How to Have a Kiwi Christmas
First you need to cross your fingers for a lovely New Zealand morning. On Christmas Day 2009, it was 32 degrees.
This was our Christmas tree.
The Hunt for the Perfect Bag
I usually don’t go anywhere for more than a week so when I travel I generally I take enough outfits for the period I am away. This means I don’t have to do any washing until I get home. My trip to Europe is a little different from any trip I have taken before because I am off for 36 days. Because I’m moving around so much I want to travel light which means don’t take as many clothes and wash them more often.
I have been putting a lot of thought into the best luggage solution for me. Currently I own two wheely suitcases, a small carry-on size one that I normally use, and a giant one that I got to move 20kg of my life from New Zealand to Australia. Wheels are perfect when moving from airport to car to house. Not so much when there is much walking to be done, and they’re also not brilliant on anything other than the smoothest road surfaces. Cobbled streets? Forget about it.
This leaves me with one option: buy new luggage. This leaves me with two options: buy a backpack, or buy a holdall.
I pretty much vetoed a backpack straight away. I don’t want to be a backpacker. They always look so uncomfortable. Everyone I know who has done it has been away longer than a month, so even though it’s probably the most convenient way of carting my stuff around, I said no. Plus, those things are expensive!
So this left me with a holdall. Now I really do have to travel light because too heavy and I won’t be able to carry it. I finished work early today and set out on a luggage hunt. This is the one I decided on. Nothing says ‘buy me’ more than a 50% off Christmas sale. It holds 60L which is plenty, and it folds into a little storage bag. Of course the first thing I did when I got home was pull it out to play with it, so now I’ll probably never actually be able to get it back in. Red is also a colour that I’ll spot on a luggage carousel in amongst everyone else’s black luggage.
Because one can’t just buy one thing in a sale, I also got a sleeping bag liner because I’m staying in one camping ground, some cheap hotels and a couple of hostels and their sheets can be nasty. My final purchase for the day was a padlock. I have plenty of travel padlocks but they are all ones that use keys and over the years all the keys have been lost. Combination lock? Problem solved.
Since my last post I’ve also purchased my ticket to Monza. Look out for me at the first chicane!
It’s all go
Things have been coming along nicely in the ‘planning my 2010 trip to Europe’ stakes.
Today I paid for my flights, so my itinerary is now confirmed. Now that I know my exact dates, I have the fun job of trying to fit all the places I want to go to in between the races…
Thing I don’t like: first flight leaves Melbourne at midnight. What a crazy time to fly.
Thing I do like: I get to go Singapore – London on an A380! Big plane!
Thing I love: As you can see I have also decided to stop over for four days in Singapore on my way home, as it just so happens to be the weekend of the Grand Prix there. My theory is if you’re going to two races, why not go to three? I had a fantastic time in Singapore in 2008, and watching it on TV this year just felt odd, so it will be very nice to go back.
I have emailed the place I stayed last time, Sleepy Sams, to see if they have any beds available. I am planning on avoiding hostels for this trip if I can, but because Singapore was an after thought I really hadn’t factored it into my budget so am doing it as cheap as possible. This extends to the cheapest grandstand too. I am definitely not a General Admission person. I am short, and I don’t like having to stay in one spot for 10+ hours just to get a good vantage point.
Sleepy Sams were fantastic in 2008, the main dorm rooms didn’t look ideal because they were huge, but I had a bed in a female-only dorm with 4 others. It was a separate room with a lockable door so it felt a bit more secure. I am also easily bought with food, and they gave us free breakfast in the morning. Some days I had toast, some days I had cereal, every day I had cold, cold water. Far too hot in Singapore for coffee!
After a quick shower in the morning I didn’t see much of the place because the great thing about a night race is you can stay out all day shopping or sightseeing and then go to the track in the late afternoon, meaning you really only go back to your accommodation to have another shower and sleep. I really don’t like the Singapore climate, it’s far too humid for me and it makes me feel gross, hence all the showering. If there wasn’t a race on, I’d never go there on holiday.
The other thing I have recently booked is a hotel in Milan for Thursday – Sunday of the Italian Grand Prix. The one I have chosen is Hotel del Sole because I got a fantastic deal on booking.com which saved me AU$200 total for the four nights over the standard rate. Unlike a lot of cheap, central hotels, this one actually has good reviews! It’s very simple, but once again I will be there to sleep, so it suits me fine. Plus, it’s not a hostel!
Accommodation for Spa is a little more tricky than Melbourne/Singapore/Monza because it’s not in the middle of/just out of a big city where there are plenty of hotels and the prices of the hotels that are around the area were scaring me slightly. Kathi has saved the day and has arranged a mobile home at Camping Spa d’Or. Generally I’m not a big fan of camping, but that’s because I don’t sleep on the ground. I also don’t sleep without walls and a ceiling (canvas does not count) so a mobile home with a proper bed for me is just perfect.
If Sleepy Sams come through with a bed for me that is accommodation for all three races sorted, which was my main priority. I still have ten months to sort myself places to stay in England, Germany, Switzerland, France, Spain and the rest of Italy. I’m tired just thinking about it.
The last thing I have got organised is a Cash Passport. I have heard a few bad things about them, in that Travelex are hard to get assistance from if you need it, but for me the pros outweigh the slim-to-none chance of actually needing their help.
I like that it’s just an ATM card I can slip in my wallet, so I don’t have to carry huge amounts of foreign cash on me. I like that they give you two cards so if you lose one, or it gets stolen, you’ve still got access to your money, (handy hint: don’t keep them both in the same place!) I really like that now I have it, I can top it up at any time. At the moment it only has 300 Euro on it because that was the minimum opening balance, but I have ten months to load more value onto it. For the way I like to organise things, incredibly early and with a minimum fuss, it’s perfect for me.
signed, sealed, (not yet) delivered
This is the most beautiful small portion of a pdf invoice I have ever seen.
Is it August yet?
Where I’m Going
So, where am I off to? Here, have a map because diagrams are awesome.
Although technically my journey begins in London, this map begins in Brussels. I plan to spend a couple of days in the UK before heading on the road trip to Spa. After the Grand Prix, and being left behind by the others and thus entering my ‘I am on my own and these people don’t speak English’ panic phase, I’d like to spend a day or so in Brussels before getting a night train to Berlin.
Then in order I will do Berlin – Munich – Zurich – Rome – Milan (as my base for the Italian Grand Prix at Monza) -Nice/Monaco – Barcelona – Valenica – Madrid – Paris – London.
At this stage I am looking to get a Eurail pass and do most of this by train, with night trains where possible. I like the idea of not having to sleep in one city then spend good daylight hours travelling to my next destination.
Nice and Monaco were not on my original plans but really, I can’t go all the way to Europe and not go to Monaco. It is a trip based around Formula One after all!
Of course because I am very new to this travelling thing, I am open to suggestions from anybody on ways I could tweak my plans better, recommendations on where planes would be better than trains, things that are must-do in any given city, or good places to stay.
I plan on bugging a travel agent until they are sick of the sight of me, but I am waiting for a confirmed 2010 F1 calendar before I do that, which should be out some time in October. Once the dates are locked in I want to start booking things but me being me, I’m planning now.
I can’t wait til I can write a to-do list.
It’s Finally Happened…
…Amy finally has a blog.
What is this blog for?
At the moment I am planning a trip to Europe in 2010 to take in a couple of Grands Prix, and I figured a travel blog would be the easiest way to send stories and pictures back home.
However, I am one of those insane people who love planning things right down to the nitty gritty details. I have a year of planning ahead of me, and with each decision I make I get a little bit more excited. So as well as telling the story of my trip, I am going to tell the stories leading up to it as well.
Then Lou mentioned that she wanted to see some pictures of New Zealand when I go home next month. As well as my upcoming trips to New Zealand, I have concerts and sports events in my future. I’m going to use this blog to tell the stories of those too.
Hence the about over to your right hand side.
stuff I do, places I go…
(there may also occasionally be blog interludes about certain Finnish people, because hey, it’s me!)
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