Good thing I still haven’t completely unpacked from my EuroTrip because I found out a few days ago that I’ll be taking my first ever business trip – to Taipei, Taiwan.

WHAT?!

Yeah…that was my reaction. Of all the things I’ve done this year, this one is definitely the most random, unexpected and cool. Though it is a business trip, I do have a few days at the end to explore Taipei with two of my co-workers which should be a lot of fun.

I’m glad I have the EuroTrip under my belt to make the prospect of traveling itself less scary, but I don’t think any amount of traveling through Europe will have prepared me for the culture shock I expect to experience.

It’s going to be quite the shock on many levels, actually. Not only am I going to Asia for the first time, but I also get to stay in a HOTEL. And I don’t have to carry a gigantic backpack! And I get my OWN ROOM! After the hostel life, this is definitely going to feel like living in the lap of luxury!

I take off tonight (technically tomorrow, but very, very early in the morning) on an 11+ hour journey across the Pacific and arrive in Taipei on Monday morning, just in time for work. This will also be my longest flight ever, but after 21 hours on a train from Sicily to Venice I think I’ll be able to manage. Business class with food and movies doesn’t hurt either.

Needless to say I’m pretty excited about this trip. Getting to go somewhere I would have never really chosen to go on my own, traveling without worrying about my backpack being stolen or whether my hostel will have rats in the ceiling (yes, it’s happened), and getting to experience a whole new part of the world? Awesome. Oh, and the work part of it should be really interesting and fun too.

I really don’t know what to expect from Taipei itself. I’ve done my usual Flickr browsing to get a sense of the area, but I’m going to wing it. I have 2 things on my to-do list: 1) do the job I’m going there to do and 2) go to the night market.

I think I can fit that all into a week.

I’ll keep you posted! Next stop: Taipei!

It’s 7:25PM, but my brain thinks it’s about midnight. I’m kind of fuzzy on what day it is (Thursday according to my calendar) and I’ve already managed to develop blisters from all of the walking. It’s hot as all heck and I seem to be insatiably thirsty, but it’s awesome so far!

Unfortunately, I don’t have a phone at the moment. I’ve poked around in various shops but all of the cheap phones don’t have SIM cards. I’m already starting to miss my iPhone. I’ve gone to pull it out a few times and then realized that I couldn’t use it. Ah withdrawal…

The good news is: I’m not completely Spanish illiterate! Yay! I’ve managed to survive the last 11 hours without too many problems (though trying to sort out the cell phone logistics was pretty interesting. Note to Spanish teachers everywhere: teach some practical things like cell phone terminology how to tell your hostel keeper that you canceled your second night but would like to apply that night’s downpayment to tonight’s stay because you canceled the second night with enough notice to receive your downpayment back.) It also turns out that I’ve completely forgotten most conjugations for tenses other than the present. There are a few frequently used ones that have stuck in my head, but for the most part it’s present tense all the way. I’m just glad that when I do get a full sentence out, it doesn’t contain too many uhs and ums and I don’t sound like a classroom-Spanish American. w00t.

So now we’re (we = me + Marquise, a friend from Cornell) hanging out in our hostel post-siesta and are trying to sort out what to do for dinner. My feet are telling me to eat the granola bar I have in my backpack and call it a night, but my more practical side is telling me to go get some tapas and sangria. Hopefully the sangria side will win that battle.

To those of you who were asking about my itinerary, that’s coming up soon. I worked it out on Tuesday (finally) so it’s only in pencil on a piece of paper folded up in my backpack, but when I have the attention span to transcribe it I will. I can tell you that my next 3 stops will be Barcelona (tomorrow evening, overnight train), Copenhagen (super cheap airfare from Barcelona. Win.), and then Palermo in Sicily (also by super cheap airfare). After that I think I’m headed to Venice to begin the nearly one-month long tour of Italy I’ve mapped out hitting the likes of Rome, Naples, Capri, Pompeii, Florence, Cinque Terre, and Pisa. Who knows what else will fit in there. Then there’s the entire month of July and a few days in August. I’ll spell those out later.

And, I’m sure the next question will be: “But Jenn! Where are all of the photos!” Well, they’re coming. I’m probably going to work on them on the train to Barcelona tomorrow night. I haven’t taken many yet because we were mostly just wandering around past the museums, but I think tomorrow will be a much better photo day.

So that’s all for now. I’m sure I’m forgetting things, but this is already longer than I anticipated! Have a good Thursday and I’ll be posting again soon with my itinerary!

Adios!

AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

I can’t believe the countdown is already at 0. Where the heck did the time go!? I really have no idea.

Being sick for pretty much the entire week last week was a blessing and a curse: It forced me to stay home and relax (and book some hostels), but it also kept me from going out and getting the things I needed. Luckily I managed to gather everything up over these last few days and my list is now complete (I hope!).

I posted about the backpack I chose a while ago. I’d ordered different bags so I that I could try them on and see which one I liked better. After a few days of packing them up with random crap and pacing back and forth in my room (oh if only you were a fly on the wall…) I decided that the women’s bag was a lot more comfortable and that the other was was just wayyy too huge for me to carry around, so I decided to send the bag I originally chose back to the store. I ended up with 5000 cu. in. which is going to be wayyyyy more than enough space if all goes well!

All in all I’ve decided to go minimal (obviously). I’m actually surprised with how simple my packing list is compared to the ones I made for the past two summers that I’ve spent in San Francisco. Though, I suppose it’s easier to get away with only having 3 shirts when you’re backpacking and not going to work every day…

Like always, I’m procrastinating, so right now about 1/2 of what I’m bringing is piled up on the dining room table and I’ll get the rest out and in the bag tomorrow. I still haven’t decided what I want to do about an everyday backpack, so that’s also on the To Do list.

I really can’t believe that I’m leaving tomorrow. This time next week I’ll be sound asleep in my hostel in Copenhagen having already been through Madrid and Barcelona and getting thinking about my trip to Palermo in the morning. This is going to be one BUSY summer.

My flight is tomorrow evening and I’m supposed to land in Madrid sometime around 10:30 in the morning I believe. So for now I’m enjoying some last moments of comfort: my MacBook Pro, my bed, my pillows, my TV (watching the Duggars at the moment) and all of the clothing options I could possibly want. Starting tomorrow it’s down to the Bare Necessities. (I definitely typed that as Bear. Thanks for the brainwashing, Cornell).

Here goes nothin’!

I entered and didn’t really think much of it. No one ever wins these things, right? Then I got an email: I won!!!

Needless to say, I was in shock. I won round-trip tickets on Virgin Atlantic, a Eurail Pass, and a Busabout Pass. PERFECT. Just what I needed. I was going to try to minimize the actual travel I did just so I could get the cheapest Eurail pass, but now I don’t have to worry about that!

The one thing that puts a wrench in the gears is the fact that I already booked my plane ticket! I have to figure out how to either get out of the ticket without losing money or reschedule the flights to go from SFO -> EWR for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I’ll also be flying in and out of London instead of into Madrid and out of Edinburgh.

Those details are still being worked out. I’m working with a STA Travel representative to get all of the details in order and I’ll keep you posted!

This trip just got soooo much better!!!

I think that’s when it hit her that I was actually serious about this trip and she proceeded to try her very hardest to convince me that going by myself was not a very good idea. I should find someone to go with me. I should stay in hotels. I should only go for a month. I should, I should, I should…

I know what the risks are and I don’t want to be talked out of going.

So I bought my ticket. Non-refundable. Open jaw into Madrid and out of Edinburgh. With 50 days to go (how about that nifty countdown I made up top there?) it was due time to set something in stone. Getting tickets gives me an exact window to plan my itinerary. I’ve had the tickets picked out for a while, but actually having a beginning and an end makes it so much more definite. This isn’t just a big idea anymore – it’s a reality.

The good news is that my flight to and from the US is the only part that’s set in stone. I really can do whatever I want for 63 days – I can go wherever I want for however long I want. As long as I make it to Edinburgh for my flight home on August 7th I’m good to go. Such freedom!

Next major steps include finding a hostel in Madrid and Barcelona and finding myself a backpack. I found one that fit like a glove yesterday but I’m worried that it’s slightly too big. I might order 2-3 bags and just return the ones I don’t like. That’s one of the downfalls of being in Ithaca (read: middle of nowhere) – there’s no place to actually try on a variety of bags. Ahh well. Online shopping to the rescue!