I have yet to purchase my train passes... There's really no excuse for the Eurail pass not being purchased yet, but as for the JR (Japan Railway) pass, I'm waiting until the exchange rate is more in my favor.
So a tentative schedule of my trip, which only includes departure and arrival dates in Japan, Hong Kong and Europe are:
June 26: Leave Ashland for Sacramento. Make a one night stop in Chico to see Brandon, Sym, Arthur and Colette~
Arrive Sacramento June 27th. I know that Lyndsay and Shalley will already be gone on their awesome trips, but I will see Lyndsay in Japan at some point, so that will be awesome... Shalley will be in Italy, but she will be gone before I get there. =( See you guys at the end of August!!
June 30: Leave San Fransisco International Airport for Japan around 12 PM Pacific time.
July 1: Arrive at Narita International Airport around 3 PM Japan time. This should be about 11 PM Pacific Time.
August 1: Leave Haneda International Airport around 8:30 PM Japan time.
August 2: Arrive in Hong Kong about 12 AM (so a four-hour flight, roughly). As a side note--to all you worry warts, I will have my hostel booked and they will know of my late arrival. There are shuttles that run very late and the ride from the airport to the hostel will be no more than one hour. I have done my research!!
August 3: Leave Hong Kong International around 8:30 AM
Same day: Arrive London Heathrow around 2:35 PM.
August 24: Depart London Heathrow International Airport around 1 PM.
Same day: Arrive Chicago O'Hare around 3:25 PM, mountain time. Depart at 5 PM.
Same day again: Arrive at San Fransisco International around 7:20 PM Pacific time.
To those who are planning to pick me up on this lovely August evening, I will be sure to e-mail you the official itenerary so that you can see the flight numbers and what not.
I don't have an official plan for Japan yet, but I will be in Tokyo from July 1 until July 5. I will then head south until probably about the 20th, or so. This is currently very tentative and quite undecided, except for the first Tokyo part... I already booked my hostel. Appropriately, the name of the hostel is called Bakpak hostel, located in between the Asakusa, Ueno and Akihabara districts. Its about an hour and a half train ride from Narita International Airport.
The Hong Kong schedule will be very short since I really only have one full day there.
The Europe Schedule, tentative of course, goes as follows:
Arrive London.
London -> Belgium.
Belgium -> Netherlands (Amsterdam, YEAH!!)
Netherlands -> Germany
Germany -> Czech Republic (Yay, Prague!)
Czech -> Austria (to please a certain someone--you know who you are!! =) )
Austria -> Croatia
Croatia -> Greece
Greece -> Italy
Italy -> Spain
Spain -> France
France -> England (london)
As I said before, the plan is super tentative... The countries that we will be staying at for longer periods of time will probably be more set in stone as far as the dates go. When my finals are done next Wednesday I will start booking hostels and doing other research-related things for Europe.
As far as supplies goes for the actual backpacking part, I have purchased a great pack that will have plenty of room, but is also fitted to me specifically. I have also been looking at other people's websites and blogs as far as the supplies I will be needing. I will make another post with pictures and descriptions a little later.
Side note -- I am really looking forward to the Sari silk skirts that Sym ordered! Woohoo!!!
Things to do:
- Research european hostels
- Purchase Eurail and JR passes
- Book Hong Kong hostel
- Ask for birthday money prior to leaving (hint hint, nudge nudge, poke poke...)
- Plan Japan route a little more
- Remember to update blog, as I am horrible at doing this...
Nicole
