Preparing for travel

After years of longing and months of planning today I will finally fly towards Sydney, Australia (don't worry I'll definitely NOT make the Sydney, Canada mistake).

Preparing to travel for a long period takes some planning but that's part of the journey and the fun. For me it started with the end of my study and the beginning of a new job at Promax back in July. Thanks to a good friend (Yeah, that means you André!) who got me the job to begin with I was able to save some money for the upcoming trip. And thus I bought my one-way ticket to Australia in October.

A few weeks later I requested my working holiday visum and I was quite astonished how quickly it was approved. Withing 12 hours I got a reply with the approval forms. Requesting it was a bit more work and I had to read up on some documents but being able to submit the necessary forms via the website of Australian government was just great and very easy.

Just before the New Year I moved from Rotterdam back to my parents in just one day. Although I figured it would take at least several trips back and forth but thanks to my dad it was pretty painless. All in the name of lowering my expenses during my travel. Didn't want to pay any rent or subrent my room back in Rotterdam.

In the last two weeks I've mostly bought the last supplies like clothes and some minor backpacking gear but also gotten some local currency. I've had the most fun with going through my Lonely Planet and some websites on which sights I should see and what routes to take. I generally don't plan every thing in advance, that just ruins the fun but reading about stuff I really wanna see is just great pre-travel fun.

Another enjoyment event in the last two weeks was getting in touch with friends, friends of friends and even friends of my mon and dad back in Australia (even in New Zealand for that matter...ey Shaun ;)). It's just great looking forward to visit people you know and even people you've only heard stories about (some of them from my parents youth).

Anyways in the upcoming weeks and months I will be updating this blog about my experiences in the land down under. If you want you can subscribe to this blog with the links in About via the Twitter, RSS or newsletter icon, this way you won't have to check for any update. Instead you will be notified about them.