Recently the idea of going away for a fair few weeks/months has
become more and more appealing. A little more realistic even. When I was
growing up, when other fellow students were off on their gap years, I
was pretty set on finishing my education. Well that finished a while ago
now and I think this is the right time to disappear for a bit. I warn
you this is probably the longest post I have ever written.
I
think when starting to plan this kind of trip its so overwhelming. You
start researching one place, which quickly leads to another and before
you know it, you are going to be away for 9 months and spending all the
money you'll ever have. I realise that this is quite a 'grown up' way of
thinking about it but yep, I guess I am a grown up now.
There
have been many talks/planning sessions to try and figure out what the
ideal trip would be. I've drawn the map above to help you understand,
our geography is pretty poor. I also like maps, so any excuse to put one
together.
First stop, America. Well the West coast anyway.
We plan on visiting various national parks on our way round. Yosemite,
Joshua Tree and Yellowstone Volcano to name a few. The idea of driving
around in a mobile home type vehicle and being able to camp up pretty
much anywhere from the desert to the local Walmart excites me. But also
terrifies me.
One of our other main stops is Slab City to
visit Salvation Mountain. I only agreed to go to America if this place
would be one of our stops! Stop off at Big Sur to maybe do a bit of
surfing. Then on to San Francisco where we will spend a week
gallivanting around. Last stop is Portland. The modes of transport on
this part of the trip are yet to be decided. Lots of driving, a few
trains, a few coaches. We haven't researched that (major) part yet.
After
4 weeks on the West coast we will then fly back down to LA to catch a
flight round to Japan. I realise that This isn't the most typical
adventure but its the 2 places that we really want to go to and will
have to save all the other rad places for another time! We would love to
see everything but that would be impossible.
So... Second
stop, Japan. Planning on spending 2 weeks here, well definitely until
our money runs out anyway. I can't imagine how much stuff we are going
to buy there. Especially in the 100 yen stores. Oh man. The arcades!!!!
Bare
with me, our research is a little slim on Japan. We have the whole of
the summer to keep planning but definitely a visit to a natural spring
and we will also be visiting the Studio Ghibli museum for sure! A few of
the other places we will visit will be Tokyo, Kyoto and Mount Fuji.
Another idea would be to purchase a Japan rail pass which takes you to all the main destinations. There's a nice article here.
I
realise that this post have been purely self indulgent and I apologise
for that. We would be really grateful if anyone has any tips or really
ace weird and wonderful places to visit in these parts of the world we
would be so grateful. So much planning to do!!
I wrote this post for the Blogger's Lounge as they are hosting a trip away to New Zealand. Gap Year have kindly given the amazing prize.
