Day 1 - preparation

When you start planning a round the world trip, there's so many things that have to be done. Where to go, how to get there, visas, money, language, insurance, luggage and another set of things I probably haven't even thought of yet. And I have the additional fun of trying to find bands and musicians in almost every place I visit.

So far I have the starting plan. I leave Dublin, Ireland on 2nd February 2011, fly to Madrid and from there on to Buenos Aires, Argentina. From there the plan is to travel up through South America, hopefully improving on my limited Español. I'll have about 40 days in South America as I have to be in Texas by the 12th March for the SXSW music festival. From there the plans are all in the brewing stages.

In the next few days I should have some kind of bag to carry most of my stuff but my latest purchase has been a Lowepro Vertex 100 camera/laptop bag along with my christmas gift of a pacsafe backpack protector that hopefully won't end up being necessary. Any two backup hard drives just to help ensure none of my precious photos get lost along the way. A Lacie rugged hard drive and the transformer styled, waterproof, Adata hard drive

I'm currently writing this blog whilst taking a break from researching a good trekking company with whom to visit Machu Picchu in Peru. Any advice on this would be much appreciated

I've set myself up on travbuddy.com and couchsurfing.org which should hopefully prove useful at some point in the coming months

Adios!

A quick little blog just to say, thank you to all who came out to the launch of my first photography exhibition in The Twisted Pepper on Middle Abbey Street. It's so good to have people look at my photos, especially when they are printed so well and so big!

The exhibition is open until 31st March so drop down there if you get a chance. Upstairs is the best coffee shop in Ireland. Amazing coffee brewed by the brilliant barista, Colin Harmon in Third Floor Espresso

But now that the exhibition is up and running, I'm off to España for a week to practice my español and to travel around taking photos of the Rumble Strips in Madrid, Bilbao and Gijon.