After months and months laboriously flicking through travel guides, bookmarking thousands and thousands of websites and endlessly talking to friends about all my possible travel plans, I have finally booked my flights!
I am relieved and terrified all at the same time. I bought my backpack - a 70L Macpac Genesis which I am very eager to use, packing cells, stuff sacks, you name it. I've planned outfits, itineraries, made lists of places I want to see, budgets I should stick to and how I should pack my backpack. It's all a little overwhelming and has been occupying quite a lot of my time lately, but now that I have officially booked my flights, I can relax a little.
I fly out July 15, first stop being Singapore. I'm there for just under 24 hours and it was not part of the plan, but it was the cheapest way I could get to Greece. My flight was only $285 with Scoot Airways, which is incredibly cheap, so I hope the plane doesn't fall out of the sky. If you haven't heard of Scoot, it's the new budget airline under Singapore Airlines and launches Monday 4th June this year, so at least it'll give me a bit of time to change flights if I need to. My flight from Singapore to Greece is with Qatar Airways and set me back only $580! Considering flights from Sydney to Greece are about $1,200-1,400 one way, I am pretty pleased.
From what I've heard, there isn't really all that much to do in Singapore, so I only really want to see Singapore Zoo and maybe the Botanic Gardens and maybe do some shopping (I plan to hit up Topshop and Uniqlo, haha).
I fly out of Singapore July 16 for Athens and I have an 8 hour layover in Doha, Qatar. I was thinking of maybe booking a hotel room to sleep for a couple of hours, but I was really worried I might miss my flight. There isn't all that much to do at the airport aside from a few restaurants and the one duty free store, but I read that you can pay about $40 USD to stay in the Oryx Lounge at the airport for up to 6 hours. Included are snacks, wifi, newspapers/magazines, an airconditioned room to sit in, and even showers! Apparently the airport even offers a free breakfast for people who have long layovers so I'm all set!
I haven't planned too much, if anything at all for Greece, but I definitely want to see the Acropolis in Athens and maybe some of the museums, then hit up the Greek Islands - Santorini, Ios and Mykonos are on the top of my list, and if I have time, maybe even Crete!
I am planning to meet Lexie in Tanzania sometime early August - we're planning to spend about a week climbing Mt Kilimanjaro, a volunteer program for two weeks and then Zanzibar for a couple of days if we can fit it in. I'm actually a little nervous about this leg of the trip because the Smart Traveller website has listed Kenya as a 'Do not travel' destination and I'm planning to fly into Nairobi and take a bus to Tanzania from there, on my own. With all the political unrest and conflict there right now, I'm worried we'll be turned away at the boarder and throwing all my other travel plans out of whack.
After Tanzania, I am hoping to get to Valencia, Spain for La Tomatina - I need to be there before August 29, so I really hope I make it there in time! It's been a life long dream of mine to participate in a food fight, so this will be just the perfect opportunity!
I thought I would start blogging about this trip so that I can see if my trip goes according to plan! I'll also put up some reviews of things that I've purchased for my trip and things that come up from now till I leave. My first review will be of my backpack so keep your eyes peeled!
