Day One - By Brian

Well, we are officially on the road. We started our journey in style at 7am on Dec 26th with a 9.5 hour (suppose to be 8 hour) bus ride to Chicago on the Megabus. As we waited for the bus with my parents, the first "ah hell" moment occurred to me when I realized I had let my brand new water bottle in my parents frig. Next up, being told by the bus driver we could only check 2 bags between us, we had 4. Thankfully the Megabus ticket lady was much nicer than the driver (who later attempted to depart our lunch stop in Madison withour at least 20% of the passengers). All the baggage made it.


We arrived in Chicago and were scooped up at the bus stop by Marisa's college roomate Daniela Bono. We enjoyed out last meal in the USA at Club Lucky before Daniela whisked us out to O'hare in the fog.


Unlike our bus trip, our flight to Copenhagen departed on time (10pm) and arrived early (1pm). Jill and Kevin met us at the airport and a 15 min train ride and 2 block walk later we were at thier apt. After a much needed shower, we headed out for a walk around the Stroget (the longest pedestrian mall in the world). We stopped at Tivoli to see the holiday extravaganza.

Tivoli is a huge family amusement park that stays open though the holidays; rides included. It's like a cuter version of Disneyworld with holiday lights, hot chocolate, roasted nuts, beer, glogg and "folks dressed up like eskimos".






Till next time...

The RTW Itinerary - By Brian

So, we are going around the world. Hard to believe...it's coming up so soon. We'll depart the US on Dec 26 and return on May 11. Four and a half months is going to go by really fast, or it might seem like forever. Only one way to find out.

For those of you that would like to keep track of us, AND FOR THOSE OF YOU BRAVE ENOUGH TO JOIN US, here is our agenda...

Dec 26 - In transit
We depart Chicago for Copenhagen, Denmark. Yup, we are starting our round-the-world (RTW) trip in the windy city. It's just the way the RTW ticket worked out best; more on this in the to-be-written "Buying RTW Tickets" post. So, We'll need to get to Chicago...not sure if it's going to be a train, plane or automobile.

Dec 27 to Jan 1 - Copenhagen
We'll be staying with Kevin and Jill Frank who moved over there in Aug '08 to work for Microsoft. New Years in Copenhagen should be great!

Jan 1 to 6 - Prague
We're traveling to Prague with Kevin and Jill. It might be cold, but the beer is still the best in the world. Then back to Copenhagen (we bought RT tickets from Copenhagen to Prague separate from our RTW ticket).

Jan 7 to 15 - Turkey
We are flying into Istanbul, Turkey and plan to spend a few days in Istanbul before venturing down the Aegean coast to Troy, Selcuk and places in between. Then back to Istanbul to fly on to Amman, Jordan.

Jan 15 to 24 - Jordan and Israel
Plan to spend a couple days in Amman before heading across the border into Israel to spend a few days in Jerusalem. Then back into Jordan to visit Petra, Wadi Rum and Jerash.

Jan 25 to Feb 13 - Tanzania
We are flying from Amman to Nairobi, Kenya via Cairo. We'll then take a bus down to Arusha, Tanzania. In Tanzania we plan to go on safari in the Serengeti for 4 days, then spend a couple of days volunteering at the Peace House Secondary school. Then it's off to climb Kilimanjaro, all 19,340 feet of it, with several friends from MN and CA. After 7 days on Kilimanjaro we'll head to the island of Zanzibar with the same group of friends for a bit of beach bumming.

Feb 14 to 21 - Uganda
From Zanzibar we'll fly to Entebbe, Uganda. Our primary goal while in Uganda will be trekking into the jungle to visit one of the few remaining groups of mountain gorillas.

Feb 22 to 24 - Cairo
Pyramids, sphinx, museum, bazaar. Short and sweet.

Feb 25 to Mar 20 - India and Nepal
We're flying from Cairo into Bombay. Somehow we always seem to follow unfortunate events in our travels; we went to Thailand less than 2 weeks after the Tsunami. During these three plus weeks we'll make our way from Bombay to Kathmandu, Nepal. We of course want to see the Taj and Rajasthan in India. And we hope to do some trekking in Nepal.

Mar 21 to 30 - Thailand and Laos
We depart Kathmandu for Bangkok, Thailand, and will head directly up to Chiang Rai, Thailand. We'll cross the border into Laos and take a boat down the Mekong river to Luang Prabang. We'll make our way back to Bangkok so we can fly on to Singapore.

Mar 31 to Apr 16 - Singapore, Malaysia, Borneo
Marisa studied in Singapore so she'll be my tour guide, along with a couple of friends we have living there. After a few days in Singapore, and possibly a trip to see the Malaysian Grand Prix, we'll fly to Borneo. Borneo is an island owned by Indonesia, Brunei and Malaysia. This is jungle trekking paradise. Not to mention some of the best scuba diving in the world.

Apr 17 to 20 - Sydney (for my airline junkies, we'll be on SQ221, A380)
Yup, only three days in Sydney. We had to make some cuts, and greater Australia ended up on the editing room floor. Sorry Chris.

Apr 21 to May 6 - New Zealand
Rent car, drive! We are so excited to see New Zealand. Laura, we're excited to see you too!

May 7 to 9 - Cook Islands
A couple of days to reflect.

May 11 to ? - USA!
It is going to be real good to be home. I know it already.

So there you have it. Follow along, or better yet come along.

First Posting - By Brian

Let's see if this thing works...