#bigtourleece2017
I've never been overseas - Rottnest doesn't count.
The time is fast approaching when we'll be getting on the big white red-tailed bird and heading first to Changi, Singapore and then to Helsinki, Finland. We're only staying there very briefly before heading North to a couple of places in Finland we want to visit, and then to Aland for a couple of weeks. Then it'll be back to Helsinki for Worldcon.
We're arriving a few weeks before Worldcon, because we reckon we're going to be too stuffed after Worldcon to do much. But we will be there a couple of days afterward. I'm hoping to see a lot of time on the water, kayaking. Cycling and kayaking on Aland, walking, ferry tours, spy museum, post office museum and nature, nature, nature. Northern Hemisphere nature, whoa, and fresh water everywhere. But probably not snow so that's something that might come some other time for me. Still don't believe it exists. :-)
Our Baubax travel jackets will be getting an outing.
One thing I'm determined to do is keep a daily diary. This will be handwritten, and then photographed and put up - probably on Google Plus first, and later Dreamwidth. So if you see nothing here, check for an entry on Google Plus with the hashtag bigtourleece2017 A handwritten journal has such a different feel to a typed one - more personal.
I've got a journal I got for it - half lined, half blank. I was hoping to get one with alternating pages - that's what I thought it was - but never mind. The back half is blank, the front half lined. I've written in the date of each lined page as a help, and the town, arrival, transport etc. I hope to do a drawing and a written entry each day. Some landscape practise for me!
We've got our passports, I'm planning to get my International Driver's License just in case (hire car on Aland is proving to be expensive or very dodgy for an automatic so we will probably give it a miss or look into it when we are there for a couple of days hire) and look into the international Camping Permit in case we want to tent it some time, for a campinhereg overnighter - who knows? Registered my trip at http://smartraveller.gov.au and got the travel insurance. Hotels and transport are 99% booked.
It really began to hit home when I wrote the dates into Smart Traveller and the journal.
I've been to a Worldcon, it was pretty cool, but it was at the far end of things for most attendees - Melbourne, Australia. Across the continent for me, across the world for the usual crowd. So this one will probably be bigger, because there's a lot of people in Europe who I expect are jumping at the chance not to have to fly to America. And there's a lot more people in Europe than there are in Australia. That's going to be another country entirely, never mind Finland.
#finland #bigtourleece2017 #worldcon2017
