*Updated* Travel!

*Update*

The Europe itinerary (square brackets denote places I am visiting for the day from the preceeding city, but not staying in) is:

Italy (Naples, Palermo [Syracuse, Agrigento], Rome, Verona, Milan [Genoa, Turin]), Switzerland (Zurich), Germany (Fussen, Munich, Dresden, Berlin, Bremen, Cologne, Heidelberg, Freiburg), France (Strasbourg, Le Mans [Rouen, Blois, Vitre, Mont St Michael], Bordeaux [Sarlate a Caneda], Lourdes [Carcassone]), Spain (Bilbao, Olviedo, A Coruna [Santiago de Compostela, Leon], Cordoba [Granada, Seville, Cadiz])

Then William comes over for six weeks and we go to:

Spain (Madrid [Toledo], Valencia [Mallorca], Barcelona [Girona]), France (Toulouse, Marseille [Nimes], Nice [Monaco], Paris [Versailles, Carentan, D-Day Beaches), Belgium (Brussels), Germany (Frankfurt), Czech Republic (Prague), Austria (Vienna), Italy (Venice, Florence [Siena, Pisa], Rome [Vatican City], Naples) and then back to Spain to fly out from Madrid.

So basically, I'm landing in Italy and doing a circuit through to Spain, then William comes over and we reverse the circuit back to Italy, but are visiting the more well known places. Should be a good trip, I think. I'm particularly looking forward to the 2 weeks I have in Cordoba to just relax, walk around, see the city, and pretend I'm a local. Hopefully by that stage, after 3 months in SA and 4 weeks in other parts of Spain, my Spanish will be up to scratch! I'm conversational at the moment, but not fluent. I really hope I develop my skills more while I'm over there.

So, any more tips? I've had a look at that couch surfing site, Kiki, and I think I will give it a shot. If it doesn't work out, then I haven't really lost anything, have I? So thanks for the tip! That will certainly cut down on my costs.

*****

After a productive week of having my nose buried in travel guides and travel sites, I have completed the first 3 months of my travel itinerary.

Chile (Santiago, La Serena, San Pedro de Atacama, Arica), Peru (Arequipa, Cuzco, Nazca, Lima, Trujillo), Ecuador (Cuenca, Guayquil, Quito [Esmeraldas]), Costa Rica (San Jose), Nicaragua (Granada, Managua), Honduras (Tegucigalpa, Copan Ruinas), Guatemala (Antigua, Panajachel [Chichicastenango], Flores), Mexico (Playa del Carmen, Merida, Palenque, Oaxaca, Mexico City).

If any of you have been to any of those countries or cities/towns, I'd appreciate any tips!

After Mexico City, I fly to Italy, then travel through there, Germany, France and Spain for an additional 4 months. I haven't finished that itinerary yet. I'd love to more extensive travel throughout Europe and visit Russia, Croatia, Greece, Austria, Denmark, Belgium, etc, but I just don't have enough time. I'll just have to go back another time!

I've also worked out that with flights, travel insurance, accomodation in SA, land travel in SA, spending money in SA (calculated on the "cost per day" in the Lonely Planet guides) and spending money in Europe, the trip is currently at $25,000. To that needs to be added accomodation and land travel in Europe, plus the cost of the gear I'll have to buy before I leave, and another $1600 to hire a storage facility to store all my stuff while I'm gone (so William can lease out my study for rent, and so all my stuff is packed up if we have to move when the lease ends while I'm gone).

All up, I'm estimating it will cost me about $40,000 for the 7.5 months I'm gone. Has anyone else travelled for this long through similar countries? Is this estimate correct? I think the Lonely Planet estimate of daily costs must include a large hunk for alcohol, because I really can't see myself spending over $100 a day in Europe, when my accomodation is already paid for and land travel accounted for separately. But I'm going to plan for that much just in case I do need it. I suspect I may get out of it cheaper, however.

The accomodation I'm booking is all Single Private Ensuite rooms. Slightly more expensive (mostly around the $10 - $20 a night mark in SA, and it looks to be around the $50 - $80 mark in Europe), but I think I will enjoy myself more that way. There's no way I could deal with sleeping in a room with 7 strangers who are drinking, farting, snoring and having sex, and possibly vomitting into the toilet/missing the toilet while drunk, etc. If I want to join the revelry, I'd rather do it in the common areas than in my sleeping area. So yeah. I don't care what the rooms look like or anything, as long as I have my own room and my own bathroom, I'm happy.

So, any tips? I'll post the Europe itinerary when I've finished it.