Five out of Seven isn't Bad

With only three days left until the big departure I think now would be a good time to outline our final itinerary...
At 2:10pm on Thursday me and Ali will enjoy a short flight from London to Pisa where we'll have exactly 12 days to explore the sights and sounds of Italy. Initially we plan to visit Venice first, working our way down to Rome and then finally Naples where we will fly to Germany. Our seven days of fun in Berlin will be immediately followed by a complex course of train journeys that will eventually take us to the start of our Russian experience in Moscow. As we understand it, the train will take us along the famous Trans-Siberian Express rail route, stopping at Irkutsk, Ulaanbaatar and then finally Beijing. Two weeks in China, two weeks in Japan and then back into China for another two weeks as we work our way towards Vietnam. Next is Malaysia and Thailand (order to be decided) before our second big flight which will be from Bangkok to Sydney where we hope to find work within the design industry. I'm initially thinking three months in Sydney and then three months in Melbourne (after speaking to many Australians this week in London, they have assured me that Melbourne is a very comfortable and easy place to live and work - I guess like how I found Chicago to be compared to New York). Plus I figure six months will be just the right amount of time to recover from all the language barriers we will have just faced in Asia and Russia.

Once we're done with Australia, a flight from Sydney will take us to Santiago, Chile where we will explore everything that South America has to offer, including Peru (to see Machu Picchu), Colombia (where I have to find my friend a rather impressive emerald in the great emerald city) and Venezuela (home to Angel Falls, the world's highest waterfall) and many other places in between I'm sure although the exact route through this continent is yet to be decided (notice how my itinerary descriptions get less and less specific as I go - the truth is, we haven't actually planned that far ahead. All we know is that we have a flight in there and a flight back out a later date. I guess we'll just figure it all out the closer we get).

Our final adventurous flight will be from Chile to Mexico City before heading back home to London sometime next year. Although I am extremely tempted to pay a visit to all my friends in Chicago whilst being so close.

So that, believe it or not, is the result of 8 months hardcore planning and preparation! It feels weird to say this but I'm actually not that excited right now. I think it's because I've been so stressed working night and day these past few months that I haven't had time to really think about what I am about to do. Although I'm sure it will hit me on our drive down to London Heathrow on Wednesday afternoon.

Next blog entry will be live from Pisa!!! Until then, arrivederci x