Starting out

So, I've never kept a blog before, and I'm still learning how to do it. But I figure I'm leaving real soon, and it's about time I got my head around this web technology business.

Well, this is I guess the official beginning of my travels. I have packed up my job, am packing up my house, have no study commitments, no relationship, and the good fortune of a redundancy payout (it's bloody good to have worked for an organisation that cares about workers rights!). I leave on 20 September which is less than a month away and I have so much to do.

My plan is to start in Beijing, hang out there for a week, and then jump on a train to St Petersburg, stopping in Siberia and Moscow along the way. After that I'll end up in Berlin where I'm going to live for a few months and learn some more German, and after that check out a bit more of Europe - hopefully going down into Eastern Europe and Turkey. I'm also planning on visiting my sorely missed sister in the UK, say g'day to the family in Ireland. After that I return home via Buenos Aires, Santiago and Auckland. I'm expecting the whole thing to take me anywhere between 4 and 12 months.

So here's to my plans, and wish me luck.