Editor’s note: We will be getting updates from Stuart several times during his trip and a “lessons learned” story when he returns. Have a great adventure.
My wife and I are headed off to Europe for a 4-week trip: 21 days on a set trip plus 7 more days on our own. As an author I have been accused of wanting to “stay in touch” even while “on vacation.” Okay, I admit that those accusations are accurate! I cannot be offline for that length of time, so I do have to have some technology with me. Here’s what I finally decided to bring with me.
I just bought a new netbook — no, that’s not a typo; it is called a netbook. It’s a mini notebook with built-in wireless networking, no CD/DVD drive, and limited hard drive. The advantage is that it is small and it’s light (10.5” x 6.5” x 0.75”, 2.2 lbs). I’ll be able to use this to download photos as we go, update my blog, and just stay in contact with the world. It will also serve as the main power source for re-charging most of the other items that are going along for the ride.
Having a video camera is the only way to capture the waterfalls and other scenery, and it will also be recording the audio that goes along with them. A new flip HD video camera is going to take care of that. It hasn’t arrived yet, but it is as small as my cell phone, and it is supposed to take amazing HD video. With all the places we are going, we should end up with some great stuff. I might be posting some, but it is primarily for us to relive the memories once we return home. I also have a small digital camera for still photos that we take everywhere. I love the digital because you can take lots of shots and cull them later as you decide on the one or two that you want to keep. These are for photos of interesting people we meet, unusual scenes, or the interesting picture that I might want to paint someday.
The iPod is going for a couple reasons. I have lots of classical music on it, as well as a Russian language course. We will be having some days of many-hour coach travel. Why not learn a foreign language (I used to be fluent in Russian, but that was quite a while ago) as you go? I have also loaded on the iPod some audio for tours we will be taking in Venice, Florence, Rome, and Paris. My wife isn’t much of an iPod fan so we got her a 1-GB MP3 player so she can also listen to the audio tours.
She doesn’t listen to a lot of music, but my wife does love to read. We went on our annual trek to Mexico in February — for 3 weeks this year. Her shoulder was hurting from carting all the books with her. Problem solved – she just got a new Kindle2 so she can download the books to her Kindle and read them when she wants; and it weighs less than a pound. She discovered that her Kindle can receive PDF files sent to her Kindle address. So I just might send her the PDF files of some of my books and she can have them with her while we’re there.
Of course we’re taking my cell phone with the world SIM card in it so anyone dialing my 208 number in Boise, Idaho will find me in Europe – whether we’re eating some delicious pastries in Austria, or sipping some Chianti in Italy! If you do call, I might just let it go to voicemail so I don’t have to pay the $1.39 a minute charge; I hope you don’t mind – I will call you as soon as we return to the States.
If you want to follow my journeys through Europe, go to my blog.
Oh, yes – the most important tech item is the most non-tech item in the bunch. But if I didn’t have it, I would be doing much for long – the plug adapter. Isn’t it amazing that a one- or two-dollar item can be the gateway between being functional or just carrying a bunch of tech gear that you can’t power up?
