You know your travel itinerary is in trouble when?

a) Your travel agent starts laughing?
b) The quote is 25% over your expectations (which already included an engineering customary 20% Margin of Safety)
c) You decide that visiting family that you haven't seen in 11 years is less important to you than spending a little more time on the beaches of Zanzibar?

I picked d) All of the above.

So I went down to King St. W today to the travel district of Toronto. I've been in that area a few times but never took a closer look. It's remarkable how much you don't know about the city that you live in until you go looking for it. Of course, in some instances, that can be a good thing.

2:00 PM: So after quickly introducing my concept, my VISION, the agent pretty much started laughing.

2:30 PM: After further discussions and clarifications, a price was approximated. OneWorld 6 Continents + 2 extra flights (Dar es Salaam to Johannesburg in order to connect to Asia and London to Madrid since OneWorld has a 20 flight limit)
Price (aprox.): $6000 + Tax + 2 flights = $7000 + $600 = $7700 !!!

Well, it could be worse.

3:00 PM: An updated itinerary is drawn up with the help of the Manager and tough decisions made by me.

4:00 PM: After an hour of entering destinations, checking dates, availability and finding other ways of cutting costs, a "reasonable" itinerary is sent to British Airways for quote.

And so, at the end of the day, I have an itinerary that is flexible and hopefully economically feasible. I've checked out gears at Mountain Equipment Co-Op (MEC), Europe Bound, Coast Mountain Sports, Sportschek. Still no clear picks on the backpack front yet, but I know I'll find that special one someday.