backround

a short while back while tending bar a seed was planted in my head about traveling the world...the seedling grew quickly into a full size idea and i decided that it was time to take advantage of the cheap airfare to europe and go wander around for awhile. while researching online i found a book titled Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel by Rolf Potts. it is an inspiring book and i fell for the idea of long-term travel hook line and sinker!

at this point my travel plans are still coalescing but will most likely involve stops in london, prague, germany, italy and france as well as some others. as of right now there are only a few things on the must do list. i'd really like to be in paris for the last day of the tour de france (july 26), i have some friends in rome and london that i'd like to see, i want to wander around the paris flea market (which is measured in hectacres...i don't know what a hectacre is but it sounds big), see where the allied troops landed on d-day and, as if that isn't sobering enough, visit a nazi concentration camp.

right now my plan is to leave on or about june 24 and return around july 29. besides staying in hostels and traveling by train overnight to save money i will be trying something call couchsurfing. what is couchsurfing you ask, couchsurfing is a worldwide network for making connections between travelers and the local communities they visit. that's how their website describes it...i explain it like this - imagine upon hearing that i am going to europe you tell me that you have a good friend who lives in germany you give me their contact info and tell me that i should look them up when i get there. now this person may only be willing to meet for coffee and offer up some advice of what to see or they may show me around their town or they may very well offer up an extra bed or couch for me to sleep on...that's what couchsurfing is only i don't need to know anyone who knows someone i just go online and look in a town or city that i am going to be in and look at the profiles of those couchsurfers in that town and if i see someone interesting i contact them throught the website and if they have the time and the inkling i would meet up with them. it's a bit unnerving at first but once you spend sometime on the web site it becomes intriging and a bit exciting and i'm looking forward to trying it out.

i decided to blog this trip (and future trips as i can make them) and hope to update it at least twice a week if not more. i will have my camera and laptop so if i'm not too tired or busy i will try to post more than that. i hope that it inspires you to take your own leap someday. i look forward to keeping you up to date on the trip and hope to have some comments to read on some of the longer train rides.

i'd love to hear from you if you think there is something you think i should see or do or have tips and suggestions. you can either post it here or if you have my email address send it to me there.

happy trails,
dang