Continuing on with the concept development of my trip, that I started in last week’s blog, let’s begin by looking at a map of the Baltic Sea region. Why did I only chose only travel to seven particular countries – Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia – because if you take a look at the map, you will actually notice that a few other countries touch the Baltic Sea. Germany and Poland, for example. However, on my previous trip to Europe, I had already traveled to those two countries, so I opted to not go back again for this trip. Also parts of Russia touch the Baltic Sea, and while I would have loved to go to this country, getting a Visa in the time frame that I was looking at, was unfortunately just not doable. You might also notice by looking at the map that Norway technically does not touch the Baltic Sea. But, since I had not been to this country, and since Norway is one of the Scandinavian countries, I decided to include it in this voyage. So, in reality, my circumnavigation around the Baltic Sea is not quite accurate, but I was essentially going around the Baltic Sea with the seven countries that I chose, and that was exciting enough for me!
Clouds and the Baltic Sea
Now that I knew which countries I wanted to visit (and the reasons why), the next step of my concept development was to see if I could accomplish my goal of visiting these seven countries with only 10 days of paid vacation left for me to take in 2007! I pulled out a calendar and looked ahead to the rest of the year. As it was nearing July, I figured that July and August were too soon to tell my boss that I was going on vacation, and probably too soon to plan. If I waited till towards the end of the year, then the weather would turn colder, and the holidays would be around. So, I opted instead to utilize another holiday, Labor Day, so that in addition to the 10 vacation days I had, I also had a paid holiday, and three weekends. Thus I could leave on Friday night, August 24, after work, and return on Monday, September 10, giving me technically 17 days of travel. Knowing that the travel time just to get to and from Europe would take two days in-and-of itself, this would leave me with 15 days to see the seven countries. And fortunately, my boss approved this vacation time!
Freighter on the Baltic Sea
At this point, now that I had decided what countries I wanted to visit, and I had figured out the time frame, I began to ask myself many questions. Could I really do this? Could I really attempt to circumnavigate the Baltic Sea, visiting seven countries, in just 15 days? Would this be enough time? What would I be able to do, where would I be able go, and what could I see in each country given the seemingly limited time I had? What would the order of seeing the countries be? What type of transportation would I need to get from country to country? Where would I sleep? How would I be able to organize such an ambitious feat? (And, was I out of my mind?)
Please read next week’s blog for the answers to these questions, and about the planning process of my solo voyage of traveling around the Baltic Sea in only 15 days…
Sweet Travels!