Planning

A few weeks ago, I did it.  I announced to my manager that I am leaving my job and that my last day will be December 13.  My plan is, on January 2 or thereabouts, to fly to London and spend the next four months traveling, all by myself, eastward across Europe and Asia.  I will do as much travel as possible by train.

This isn't a vacation; it's an adventure.  One key difference between the two is that a vacation is time boxed and therefore has to be carefully planned.  On this trip, I won't be trying to get anywhere especially fast.

I intend to spend the month of January traveling southeastward across Europe.  After a brief stay in London I want to go to Venice (briefly), then Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, Bulgaria, and arrive in Turkey in late January.  The month of February I will be in Istanbul taking a class in Turkish.  Then I will travel around Turkey, Georgia, Armenia, and possibly Lebanon.  Then, subject to getting a visa, I plan to make it to Iran in April.  Getting that visa may be tricky.    I really want to get through Western Europe relatively quickly for a couple of reasons:  the costs are high there, and it's just not as interesting as the other places I will be traveling.

Some words on Iran: Since US citizens are required to have a guide in Iran and therefore have to fly into the country and not come in by land at some remote border crossing, I don't want to travel there on US passport.  I want to go in over land from Turkey.  Fortunately I have British citizenship as well, so I can, hopefully, go there on my British passport.  I am in the early stages of applying for a visa and have already been told by the visa agency that I am working with that I applied to early, and to apply again in February.  I will probably have to go to the Iranian consulate in Istanbul to get my visa.