A few more weeks were spent at Parker, but then it came time to go. It was becoming annoying that the WiFi was completely off for days at a time, and like I mentioned before, the RV park does not take responsibility for it and only allows people to install their own. So, it had been out for a week this time and I decided it was time to leave. Screw it. Besides, it was warming up in Rosamond, and I had to start buying stuff for my trip to Europe. I’d bought the ticket to Rome (one way) back in January for April 13th departure and it was getting close.
Neat picture.
So, a few hours driving through the Mojave desert, brought me back to my brother’s house in Rosamond.
With a month and the better part of 2 weeks left before leaving for Rome, much of my time was spent on the computer trying to arrange for places to stay. The previous month, every once in a while I’d get online and cruise around the internet gathering info. My bookmarks for the trip were numbering in the hundreds. But I had found and reserved both a place in Rome, and a place in Pompeii. And I had some good leads on places to stay in my other destination cities too, but no reservations.
My itinerary was shaping up to this:
Rome, Pompeii, Turin, Paris, Berlin, Amsterdam, London, Bath, Dublin, somewhere in Ireland where my families ancient ruined castle was reputed to be…where I did not know. Then back to Paris via the chunnel somehow, then train on to Moscow. Take the Trans-Siberian Railroad on a 7 day trip through the heart of Russia to Vladivostok. Then onto the ferry to ride to Japan. Then spend a week or two with friends near Tokyo. Finally, fly back to LA.
That was the rough plan. Really rough. Expected to spend two months in Europe, and just bounce around to wherever I wanted. Really wanted to see Rome, Pompeii, Bath, and take the Trans-Siberian RR but other then that, I was OK with those other possible destinations but didn’t feel all that drawn to any of them. Also thought I would like to see either Prague or Budapest if time and money allowed.
So I had bookings for Rome and Pompeii, but that was it. Oh, and a plane ticket to Rome. Next was to find and buy a new tablet for the trip because I’d dropped my Hipstreet 10.1″ and it’s power connector broke internally. Tried to fix it by installing my own tiny connector but a week later it failed in a different way…it would come on, but never get passed the splash screen. Gave me the chance to upgrade to a quad processor, all the regular stuff like WiFi, and something unusual, a built in 3G phone. Immediately ordered it and though it was from China, it only took 10 days to get. Ordered an international SIM as well.
After getting the new tablet it was hours of setup and configuration to purposely get use to it so I could easily get things done quickly on the road. Installing all the apps I thought I’d need along the way was important, as well as using them often enough that I felt like I knew them. Then were the hundreds of hours spent researching where to stay and what sites to visit. I’m not much into nightlife anymore, so finding things to do, and the easiest way to do them was high on the agenda.
Some of the things I found were Skobbler’s mapping program (with maps of the world and allowing off line usage), then the Android versions of many of my favorite programs, like NFL Rewind. And of course, Facebook, and Chrome with all my bookmarks imported. Oh, and you know that NPR TV program with Rick Steves? He’s got a web site I perused many times looking for cool places to go. It was on his web site that I found the best under the pants hidden wallet. You can fit your passport, tickets, credit or debit cards, a bunch of bucks, etc. inside it’s two zippered pockets and comfortably flip it inside and outside your pants. Excellent way to protect yourself while traveling. Most places don’t need to keep your passport anymore (but I didn’t stay in many hotels either) but you don’t want to lose it either. Then having a spare CC or DC and some cash is important too. I also kept my drivers license in there while I carried a copy in my wallet. It was $14 but it’s worth it. Did not find anything like it anywhere else. Then one other thing I bought that turned out to be very helpful was loops for my glasses. They attach to the glasses so they hang from around your neck. So many times I would have lost my glasses if it hadn’t been for that.
Took a week or two but eventually, I was zipping around on the new tablet as easily as on my home tower computer. Found AirBnB to help with finding a place to stay…really liked saving money that way. Usually the rates were 1/2 to 1/4 of local hotels. And you could usually find a place near where you wanted to be easily. I found both my Rome and Pompeii apartments that way before I left the US. Expected (hoped) that it would be that easily done after I got to Europe.
I also checked out Hostels in the various cities I might be visiting. Years ago they were all called youth hostels but things have changed and many now cater to the older set too. So, I knew and had researched practically everything about my trip between 3-6 weeks before I left on that journey.
Then there was the matter of clothes and sundries. I bought a couple jackets because of what I’d found out about the weather where I was going. I have a single overhead bag for flights and it was a challenge deciding what to take in such a small bag. Bought a new jacket and new down jacket for the trip, decided to take a pair of sneakers, pair of sandals, and my flip flops for the showers I would be taking at hostels. One pair would always be on my feet of course so only two pair would need to be in the bag at any time. Then all the regular stuff except formal wear. Since I was going alone, and wanted to keep down my luggage because of the airlines sneaky methods of charging you for anything extra, and deciding what to take was one of the most difficult challenges.
So I had five pairs each of shorts, socks, polo shirts. Then a bag of bathroom essentials with any liquids in those tiny bottles allowed on planes these days. Also bought one of those daily pill packers so I had somewhere to keep my vitamins, daily aspirin, and meds. Then the two coats, a long sleeved comfy shirt to ward off the chill, and various electrical adaptors for Europe.
In addition to the overhead bag, I also had a full sized laptop bag in which fit my tablet computer & phone combo, numerous cables to interconnect stuff, several power supplies, a bag of trail mix, more maps, guides and such, and other important sundries I didn’t want to be caught somewhere in Europe without. Actually, now that I think about it, I should have put a change of clothes in there too, just in case I lost my main bag somewhere. Well, too late now.
After all that, still had room in my bag (well, actually, in the external pockets) for a book to read, glasses in a hard case, a handful of papers of maps, destinations, train routings, etc., and other sundries one might need while train or plane traveling.
In both bags and on my person I had 8 X 11 color copies of all my important cards, license, and passport. Just in case any of those items were lost or stolen, I’d have back up. Important phone numbers were written on each of those copies so I could quickly call and cancel a credit card, for instance.
After several weeks of semi-concentrated effort towards arranging my trip to Europe, I was almost all ready. One of the last things I did, a week before I left for Europe was to go to downtown Lancaster where all the banks were and order €200 (200 Euros) from Chase. The teller was really cute and squealed with delight when I told her what my itinerary was going to be. Guess she really wanted to be a traveler. But I had to come back in 3 days to pick up the money since it had to come from downtown LA. When I did come back in, she was just as delighted. Fun gurl.
Then a couple nights before I left, I went down to Norma’s Pub and my friend Brennen mentioned to everyone that I was heading to Europe and the bartender, being a shot glass collector, asked me to pick her up a shot glass. What I heard though was that she wanted me to pick up a shot glass of every place I visited. Hmm, I thought, maybe I can fit some of those in my bag, maybe not, we’ll see.
So, a few days later it was time to board the train at Lancaster and head on down to Los Angeles, board the plane and fly to Rome. And that’s what we’ll do the next post. With pictures. See you all then, thanks for visiting.