France

Updated Itinerary

Progess is being made! I’m calling this Itinerary v0.2. It appears that the only country that will need a visa is Russia. Thus, I’m going to going to start my travels there since it will have to be the most planned part of this trip. I talked with Jeff last night, as he had traveled to Russia several years ago, and got some good information on places to go. I’m hoping to have trip start and end dates locked down and reserved by the end of March, along with all the Russian parts locked down and reserved. 

I also talked with Quinn and Charlie, both of whom have indicated they would at least be interested in doing some traveling with me as well. I have calls in to Katelyn and Erin, both of whom have been and are currently in Turkey, respecitvely.

Below is a list of places that I think I would like to visit, in roughtly the order that I would visit them. I’ve also added notes (mostly to myself) about things I’d like to do there. I think this seems like a more managable list than previously. I’m also trying to setup a framework of things to do, however still allow the trip to progress organically.

  • Day 1: 
    Seattle, Washington 
    Dulles, Washington, DC
  • Airplane/10 hrs/UA964
  • Day 2: Moscow, Russia12
    • Red Square
    • The Kremlin
    • GUM
  • Airplane/1.25 hrs/$60 USD/Rossiya – Russian Airlines3
  • Day 6: St. Petersburg, Russia45
  • Bus/6 hrs/€30 ($40 USD)/EuroLines
  • Day 10: Tallin, Estonia6
  • France:
    • Paris, France (Paris Air Show – 15 to 21 June 2009)
    • Toulouse, France7
    • La Barre, France8
    • Vélizy, France9
    • Bidos, France 10
  • Italy:
    • Rome, Italy
    • Venice, Italy
    • Grottaglie, Italy11
    • Agnone, Italy12
  • Switzerland
    • Arbon, Switzerland
    • Interlaken, Switzerland13
  • Austria
  • Czech Republic
  • Poland
  • Ukraine
    • I’ve heard you can visit Chernobyl…could be cool.
  • Hungary
  • Turkey
  • Germany -> Seattle (UA8718)

Alternates:

  • Sweden14
  • Denmark->Seattle (UA9394)
  • Romania
  • Macedonia
0

  1. http://www.ricksteves.com/plan/destinations/east/moscow.htm ↩

  2. http://www.lonelyplanet.com/russia/moscow/sights ↩

  3. http://www.anywayanyday.ru/en/ ↩

  4. http://www.ricksteves.com/plan/destinations/east/petersbu.htm ↩

  5. http://www.lonelyplanet.com/russia/st-petersburg/sights ↩

  6. http://www.ricksteves.com/plan/destinations/scan/tallinn.htm ↩

  7. 787 Production Stop: Groupe Latécoère ↩

  8. Birthplace of Jean-Luc Picard ↩

  9. 787 Production Stop: Messier-Dowty ↩

  10. 787 Production Stop: Messier-Dowty ↩

  11. 787 Production Stop: http://www.seattlepi.com/business/275606_italy28.html ↩

  12. We visited Agnone a couple of years, it’s where my maternal great-grandfather was born, and  I’ve wanted to return here to just spend a few days hanging out ↩

  13. I’ve heard this is a must ↩

  14. 787 Production Stop: Saab ↩

What To Do? Where To Go?

I’m still no closer to finding out where to travel or what to do for my summer travel.

Here’s the my thought progression so far:
Initially, I wanted to study abroad. I had narrowed it down to two universities in the UK before I decided that doing so would set me back another semester. If it was going to take an extra semester, I might as well just travel after I was done with college. So I decided that after I graduated, I would return to Western Europe (UK, Italy, France, Germany, etc) and spend a summer there.

I was bored one night and procrastinating homework. I started looking at my United award miles and where I could fly and how many miles it would take. Two important things popped out at me. First, roundtrip travel from the US to Europe is 55k miles; second, a round-the-world ticket is only 200k miles and provides a maximum of 5 stopovers and “is defined as one Pacific and one Atlantic crossing; you must use legal routings as defined in pricing rules and continue travel in the same direction.” (Source: http://www.united.com/page/article/0,8566,1141,00.html?navSource=RelatedLinks)

So now I have this idea to travel around the world in 90 days.

After talking with friends who have spent time visiting just one country, it seems pretty clear that traveling around the world in only two-to-three months is a bit ridiculous. But I still like the allure of a round-the-world ticket, so I compromise and decide that I’ll only visit countries in the northern hemisphere.

Well, after more thought and some talking, this still seems like too much. So now I’m back to just visiting a region. Currently thinking about Eastern Europe plus a couple of Western Europe countries that I missed last time I was across the pond (Germany and France, for starters).

Another idea that has also been floating around my head is to go on a mission trip. Practically everyone I’ve talked to says I must go on a mission trip, and I think there’s merit to their claim.

I spent some time looking at mission work, especially mission work that could utilize my skills as an engineer, such as through Engineering Ministries International. In talking with friends (and on my own), I’ve also been pointed in the direction of Adventures in Mission (including The World Race), Pioneers’ The Edge, and even Messenger.

There’s still some part of me that would just like to get a ticket into Frankfurt and see what happens.

I think I will need to have something to do while I’m traveling, some sort of goal or mission, which makes mission work appealing. At the same time, I could also see being someones assistant. Anyone looking for an assistant to travel the world with them?

0

Postcrossing to France

My second postcard sent via Postcrossing has been received in France today.

Masha wrote back:

hello andrew!!! how are you??

thanks a lot for your beautiful card!! it’s so pretty!!! and you’re take this pic! very talented!!))

Time send out a couple more cards!

Postcrossing-US-168594

0

Everyone I know is Studying Abroad!

Not everyone. But a lot.

Jeff Staples is in El Salvador. Charlie Wyman is in Ecuador. Amelie Mabbutt and Hannah Bellinger are in Spain (although not with the same group…as far as I know). Julia Masnik and David Clausen are in London (together). Jessen Myburgh is in Greece. Alison White is in New Zealand. Katherine Staples is at St. Andrew’s in Scotland. Katie Shaiman is in Edinburgh, Scotland. Matthew Knowles was in France. Amy Dubetz is in Budapest. Amy Beck is in Buenos Aires. Lindsay Hansberry is in Europe.

There could be others, but I’m done looking through Facebook, for now, trying to figure out where everyone is. The point still stands though: A crap ton of people I know are not in the United States (or Canada or Mexico) right now.

Update:
Mesa Schumacher is in Peru. Kelly Nolan is Florence.

Next school year, Brittany Linton is going to Japan and Devan O is going to London.

Update II:
Lauren Rubinfeld is in Sydney, Australia.

Update III:
Dan Lecocq is in Japan!

0