Information Overload!

It's Sunday evening.  It's impossible not to let thoughts of the impending workweek creep into my mind.  I'm not dreading the week ahead, by any means, just not ready for the weekend to be over!  It's early evening and while much of the world, and especially people my age, may be watching the Grammys, I just don't care to.  Instead, I decide to take a little time to look over my To Do List and start a little searching.

I begin with some Trans-Siberian/Trans-Mongolian Railway research.  I found a great site a few weeks ago (I'm sure on one of the great blogs I've discovered - see Useful Websites) that contains a plethora of info regarding different routes, the best time to go, costs, etc.  It's just a TON of information, and more than a bit overwhelming.  When do we plan to go?  Do we want to end in Beijing?  Or would it make sense to end in Japan?  Should we start as far west as London?  Should we continue on to Shanghai, Hong Kong, Bangkok or Indonesia?  Where do we want to stopover?  Siberia?  Yes!  Mongolia?  Yes!  But what cities?  There are SO many details....too many for me at the moment!

Feeling frazzled, I click a link to a site about visas...I've heard that obtaining a Russian travel visa is difficult.  This website doesn't make it sound very hard....but I DO NOT like the fact that they require you to send them your passport (not a copy!).  Also, you can only apply for a Russian visa three months before your trip...just another time frame that we need to be aware of.  Things would be so much easier if we had a definitive departure date, but that's just not possible yet.

Oh, what's that?  Something else catches my attention!  (I feel somewhat like the dog from the movie Up (Squirrel?!))  I find a cool site all about Southeast Europe.  Did someone say Greece?  Croatia?  Turkey?  All at the top of my list!  I'm swiftly sucked into some beautiful pictures of Croatia and...

Apparently I have to accept that tonight is just about information gathering, a bit of daydreaming, and making notes for later.  I'm suffering from information overload and I just don't have the stamina or focus to sort through it right now!

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

It truly is amazing how much information is out there, isn't it?  We are so lucky to have access to so much as we are planning such an intensive trip.  I wonder what it would have been like to be doing something like this 20 years ago.  Probably that much more of an adventure!  Crazy to think about...