Of course that means that along with the trip planning I’ve been spending my free time doing all the fun stuff that moving entails like painting, cleaning and packing up my place.

I’ve kind of done a little at a time over the last few weeks but now that I’m only one week away everything’s gone into hyperdrive.   All the fun stuff awaits me this week like deep cleaning the kitchen and bathroom, taking apart furniture and packing up the rest of my stuff.

I will say considering how much is on my plate I’ve been able to handle it all pretty smoothly.   I think alot of that has to do with the fact that I’ve gone on a few major trips now so trip planning has become relatively easy for me.

Unlike my first trip, not alot of thought was put towards shopping for this trip.   I bought a few new tshirts and socks and also a new pair of walking shoes but, other than that, I’ve still got all the stuff I need to travel with.

As for trip planning, I’ve spent time here and there planning out different aspects of my trip.   Looking up hostels and how to get in and out of various cities and a broad idea of what to do in them.

With the 30 plus cities I’ll be visiting I don’t really want to be researching everything about every city.   Not only is that mindboggling hard to do and remember, it just seems too organized, too analytic.   I prefer to have a more broad idea of a city as I arrive and get more specific information from either the people working at hostels or other travelers I meet along the way.

Now, having said all that, I’ve still done a laundry list of things to get ready for this trip and here it is:

● Cancel utilities and hibernate my tv and phone service
● Get my phone unlocked so I can use it overseas
● Figure out what the hell is up with Cuban currency
● Get the cobwebs off my travel netbook and reset it with stuff for this trip
● Figure out how to get from Mexico City airport to my hostel at midnight
● Reserve a moving truck
● Take down my shelves, repair holes in the wall and repaint said walls
● Donate any clothes I haven’t worn in the last 6 months
● Figure out how the London Underground works
● Look up what kind of weather to expect in the different countries I visit
● Find free walking tours for all the cities I’ll be visiting
● Download offline maps with favorited places onto the maps.me app
● Plan out my 5 hour afternoon in Oslo
● Find out what currency each country uses
● Figure out the cheap way to get out of Havana airport
● Move money around onto my travel debit card
● Request vacation pay
● Get boxes to pack with
● Look up local transit to get to the airport in Vancouver
● Print out e-tickets
● Scan my ids and mail the file to myself
● Find out the collect numbers for my credit and debit cards
● Look up how to get a travel document/visa for Cuba
● Renew my passport

Anyway, so, yeah, there were a few things on my plate the last few weeks but now it’s crunch time – time to get ready to get out there and explore again!

See you in a week!