Well, I’ve been doing a lot of research on cell phones abroad. According to tigerdirect.com France and Sweden both use GSM 900/1800 (http://www.tigerdirect.com/static/html/GSMbands-article.html) So this means that we can buy a unlocked Quad Band phone over here and use it abroad. All we need to do is buy a sim card which is country specific. Slowtrav.com has a good overview on the subject here, (http://www.slowtrav.com/europe/cell_phones.htm)
With that said, I’ve been talking a lot with a good friend of mine about getting an ipod, and doubling it as storage for movies, tv shows etc. But he made me realize that this is really rare experience and I should take advantage of this by not being so attached to my tech gadgets. Also the fact that my current mp3 player (my Sprint PPC-6700 Super Phone!) only has a 2gb memory card, so 80gb or even 30gb ipod is just overkill.
I also bought a new Thinkpad. It was on sale and I had a extra discount, it is the exact model that I picked out for this trip. It has a 160gb internal drive so I will have some room for music, movies and stuff. Couple this with a small phone that has a built in mp3 player and expandable storage like the Motorola L7 and I should be fine. So tech wise, I’m only taking a phone and a laptop.
On another note, Orbitz has the total flight time from Chicago to Lyon at over 12 hours. I used to work for an airline, so I know my way around a plane, but I’ve never been on anything over 5 hours. Here are a couple of links for long flights that I think will be useful. I will eventually add a page on travel tips when I have more content on it.
- http://www.remote.org/jochen/travel/tips/airtravel.html
- http://www.wikihow.com/Be-Comfortable-on-a-Long-Airplane-Trip
Gonna catch the Bull’s game, talk to ya later.
4 Responses.
Hey in regards to cell phone tech, i hear there are some really sick phones you can pick up abroad that aren’t available here that you can just swap for a new sim when you get back. I thought about buying an unlocked phone here but thought rather have the cooler tech and pick it up there. http://www.phonescoop.com gave a good overview somewhere in there. I’m back in town, but supposed to leave tomorrow or thurs but when i get back we should all definately hang out and relax a bit.
Yea, your absolutely right. I’ll check it out, now another option to worry about
Max just got back too, so let me know when you are free so we can hang out. Before you know it, it will be summer and we will be leaving to go to France.
Spend the $40 on a good Kensington lock for the Thinkpad.
Oh yea, I will be protecting my investment. This is what I’m looking at, http://www.targus.com/us/product_details.asp?sku=PA400U, Targus DEFCON® 1 Ultra Notebook Computer Security System or http://us.kensington.com/html/6311.html MicroSaver® Alarmed Computer Lock with audible alarm.