Traveling and equipment

If you go travel for longer periods, you have to carefully consider what to take along and what not. I thought I'd post every now and then what proved useful and what didn't, as it might be useful to others. ;)

I bought most of the things at http://www.globetrotter.de/ (you can also find the link in my link section) they basically offer everything a traveler needs and also deliver to other countries than Germany. ( I had them deliver things to Spain, that weren't on store when I was still in Germany)
However it didn't make sense to buy everything beforehand because I'd have to carry things around half a year before I put them to use eventually. ;)

Well let's start with something I didn't buy and why. Functional Clothing. The main reason was just price. The more affordable products all had mixed reviews. Then the wool products would have been a risk as I've never worn wool and don't know how my skin would have reacted (some people really can't wear wool clothing). Lastly also some South America travelers advised against it and said cotton products would make more sense. So I just stayed with cheap cotton products, which can be cheaply replaced on the road. ;) Downside more clothing is required and thus more weight, but so far I am still light enough on the weight side of things.. ;)

Water Cleansing

When I visited the doc for vaccination purposes, he suggested I take a chemical water cleansing agent with me, named Micropur. Supposedly this is also used by the army. Somehow I don't really like the idea of chemical water cleansing. It is low weight though, so I'll take a few tabs of that with me. Just for emergency cases however.

I think I do prefer the SODIS method,(see SODIS (Wikipedia, en) for details) when the water is somewhat safe. This simply involves filling the water into a PET bottle and exposing it to direct sunlight for 6 hours. For the rest of the time I'll hopefully be able to buy bottled water.
Of course there is all that fancy equipment I could buy (for Example UV-A lamps), but such equipment is either heavy or expensive and I don't intend to go for the extreme outdoor and survival experience. At least for now... ;)

Vaccination

Different climates harbour different germs. As a precaution I am going through a kind of vaccination marathon. First just the standard vaccinations that are relevant in Europe too. Tetanus for example, although I am probably immune to that, but virtue of acquiring a wound every now and then and not caring about manual cleansing or using patches. The good part about these vaccines is, that the they are paid for by the health insurance.

However yesterday was an expensive day in vaccination terms. I payed ~102 €uros for two shots. One was for typhus, comparably cheap and the other was a combined shot for hepatitis A and B. I payed about 80 €uros for that one alone! The annoying part is, I have to buy 2 more shots of that. I also have to stay a little longer in Germany because of that, since the third shot is to be given 21 days after the first. Oh well, more time for preparation then. ;)

Suggestions so far

I have received a few suggestions so far (from people interested in my room). The first one was to visit Northern Bazil, from a girl that was born there. I personally wanted to visit Peru for a while now. So yeah, I hope to give South America a visit. Although it seems to be one of the more dangerous places (wildlife and diseases) and the climate there is also very different from Germany... ;)
Another suggestion was New Zealand. Also seems like a good suggestion if I manage to get to Australia, as desired.
I am also considering Spain and Italy. My mother suggested Tunesia, but after reading about schistosomiasis, I am not so sure I like that suggestion..
I am very interested in seeing Greece, but'll have to see whether that fits my plans. Similarly Egypt would be a nice stop, but seems slightly dangerous for the time being.
Seeing Russia and China would be nice too, but seem very unlikely destinations.

Destinations

I have just started selling mostly everything I own to accrue some money for the trip. Feels a bit weird.
I think I am going to miss my sofa, but there are worse things in life .. I think. ;)

I still have not decided on all the places I'll go to though. The starting point will be majorca, since I have relatives living there. Another potential destination would be Australia, but I am not sure yet. Ideally I want to travel in such a way as to always stay in a comfortable climate (not too hot and not too cold).
So I am open to any suggestions on follow up locations.