Anatomy of a long trip ...
7/25/99 1:32:28 PM Eastern Daylight Time

Anatomy of a trip ...

Friends, here is an example of why I act as my own travel
agent, with the type of long-term travels I take. If some of
you are thinking of preparing a similar trip, this might
help and guide you. (Several people expressed interest.) By
the way, I rearranged my itinerary to 101 days, to cover
all of Europe, leaving on Aug. 5, returning on Nov 13.
First, refer to the attached map (EuroO.jpg): draw a
vertical line from St. Petersburg on top to Athens Greece
at the bottom. This time, my trip will NOT include places
to the East of that line, BUT will include every city to
the West. As for the places I left out, I already know
Greece from 4 previous trips and Turkey from having lived
there. Re: Russia, it is part of my itinerary for May 2000
(after Rio and South America in March): Miami to Moscow,
train west to St. Petersburg and back, Trans-Siberean Rail
thru Siberia and Manchuria (the Chinese call it East-North)
to Beijing, loop on IS rail back to Ulan Bator, Mongolia,
back to Beijing, to Shanghai, on land south, also to
Chungking in the Szechwan Province for flight to Lhasa,
Tibet and back, to Hong Kong, flight to Seattle, 15 days in
Alaska, return to Vancouver, Canadian rail east to
Montreal, and Amtrak south to Miami, then to prepare for my
extended trips to Africa (I know all countries there but a
few in the South) and the Mid-East and Turkey in 2001
before I retire. Anyway, this is another example of a
convoluted trip really no travel agent can (or will)
arrange. (By the way, on my travels I met people who were
on the road for 8 months, a few as long as 2 years.)

For this trip, since I already know most of Europe and all
major cities, this trip is a "refresher'" visit to many
known places, but will include also many new places,
especially the countryside between the cities, about 40 of
them (shown on EuroO.jpg). This is also intended probably
as my last trip to Europe proper, though I will visit
Morocco from there and another trip to Iceland and
Greenland. 1) Resources. First, I got all the travel
resources on the Internet that cover the area of my trip:
Europe. I clicked on "Search," typed in "Europe" and got
started. In this case, after a week of research (2-3
hours/day), I have on hand all the rail, bus, and ferry
transport.

2) Mode of Transport. Next, I decided on the primary mode
of travel. I dropped the 15-day (in 2 months) Eurorail
Flexipass, which was too short for me, and chose instead
the 60-day bus pass, to be extended by another 30 days
after Octoberfest in Munich. Next, I got the Time Tables
for the bus line, rail, ferries, also Eurostar "Chunnell"
train.

3) Stay, Connections. The Time Tables decided how I would
get to my destinations and how long I could stay. For
example, there is no direct route say from Munich,
Budapest, Prague, to Warsaw, and up north, as one normally
would go. I could reach Warsaw only from Berlin, Frankfurt
and a few other cities, but not from Budapest or Prague.
Moreover, the bus operates only on specific days between
given city pairs. This is why, for example, I arranged a 21
-hour bus trip from Frankfurt to Warsaw, and 21-hours to
return to Cologne, to cover I Srasbourg and Basel (Alps)
while the weather is still warm, before continuing to
Budapest, Prague, Berlin, and up to Tallinn, Estonia, then
Scandinavia ... So the bus schedule also decided how long I
could stay at a given destination. This is how I prepared
the schedules shown in Eurol/2.jpg, which took considerable
time and modifications.

4) Hostels. With my travel itinerary ready, next I began
researching for available hostels in each city and
contacting them with email. (This is still an ongoing
process, some hostels already fully booked on the dates I
am scheduled.) In some cases, I chose "Party" hostels,
where it is also, for example, OK to bring in a partner to
an upper bunk bed, with someone with a partner on the lower
one, but as long as there is no general objection and one
is not noisy. (Usually there is not, occasionally there is;
in the latter case, one can always move to a hotel.)

5) Contingencies. What happens if the bus is fully booked
between a given pair of cities on the date I want to
travel? Since this kind of itinerary is like a card house
that can collapse when one leg is jeopardized, one has to
find another transport to that destination. If the bus is
full, I would try to get there by another bus, train, even
fly, of course, paying extra, to maintain the integrity of
the rest of the itinerary, which can become an adventure in
itself In the event of a drastic contingency, like stolen
passport/money/pass, etc., one may have to terminate the
trip prematurely. (I also encountered such cases, in Alice
Springs, Australia.) So one must develop measures/habits to
minimize the chances for the latter.

6) Unplanned Adventure. It will happen that the bus arrives
at a destination at 2 am in the mom, when the hostel is
closed, or there is transport to it at that time. This is a
time to find a 24-hour-open place or a comfortable and lit
spot and read a book, or, if possible, sleep on newspapers.
Since I am also a night person, this is when I read lots of
books, or observe the road-map faces of people around me
and haw a good time. (in Seoul, Korea, there was a
convention in the city and all hotels were booked on my
first night there, and the airport closed down at 12 an; I
spent the night in front of the railroad station, the only
Westerner there then, among drunks and derelicts but also
occasional police presence, from 12mn (the cafe closed) to
7 am. Try it and see what you learn about yourself, and to
find the balance of demeanor, not too passive/belligerent,
to discourage aggression. But for one drunk, I succeeded
all night; the police intervened timely in the latter case,
in a situation I could not win, even if I could easily deck
that one guy, but not the night crowd also there.) There
are many travel stories on the Internet, also by women.
Review them so that at least your instincts are awakened,
and you are not frozen from shock if/when these things
happen.