Route Planning has proven to be fun and challenging. The challenging part has been figuring out things like which border crossings foreigners are allowed to enter and which roads to take in the areas uncharted by Google Maps. The fun part has been anticipating the things we’ll do and see along the way
Over the next few weeks leading up to the Mongol Rally, my teammate, Dave Bouskill of thePlanetD.com, and I will be describing certain legs of our journey to give you an idea of what we’re expecting to encounter along the way. That way you’ll be able to make fun of us when things turn out differently and cheer for us when we got it right.
Here’s my take on the first week of the Rally.
July 23
The Mongol Rally officially begins in London. Some 300 teams will assemble and ceremoniously parade through town creating traffic jams in our wake as we make our way to the English Channel. Here, we must either take the ferry or drive through the Chunnel to get into France. Right now we’re leaning towards the Chunnel because; A – it’s cheaper, B – we don’t have to wait for hours like we would if we happen to miss the ferry, and C – riding on a ferry seems a little like cheating to us – we want to be able to say we drove all the way.
We’ll merely pass through France but I’d like to eat some French Fries or French Toast somewhere along the way – it just seems like the proper thing to do.
July 24
My bucket list includes eating Belgian Waffles in Belgium, and eating brussle sprouts in Brussels. We’ll be spending our first night out of London with a friend in Brussels who has already promised to make it happen:)
July 24
We’ll spend our 2nd night in Germany, where I intend to eat frankfurters in Frankfurt and hopefully drink some authentic German beer with some authentic German friends.
July 25 – 26
Fittingly enough, the rally’s one and only Check Point is in the Czech Republic. The Adventurists will be hosting a big party where we’ll have the opportunity to get to know fellow Ralliers and connect with teams taking a similar route for purposes of caravanning. Since Prague is one of the most beautiful cities in the world, we’ve decided to stay and extra night and take a Segway tour offered by Viator.com.
July 27
We’ll arrive and spend the night in Budapest, Hungary where I intend to consume Hungarian Goulash. (I’m starting to notice a culinary theme.)
July 28-29
We’ll be spending two nights in Romania. I’m hoping one of those nights will be in a castle in Transylvania which is home to Count Dracula. I’m also hoping that the Hungarian goulash I will have had the day before was made with a lot of garlic since that’s supposed to ward off vampires. 
Next week, Dave will amaze you with his knowledge of Moldova, the Ukraine, Russia and Wholebunchastans.