This is my travel journal for my first international vacation in a long time. I’m taking a 3-month leave of absence from Amazon.com after helping to launch the Mechanical Turk project.
AirTreks itinerary
The plan:
Snowboarding in Big Sky, MT with Matt, Kutta, Corey, Stacey, and Jacob (the Microsoft crew).
Feb 17 - Feb 18.
Drive from Seattle to Orange County, CA with Maiken.
Feb 22 - Feb 27. Fly from LA to Auckland and spend a couple of days driving around New Zealand with Maiken.
Feb 27 - April 14. Fly from Auckland to Sydney, spend a couple of days in the city. Fly to Cairns, see the rainforest, take a daytrip to Fitzroy Island. Rent a camper van to drive down to Shute Harbor, and take a 3-day/2-night ProSail cruise around the Whitsunday Islands. Disembark, drive down and drop off the van in Brisbane, head down to Byron Bay, where Maiken will stay longer with her former exchange student friend.
March 14 - March 19. Fly from Brisbane to Sydney and then Tel Aviv. Visit grandmother in Hadera.
March 19 - March 21. Fly from Tel Aviv to Amsterdam, meet up with Kenny and Erik (college friends), explore the city.
March 21 - March 26. Make our way over to Berlin and Prague, explore.
March 26 - March 27. Come back to Amsterdam, send off Erik and Kenny in style.
March 27 - April 5. Take a rail trip from Amsterdam to Cologne to visit Masha (a childhood friend) and her family. Then continue down to Barcelona by rail.
April 5 - April 10. Explore Barcelona.
April 10 - April 12. Fly to Copenhagen and explore.
April 12 - April 13. Fly back to Seattle. Chill, recover, upload photos, update blog.
April 17 - April 24. Fly to Des Moines, Iowa, to visit parents and grandparents.