Where are we going?

Our dream is finally starting to come true; we are backpacking around the world for a little over nine months. Our departure date is set for July 13, 2009 with a return of April 10, 2010.

We will hit all of the continents except for South America and Antarctica and potentially travel around 22 countries depending on our overland route in Africa. We will be taking planes, trains, buses, ferries, and who knows what else. Here is our rough itinerary:

DATE	DEPARTING	ARRIVING
7/13/09	USA	Germany
7/16/09	Germany	France
7/18/09	France	Germany
7/29/09	Germany	Italy
8/10/09	Italy	Greece
8/13/09	Greece	Egypt
8/25/09	Egypt	South Africa
9/20/09	South Africa	India
10/2/09	India	Indonesia
10/12/09	Indonesia	Malaysia
10/27/09	Malaysia	Indonesia
11/2/09	Indonesia	Australia
11/14/09	Australia	New Zealand
12/4/09	New Zealand	Australia
12/17/09	Australia	Vietnam
1/5/10	Vietnam	Cambodia
1/12/10	Cambodia	Thailand
1/26/10	Thailand	Laos
2/6/10	Laos	Thailand
2/21/10	Thailand	China
3/20/10	China	Japan
4/10/10	Japan	USA

Hello World!!

Hello World, here we come! So as avid travelers we had always daydreamed about just quitting our jobs and sailing around the world since we started dating. But, seeing as how neither of us owned a boat or really knew how to sail for that matter, we opted for backpacking instead, despite some bubble popping from the realist. Thinking of all the places in the world we would potentially never see or the people we would never meet if we didn’t go on an adventure like this sparked the beginning of our trip. It all started with looking at the pretty pictures online of far off places that we had always hoped to see one day or reading about experiences of fellow travelers. But as we became more and more serious we started to develop an itinerary, which has changed more times than we care to ever mention…..EVER! We have been working OT shifts and saving money, eating at home (with the rare occasional outing), renting from the $1 DVD box instead of going to the movies, keeping our heat and A/C off or to a minimum and not making purchases unless it was for the trip. Preparing for the trip has become the next priority, researching plane tickets, vaccines, insurance, visas and the loose ends we will have to take care of before we leave. We have begun telling our family and friends that we were planning the trip.

These are some websites that helped inspire us during our planning:

www.wikitravel.com

www.lonelyplanet.com

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/index.jspa

www.travelblog.org

We also found several other people that have backpacked the world, but we were most impressed with www.twinf.com , www.Thirteenmonths.com , www.gobackpacking.com/blog, and www.travelfish.org