keep on moving!

first off, i just wanted to say thanks to people for actually commenting on my last post. it really is good to know that people out there bother reading my ramblings. nice!!

so, right now i´m typing in the frankfurt airport, where i´ll be sleeping tonight. frankfurt is an expensive city, and i´m only here for one night, so it seems like a waste to spend a ton of $$ on a hotel room. i´ve never slept in an airport before, but it seems like this trip would almost be incomplete if i didnt try it at least once. sleeping in airports is in some ways a complicated task. there is actually a whole website devoted to this where people can write in and give tips for specific airports. lots of factors to consider. are the seats comfy? do they have armrests, or is it possible to sretch out across several seats? where are the quiet areas w/ little traffic. which areas have loud vacuming at nihg or loud anouncements over the intercomt? which areas have carpeting? what is security like?? etc etc. this will definitely be an interesting little adventure.

his stop in frankfurt is just a tiny part of the hellish torture we´re putting ourselvs through to get to our next country. from africa, our next destination is south america. the shortest distance between two points maybe a straightline, but by airplane, the cheapest way betwen two points is often a zigzag. after searching for a long time, we found that the cheapest way to get to SA would be via 3 flights. here´s what the next few days are like for me:

fly mombasa, kenya to frankfurt, germany: 8 hours
sleep in frankfurt airport
fly frankfurt, germany to fort myers, florida: 10 hours
rent car. drive from fort myers to miami, sleep in miami
fly miami, florida to panama city: 3 hours
fly panama city to buenos aires, argentina: 7 hours

yes. it´s gonnabe a hell of a trekk.

once in argentina we’re going to stay in south america for the rest of our trip till we run out of money. i’m thinking we can hopefully make it strech a tiny bit over 2 months. we´ll probably spend about 3 weeks in argentina, then 3 weeks in bolivia, and then 3 weeks in peru. can’t wait!!

*v

20 thoughts on “keep on moving!”

  1. Sweet!!! South America was my favorite part of my trip. Check out my site if you need any inspiration, and email me if you need any advice or have any questions. I’m sure it’ll seem really different after Africa, but enjoy! You’re going out with a bang.

  2. I spent 3 weeks in Peru back in 2001 so ask me when you think of any questions. Also, I’ve been hearing that the Inca Trail trip is totally booked up, so if you’re planning on doing that you should book that months in advance! When I went I only had to wait one day, times have changed!

  3. Dude, Chris and I spent the night in an airport on our way back from Europe last summer – it was HELL. Absolute hell! There were soooo many people camping out, that we couldn’t find a place to lay down in a chair. So, we slept on the FLOOR! OMG! It was awful. 🙁

  4. BTW, does this mean you might be home in late November / early December? That’d be so sweet! You’d be home for my birthday, and I actually finish finals *before* my birthday this year so I can celebrate for once! Woohoo! 🙂

  5. WOW!!! I hope the $$$ saved is worth the craziness of it all…

    I see that you are cutting Brazil out. Probably best since it is the most expensive. But, you *really* should check out Foz de Iquacu. Its not that far from BA – you can get there on an overnight bus, and busses in SA are very comfortable.

  6. Hi Vlad! You should have told me that you are in Frankfurt so I had you picked up and you guys could have stayed at a friends place which is very close to the airport and definately more comfy.

  7. yeah, south america seems like it should be really fun. we just got to buenos aires today. what a change from africa! it feels like we’re in europe!

    i’ll definitely check out your blog for tips..

  8. yeah, i dont think we’ll be doing the inca trail. from what i heard it’s super crowded and there are a lot of other more interesting treks out there that arent exploding w/ tourists!

  9. dude, what’s so bad about sleeping on the floor? i would have been totally ok w/ that. hell, the floor in the frankfurt airport i’m sure would be a million times cleaner than some of the hotel rooms/buses that i’ve slept on!

  10. yeah, unless by some random crazy luck we are able to strecth our money hella far, we’ll totally be back by your birthday. should be hella fun!

  11. yeah, it’s been a ROUGH last several days. when we finally got here to BA, we were SO exhausted.

    it sucks that we’re missing brazil… but it’s just so big!! i dont think we can really do it justice in 3 weeks. gonna have to leave it for anotrher trip. but yeah, we’re definitley going to see the falls when we head north towards bolivia. should be dope!

  12. awww man! actually, when we booked our tickets, i was thinking of emailing you, but then looked back on a previous email and saw that you live in stutgart.. my german geography is pretty bad, so i had no idea whether that was close to frankfurt, plus the last couple days before our flight were very hectic, so i never ended up emailing! too bad, would have been fun to meet up!

  13. It may have been ROUGH, but at least now you get to gorge yourselves on steak and wine while in Argentina…

  14. Strangely, the grime was the least of my concerns. I was just absolutely, utterly, and completely exhausted, and the floor was soooooo cold and hard; I couldn’t get comfortable enough to sleep. 🙁

  15. YAY! So you’ll definitely be home for New Year’s too! HOORAY! 😀

  16. …and that other trip could very possibly be with me. SWEET! 🙂

    Oh, oh! And let’s not forget China! Of course, that’ll probably be a different trip altogether…

  17. Hi Vlad & Caryn!

    I sure enjoyed reading your journal and you two are very good at sharing your experience. You guys should write a book! Your trip has been awsome! Kevin showed me your web site about a month ago and I have been reading it ever since. Congratulation on your 1 year journey and maybe some day I might be able to meet you guys.

    Kevin’s Dad “Ted”

  18. Ted,

    i´m really glad that you´re enjoying the journal! i´m always happy to hear that new people are reading it. it´s kind of funny that i´ve know kevin for 5 or 6 years now, and yet i´ve never met his parents. well, caryn and i should be back in just a couple months, maybe then!

  19. Hi Ted,

    All compliments go to Vlad for this journal. My journal is on another site, and nowhere near as popular. 😉 Hope you’re enjoying the trip as much as we are!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *