The beginning...

Without a doubt this has to be the biggest travelling trip I've done without any major planning, but I'm strangely not too concerned about it. Through a combination of wanting to see the Americas, not having guaranteed work over summer, looking for a cheap place to live without work, knowing Spanish and more or less random decision-making, I booked my flight to Mexico from Madrid a few weeks ago. My flight leaves on the 5th of July.

I have just completed my basic "to do" list before going. This is it:

* Write list of essentials (take and buy)
This will read something like "one pair of jeans, two t-shirts, palm-top, mobile phone, etc."

* Trash, Sell, Store
Which means go through everything I own and decide if I want to trash it, sell it, or store it at a friend's house. Not looking forward to that.

* Book hostel in Cancún (Playa del Carmen?)
Haven't booked my accommodation yet, that's got to be quite high on the list of priorities. I'd like to know I have at least a week of living somewhere.

* Tell landlords I'm leaving
* Plan trip exactly
Of course this doesn't mean plan my holiday... I decided early on that this trip would be ablibed/improvised as much as possible. It means plan the journey to the airport exactly. I hate stressing over airport travel, so I like to know exactly where to go and when from leaving my house to getting on the plane.

* Check-in online, if poss
For the flight, of course.

* Keep an eye on return flights
Haven't booked my return flight yet. Need to keep an eye out for cheap deals. I'm coming back in September.

* Read guides

I would like to read some "cheap travel in Mexico" guides. Haven't got a clue at the moment.

So this is very much so the beginning. I think I've done enough for today, time for a coffee and some down-time.