European Electricity

Wow! European electricity is crazy! Well not really; I just needed a powerful first line to entice you to continue reading. But don't worry, I'll keep this post short. Despite how boring this topic is, and how much time I wasted researching, it is useful information for if you are bringing any electronics to Europe.

I'll start off by briefly talking about electricity. Around the world, electricity is classified by a voltage and a frequency. For residential purposes the voltage is between 100V and 240V at 50Hz to 60Hz. North America is 120V at 60Hz and Europe is generally 220V to 240V at 50Hz. Check the following link for a listing of all countries:

Voltage, Frequency, and Socket

It may sound complicated but a lot of electronic companies make their products compatible with a range of voltages and frequencies. You will need to check the power label on your electronics and compare it to the requirements of the countries you are visiting. For example, the picture below shows that my Canon battery charger will work on 100V to 240V and 50Hz to 60Hz. If an electronic fails you will need to buy a power converter.

Note: my iPod, Canon camera, and electric shaver do not need a power converter. However, I will still need socket adapters. Refer to the top link for the list of countries and their respective sockets.

Well, that's about all you need to know about European electricity. Here is another website that I found useful:

Electricity in Europe by About.com

Update (29/07/07): I just bought my adapters and it was a lot easier than I expected. I came in with a printout of each adapter I would be needing for each country. However, it turns out that there is really only 2 types needed for European travel; 1 for the UK and 1 for the rest of Europe. So, basically I was worrying about these adapters for no reason. I bought it from The Source (used to be Radio Shacks) and it comes in a nice light and compact set with 3 adapters (the other for North America/Australia).

A Few Updates

Despite how excited I am to go to Europe, I haven't been doing much planning in the past 2 months. Actually, the truth is that Guitar Hero (a very addictive game!) was distracting me. However, I still have a few updates to talk about. First off, I have to talk about the backpack I bought last week. After much looking around, below is a picture of the backpack I chose except mine is red, which gives off a great "I am Canadian" feel!
For some reason I am super excited now that I have the backpack! A few of the most important features I was looking for in a backpack were the following: 1) a daypack for sightseeing around cities; 2) a zip cover for the straps (ideal to protect the straps while checking in your luggage at the airport and hostels); 3) between 65 and 80 liters of packing space (this was an educated guess for what I needed, check my packing list); 4) finally, I wanted a lot of pockets on the inside to organize my stuff. The pack is made by Mountain Equipment Coop, which also offers many other backpacking essentials on their website.

I was given some good tips about how to fit and pack a backpack. You want to try to pack the heaviest items in the center of the pack, with medium weight items below, and light items on top. This puts the center of gravity of the bag in the ideal position. In terms of fitting the backpack, you want the waist belt to be on the top of your hips with the shoulder straps resting lightly on your shoulders. Most of the weight should be transferred to your hips (about two thirds) with one third going to your shoulders.

Secondly, Jack, Josh, and I have bought our airline tickets and are flying on Air Transat. We are leaving on the 8th of September and returning November 19th (72 days). In addition to Air Transat being the cheapest flight out there, we were fortunate enough to get a discount through a family friend. With taxes the flight will cost us $458; regular price would have been about $490.

Finally, you can check out the updated/real route we will be taking in Europe. We also have our first and second hostels picked out. In London, we are going to stay at the Meininger City Hostel. In Edinburgh, we are staying at the Castle Rock Hostel. Well that's all I have for now. Hopefully I'll beat Guitar Hero soon, so that I can spend more time on posting.