Joseph
Thanks to everyone who came out to our going away party at Penny’s parents home despite the dreary weather. It was great to see so many of our friends and family one last time before we took off.
Penny’s mom is an amazing cook and she prepared a feast for us. There will probably be enough leftovers to keep them well fed through the Fall.
Thanks again, and we’ll see you all in about a year!
Penny and Joseph
Several of you have asked what we’re packing for 1 year around the world. We fear that we have packed too much, but that’s to be expected. Here’s a list of what we’re each taking:
Penny:
Joseph
Common Items:
Here, for scale, is Penny’s granny with our two fully loaded packs.
You can’t see it but she’s shaking her head.
Joseph
She said Yes and I couldn’t be happier! I feel incredibly lucky and look forward to the next year traveling with my "fiancee" 🙂
Penny
Joe proposed to me on Monday night. After a stressful week of packing and preparation, Joe decided that it was the perfect time to pop the question…
On our way to Montreal, Joe pulled off the highway and headed toward downtown Kingston. This was odd as we usually only get off at service stations for a quick bite. He had secretly reserved a beautiful room in an Inn in Kingston (yes, Kingston!). He told me that he had done all of this so that we could have one final night of luxury before our 1 year of budget accommodations. Even at this point, I did not suspect anything!
As we prepared for dinner at a local French Bistro, Joe told me that he had one last thing to do before we left. This is were I started to realize that something was up! He got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. After a lot of laughter and giggles (and Joe asking me a second time), I was able to say "Yes".
So now I have an amazing "fiance". 2006 is proving to be an exciting and wonderful year!
Penny
Packing… The story of my life! Since in Toronto (I have been here for over 4 years) I have packed and moved 7 times (this includes family and friends of course). I have been qualified as an expert mover!
Anyways, so now I am on my 8th move! This one is a little different… Everything is going into storage for 1 full year and we will not have a permanent address until we return. I guess that my mom was right when she said that we will be "homeless around the world".
Thankfully, the move went smoothly and we were done by 5pm!
P.S. Here is a picture of Joe and I in our empty apartment…
Joseph
We’ve got less than 2 weeks to go now before we get on a plane and travel west for a year.
Last week Penny and I were both out of town, she was on business, I was in Las Vegas with friends. That makes this our last week in Toronto. Next Monday we pack up our things into a storage locker and head to Montreal to spend a week with our families before leaving.
Half of our belongings are already in boxes and I think we’ll be in good shape for the move. Penny will probably disagree because she remembers what a disaster my previous moves were.
It’s a hectic week. With all the packing, seeing friends before we leave, and last minute planning we’ve been busy.
Monday: We applied for new passports when we realized that our current ones don’t have enough blank pages for all the visas we’ll need.
Tuesday: Finalized our vaccinations and got a prescription for 185 days worth of anti-malarials!
Wednesday: Looking for storage lockers. All the options are much more expensive than I was expecting. Hopefully we get a better deal from a friend of ours who’s family owns a storage facility.
Also, I went to a sports medicine doctor about hip pain that has been bothering me. I want to be sure it doesn’t return during our trip since we’ll be doing lots of hiking and trekking. He referred me a yoga/Pilate’s studio to learn some exercises to stretch and strengthen the muscles in that area. Seems like an unusual thing for a doctor to prescribe…
Thursday: Going to a private yoga lesson! The instructor is going to teach me a routine I can do every morning that should help my hip problem. It will be my first time entering a yoga studio.
Friday: Extending our health care cards so that the coverage doesn’t lapse. Usually, after 7 months outside the country your coverage expires. However, you can apply for and get an extension if you have a valid reason. One of the allowed reasons is actually called "Once in a lifetime", so we will apply under that one.
Joseph
No, Florida isn’t part of our Trip, but Penny’s on assignment in Miami for a few weeks so I found a cheap
flight down and joined her. I had a fun time relaxing by the
beach or pool and
wandering around Miami while she worked. On the weekend we went to
visit my brother in Tampa and had a really great time there.
Our hotel in Miami was new and luxurious. Unfortunately, it was right in the financial district and there was little around us except banks and condo construction sites. Miami seems to be
building condos on every available plot of land. I’ve never seen so many cranes in one city.
Combine that with repairs underway to almost every building to repair hurricane damage from last year and it feels like the whole city is a construction zone.
Early evening, last week –
Hotel Doorman #1: "You want to go where?"
Joseph: "Little Havana. Is it walking distance from here?"
Hotel Doorman #2: "Sorry for asking, but why do you want to go there?"
Penny: "We want to go for dinner to a Cuban restaurant."
Hotel Doorman #1: "You want to go now?" [Looking outside. It’s getting dark.]
Hotel Doorman #2: "I wouldn’t go there, and I’m Cuban."
That exchange scared us off from visiting Little Havana for a couple of days. But when news of Fidel Castro getting sick got out it seemed like the whole area started to party and we decided to go anyways.
Watching the coverage on Miami TV it looked looked like the whole neighborhood was one massive street party. When we got there we found that it was actually only one block of carefully orchestrated "celebrations" that were taking place mostly for the benefit of the news reporters stationed there.
Watch the video below and you see the crowd cross the street so they can act as a backdrop for the reporters on the south side of Calle Ocho.
http://www.jumpcut.com/media/flash/jump.swf
Despite the warnings from the hotel doorman, Little Havana was fine; we ate a nice traditional Cuban meal, cheered along with the Cubans and later felt a little guilty for cheering a person’s ill health.
Joseph
People have been asking what I’ve been doing with all my free time. I found it surprisingly easy to get used to not working! My normal routine now is to wake up at around 7 or 7.30, go to the gym, then do some planning/research for the trip for the rest of the morning. In the afternoon I run errands and do things like go to the passport office or various consulates. I usually find time for an afternoon nap too.
Joseph
Over the last couple of months we’ve been looking at our options for flights. It seems to breakdown into three main choices:
1) Buy an Around the World pass from one of the major airline alliances. Star Alliance and OneWorld offer two of the better known ones. The pass allows you to make a certain number of flights (20 for Star Alliance) on any alliance carrier for a fixed price. The biggest catch is that you have to travel in one continuous direction (east to west or west to east). This option seems to be good if you have a relatively certain itinerary, will be visiting major cities and your direction of travel allows you to fit into the various restrictions on the tickets.
2) Buy a series of tickets from a ticket consolidator. We went to speak with a travel agent who specializes in around the world itineraries last weekend. This seems to be a good option if you have a firm itinerary but it doesn’t fit into the Around the World restrictions. In both Option 1 and 2 you can change the date of travel, however, choosing to skip or change a destination can become difficult.
3) Buy tickets as you go. With Internet sites like Kayak.com and others that search for cheap fares on all the airlines it’s easy to book your own flights on the road. The downsides to doing this are potentially not getting the flight you want on the day you want or at the price you want. You also have to deal with getting all your flights from the road which can add some extra work/stress.
I compared the flight costs for using a travel agent (Option 2) versus buying our own series of one-way flights (Option 3). Although the difference was small I was able to find lower prices on the net than what was quoted to me by the travel agent.
In the end we decided to go with Option 3. What swayed us was the flexibility of buying flights to any destination at any time. We’ll take the risk that cost might be higher or that we may not get the exact dates we want. I’ll let you know in a year if we made the right choice!
Penny
So, not being very technologically inclined, this is my first ever posting on a blog! Feels a little weird…
I remember telling Joe over 3 years ago that I did not want to go backpacking around the world but here I am leaving my comfortable condo, a job that I like and all my family and friends for a full 11
months to do exactly that! To tell you the truth this trip is somewhat part of my 2005 New Year’s resolution of testing myself and stepping outside my boundaries… Traveling around the world for 11 months with only a backpack and staying in "0 star" accomodations, for those of you who know me, know that this is really outside my boundaries.
Wish me luck!
One Year Away 