Vagabonding : 2006 June |

On the road again

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Once again, I stuffed my Gregory -no thats not why I bought it! - brand backpack in preparation for another adventure. This time, however, it contains cool weather clothes and camping stuff, which takes up considerably more room. Alaska has been in the 60F range during the day and dipping down to 40s at night…with camping and other outdoor activities on the radar, I ended up with a bulky pack. No worries, I have certainly carried heavier rucksacks, mostly in the army where it is a requirement that everything weigh more than 10Kg, including pencils, so I will manage.

Being an outdoors addict, I have always wanted to visit Alaska, and when the opportunity came up, I was salivating on myself thinking about it. If I have access while there, I will try to post some pictures.

I should be back mid-July, which leaves around 3 weeks for me to prepare my trip to Europe! Yikes.

Life is wonderful!

Posted in Alaska, USA | Tags: Alaska

Alaska bound

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Its now official, I am off to Alaska on July 1st.

Im not thrilled about the cool weather (its been in the 60’s) but I am deadly excited about all the awesome outdoor potentials. I definitely plan to do some fly fishing, hiking, maybe some mountain biking, and whatever else I can get myself into. Interesting enough, they are having perpetual, around the clock daylight right now so that will be perfect for my insomniac, nocturnal butt to explore each day to the max….

I am cashing in a free frequent flier ticket with Delta, which turned out to be somewhat of a pain. After multiple days of arguing with them over blackout dates, etc…they dictated that I leave on July 1st and I have to call once I am there to determine my return flight! I wanted to use my ticket to fly to Ireland in August, but its blacked out until November. Who wants to be in Ireland in November? I guess they only have so many free seats on every flight. The consolation prize is that they are going to fly me first class all the way there (my first time with such luxuries) so that will be nice for stretching my legs out on the long flight. I am crashing with a friend there so I hope to keep this trip as outdoorsy and low-budget as possible, considering the financial hit that Europe a few weeks from now is going to provide.

Actually having a trip on the radar so soon gets my vagabonding juices flowing and I can feel the adrenaline start to creep back into my system. I have always wanted to go to Alaska, especially since it is considered a sportsman’s paradise. I have been sitting in Kentucky for too long now and I can feel myself growing softer with each passing day. I doubt that I will get into anything dangerous there (although they do have some major climbing opportunities), but maybe I have pushed my luck enough for the year? Its a horrible thought to think that I won’t be doing anything else hardcore for a while, but after 100 action packed days in Southeast Asia, I should have been broken or killed several times over.

Posted in Alaska, USA, travel | Tags: Alaska, fishing

Europe planning begins…

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Trip planning - woohoo!

Its official, I leave for Dublin on August 10th.

I have spent hours studying my atlas and determining the best routes to bum around Europe this Fall. Unfortunately because of funding, I am going to have to skip the usual big tourist places like Italy and Spain, and stick to places that I have a couch to crash on!
I am slowly getting an itenerary together and purchasing cheap, juicy tickets from RyanAir and AerLinus for my hops around Europe….its amazing that flying is now much cheaper than the train.
I am still working out the exact order, but here is a guesstimate:

Lexington -> Dublin (Ireland) -> Waterford (Ireland) -> Cork(Ireland) -> Tralee(Ireland)
then a hop over to Brussels to get into the Netherlands.

Dublin(Ireland) -> Brussels (Belgium) -> Hertogenbosch (Netherlands) -> Amsterdam(Netherlands)

then a hop to Germany for my friend’s birthday!

Eindhoven(Netherlands) -> Munich (Germany) -> Konstance (Germany) -> Berlin (Germany)

I still have to decide if I want to go visit a friend in Stockholm, Sweden and freeze my butt off or make a bee-line for North Africa, (Egypt or Morocco) for some warmth, cheapness, and scuba diving!

Posted in USA |