And We're Off !

Ok – this is our first blog entry and thanks for tuning in. As we write this, we are on the first leg of our trip (flying from Dublin to Chicago). We’ve just come over Canada and there’s nothing but a vast empty expanse of snow and mountains beneath us. The plane is actually less than half full for some reason so there’s plenty of space and good service from the air hostesses.

We’ll begin our blog by giving a brief outline of our intended route: As mentioned above, our first stop is Chicago. We had originally intended to meet up with Conor’s aunt Oli who lives there, but she screwed those plans up by flying to Dublin this morning! So we met up for breakfast instead before heading on our opposite paths.

After a few days in Chicago, we’re off to Minneapolis (where?) yes, Minneapolis – Kadi used to live there. And that’ll be the first week. And then off to California for 3 weeks (San Francisco / Yosemite / Las Vegas / Grand Canyon / LA and hopefully San Diego). We hope to rent an RV for this stage of the trip! :o

We won’t bore you with the full details of the whole trip but the country itinerary goes roughly as follows:

• USA
• Mexico
• Cuba
• Jamaica
• Peru (Machu Picchu & Amazon)
• Brazil
• Argentina
• New Zealand
• Thailand
• Vietnam
• Cambodia
• Laos
• China (incl Hong Kong)
• Japan
• South Korea
• Then AUSTRALIA

Some of the above stops are brief enough. In total, we’ll spend 6 months travelling (3 months in America, then 3 months in Asia). In all, we’ll be getting 16 separate flights.

By the way – thanks to Ena and Age who made a special trip out to the airport to see us off this morning....despite getting on the wrong bus, getting off at the wrong stop (in the middle of nowhere) and hitchhiking back to the airport just in time. Thanks guys! :)

Oh yeah, and thanks to all the friends that came out to our various going-away nights out over the last week. In particular, thanks to the guys (you know who you are!) that set Conor’s and Fearghal’s hair on fire!