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.