I’ll soon be leaving my home-town of Sydney for a trip with multiple-purposes… Research, recreation, reunion… Other ‘r’ words that don’t come to mind at 1am.

Anyway, I’m sharing my itinerary with friends and family via Dopplr, the less-than-perfect but best-we’ve-got trip sharing web application. At its best, Dopplr allows you to coordinate your travel plans with friends and even benefit from the notes of other Dopplr users on the cities you’ll be visiting. At its worst, you discover that the site is still in development and really basic things (e.g. an “I’m going on this trip too!” link) haven’t been developed yet. If you’re interested in the nitty gritty of my itinerary, just request it using the link above. Broadly though, I’m going to Mumbai, London, Tallinn, Berlin, Manchester, Oxford and Beijing.

Additionally, I am planning on taking only carry-on luggage for the entire trip. Informed by over-packing on previous trips and inspired by the voluntary simplicity movement, my guide on this particular idea will be Doug Dymant via his website, One Bag. Any packing tips / tricks you have will be welcomed!

After close to 24 hours of flying, I arrived in the USA in time for Thanksgiving. I’m now in DC, close to Georgetown University. This map shows you roughly where I am. Look out for the “Georgetown Recreational Area”.

As I write it’s post-Thanksgiving Day morning and that means the sales are on today, this is the BIGGEST SHOPPING DAY OF THE YEAR - IN AMERICA, which I am guessing makes it the biggest shopping day in the world (at least by spend). That also makes it Adbusters Buy Nothing Day.

I’m going to go for a walk down to the ’stores’ and see what its like.

Notable ‘first impression’ of America this trip:
Massive cars everywhere (the SUV’s seem a lot bigger than in Australia).

A few weeks ago I was in Melbourne. I had a day to myself, and I was advised I’d like a walk down Brunswick St (between Gertrude and Johnston Streets). Apparently that’s around Fitzroy/Collingwood. There were cafes, restaurants and bars, as well as second hand and ‘designer’ clothes and a few bookshops. I really liked the neighbourhood, kind of reminded me of Glebe and Newtown in Sydney. So when you’re in Melbourne and you like that kind of thing, go check out Brunswick Street.

There’s nothing quite like ‘getting away from it all’ and travelling.
If you’re thinking of heading to the USA, France or Italy, read on,
because here’s a few choice travel tips for you…