2 Weeks out, a couple tips

I’m getting really, really close to taking the longest and most ambitious trip since the summer of 2002.  (I spent 3 months spanning Europe from the boot of Italy to the Artic circle.) This time I’m transecting the Continent on the SE line from Berlin to Istanbul with stops at all the big Easter European cities on the way.

I’m excited, In fact, I’m getting a little bit of the jitters.

Here a couple things to do BEFORE you head out into the great beyond.  First, call the numbers listed on the back of your credit/ATM cards.  Tell them where you’ll be and for what period.  Every time I do this the credit card people thank me – it saves you the hassle of having a monetary lifeline cut off by a fraud-detecting algorithm and it saves them the pain of enduring your angry phone calls after the fact.

Second, get your packing list in order – lay out everything on a table.  You can even try packing it and take a nice long walk with it.  Pack light.  I’m a fan of the 5 shirts, 2 pants rule.  Sounds like nothing – but it sure beats lugging around a extra kilos of dead-weight.  Use a through packing-list so that you don’t miss something important.  I like Rick Steves’.

Make photo-copies of your documents.  Keep these in your pack and the originals in your money-belt.

Ok, now we're all set, or as close as we can be.  We're very, very close to being on the road again!