Monday 8 March 2010

Ryan O: Coming To A City Near You

It's no secret that I have had a bit of a shitty month. It all got a bit too much so I did something potentially really stupid. I booked a holiday. Well I actually booked two, but I will be taking them at the same time, so its kinda just one holiday. Jay is coming with me as well obviously. We talked about different places we wanted to go to, as I have mentioned before, but couldnt really decide on anywhere. Anyways, I am waffling. You all want to know where I am going right? Ok so here goes.

Part one of the holiday is a bit of a backpack/inter-rail thingy. Its spread over 40 days and will be taking in some of the big european cities. I like history, so some of the places got on the list for historical value, others got on because I just havent been there before. Anyways, the first leg goes like this.

Start from
Manchester (UK) fly to
Lisbon (Portugal) rail to
Madrid (Spain) rail to
Marseille (France) rail to
Rome (Italy) fly to
Athens (Greece) coach via
Albania
Macedonia and
Bulgaria onto
Bucharest (Romania) train to
Budapest (Hungary) train to
Salzburg (Austria) train to
Berlin (Germany) train to
Copenhagen (Denmark) train then boat then coach to
Stockholm (Sweden) fly to
London (UK)

So thats part one of the holiday and then from london we move on to the second part. After 2 days in London we then fly to

Hong Kong, spend five days there before flying to
Shanghai, Another four days there before flying to
Melbourne for two days then travelling from there to
Sydney, spending a week there before flying to
San Francisco and spending four days there, then flying to
Los Angeles and staying there for a week before heading to
London, and then flying from there home to
Manchester

The whole thing is costing a fair few bucks I must admit, and will take around 70 days in total, but I figure it is something I have wanted to do for such a long time, and I might as well do it now while I am financially able to and young enough to enjoy it. Its booked for the first week of July 2011, so although it is all paid for, it gives me another 15 months to save up and have loads of spending money. I spoke to work and told them I will be needing 3 months off, which they have ok'd since it is so far in advance, which is awesome. Jay is finding out today if they will be cool with it where he works, but it shouldnt be a problem and even if it is, then tough, it's paid for now.

As for this year, I think we are going to do a week or two in Cyprus during the summer. Neither of us have been, and I have heard good things about it, and we dont want to spend too much money, or go somewhere where we will be going next year, so Cyprus is jumping out at us. Or possibly Crete. Who knows. We have a few more weeks before we have to make a deffinate decision.

(Randomly, Jay has just text saying he wants to go to Borneo. I'm not 100% sure where that even is. Isn't it near India?)

Anyways, the point of all this, is that after a few really shitty weeks, I have cheered up no end, and Jay and I have something amazing to look forward too. You never know, maybe we will bump in to some of you on our travels.

Have a good week guys.

Ry

11 comments:

  1. That's quite the grand tour.

    There are several bloggers I know of in the Los Angeles area — at least Southern California, so it should be possible for you to get to see them sometime during the week you're there. I don't see them in your blog list, but you might be following them. If not you can find them in my blog list. I'm thinking of James, a grad student in Santa Barbara whose blog is titled "Just Me;" Jason Carwin, a high school senior who will be at uni in the eastern U.S. but probs home to SoCal for the summer and whose blog is called "Carwin's Closet" although he's mostly out by now; Landyn, in his late teens and kicked out of the house by his bigoted parents over religious disagreements (!), who writes "Stuck in the Middle;" and David, who I think is at uni and writes "Some things about Me." (Actually, although I follow David, I don't have him on my blog roll so here's his url: http://dpstam.blogspot.com/ )

    With the possible exception of James they're younger than you, but not so much so as to make meeting them awkward.

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  2. wow...
    these are quite a few AMAZING destinations.
    If only I was in Greece then to show you around...
    I don't know where I'll be then, but most likely I'll be in London. I can show you around here...

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  3. om-wow! That is awesome!!!! Yay! You need to take soo many pictures!

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  4. Borneo. Rainforest. Ecotourism. Orangutans. I have always wanted to go, and yup its near India, Ima do a gap year after college and do it!! But don't go Crete/Cyrpus. They're both all hot and disease filled, and the beds are like designed to be really uncomfy, so I had to sleep on a pool lilo the whole holiday. Hell. On a lilo.
    Oh and San Francisco. Go to Pier 39 or 59 or something... it ends in 9... its amazing and dead lively and cool... and theres Sealions!!! But don't fall off a tram... cos I did... and I broke 3 ribs...
    Yeah you should read my comment to THE GOOD BLOG as well, cos its better, but read this one too, cos I don't have a weird profile picture and I don't say weird things like I noticed one of the blogger followers does in your last blog... hahahahaha I'm so cheeky!! :D
    Jack

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  5. that's an amazing plan! get in touch if you need advice on Budapest - I lived there for about 8 months and know it very well...

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  6. a night out in sydney= oxford st gay bars, pancakes w/bacon and maple syrup at 3am, harbour sunrise at 5.

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  7. You missed out the best part of "Australia" mate..., actually no the best part is leaving... hahahaha!

    What I meant to say is, you coulda come over here too..., there is nothing wrong with little old NZ! Still sounds like it will be a great trip, and I can tell just be the way you wrote, that you are super looking forward to it. I hope everything goes well.

    Hugs, Courage and Honour!

    Octavius.

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  8. Have a great time!

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  9. Cheers guys. Yea any advice on the places on my list would be much apreciated. I have been to some of them before, but the majority are cities that I havent seen. Figure we may as well get our monies worth.

    Octavious, we have the opportunity to cut Melbourne down to one day, take two days off Sydney and then go three days in Aukland, which we are seriously considering. Jay and I both want to go because neither of us have done NZ, but it would slap a few extra £££ onto the trip. It is doable though so you may see us in your neck of the woods after all.

    And Nik, you really should be in Greece for then. A free tour guide never hurts :D

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  10. If I had realized that there is till some flexibility in your itinerary, I'd have suggested taking a few days from China and Sydney to go to Japan. Maybe spend a day or two in Tokyo and make a quick day trip to Kyoto, or overnight one night in Kyoto and see Nara as well.

    Now that I know there is flexibility, I'm making the suggestion: three days in Japan.

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  11. You should squeeze Porto in Portugal in there and sadly you skipped out on Cape Town, not just because its my home but in my opinion its the most beautiful city in the world!
    Have fun

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