July 2007 Archives

Before you travel, check all your electronic gadgets and make sure they have the right voltage. Europe used 220-250 volts and unlike the US (110-120 volts), it is much powerful and can ruin your electronics if it's not the right voltage. Check you plug adapters and see if the input indicates ~110V - 250V 50/60Hz. If it does, then you don't need to bring a transformer ( a heavy bulky adapter). Then, check the country where you are traveling to. Different countries in Europe have their own specific plug outlet so you are required to bring an adapter. There are many travel site or electrical site that sells some of this and some are really cheap and some are pricey. I'm for saving my money and would rather spend it on the trip. Here is the site where I bought my plug converters - europlugs.com. They are cheaper and comes in individual plugs if you prefer it that way. They also ship it right away too. There are also some universal plugs that comes all in one. It cost a little more but it comes in one piece.
 

Kensington 33117 International All-in-One Travel Plug Adapter Listed Price: $24.99 (Amazon.com, Staples.com)

 
Universal European Union Converter Listed Price: $3.99
(Europlugs.com)

 
Denmark Listed Price: $3.99
(Europlugs.com)

 
Italy Listed Price: $3.99
(Europlugs.com)

 
Switzerland Listed Price: $3.99
 (Europlugs.com)

 
United Kingdom Listed Price: $3.99
 (Europlugs.com)

I made sure that the hotels have it's own private bathrooms because I am not sharing it with someone else other than my brother. I also made sure that we stay in the city proper so we don't waste our time getting lost in the metro. And most important of all, the place needs to be safe and have an internet access so I can communicate to my family and friends and to be in the loop. Some of the hotels were booked on hotels.com and already been paid and some were booked on hostelworld.com and we pay the place when we get there. You just have to place a deposit. When booking a hostel, make sure to read the comments of other travellers so you get the feel of what the place looks like before you get there or how safe is the neighborhood or how far it is from the train station. Also, check Google Map or any travel site and find out where are the place of interest or place you want to visit and try to stay close to it so you can just walk and you don't spend your time traveling on the metro. When picking for a hostel or a nice hotel, check first if the hotel is more affordable than a hostel (low budget hotel with 2 stars). Remember, hostel charged per person so the cost adds up. Hotels, on the other hand only charged for 2 people and they have their own private bathroom. If you want to save money on hotels, plan an overnight trains and reserve for a sleeper car when traveling to another country. In our case, our train trips only last less than 4 hours and doesn't require overnight travels.

MY PHOTO GALLERY IS NOW UP AND RUNNING. Before I left for San Francisco, I started messing around with the site.  But for three weeks, I couldn't get it to work and I was having a lot of challenge on getting it up and running.  I was having a hard time coding PHP.  So finally, after a few tweaks and some customization, it is now working.

I take thousands of photos and for 3 years, they are just in my photo folders waiting for me to showcase them.  I have been searching and finding different ways on showing my photos in a gallery format and finally I found this.

The photos that are posted on the site are from the trips I have taken (my travelogs) and I usually document all the places I go to and people I meet. Since I will be traveling a lot, I designed the site to enable me to upload the photos faster and easier.  I will be posting photos almost daily when I can in Europe and I will be posting some videologs in the wordbytes site.  Since Wi-Fi and hotspot are so accessible in Europe, it will be easier for me to access the internet and post some some blogs.  So enjoy my gallery and leave me some comments

LINK HERE: michaelmontesa.com/gallery

I also pick LAX as my Port of Entry since it's only an hour flight from Phoenix and I would rather sit through 11 hours of flight and get some sleep in the plane when I can. If I have to fly out to JFK, that's another 4.5 hours flight to New York and another 6 hours flight to London.  I also give myself plenty of time allowance between connections.

LAX Customs are so busy because they have to go through all the travelers (LAX is the gateway airport for the Asia/Pacific/West Coast and hubs for several major airlines) and you also have to cross the street or take the shuttle between the USAirways terminal and Virgin in the International Terminal. Virgin also fly their Airbus 340 aircraft from LAX and their seats configure the 2-4-2 arrangement. I usually sit by the window and since it's 2 seater, it's easier to access the lavatory. Before I purchase my ticket, I go to SeatGuru.com to pick which aisle or seat to pick. Well, when you fly more than 10 hours, you would pick the most comfortable seat and you find ways how to look for that. That's where SeatGuru comes into the picture. The site tells you where the lavatory or the crappy seat so you can avoid it.