preparations

After taking the decision of making this big trip, I was occupied with finding out how?!

I didn't only ask friends, who had been travelling around the world, about tips (big thanks go out to Rebekka and Thomas), but I also found out a lot through various blogs of worldtravellers.
Here I definitely want to mention a really helpful blog as it contains loads of information about the costs of such a trip, the best ways of getting to various destinations, general preparations, and tremendous photos....
And I was really lucky: the writer was taking quite a similar route like the one I had in my mind so all the information perfectly applied to me - thanks a lot Armin, you really made everything so much easier to me ;)
http://www.easybackpacker.com

Even though the final goal of my blog will not be to help future world-travellers with their travel preparations, I want to give you at least a slight idea about what I was occupied with within the last few months:

Travel Agency

After checking various travel agencies about round the world tickets, I finally opted for Travel Nation http://www.travelnation.co.uk/ - the agency Thomas recommended me. And he was right: they are really competent and helpful. After having a long chat via telephone with one travel agent from the agency I finally booked the round-the-world-ticket with them, which includes 6 flights (London-Moscow, Singapur-Sydney, Sydney-Auckland, Auckland-Fidji, Fidji-LA, NY-London). The most important feature of this ticket is that the actual dates of all but the first flight can be changed free of charge up to one year! This is simply indispensable, as I don't know how long I want to stay in the various countries on my route...

Travel Insurance
I was convinced for quite a while that with my credit card I had a free travel insurance. But in fact, I don't: they only insure travels up to 90 days. So I finally bought a policy with the travel insurance through my travel agency. I simply hope I will never need it
("Gott behüte uns vor allem, was noch ein Glück ist" - Tante Jolesch...)

Visa
Oh, such an annoyance applying for visas when you're used to travelling within Schengen...
My personal Top-4 of the consulates of the 4 ambassies:
clear winner: Mongolia: easy to get the invitation letter from the guesthouse, they do answer the phone!!, are nice and helpful and issued my visa within 2 days!
ex aequo: Vietnam and China : both no problem when you bring all required documents.
clear loser: Russia: what a pain in the a**

Here I definitely have to thank Armin again, who has so many useful information about visas to the countries on my route - check out his blog: easybackpacker

Transsiberian Ticket
Having been to Russia years ago, that not only applying for visa is annoying, but it is also not easy to get train tickets. There are many blogs about the transiberian railways, all say different things about how to get tickets for the traing. I finally bought the recommended City Star ticket in Bratislava and my friend in Moscow bought the necessary sleepers reservations for it - спасибо огромное!!
http://citystarticket.blogspot.com/

Injections and medication
Being a quite healthy person, who is hardly ever ill, it was quite unusual for me, having to pay so much not only for injections but also for "just-in-case" medications - and again Tante Joleschs saying mentionned above would perfectly fit in here...

Equipment
Since I wasn't backpacking before this trip, I was not equipped for the trip at all. The last 2 weeks I spend many hours in different outdoor-shops buying high-quality boots, a jacket, a backpack...

Giving up my flat
Sounds easy, is however still quite time consuming: Moving out, packing the stuff I want to keep, selling my furniture, making a small flee market to get rid of all the stuff I had collected over the years...

and last but not least:

Party
I wouldn't have left Vienna without making a big party :)

What a great night: celebrating my graduation, my birthday and my big trip all at once in my beloved pub! Many friends coming over (even from Vorarlberg - thank you girls for taking the long way - that was great!!), loads of great seful presents, live music playing, dancing on the bar...




I HAD A GREAT TIME!