Bonjour, les Francophones!

I'm in Belgium! A longer post will be forthcoming about France, but it was fantastic. After spending a week in Bognor Regis, I, in the company of Laura, a friend from England, traveled to Paris via, of all things, coach. This 9-hour trip included rude employees, a ferry ride, and some very strange smells.

After getting us lost in Paris for an hour or two (this would prove to become a pattern), I finally found our hotel in Levallois, a suburban city just northwest of Paris. The Parisian metro is wonderful, so it didn't prevent us from accessing the city center without delay. The next four days were spent at the Eiffel Tower, Louvre, Versailles, eating snails and visiting all the other wonderful sites of the beautiful French capital.

Rennes, a city in northern France, was the next stop. We intended to see Mont Saint Michel which, unfortunately, didn't happen due to a combination of bad weather and poor planning by me. The city itself was worth the journey, however. We braved the cramped uncomfortableness of my tent and saved loads of money by camping out at Rennes's beautiful Gayuelles park. I saw more rabbits than I'd ever seen in my LIFE...they're everywhere, like squirrels back home. Rennes also has a fantastic system called VeloSTAR, a municipal bicycle service allowing residents or travelers to rent bikes for less than a euro per day. Cycling around the laid-back town was a great contrast to the bustle of Paris.

I will post more (and post photos!) when I get a chance. But right now, the land of mussels, beer and chocolate beckons. Au revoir!

Bognor!

I'm staying in Bognor and having a great time! After some flight craziness (i.e. running through the Dublin airport) I finally arrived in Gatwick on time. From there, I took a train straight to Bognor Regis.

Bognor is a small seaside town in the south of England. It's a nice resort town, not too big and not too small.

Upon arrival, I immediately met all of my friend's friends, and we went out to an authentic English pub. I had my first meat pie! English pub food is quite delicious (better than the Tipsy Toad, I must say).

Yesterday, we took a walk around the city of Bognor Regis. After a game of mini-golf, we prepared for a cookout. I also tried my first scotch egg! For those who don't know, this is a boiled egg covered in sausage...and yes, it IS as delicious as it sounds.

Today we went to the Bognor Regis museum and, later, are going out for fish and chips! I'll update more later.

The trip has started! In Bognor Regis...

Bognor is awesome and full of awesome people! This will be quite a short update, but more will come later. For now, I have an experiment: a SPOT Shared Page! You can view and track my GPS locations as I travel.

Packing

Going on a huge trip for the first time is a bit intimidating. Even after getting all the visas, booking tickets, and coming up with a basic itinerary, the challenge of what to bring looms.

Every travel blog says the same thing: travel as light as possible. The advice I've always heard is as follows:

Take everything you think you'll need. Go through each item. If you absolutely cannot survive without that item, keep it...if not, discard it. Then, look at the pile of kept items. Cut it in half, and take one of the halves.

Seems pretty extreme! I know from my previous travels, however, that this rings absolutely true. I've never been on a trip where I regretted bringing too little. The opposite, however, has plagued me time and time again! I usually try to keep everything in a single carry-on and am shooting for that goal this time as well.

There is always the little devil on the shoulder, however, tempting me to do evil. In software we struggle against feature creep; for the traveler, "luggage creep" can be just as deadly! Should I take my laptop? What about my SLR? And how many pairs of clothes do I really need? What about a tent?

Since I'm doing an RTW for 6 months or so, I'm allowing myself a bit more leeway with regards to luggage. I may regret this later, but I've decided to bring my bulky SLR (well, for now anyway...by Tuesday morning I may have changed my tune). The laptop I'm leaving at home. I'm taking a tent: a High Peak Enduro. It's slightly heavier than the average tent, but fairly compact. I know I'll be using it at least once. If I can't stand it, I shouldn't have a problem selling it or otherwise getting rid of it overseas.

I'm being fairly sparse on clothes. If I find I don't have enough, the combination of an ATM card and secondhand shop should solve my problem.

The pack I'm taking is a Kelty Redwing 3100. After reviewing packs on the Internet and trying a few on in-store, this seemed like the best choice. I had a few requirements for the pack.

• It has to be durable. I'll be putting some pretty heavy strain on this thing for a few months, and the worst thing that could happen would be a blown seam.
• I need to be able to carry it on to an airplane. Absolutely nothing is worse than that sinking feeling that comes when the baggage exchange is empty and your pack is nowhere to be found.
• It needs to be large enough to hold my clothes, sleeping bag, and carry a tent.
• It'd be nice if it didn't break the bank

I was able to snag this one from eBags for $70 and free shipping! Considering that some of the Osprey bags can run over $250, I consider this a very sweet deal.

This is what I'm thinking for my packing list:

• Sleeping bag
• Tent + poles
• Camera
• 2 prs long pants (wear 1, 1 in pack)
• 4 prs socks
• 4 prs boxers
• 3 t-shirts (wear 1, 2 in pack)
• 2 long-sleeve
• Light jacket
• Swimsuit
• Kindle
• Toiletries (toothpaste, razor, deodorant to be bought overseas)
• Documents (visas, passports, bank statements, travel insurance, etc.)
• "Packable" daypack
• Water bottle

I'm probably missing something obvious, but if the need will arise, I'll have an ATM card.

Well, that's all for now. Thanks for reading my blog! I'll be attempting to update as much as possible and post photos here. If you have any tips, anything you wish me to write about, or just want to troll, feel free to leave a comment.