Thursday, May 10, 2007

Two Handsome Libertarians, Nice to Meet You

So you know where to find me over the next couple of weeks:

May 26th: SF to Utah for BOSS course J-65
June 10th: Utah to Alabama to visit parents
June 13th: Alabama to NYC to "hang" and BBQ
June 18th: NYC to Estonia to start Soviet adventure
June 22nd: Estonia to Russia (St. Petersburg + Moscow)
July 1st: Russia to Kyrgyzstan (will fly, but no ticket yet)
July 16th: Kyrgyzstan to NYC (through Georgia - the country!)
July 20th: NYC to SF!! (and finish apt hunt for August 1st!!)

Quite a lot of travel, I know; carbon footprint be damned, I guess..

As for the Russia/Kyrgyzstan time, here is a finer-grained itinerary:

Tue, 19/06/07 - Arrive Tallinn, Estonia
Fri, 22/06/07 - Bus/train from Tallinn to St. Petersburg
Tue, 27/06/07 - Bus/train from St. Petersburg to Moscow
Sun, 01/07/07 - Fly from Moscow to Bishkek (Kyrgyz Republic)
Tue, 03/07/07 - Start a couple day "trek" around Lake Issyk-Kul via CBT
Fri, 06/07/07 - Bus/taxi from Bishkek (or whereever our "trek" is) to Kara-Too for Felt Festival on Sat (that's right: a felt FESTIVAL!)
Sun, 08/07/07 - Bus/taxi from Kara-Too (or nearby Kochkor) to Osh
Tue, 10/07/07 - Another "trek" out of nearby Arslanbob or Kyzyl Unkur
Sat, 14/07/07 - Bus/taxi back to Bishkek (or from wherever we are - near Arslanbob probably)
Mon, 16/07/07 - Fly back to NYC from Bishkek

Note that the dates above are definitely not set in stone, but we (ChrisL and I) will follow this itinerary as a rough guide. We did reserve a hostel in Tallinn and are planning to do so soon for St. Petersburg (due to the White Nights festivities), but most everything else will be decided on the ground, trading a bit of emotional security for freedom!

We do what we want - yo! - including crying when we're cold and alone in a Russian prison, or fresh from another mugging on the backstreets of Osh. haha. But, really, there will be some real opportunity for some beautiful (and beutifully-serendipitous) happenings and many, many opportunities to think on our feet and get shizz done extemporaneously (where shizz includes many things, including surveying the scene at a cafe bar while getting caffeinated and/or blitzed); we travel with massively good humors and fully-functional roll-with-the-punch-ness.

Sounds like you just met two handsome libertarians!

By the way, CBT = Community Based Tourism in Kyrgyzstan. Check their website (http://www.cbtkyrgyzstan.kg/) as well as this (non-related) travelogue of one Tim Barnes. He seems to have used CBT while cycling through Kyrgyzstan last year and has some great practical advice on the country; check it: Adventures in the back of beyond - Kyrgyzstan. Cool stuff!

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