Woohoo 2015 adventures ahoy!
So this year I get to have two grand overseas trips. One was planned at the end of last year and is a 4.5 week jaunt through Barcelona, Rome, Naples and Paris in October/November. The second has been a little unexpected (read: last minute) and will hopefully see me adventuring to the USA for 10 days in late June.
So first, let’s talk about Europe. We jet off on October 12th to Barcelona and after a few days lounging in the sun we will join up with our intrepid tour. This will see us traveling for 15 days from Barcelona through a variety of locations across to Rome. After fare-welling our tour and a few extra days in Rome, we will head to Naples which puts us nice and close to both Pompeii and Mount Vesuvius. A few nights later it will be up to Paris for 5 nights, including attending the Moulin Rouge to celebrate my 30th birthday! Entering the age of denial in style.
Intrepid tours are a company I am not familiar with but B has done a very extended one before and had a lot of positive things to say. Their online reviews are positive and the idea of a small tour appealed to me although I am not sure how I will cope with the reliance on public transport to get from one city to the next, as opposed to say…an air conditioned coach. We have chosen one of the more relaxed tours (no camping etc) although they did have all sorts of trips for all sorts of interests and budgets.
The USA trip is a little more haphazard as it will be planned and booked very last minute. B is likely to be heading away for work over there for a few months so I get to go visit…hooray! The visit has been timed around my work commitments which is why it will be about a month into his work trip rather than closer to the end. At the moment it is actually still not fully confirmed as I can’t book my flights until he has the work go-ahead but it is looking likely. He will be based in the Washington area so there will be lots of exploring of Washington as well as 5 nights in New York! EEEEEE! Do you guys realise what is in Washington? Do you? DO YOU? Let me show you….
Not to mention…NEW YORK!! Very exciting. Probably our last year of travel adventures for a while (although South America and Antarctica/The Arctic are still high on the want list) so time to make the most of it. Did I mention that there will be bears in the US? Baby bears? Baby pandas? Did you see that?
Since Europe is mostly booked and paid for and the USA is still a “wait and see” operation….
The big discussion in our house is around luggage choices at the moment.
Neither of us are super happy with our suitcases but I am not prepared to fully commit to a backpack and B is not prepared to let me just have a suitcase on the intrepid tour as we are relying on trains to get around a fair bit. Stubborn man. So at the moment we are both spending a lot of time reading and researching. This is my front runner – the 80L Osprey Sojourn convertible wheeled bag although there are a lot of other similar things that cost less (but seem to break easy). He is a mad Osprey lover whereas I am new to their products….so we shall see.
Mel Update: No USA trip ended up happening…but Europe looms!
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