navigate:
Saturday 2004-02-14 - Groningen, the Netherlands
Documentation needed
Today, we went into town for some shopping before the planned birthday dinner. There’s a very good travel bookstore here in Groningen, and I popped in (dragging my parents along) to see what they had to supplement my set of maps and travel guides for the trip.
I have a good set of guides and maps for Central Asia, but nothing for the Middle East, and nothing for China east of Xinjiang. I couldn’t take a decision about travel guides, but ended up with three maps: a very nice one of Syria, an absolutely huge one of Turkey (there don’t seem to be regional maps of the country any more, and this was all they had) and a “Silk Road Countries” map covering Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Central Asia: that one will be a handy to take with me (although the bit of Turkey it also covers isn’t very detailed). I’ll keep looking around for more, but I’ll at least take the last map with me.
Wednesday 2004-04-28 - Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Documentation complete
I’d seen a Lonely Planet guide for the Middle East; there’s a nice one for Iran, too, with more extensive information about that country, but I can’t bring a pile of books. This one covers Syria, Turkey and Iran (and more for later trips). I went to one of the travel stores in Amsterdam, the JoHo Company, and was glad to find they had this book. I got manageable maps of Turkey and China as well: not too large so I can actually use them during the trip and leave my huge (but very detailed) map of Turkey at home.
My travel documentation is complete now.
