the good side of a cold

We are known for often squeezing 48 hours into 24 mostly between Frankfurt, Munich, Walchsee, Zurich and sometimes even Seoul for a night - and if snow needs to be involved also adding 1500 km on the Autobahn on a single weekend. Sometimes this pace just doesn't work well - either with schedules, friends or health. This time my health put a stop to packing boxes, renovating my appartement, meeting friends, dogsit Ronja, clarify admin stuff and worry about Philipp falling off a mountain at the same time. A cold now cleared my calendar for the one thing I wanted to do for the past ... hmm, six months. Reading travel guides. I am getting more excited about our trip with every page I read. Travel tips are very, very, very welcome and much appreciated! Thank you.

There are great places to visit out there - I already found Dieter's favourite and Heike's (No, Heike, you should not click this Link!!!).

Speaking of a cold: This is the right moment for my (meanwhile second) favourite YouTube-Video - bless you!

The Land of Stuff

She -actually me- is currently packing up her stuff in Munich. This means taking everything you own into your hand and decide whether to keep it, to sell it, to give or simply throw it away.

Giving away works great - as soon as you post stuff for free on any ads platform it is gone. People take everything. As soon as it costs only as much as 5 EUR ... nobody calls. Is that the financial crisis or a simple form of self-perception? Maybe it is just smart ...

To throw away is also easy: Didn't touch it in 6 months? Don't think it is worth a picture and an ad? Gone.
With 1 and 2 a lot of stuff is covered.

To keep is the hardest part: Why on earth would I want to keep all my seminar papers of 5 years of university + one from school? And why wouldn't I? They are all the "originals" with real notes and real grades (in ink) on them. Will never EVER use them again but will never EVER give them away either. And there we go ... "This pair of shoes I wore when Bryan Adams kissed me (real kiss!) at a concert (true!) [I actually had a hard time giving away the shirt last summer when we cleaned out the house I grew up in. What do you think, would it have been worth keeping??? ;-)) ] ... that picture I don't have electronically, this dish was a gift of (you name any person), this book I always wanted to read again" ...

Living on the 5th floor (no elevator) actually helps not to collect too much things. Nevertheless I need more than 50 boxes to pack my (just me) 1 room appartment. Still, after 17 moves, nbr. 18 on its way to be completed. This is way too much stuff. But I promise, for every one of them I have a very good reason to keep it.

Our travel will teach me a lesson there. 5 months and all I (think I) will need I have to carry every day. 15kg max. I have no idea how this will be possible. When we are back in FRA next Wednesday packing starts. It scares me already now. I keep you posted.

If DHL delivers to the Fijis?

Btw: Stuff is everywhere - even on the other side of the world. There "stuff" even wins awards - regularly. Also a lesson somehow.

Preparation Phase

Well, all the websites we clicked on and all the articles we -kind of- read to prepare for this trip prove one thing: we did not prepare what seems to be "properly". Other people read tons of travel books, learn additional languages, "start" their adventure by changing their working-time-model two years prior to take-off and start living in a tent in the garden -"just to get used to it".

We made the final decision to take this trip in June - this year. We have stopped working just a week ago ... to start sorting out admin stuff, backup all important data, have some dentist appointments, move appartements, climb the Mont Blanc, set-up facebook, dopplr, twitter, couchsurfing, freagle, blogger (you name it), party and - the worst part EVER - pack (as in: decide what not to wear in about 5 months). That is a lot of things to do before saying good-bye.

Nevertheless, here we are: Martina and Philipp preparing to leave the country for 4,5 months of travelling in Asia, Australia and Oceania. We have ...

• sleeping bags and pillows (check!)
• 1 backpack (todo! - that one is her's even though it is just climbing Mont Blanc with him ...)
• travel medication (check! - btw. love the pic, Marc)
• a pile of travel books too heavy to take with us (todo! - Nr. 5 please help ...)
• no work to do until at least February 2010 (the one) or April 2010 (the other one) (check!)
• a place to store our stuff (todo! - anyone fancy moving MUC to FRA on Sept 15?)
• a couchsurfing profile (check!)
• hiking boots, flip flops and 2 cool hats (check! - he says clothing is overrated anyway ...)
• no idea how to reduce 4,5 months worth of personal belongings to 15kg (todo! - she says that she might be able to leave those shoes at home ...)
• visa for China, Australia and Vietnam (check!)
• unlocked mobile phones, multiple ipods to choose from, 2 cameras (so one can be stolen), waterproof videocamera, gps, ... you name it, we have it (check!)
• an ongoing discussion around a plb (his) and a small notebook (her's) (todo!)
• cancelled all unneccessary insurances (check!)
• copied all important documents but still need to scan them (todo!)
• bought all necessary insurances (check!)
• scheduled fare-well parties in Frankfurt, Walchsee and Munich (in the order of appearance - check!)
• received all necessary immunization (check!)
• a sufficiently stuffed bank account (todo! - that is always a todo!)
• and, ah, flights, right, ... nearly forgot (check!).

Apart from that we do not have any route, no pre-ordered hotel reservations, no cars or campers booked, no idea what we will do on New Year's Eve or at X-mas. We will work it out when we get there. We have some friends that live along the way, who we will visit for sure. And we hope that with backpacking, geocaching and couchsurfing we will find some new ones.

Didn't they say all you need is a bathing suit and a VISA? Et voilá ... nothing can go wrong. Unless Philipp actually plans to wear the bathing suit ... different story ...

So far for preparation - back to packing moving boxes ...