A "Throwin' out Good Time"

Before I start - Sorry for the double post. I accidentally hit "post" right after typing only 1 letter of the title... Here's the whole post:

The title of this blog is one of my favorite quotes from my dad in honor of Father's day. I was cleaning out my apartment to make room for a sub-letter who's arriving in 2 weeks. I've always been a pack-rat. You just never know when something is going to come in handy - LL Bean ice cream maker, a jacket I haven't ever worn, discount coupons that expire tomorrow. Unfortunately, when you're a pack-rat, the law of entropy starts taking over your life, and your environment ends up being one big mess of probably-useful stuff. I tend to get to a point where I have so much crap lying around that I have to get rid of it or go insane. I hate cleaning - let's face it, there's too much stuff in life that is way more fun than cleaning... so it's a rare occasion that "throwin' out" and "good times" actually go together. But eventually the crap content in my living space reaches a critical mass. Dad used to motivate me to clean by telling me that we're going to have a "throwin' out good time."

I'm getting to the point where I'm supposed to be leaving Boston in just over 2 weeks. I've spent the past couple of weeks trying really hard to iron out my ground transportation and lodging though Europe. After I got my International Student Exchange (ISE) card (for $25), I looked into booking my Eurail passes. While I am considered a student, I still had to book the adult rail passes because I'm not a youth - you have to be under 26 to qualify for youth rates. The ISE card has still already paid itself off, though. It came with a $20 off coupon for Eurail passes. Also, with the purchase of a Eurail pass, I got a free Hostel Res Card (HRC), which costs $18 by itself. With the HRC, the hostel booking fees are waived, which is usually the equivalent of $2 per hostel. With the HRC, you can book hostels all over the world, not just in Europe.

As much as I'd like to leave this trip open ended for wandering, I'm finding that I do need a bit of a concrete itenerary. Many of the really popular hostels from Hosteling International (HI) (www.hihostels.com) tend to get booked quickly in the summer months. The HRC offers bookings at many other hostels, including the HI hostels. On the HRC website, these hostels are all ranked and the culture of the hostels are thoroughly described, and there are maps and public transportation directions to all the hostel sites, so you have a lot of information to draw on when choosing a hostel.

Here's what I have so far for an itinerary through Europe:

I'm arriving in London at 8:30PM on July 12. I'll be staying at YHA London Central and checking out on July 14.

On July 14, I will head out towards Oxford and Stay with cousin Davy until July 17.

July 17 - Head to Liverpool, and visit and stay with family there.

July 20 - I'm going to Edinburgh and spending a couple of nights at the Argyle Backpackers Hostel.

On July 22, I will head back to Liverpool and stay with family for another couple of days.

On the morning of July 24, I will take a flight to Rome, where I will stay at Hotel Lodi for 2 nights.

On July 26, I will head over to Pescara and spend a couple of days with cousin Nikki.

This is where my plans get a little fuzzy -I bought a Greece-Italy Eurail Pass, and I'm really excited about traveling in Greece, but it seems that booking ferries can be a bit tricky. With my Eurail pass, I get free deck passage on the Superfast and Blue Star Ferries between Italy and Greece. I can take the Ferry from Bari, Italy, to Patra, Greece. From Patra, I can take the rail to Athens. So far, I've booked 1 night in an Athens Hostel: Hostel Aphrodite on July 30. I might book an extra day here, but I'm not sure what the plans would be getting to Turkey.

Remember, the primary reason I decided to travel through Greece is that I need to get to Turkey and meet up with some friends at the Port of Marmaris on the afternoon of August 2. The Greek Island, Rhodes, is really close to Marmaris, and seems like the most fun and economical stepping stone on my way to Turkey. I'm also supposed to get a 30% discount on Greek Island Ferries with my Eurail Pass. However, Greek Ferry Schedules can be a bit difficult to attain if you're not already in Greece or working with a Greek travel agent. Luckily I have a lot of Greek friends who are giving me pointers; and I found a really great website on traveling in Greece. If you are traveling to Greece, I highly recommend checking out this website:
http://www.greektravel.com/
or
http://www.greecetravel.com/
A guy named Matt Barrett loved traveling in Greece so much that he's been putting together a Greek travel website, and it's kind of like the bible of Greek travel. There's a ton of info and you can even email Matt directly for advice. Aparently this website started as a hobby 10 years ago, and now it's a really popular site. I've gotten a lot of good information off of it. It does seem like I'll be able to wander my way over to Marmaris between July 30 and August 2, but I should allow extra time because it's peak travel season. I guess there's still a bit more de-fuzzing to do for Greece.

Once I'm in Turkey, I'll be going on a boat with a couple of my friends from the Boston area. We'll be sailing north on the Mediterranean Coast of Turkey from Marmaris to Bodrum. We'll be be stopping at points of interest along the way. My friends said that I shouldn't really worry about spending too much time in Rhodes because we may be stopping there on our boat trip. We'll be landing in Bodrum on August 9. I then have a flight to Istanbul, where I'll be staying the night at my friend's parents' flat. I'll have the day in Istanbul before I have to catch a flight back to London, so I can catch another flight to Sydney (through Singapore). I'll be spending a lot of time on planes during this part of the trip. Luckily planes and airports don't stress me out.

So... That's the craziness that will be the Europe part of my vacation. I've been meaning to put together a to-do list. The thowin' out is definitely on the top of the list and I did start that today. I've received a lot of really great advice from friends about what to bring with me and the little things I need to do before I leave. I've done some of them, but until I write it all down, I doubt I'm going to get through everything. It's a bit late to do a to do list tonight, so my agenda for tomorrow - 1) sleep in, 2) write a to-do, 3) write a have-done list - so I can feel good about what I've already accomplished - and so I don't get discouraged about all the things I really do have to do - like throwin' out, 4) do some of the to-dos, 5) Play soccer!!! 6) Hopefully meet up with one of those Greek friends, someone I haven't seen for a couple of years.

Good night all!