I thought I'll do a simple travel diary regarding my plans for next year.
I don't have a "blog" account anywhere, and I hate even the word "blog" anyways, so I thought I'll do this in here, my favourite multi-national community on the whole internet yey!

Hopefully this will also work as an encouragement for those who are interested about traveling, but haven't had that spark to ignite the desire to "get lost".

I'm not a travel/backpacker guru, I have only been to Venice and Dublin so far, but that was intentional - that was training to be prepared on basic things that I will need when going farther and longer, in relatively safe environment.

So, in this thread I will tell you how I plan things, how I prepare, and eventually, things about the places I will be in.

I will update pictures in here:
http://s283.photobucket.com/albums/kk313/Jaakko3000/Travel%202009/
It is still empty =(
Last years photos are in "Travel" folder, Bremen - Venice - Dublin.

I will update videos in here:
http://www.youtube.com/Jaakko3000
This is empty aswell, but I can't wait to get some material!

I will start this thing from the very beginning of every journey:

Where to go?

Can you hit my dry cleaners first??

This sounds like fun. I'm in.

Desire to go - check
Will to work for it - check
Destination - ???

This is a question everyone has to consider.
Where, and for how long?

For me, it will be max. one month, as that is the time I'll get off of work. Time is a limiting factor, I remember how I last year thought to travel through ALL the biggest cities in the whole europe in that time..
The truth is, that if you take more than 4 destinations in a month, you won't remember much from your vacation because of the rush you went through places. How can anyone call that a vacation?

So I'll chilax (chill + relax, a term I heard from Madventures TV-show, and what I will use in later posts) already now.

There are these two places that have been on my mind for a long time now:
Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant
Newly independent Kosovo
And maybe London/Cheddar, where a friend of mine is au-pair..ing?

That would make 3 destinations, so I think I'll go with those, unless cold and dark Finnish winter makes me desire warm places, like Kingdom of Tonga, when I'm ready to reserve flight tickets..

Some update:

I suppose I need to face my fobia on needles, and take hepatitis A+B vaccine. Gladly, I'll have plenty of time to gather my courage.
3 shots for lifetime protection, first at minimum 2 weeks before setting off.

Foreign ministry says it's ok to go both Ukraine and Kosovo. Although northern Serbian territories should be avoided.

I think I choose "Ukraine Hotel" to be my HQ while in Kiev, ok rates and excellent location. Also has nudity and opportunism in their "Virtual tour"-video =D

The budget still needs a lot of research, but wikipedia's GDP-list gives some help,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal)_per_capita

And this one's IMPORTANT: I had my teeth checked at the dentists, and what do you know? I have holes and a wisdom tooth that needs to be fixed BEFORE I go.

I dunno how close you can get to Chernobyl. It's still pretty hot if I remember

As close as 100 metres of reactor 4:s tomb they say, about 109 yards.
It is ensured that levels of radioactivity are not harmful.

And come on, I drink and smoke. I live dangerously =P

hi im a 25 year old white m my wish for this travel diary is to go to monteral find someone in rhode island to go with i am really desperate anybody have advice i want to go to calgary alberta to anybody have advice

Tiny update about the vaccine for hepatitis a&b:
Time between the first and the second injection is one month, and six months between the second and third. Lifetime protection after them yey =)

hi i want to go to domincan republic desperately 25 year old white m warwick rhode island and taipei taiwan any advice anyone i want to go there

Jack:
Stop being desperate
Get visa
Buy flight tickets
Book hotel or hostel
Go

Allright, people. 2009 is coming and, thank god, I still have time for some hesitation about the destinations. I'm really starting to think about replacing Kosovo with London..

Anyways, happy new year to everyone, shall 2009 be the year that won't have anything you'd regret afterwards.
2009 for me will be the year to live more or less by a quote I heard in a song of Rinneradio: try whatever appeals to you.
And starting 2nd of january I'll beging training to gain some streght to practise parkour again in the summer, and to be more prepared to whatever suprising situation I may find myself.

I'm off to celebrate, later.
-J

Time for an update, folks!

My summer holiday is four months away, and it's time to start making some firm decisions. Early? Well let me explain why.

1. When traveldates are locked and hotels and flights are booked there is nothing much to worry about. As slightly compulsive person as I am, this is something I need to prevent hesitating about where to go (as I want to go EVERYWHERE!) to the point when I have to go back to work and the summer's over.. This is also a good motivator for working longer hours/saving money for that trip in the near future.
2. Flights are still cheap. When you book your flights early (>1 month from departure) you can save big $/€!
3. You have a lot of time to search anything interesting happening in your destination at the time you'll be there.
4. Time to find bargain gear, travel partner(s) and so on.

I have now decided to go to London UK yey! And all there is left to choose is if I stay 2 or 3 weeks, and where to stay. Tomorrow is payday, so I'll look into that tomorrow. If anyone can recommend a cheap hotel, nice pub/bar/club or anything else in London, give me a shout =)

Oh, and to cut down the list of things-to-take-care-of, I ordered a continous travel-insurance. One thing less to worry/remember about as I can just go anytime and anywhere I want.

Kosovo is a nice place to visit. I traveled there for my job 5 or 6 times in 06-08' and enjoyed it. Too bad ther eis bad blood between the locals and the Serbs and it seems that will never end. Plus, there are landmines all over making it dangerous. The people are very friendly though. Food is good too.

Indeed it is...still in the thousands of RADS per/hr range -- basically death from radiation poisoning in less than an hour if you got close enough. Chernobyl is as close as you can get to hell on earth for the next 50,000 years or so. Pass on this one brother. Unless you like seeing one arm kids and devestation...get the national geographic on the subject and thank God you are an American.

Sarajevo is another great city! In the former Yugoslavia but safer than Kosovo while still full of great history and people. Check it out on line. Cheaper than western Europe by a lot too.

Ok, I feel kinda bad about choosing London instead of the original plan now, but what the hell, hotel's booked and all.

So, I will arrive to London 1st of july (midnight) and when I get there, I have 3 weeks without plans ahead.
If anyone has ideas less obvious than museums/galleries/tourist attractions, please post them here or mail straight to me, you'll help me out a lot ;)

Later,
J

Here are most of the preparations I need to do before setting off.
I'd like to note that I am in a lucky position regarding traveling inside EU, as I am an european, inside EEA and to make it even easier, I don't think I'll even need luggage.

First, am I going to need a visa? As I live inside EU and EEA (european economic area), going to UK is easy for me. All I need is my passport. Note that as most european countries have signed the Schengen-treaty, GB isn't among them. The cool thing about Schengen treaty btw is that if you are..let's say American wanting to go around europe, if you get a visa to one treaty-country (being your main destination, or the country you'll land in first), you are good to go to any of them!

Checked that my phone will work in local network.

Got myself a travel insurance

I don't have a savings account, but those who are planning to use the money in one, check if there are restrictions about how fast you'll be able to get the money out, some banks have limitations about the time and amount of money you are able to withdraw.

Keep an eye on your foreign ministry's travel info, it'll keep you up to date with security risks, terrorist threats and such. There you will also find your embassy's contact info in your destination, and if you need a visa or not.
For US the url is this:
http://www.state.gov/

Some little, but important things to remember:
Electrical outlets. Plugs and voltage may be way different than yours, so adapters may (and US-EU will) be needed.

I can't remember ANY of the phonenumbers or emails of my friends, so I'll write them down and send the list to my email in case my phone gets stolen.
If you got/need any of these, scan and email them to yourself, and keep copies with you:
Passport, travel/health insurance, flight tickets, vaccination card, credit cards, membership cards and prescriptions.

I would also recommend to get a phrase book or dictionary, if you are not sure that locals will understand english.

Also, having some local currency in hand when you arrive is also recommended.

That's all I can think of now, I'll add more stuff if something comes to mind. If you got any questions, you know who to email.

Small update:
I have been familiarizing myself to British culture and people by watching some british tv-shows. "Two pints please and a packet of crisps" and "Bottom" =)

I have found that traveling with hand luggage only has become easier. As you may guess, I might have a pint or two in London, and with 5 pints of real ales, I get a free t-shirt yey! Clean shirt every day and no loundry woo!
http://www.londonaletrail.co.uk/
Now if only there was something like this that gives you free underwear =/

And as much as I fear my own impulsiveness, I changed my debit-card to a debit/credit card. Fighting temptations to buy new shiny things is easier than fight to get cash somehow if atm's don't accept your card.

I also wish to note that Madventures, a finnish travel show enjoying a cult-status around here, is now broadcasting (in english) on Travel Channel hallelujah! That show, I'll tell you, is different from any other travel show you've seen before!

Later
J

Update long time no see.
So far I've got a few packs of socks and underwear, a notebook to hold a diary and stuff I need to remember etc minor thing I will need in London.
Yep, 3 weeks in London is closing up! Wednesday, at midnight, I'll leave Tampere, Finland and wednesday, at midnight I will arrive to London UK woo!
For those who think hand luggage only will never be enough, here's the item's I will have with me:
- socks 3 pairs
- underwear 5 pairs
- 2 t-shirts
- one pair of jeans
- one pair of microfabric trainingpants
- passport
- toothbrush
- cryptic keynumberlist for online banking
- notebook + pen
- tissues
- one warm hoodie
- adapter for local electric outlet
- digicam + usb-cable
- phone, charger and usb-cable
- 100 pounds cash
- credit card, insurance card and other documents
- flipflops that look like shoes. Shoes that are open like flipflops. I dunno what they are called.
- electric shaver
- tickets to The Chap Olympiad Extravaganza 2009 =D
- Madventures International adventurer's guidebook
- Candy for a friend of mine in UK
- Allergy medicine

All this will fit nicely to a bag half the size of standard hand luggage.
Shampoos, toothpastes and deodorants I'll get on location, same goes for clothing should I need more.
Can anyone point out some objects and materia I would really need?

Anyways, when the time comes I'll note on updates on both photographic and video material I'll get on location.
Now, I need to clean up this place, I want it to be sparkling clean when I come back =)