Leaving Mandan- post 2

Welcome back everyone. Much of the info I am giving you might seem quite personal. Frankly I do not care. The traveling begins.

Itinerary (all currency is American Dollars)

-Depart Minot, ND, U.S.A on Feb 11 (today) arrive in Chicago at 4:00 pm on tuesday $90

- Meet my roomate and fly out of Chicago to Shannon Ireland on Wednesday $215

-Rent a car in Ireland for five days $87

-Fly out of Dublin on feb 18 into Berlin $57

-5 day Unlimited Rail in Germany $212

-Fly out of Frankfurt Germany to Madrid, Spain $25

-Total duration of pre-Spain journey- feb. 18 to feb 26

Total Transportation costs- about $700- I am told that this is the travel offseason and that these rates are much cheaper than usual. It took awhile to find these prices but I would be happy to recomend some websites to prospective travelers. (thank you James Fox)

Costs thusfar

Tuition at the Universidad de Granada + room and board at the house of Sra. Pilar + program excurions= $7500

Travel to (see above)=$700

Most of this money came from student loans (whoops) and savings.

I checked my balance at the bank today: I have $3016 in available funds that must last me until June. We have not arranged all of our lodging for Ireland and Germany; so this is bound to get interesting. The bright side is that I do not have to pay rent and I can live on $0 per day as soon as I arrive in Spain if need be.

Packing

I managed to stuff everything I need for the next four months into the two bags you see above. The small bag is my carry- on and contains toiletries, a pillow, books, my passport, papers, etc. The larger contains clothing, gifts, footwear, sleeping bag. I guess about 60 lbs total.

My roomate and I have concluded that the best way to travel europe is with backpacks. Suitcases are less mobile; and as this journey is quite impromptu, we will enjoy the flexiblility of packs. But I really dont know because I have never backpacked before.

Thoughts

I am a little ticked because my train is 6 hours delayed. This means I get to depart Minot tonight at 3 am instead of 9:30 pm. In any matter I am pretty exited to finally leave. Tommorow I will arrive in Chicago and couchsurf some gracious man's couch named Adam. (http://www.couchsurfing.com/) Pics to come.