So what’s new?
I’m working with someone from STA Travel to get my various passes in order. I’ll be using the BusAbout and Eurail passes that I won to supplement some of my travels around the continent. As for the plane tickets that were also a part of the prize, it looks like I’m going to be planning a second, mini-trip to the UK sometime next spring (yay!).

Because of the BusAbout route, I’ve had to change around my itinerary a bit. The good news is that travel in and around Italy looks like it’ll be taken care of using my Flexipass, but it means that I’ll be rearranging schedule for that leg of the trip. I haven’t quite nailed it down yet, but it looks like I’ll be going Madrid -> Barcelona -> Sicily -> Athens -> Santorini -> Venice then BusAbout to Rome -> Naples -> Florence -> (add in trip to Nice here) -> either Milan or Lake Como -> continue the rest of my trip as planned. Lucky for me that I get to add in two extra stops in Nice and Sicily!

I’ve also sorted out my technology issue, but that’s going to be saved for another post because I don’t want to get too geeky here. The cell phone issue is still one that I haven’t quite figured out yet (I have a locked iPhone), but there’s still time for that part.

In terms of practical things: After some hassles with a particular online retailer, I finally got my backpack. I ordered two so that I could try them on and decided on the Kelty Red Cloud 5600. It fit like a glove when I tried it on in the store and I think it’ll have plenty of space for me to pack lightly but have room to grow (souvenirs!)

Other than that I’m just reading up, resting up, and trying to make it through this last stretch of school in one piece. Posting will be sparse for the next week or so, but then I’ll be back in gear and in full-on getting things done mode because there are only 31 days until I hop on that plane to Madrid!

If you know me at all, your first reaction will likely be along the lines of “WHAT!??!?!??!?!!?” followed by all sorts of visions of me going through some sort of hardcore rehab-esque withdrawal. Yeah, I’ve had those same visions. But in the end I decided that I really don’t need a laptop. For the most part I work in the cloud and while it would be nice to have my trusty MBP around so that I have at least something familiar in my life, it’s big, bulky, expensive, and distracting.

I’ve been thinking a lot about “the future”. You know, flying cars, aliens, computers that fit on your contact lens, that sort of stuff. And I realized, hey, those people won’t be carrying around laptops during their European adventures. No siree. They’d take advantage of the new wave of technology. For someone as purportedly tech-savvy as I am, holding myself to the “old” way of connecting to the webs is just dumb. No no, I’m going travel 2.0. Completely mobile and in the cloud.

To translate for you non-geeks: I’m not going to have my own computer. I’m going to save my stuff on the internet or an external hard drive instead of on a personal computer. Laptops are old news.

So here’s my plan for geeking out while in Europe:

Necessary:

• iPhone
• Skype for iPhone (and a $2.95/month skype-to-phone subscription because my gram doesn’t have a computer)
• Canon 40D and lenses that I’ve yet to decide on. It will likely be something like: wide angle, low-light, zoom.
• Nikon FM or Canon AE-1 Program. I haven’t decided which I like better yet.
• Flip Video Ultra (60 min)
• Renew my Flickr Pro subscription that ends July 1.
• 12-in-1 memory card reader so I can handle CF and SD in one (read: download photos from my camera). It’s a tad large, but not worth buying a new one.
• Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX01. Best little 3 year old point and shoot there is.
• Foldable Sony headphones. They’re not nearly as small as ear buds, but at least they’ll stay on my ears.
• A Seagate FreeAgent Go 320 GB Portable External Hard Drive that I will have to purchase

Would be nice:

• An eye-fi explore to geotag my photos (and the CF adapter would be nice too).
• Swap out my current Flip Video for its HD cousin: Flip Video MinoHD, 60 Minutes

I think that’s about it! If I do stick to just this list it means that all I really need to acquire is a portable external HD. The other two things that I don’t have would be fun but I don’t think I’ll end up spending the money on them.

I don’t know about you, but that seems like a pretty solid list to me. Nice and compact and accomplishes everything I need it to (at least I think. I guess I’ll be finding out the hard way!). I plan to bring a few non-tech items to make up for the things that I would normally have on my laptop like books and a notebook, but that’s it! Cheap and painless. I like it!

…Now I hope I can just stick to this decision and don’t panic at the last minute and sneak my laptop in my backpack…

At any given time you can expect to find me with my iPhone, MacBook Pro, 2-3 cameras (film and digital) and who knows what else. I’m reliant upon technology and I’ve become accustomed to a lifestyle where I’m connected all the time.

I think, more than anything else, not having the internet at my fingertips is going to be one of the most trying parts of this trip. Not only that, but figuring out a way to maintain a manageable level of connectivity while still keeping my backpack moderately light is going to prove to be an interesting challenge.

Two problems:

1: My laptop is huge. It’s a 15″ MBP, which is great for school and everything I need it to do here, but on the road, lugging around 15″ is a lot of excess weight. Don’t forget the accompanying wires (mainly the charger). I -need- a laptop though. I need a place to download/store my photos and being able to power Photoshop with moderate efficiency is also key. And, of course, access to Flickr. Here is where a MacBook Air with a solid state drive would come in handy.

2: Camera gear. I have a lot of photography gear and I intend to spend a large portion of my trip taking photos. Paring down the gear to cover all of my bases without adding too much weight or creating too much to carry around in general is going to be a challenge. Not to mention the film part – carrying around a film camera is no big deal, but carrying film (both fresh and shot) adds bulk. From what I’ve read film is really expensive in Europe so I’m either going to pack it or forsake it altogether. That’s still to be decided, but it’s literally been giving me nightmares over the past few days. I can’t tell you how much it scares me to be in Europe without my camera. Sad, but true.

I think once I really put some thought into it, the camera situation will work itself out without me going out to buy any new equipment. The laptop on the other hand is going to be tricky. I don’t want to rely on computers in internet cafes or anything like that, especially for dealing with photos, so if you have a solution for that I’m all ears!