The times they are a-changin’.
This post seems to be older than 14 years—a long time on the internet. It might be outdated.
After months of plotting, I think I have a possible itinerary. I’m going to call it Itinerary v0.1. It’s basically a version of The Lonely Planet’s Behind The Old Iron Curtain in reverse.
- Seattle, Washington
- Paris, France
- Berlin, Germany
- Moscow, Russia
- St. Petersburg, Russia
- Tallinn, Estonia
- Latvia
- Lithuania
- Belarus
- Ukraine
- Poland
- Hungry
- Romania
- Bulgaria
- Macedonia
- Albania
- Serbia
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Croatia
- Slovenia
- Austria
- Czech Republic
- Berlin, Germany
- Seattle, Washington
A quick glance at the math yields 21 countries in 60 days, or about three days per a country. I still think this is a little fast, so I will be whittling this down to hopefully 15 countries or less (4 days per a country is a bit better, I think). The entire Behind The Old Iron Curtain trip is supposed to take 2-3 months, according to The Lonely Planet, with a budget of €30-50 per day. Currently, this would be $38-63 per day. Or up to $3,800 for 60 days. This is definitely within my budget. Although I don’t think that includes transportation. Still, I think things are looking pretty good.
I also checked United and A) I definitely have enough frequent flier miles; and B) it will only cost about $60 to book the US to Europe part of the flight.
Now, at this point you may be wondering why I want to tour former Eastern Bloc countries. Two words: Cold. War.
A little know fact about me, if I had to be a history major, my area of expertise (I’m assuming history majors have these) would be the Cold War. I think the Cold War was amazing for a variety of reasons. Two super powers on the brink of self-annihilation. Covert operations. Incredible leaps in technology that we’re still taking advantage of today. The list goes on.
There’s a still a lot to figure out though, including, but not limited, to: A shorter list of countries I’d like to visit. Medical Insurance. Theft Insurance. Visa for Russia (and possibly other countries). A travel partner (for at least some of the trip).
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