Leaving Today

Well It's been a hectic week or so, Today I leave for SD. I have alot to update you on, and even more to get done before I head out so I'll get to it. This entry will probably be pretty straightforward and not very poetic. Here Goes...

I started out the week by Checking out all this stuff on podcasting, which is essentially a audio blog that users can subscribe to and have pushed automatically to thier Ipod. hence its like a radio program that is playable anytime. Very cool Idea that has been integrated with the new Itunes, so i've been listening to some cool interviews with pretty cool people such as steve jobs, and steve wozniack - I highly recomend checking it out if you have an iPod and iTunes. I put in the ability on this sight for me to do it, but I am not going to try while I'm on the road unless a good oppurtunity comes up.

I also signed up for a flickr acct. to share my pics with you all. I will use it to post into this blog as well as upload my pics from the road.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tylerwillis/

My passport came in the mail so I'm all ready to go country hoping! I started taking my malaria meds to test them, and I took my second to last of 8 shots. Boy is medicine expensive these days!

I finally finished a rough itenerary. I will travel to SD, Denver, KC, maybe cleveland and then from Newark I fly to Europe. here is my email to my buddy's mom to tell them where I'm going.

I will be ending my trip in Rothenburg on the 15th Aug.
I will train to Nuremburg and then Berlin. Arriving Late 16th or Early 17th
Meet with Vinny in Berlin where we will spend about a week (Dep. around 24 Aug)
Train to Prauge where I have Fam. Friends and we can explore (Est. Dep 1 Sep)
Train to Vienna (Est Dep 8 Sep)
Train to Budapest (Est. Dep 11 Sep)
Train to Bern, Switzerland (Est Dep 15 Sep)
Traverse the Alps to Milan (Est Arv. 20 Sep - Est. Dep. 24 Sep)
Train to Venice (Est. Dep 30 Sep)
Train To Florence (Est Dep 3 Oct)
Train To Rome (Est Dep 10 Oct)
Train to Naples (Est Dep 13 Oct)
Train To Palermo (Est Dep 17 Oct)
Boat/Plane to Hike Corsica (Est Dep 23 Oct)
Boat/Plane to Valencia, Spain (Est Dep 26 Oct)
Hike/Train the Spanish Mountains to Ceuta, Spain (Est Arv 30 Oct - Est Dep 1 Nov)
Travel to Rabat, Morocco (Est Dep 5 Nov)
Boat to Lisbon, Portugal (Est Dep 12 Nov)
Plane to Dublin, Ireland (Est Dep 16 Nov)
Train to Cork (Est Dep 19 Nov)
Train to Kilarney (Est Dep 23 Nov)
Train To Limerick (Est Dep 25 Nov)
Train To Shannon (Est Dep 27 Nov) ---- Vince will Prob. Leave Shannon
Train To Galway (Est Dep 29 Nov)
Train To Donegal (Est Dep 1 Dec)
Train to Belfast (Est Dep 5 Dec) ----- He could depart from Belfast
Plane to Amsterdam (Est Dep 10 Dec)
Train to Brussels (Est Dep 14 Dec)
Train to Luxembourg (Est Dep 17 Dec) --- or Luxembourg
Trip thru E. Germany
Denmark
Norway
Sweden
Finland (Est. Dep 1 Jan)
St. Petersburg (Est Dep 7 Jan)
Moscow (Est Dep 10 Jan)
Kiev, Ukraine (Est Dep 15 Jan)
------Alternate #1-------
Odesa, Ukraine
Bucharest, Romania
Zagreb, Croatia
Sarajevo, Serbia (Est Dep 1 Feb)

-----Alternate #2---------
Warsaw, Poland
Krakow, Poland
Budapest, Hungary
Zagreb, Croatia
Sarajevo, Serbia (Est Dep 1 Feb)
-------------------------------

Athens, Greece
Crete
Turkey
Eygpt
Isreal (28 Feb)
Asia (India, Nepal, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Austrailia, Phillipines, Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, S. Korea, Japan)


During the fourth of july I had a bunch of time to discuss my trip plans with the neighbors and get alot of really interesting contacts and stories from them. Ephraim who is from russia was kind enough to regale Nat and I with histories of Russian capitals, and St. Petersburg in particular. His wife, Riasa, also said she would give me some contacts. Very cool. I then had a long talk with Jack about Los Altos Sister Cities (We have 2 in Austrailia and Russia, and are trying to recruit a 3rd in Italy) I told him I'd try and visit the one in Austrailia, and be a good ambassador for us in Italy. It was tons of fun and everyone was super nice! Glad I could reconnect with the neighborhood before I leave. At Nat's Dinner, her friend Anna (who is like this really hip woman with this kinda savvy New York vibe - probably in her late 20s) told me she has family I can look up in Croatia. I hope I can get down there and use those connections because that sounds like an awesome trip. Then I took nat to pacifica and saw killer fireworks.

I emailed a couple of my father's friends and made some good connections for the trip in poland, czech republic, and other places.

I also updated the site and added some links, and a donation button so if you wanna give me money, feel free, i'm here to help. haha.

I went to REI and bought a pack and some clothes. and got all setup there, wow - hugely expensive.

I'll go ahead and end this post with a instruction on how to subscribe to my blog. It's probably not that well done, but here goes. I'll update when I can.


RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication and is a format one can use to have text (and audio and video) directly sent to your computer. Essentially it is like an html feed you can subscribe to.

You can download a RSS aggregator and then "subscribe to a feed" (for example say My Blog) and then everytime I type a new blog entry it will be saved in an RSS form that is accsessed when you start your RSS aggregator and it searches for new posts on the subscribed feeds. Then my blog entry is immediatly displayed in your aggregator and saved on your computer for offline viewing.

If you want to do this I recomend http://www.sharpreader.net/. Once Sharp Reader is installed and you start it up you will have 3 feeds already subscribed and you will see an adress bar at the top of the program. If you type in my blogs address http://guerillaculture.blogspot.com/atom.xml and then click the Subscribe button to the immediate left of the address bar it will automatically record any blogs I send out and it will be stored on your computer for offline viewing (and you have the option of sending Individual Posts thru email in case I have a post that would be off interest to any of your contacts).