Fortunately, this week has been (mostly) much better. I had my last day at work on Tuesday, which was very busy and surprisingly sad. For a place I was so done with, it was somewhat difficult to actually be done with it. But now I am.
And then Wednesday, my parents and I sat down and planned out our holiday in Greece. It's far away, but it will be lovely - both to soak up the blue blue water and white white buildings of the islands, but to see them. They come at essentially the halfway point of my trip, so I am sure I will be lonely and glad to see them. And then its al downhill from there.
I also got my Egypt tour sorted out - and once I got my tour booked and the tickets to and from, I just let it all go. It will be good. It will be amazing. And I get to go to the Dead Sea, which is a nice bonus.
(It's funny - as I do all of my planning, I realize how little "completion" in my travel I will be getting to check off. I know I will have to go back to Australia, to see the West Coast and Ayers Rock and the like. I am not going to Vietnam, so at some point I will be back in Southeast Asia. Every region - if not most countries - will not be done for me. But between Petra, the Dead Sea, Amman, and the ruins there, there's a good chance I will be done with Jordan, and probably Egypt as well. So it's nice to have that checked off m lifelong to-see list).
I have done all my errands (said goodbye to Target, gotten a last dental cleaning before losing my insurance, done one last-ditch presentation for my second job because at this point I will take any little bit of added income I can get, gone to the bank, etc), I have steam cleaned by bathroom (next up: bedroom. Yowza, I am a slob), and I have put away all of my books and plans and budgets, and am basically ready to head out. I think.
OK, so I am still a little baffled that this is real and I am doing this ON TUESDAY, but at least my mood is way better about it. I have lost the GOD I am so TIRED of this I don't even want to GO feeling, which is good.
I still want to go.
Showing posts with label planning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label planning. Show all posts
January 11, 2008
January 08, 2008
unfortunately, my momma did raise a fool
And for once, I am not talking smack about my sister.
But first, can I get a holla for travel agents? Seriously, they are awesome. I have lived all over the country, which has always necessitated a lot of travel back and forth. How do I do it? Internet, of course. I barely remember another way to make or check a flight reservation. So in that way, travel agents are dying breeds.
But if you, say, are interested in getting dirt cheap tickets that go all around the world, they are handy. And if you're near gouging out your eyes in frustration that you cannot get from Cairo to ANYWHERE from 2am on Saturday until...2am the next Saturday, they can come in handy.
Because they can make you realize that you have been an idiot.
I was search, search, searching everywhere for flights between Egypt and mainland Europe. When I first started looking, I had cheap ticket to and from Germany, without specific dates, so that formed the plan:meet my parents in Greece, do Eastern Europe, go to Egypt, finish in Scandinavia, go home. But as I have previously bitched ad nauseam, I simply could not get from Egypt back to Germany/Western Europe, and especially not in such a way that I could then efficiently continue to Copenhagen.
I wonder if it's obvious from reading the above the major, major flaw in getting stuck to that plan. If not, is it a clue that there are daily, reasonably priced fares between Athens and Cairo? And then does it become pitifully obvious that I should obviously go to Egypt earlier, after I separate from the 'rents in Greece, and come back there and then just do all of Europe in one go at my own pace? Total duh, right?
I don't mean to be so blue, but it's been hard for the last couple of days. All of the planning and plotting, combined with my obsessive budgeting and the feeling like I am going to go way over my money (or the related worry that fear of going over budget will make me stingy and miserable, which is about as much fun as having no money), have exhausted me. I've been feeling nickel and dimed an overwhelmed.
But my travel agent (and patient mother) helped a lot. I found a totally different tour, reasonable flights, got them all booked. I am going to Egypt, and actually spending more time in Jordan, and I am pretty much booked and ready to go. So I was low, but having it all done, and I feel much better now.
So my new resolution is that I have got to stop getting fixed on order plans. It will all go so, so much easier for me.
But first, can I get a holla for travel agents? Seriously, they are awesome. I have lived all over the country, which has always necessitated a lot of travel back and forth. How do I do it? Internet, of course. I barely remember another way to make or check a flight reservation. So in that way, travel agents are dying breeds.
But if you, say, are interested in getting dirt cheap tickets that go all around the world, they are handy. And if you're near gouging out your eyes in frustration that you cannot get from Cairo to ANYWHERE from 2am on Saturday until...2am the next Saturday, they can come in handy.
Because they can make you realize that you have been an idiot.
I was search, search, searching everywhere for flights between Egypt and mainland Europe. When I first started looking, I had cheap ticket to and from Germany, without specific dates, so that formed the plan:meet my parents in Greece, do Eastern Europe, go to Egypt, finish in Scandinavia, go home. But as I have previously bitched ad nauseam, I simply could not get from Egypt back to Germany/Western Europe, and especially not in such a way that I could then efficiently continue to Copenhagen.
I wonder if it's obvious from reading the above the major, major flaw in getting stuck to that plan. If not, is it a clue that there are daily, reasonably priced fares between Athens and Cairo? And then does it become pitifully obvious that I should obviously go to Egypt earlier, after I separate from the 'rents in Greece, and come back there and then just do all of Europe in one go at my own pace? Total duh, right?
I don't mean to be so blue, but it's been hard for the last couple of days. All of the planning and plotting, combined with my obsessive budgeting and the feeling like I am going to go way over my money (or the related worry that fear of going over budget will make me stingy and miserable, which is about as much fun as having no money), have exhausted me. I've been feeling nickel and dimed an overwhelmed.
But my travel agent (and patient mother) helped a lot. I found a totally different tour, reasonable flights, got them all booked. I am going to Egypt, and actually spending more time in Jordan, and I am pretty much booked and ready to go. So I was low, but having it all done, and I feel much better now.
So my new resolution is that I have got to stop getting fixed on order plans. It will all go so, so much easier for me.
January 07, 2008
disenchanted
(and it don't feel so good.)
I've had a very long, pretty disheartening weekend. While it was lovely to spend it all inside while the Storm of the Century (tm every local weather station) raged outside, it was NOT refreshing to spend so much time with nitpicky foreign transportation logistics.
I don't know if it is a result of growing up in car culture, some result of privilege, or my own preference for urban environments over remote, but the concept of not being able to get from place a to place be is just...foreign to me. But it comes up A LOT when you are trying to navigate the fine points of place to place travel.
I spent hours and hours Saturday night online, trying to find reasonable flights to and from Egypt for my tour there. I went to every single budget carrier in Europe (note: there are many, many, many budget carriers in Europe) to get to and from at reasonable time and price, and essentially came up empty. The only one that had a good fare left at 2am from Cairo, when my tour ends at approximately 6pm in Dahab, on the Sinai peninsula. So, assuming nothing went awry, I could totally make the bus-flight-flight that it would take to get back to Europe, but I don't really feel like basing my entire schedule on the assumption that nothing could possibly go wrong crossing from Jordan to Egypt earlier that day. That is a recipe for a world of hurt. And all other flights either didn't leave for several days, or were upwards of US$400.
I gave up on Sunday, but was not in that much a better place trying to figure out where I want to go in Australia. The country is so damned big that it's a huge pain in the ass to go anywhere, and everything I do will involve some contortionist combinations of planes, buses, and a river of tears. I ended up completely scrapping my earlier plan of either Great Keppel Island or Whitsundays, and now I am going someplace totally different. But how did I arrive at that choice? Yup. Hours in front of my computer at every airline site I could come up with.
It was even more disheartening that I started the weekend with a dawning horror that I am going to go way over budget. I am terrible at spending money and I am a saver at heart, so this is really hard for me, to just be in spend-spend-spend mode with nothing coming in, but it's also next to impossible to accurately budget for 6 months on the road in such varying economies as Cambodia and Denmark. I will just have to have faith that all of my buffers will come through, and that everything will not cost as much as I fear.
One thing came of the weekend, and yes, this is me trying to silver lining a tiring weekend of planning:
I got so tired of planning where I may want to go and what I may want to do that I keep reverting to "Maybe I will just stay here that whole week..." instead of going other places. If I get this exhausted reading about these places, I can't imagine what it will be like to be going to them all. I will probably be very, very thankful for the "stay here a week" mentality come a few months in. So getting tired prepping could save my ass later.
Also, I am quite sure that when I do return home, I will never, ever, ever want to figure out how to get from where I am to where I want to be again.
I've had a very long, pretty disheartening weekend. While it was lovely to spend it all inside while the Storm of the Century (tm every local weather station) raged outside, it was NOT refreshing to spend so much time with nitpicky foreign transportation logistics.
I don't know if it is a result of growing up in car culture, some result of privilege, or my own preference for urban environments over remote, but the concept of not being able to get from place a to place be is just...foreign to me. But it comes up A LOT when you are trying to navigate the fine points of place to place travel.
I spent hours and hours Saturday night online, trying to find reasonable flights to and from Egypt for my tour there. I went to every single budget carrier in Europe (note: there are many, many, many budget carriers in Europe) to get to and from at reasonable time and price, and essentially came up empty. The only one that had a good fare left at 2am from Cairo, when my tour ends at approximately 6pm in Dahab, on the Sinai peninsula. So, assuming nothing went awry, I could totally make the bus-flight-flight that it would take to get back to Europe, but I don't really feel like basing my entire schedule on the assumption that nothing could possibly go wrong crossing from Jordan to Egypt earlier that day. That is a recipe for a world of hurt. And all other flights either didn't leave for several days, or were upwards of US$400.
I gave up on Sunday, but was not in that much a better place trying to figure out where I want to go in Australia. The country is so damned big that it's a huge pain in the ass to go anywhere, and everything I do will involve some contortionist combinations of planes, buses, and a river of tears. I ended up completely scrapping my earlier plan of either Great Keppel Island or Whitsundays, and now I am going someplace totally different. But how did I arrive at that choice? Yup. Hours in front of my computer at every airline site I could come up with.
It was even more disheartening that I started the weekend with a dawning horror that I am going to go way over budget. I am terrible at spending money and I am a saver at heart, so this is really hard for me, to just be in spend-spend-spend mode with nothing coming in, but it's also next to impossible to accurately budget for 6 months on the road in such varying economies as Cambodia and Denmark. I will just have to have faith that all of my buffers will come through, and that everything will not cost as much as I fear.
One thing came of the weekend, and yes, this is me trying to silver lining a tiring weekend of planning:
I got so tired of planning where I may want to go and what I may want to do that I keep reverting to "Maybe I will just stay here that whole week..." instead of going other places. If I get this exhausted reading about these places, I can't imagine what it will be like to be going to them all. I will probably be very, very thankful for the "stay here a week" mentality come a few months in. So getting tired prepping could save my ass later.
Also, I am quite sure that when I do return home, I will never, ever, ever want to figure out how to get from where I am to where I want to be again.
December 30, 2007
i love visitors
I am sorry I ever doubted. Though, in my defense, it is the VERY END of December now, I leave in about two weeks, and we are talking about extended international travel in about six weeks. So I'm sorry if I didn't have faith that planning that had not happened prior to this afternoon would actually take place.
But it did! And my sister has signed, sealed, and purchased plane fares to come meet me in New Zealand and do the south island together. We also booked some bus tickets, figured out an itinerary, and decided to rent a car in parts, as it would be much more economical. Possibly hysterical and certainly terrifying, yes, but also more economical. I picture particularly gruesome scenes from The Amazing Race, only with more profanity. We are pulling for an automatic, though. Even though my sister and I both drive stick on a daily basis, I am deeply frightened at the prospect of attempting to shift with the wrong hand. And where is first? Is it on the left, like on my car? Or closest to me, like on my car? Worrisome...
But she is definitely coming, which helps assuage the fear o' loneliness some, and it also means I can leave a pile of things for her to bring me and collect things for her to bring back with her. Did I not mention my sister is 1/4 pack mule?
But it did! And my sister has signed, sealed, and purchased plane fares to come meet me in New Zealand and do the south island together. We also booked some bus tickets, figured out an itinerary, and decided to rent a car in parts, as it would be much more economical. Possibly hysterical and certainly terrifying, yes, but also more economical. I picture particularly gruesome scenes from The Amazing Race, only with more profanity. We are pulling for an automatic, though. Even though my sister and I both drive stick on a daily basis, I am deeply frightened at the prospect of attempting to shift with the wrong hand. And where is first? Is it on the left, like on my car? Or closest to me, like on my car? Worrisome...
But she is definitely coming, which helps assuage the fear o' loneliness some, and it also means I can leave a pile of things for her to bring me and collect things for her to bring back with her. Did I not mention my sister is 1/4 pack mule?
December 17, 2007
reef sadness
I got depressed last night, and not over crappy America, but over Australia.
There is already so much I am not doing on this trip (Brazil, Vietnam, China, India, Russia, South Africa....I have to stop. It's getting more depressing). Mostly, I am ok with that. It's been tough to give things up, but I keep reminding myself that this is not a death trip, and that I have decades and decades to travel the world after this, so not going now is all right.
When I poured through New Zealand guidebooks, I ended up basically packing my time there with so much stuff, and I still already want to go back. With Australia, I have a pretty basic itinerary - one week Melbourne, one week Sydney plus a couple of days Blue Mountains, one week along the reef. It's not completely complete; even know I can feel my friend giving me the grumpy sad face that I am not going to the West Coast at all (I PROMISE I am going back someday, Wom!), and I am not going to the Outback, so clearly someday I need to go back to Australia. I am a city person, really, so that is a good place to start.
But I am getting really depressed trying to decide where to go. I want to go to everywhere in Queensland, it all looks so perfect. And while I know that by the time I reach Australia I will be far enough in that I will welcome the chance to find a great beach and just stay a week (plus, Australia is huge and expensive, so changing locations is no easy feat). But looking at the possibilities, it makes me sad that by choosing one good place, I am not going to any of the others.
Current top choices for my reef week are Whitsunday coast (where I can book a sailing trip, or ferry about the islands; pricey, but come on: FERRY ABOUT THE ISLANDS) or Great Keppel Island (which is a bit plane-bus-shuttle-ferry to get to, but looks like its quiet and beachy and snorkely and is supposed to be perfect). Technically, they are about 7-8 hours apart all told, so if I choose one and feel like traveling more, I can try the other, but I will have to choose one to fly into initially.
Aren't my dilemmas awesome? Oh, woe is me, I can't decide where to sun myself along the Great Barrier Reef. Trauma! But seriously, I take suggestions...
December 11, 2007
big day
I quit my job today.
It was sort of impulsive - I had intended to wait until I saw my boss in person on Thursday, but I decided to just do it, and now it's done. Yay! Everyone knows I am leaving in less than a month.
I also started to make reservations - I have a place to lay my head the first two nights in Ushuaia, and I have one bus ticket in New Zealand. I am going to make more soon.
Combine all that with finishing my apps, and today was quite momentous. Plus, we are putting up the Christmas tree. Big day!
It was sort of impulsive - I had intended to wait until I saw my boss in person on Thursday, but I decided to just do it, and now it's done. Yay! Everyone knows I am leaving in less than a month.
I also started to make reservations - I have a place to lay my head the first two nights in Ushuaia, and I have one bus ticket in New Zealand. I am going to make more soon.
Combine all that with finishing my apps, and today was quite momentous. Plus, we are putting up the Christmas tree. Big day!
November 30, 2007
stuck
I went to the doc yesterday for my travel visit. I am now officially poked full of yellow fever vaccine (which hurts like a bitch, y'all), boosted with adult polio, and the proud owner of four hose pillse to guard me against typhoid for the next five years. And the best part is I also get a month's worth of malaria pills to bring with me, just in case. I don't know why it amuses me that they are contingency malaria pills, but there it is.
(I have them in case I decide to go on an overnight to Iguacu Falls in Argentina, stay past dusk at Angkor Wat or take an overnight border crossing into Cambodia, or go to Laos).
This combines with the vaccines I got over the summer from the regular injection clinic. I am not completely guarded against absolutely everything - while I am just fine with inviting over a pile of yellow feverites for an evening of Twister and sneezing at each other, I am only 90% safe on Hep A. I got one shot, but won't get the other until I am back. So no nice Hep A and snow pea saute for me on the road this trip. Sad times.
But I want to say, mad love for Kaiser right now. Reading the travel forums and the like, apparently it's pretty common for folks to set aside a couple hundred for their vaccinations. Mine cost me my copay for the office visit and the two prescriptions; that's it. Yay, Kaiser. I WILL thrive, thank you!
(I have them in case I decide to go on an overnight to Iguacu Falls in Argentina, stay past dusk at Angkor Wat or take an overnight border crossing into Cambodia, or go to Laos).
This combines with the vaccines I got over the summer from the regular injection clinic. I am not completely guarded against absolutely everything - while I am just fine with inviting over a pile of yellow feverites for an evening of Twister and sneezing at each other, I am only 90% safe on Hep A. I got one shot, but won't get the other until I am back. So no nice Hep A and snow pea saute for me on the road this trip. Sad times.
But I want to say, mad love for Kaiser right now. Reading the travel forums and the like, apparently it's pretty common for folks to set aside a couple hundred for their vaccinations. Mine cost me my copay for the office visit and the two prescriptions; that's it. Yay, Kaiser. I WILL thrive, thank you!
November 10, 2007
rollin' in it
i sat down tonight to do all my dull financial stuff (because that's how i roll on a saturday evening, y'all), and i calculated my savings account. i make direct withdrawls to my ING account with every paycheck, and have for the past year. i also try to put as much of my paycheck from second job into ING as well, plus any extra i have from being a good girl and not going to lush (or mervyn's, apparently).
assuming i stay on schedule and make the deposits as planned for the rest of the year (and there's only three; really no reason why i won't), i will have totally hit my savings goal for my trip. it's a big number, and i am actually really proud of myself. i have no intention of spending the whole wad in the course of the trip, because i get jittery without savings and i would like a solid nest egg to use as re-entry money, but it's a good enough bundle that i don't think i need to panic on the road. i should do just fine, and still have plenty to go see priscilla in sydney like my mom wants me to.
assuming i stay on schedule and make the deposits as planned for the rest of the year (and there's only three; really no reason why i won't), i will have totally hit my savings goal for my trip. it's a big number, and i am actually really proud of myself. i have no intention of spending the whole wad in the course of the trip, because i get jittery without savings and i would like a solid nest egg to use as re-entry money, but it's a good enough bundle that i don't think i need to panic on the road. i should do just fine, and still have plenty to go see priscilla in sydney like my mom wants me to.
October 24, 2007
In defense of product
Under the best of circumstances, I am an absolute sucker for new beauty products--good smells, cute packaging, grandiose claims, whatever, I'm sold, give me the new face masque. Or lotion. Or scrub. Or all three.
So combine that with the fact that I have been under a spending embargo for pretty much a year. I have been trying my very best to save, and while success has been dubious at times, I have gotten better as my departure date draws nearer and the costs of all I want to do become more real.
Pretty much the only thing left that I can buy guilt free? Items "for the trip." OK, so maybe I played a little fast and loose with the definition of "for the trip" a time or two, but when I don't buy ANYthing but gas and asiago bagels from Panera, I go a little mad sometimes. So what if I justify a heady dash through the world of product as "for the trip?" I need to make an educated decision as to what toiletries I am taking with, don't I? I can't wind up in Patagonia with an oily face and stringy hair, can I?
I know that every RTW book, blog and forum tells chicks doing long-term travel to give up vanity and embrace the low maintenance/inner hag look. To that, I say: Pshaw and whatever, book, blog and forum clearly written by men (And yes, I regret it on the road or in hindsight, I will absolutely and publicly eat my words.). In my day-to-day life homeside, I am not very high maintenance, but what I need, I need. My hair is about 1.5 inches long at its longest. I don't need to wash it every day, I don't ever condition it, I don't need to comb it, but I also do not have the luxury of the ponytail option. So I am sorry, I need some product. I am not talking about a barrage of serums and gels and lotions and a fistful of straightening/curling/flattening ionic whatever irons, just my one beloved bottle of Bumble & Bumble. Otherwise, quite frankly, my hair will feather itself into a gigantic butt on my head. That is not a look I need to take on the road.
I've been deep in love with Lush because it really does complete me. Not only is everything so very soft and smell so very good, but they sell most things like meat at the deli -- you want a thin slice of 3 soaps, they price 'em by the pound and wrap them up. It's a dabbling shopper's dream: I get to appease my evil consumerist tendencies without getting tons of different stuff, just a bit of this and some of that. Plus, Lush has mastered the genius of solid shampoo. How great is that for travel? No liquids! Just rub a little on your scalp, and you are good to go; 8 of a pound lasts months! I was so set.
So, yeah. All of this really is my justification for going to Lush today and buying, buying, buying. But, see, they are discontinuing the shampoo I had already chosen! It's been tried and tested, does not give me butt head, does not let my hair get greasy or dry or flaky or flyaway or lifeless (when you have short hair, which I love, it sort of magnifies any of your hair's negative characteristics, which I do not), plus it even gives a little red hue. I mean, I won't be devastated if I can't buy more of it when I get back, but it had already made the cut and was on my list! In pen! And now it's a limited-time purchase? That huge chunk I bought is totally justified. It's for the trip.
So combine that with the fact that I have been under a spending embargo for pretty much a year. I have been trying my very best to save, and while success has been dubious at times, I have gotten better as my departure date draws nearer and the costs of all I want to do become more real.
Pretty much the only thing left that I can buy guilt free? Items "for the trip." OK, so maybe I played a little fast and loose with the definition of "for the trip" a time or two, but when I don't buy ANYthing but gas and asiago bagels from Panera, I go a little mad sometimes. So what if I justify a heady dash through the world of product as "for the trip?" I need to make an educated decision as to what toiletries I am taking with, don't I? I can't wind up in Patagonia with an oily face and stringy hair, can I?
I know that every RTW book, blog and forum tells chicks doing long-term travel to give up vanity and embrace the low maintenance/inner hag look. To that, I say: Pshaw and whatever, book, blog and forum clearly written by men (And yes, I regret it on the road or in hindsight, I will absolutely and publicly eat my words.). In my day-to-day life homeside, I am not very high maintenance, but what I need, I need. My hair is about 1.5 inches long at its longest. I don't need to wash it every day, I don't ever condition it, I don't need to comb it, but I also do not have the luxury of the ponytail option. So I am sorry, I need some product. I am not talking about a barrage of serums and gels and lotions and a fistful of straightening/curling/flattening ionic whatever irons, just my one beloved bottle of Bumble & Bumble. Otherwise, quite frankly, my hair will feather itself into a gigantic butt on my head. That is not a look I need to take on the road.
I've been deep in love with Lush because it really does complete me. Not only is everything so very soft and smell so very good, but they sell most things like meat at the deli -- you want a thin slice of 3 soaps, they price 'em by the pound and wrap them up. It's a dabbling shopper's dream: I get to appease my evil consumerist tendencies without getting tons of different stuff, just a bit of this and some of that. Plus, Lush has mastered the genius of solid shampoo. How great is that for travel? No liquids! Just rub a little on your scalp, and you are good to go; 8 of a pound lasts months! I was so set.
So, yeah. All of this really is my justification for going to Lush today and buying, buying, buying. But, see, they are discontinuing the shampoo I had already chosen! It's been tried and tested, does not give me butt head, does not let my hair get greasy or dry or flaky or flyaway or lifeless (when you have short hair, which I love, it sort of magnifies any of your hair's negative characteristics, which I do not), plus it even gives a little red hue. I mean, I won't be devastated if I can't buy more of it when I get back, but it had already made the cut and was on my list! In pen! And now it's a limited-time purchase? That huge chunk I bought is totally justified. It's for the trip.
September 10, 2007
aren't they beeeyootiful?
...or, alternately, maybe they look like some paper on my floor.but whatever, they'll get me 'round the world.
September 07, 2007
Who knew?
I think I am dating my plane tickets. And I don't mean that in a "I love my travel arrangements so much I want to marry them" sort of way (though I do, plane tickets, I do. Seriously. Meet me after. Rawr.). I mean that the start of major, long-term travel? Apparently just like the start of a relationship. Who knew?
I have never bought a house or applied for a boat loan or anything, so it's entirely possible that those sorts of major-grade purposes are very much like this. For me, all of my buying has pretty much been of the walk up--hand over Visa--walk away with new cake of Lush Snowcake soap (have you smelled that stuff? Fantastic!). There has not previously in my buying history been the fear that it could all get taken away.
Yesterday afternoon, after I'm riding high from actually BUYING TICKETS, I have to continue to work. Way to be a buzz kill, real life; fortunately, I only have to deal with you for 4.5 more months. And as I continue to work, I miss a phone call from my travel agent.
I get the voicemail, right before they are going to close, and naturally freak the eff out. I am paranoid that I can no longer fly from Buenos Aires to Auckland, that the flights have all gone up $2K, that I somehow have not been "approved" for travel (don't ask on the last one; my freak outs and logic have never been introduced).
More than anything else, it felt like that feeling you get after a kickass first or second date, when things are friggin' awesome and you two are going to get married and have perfect little babies that will get full scholarships to every college they apply to. And then he doesn't call, and you have that feeling in your stomach, like that which you wanted most of anything in the world has been snatched away and you want to cry? That's the feeling when your travel agent calls with a "hitch." Who knew?
If, perhaps, that analogy is not illuminating enough (in which case, I may hate you), it's the same as the please-hire-me internal wail that becomes commonplace in a job search. You send off your resume, you polish your cover letter, and then you reread the job description. And you would be so perfect for this! It's brilliant! Wonderful! Please hire meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Yeah, that wail. Same feeling.
So apparently I am either dating or being hired by my plane tickets? It may not make sense, but that's what it darn well feels like - like somehow, my travel plans were rejecting me. I mean I know that I am not good enough for glacier-hiking in Patagonia, but I didn't expect the airline to know that. I was kinda planning to squeak by unnoticed.
But regardless, it really just turned out that my credit card company was not keen on the multiple, multi-thousand dollar charges showing up on my card. Heh. So I called them, got it straightened, and the tickets went through, no problem.
Little half annie/half plane ticket babies, here I come.
I have never bought a house or applied for a boat loan or anything, so it's entirely possible that those sorts of major-grade purposes are very much like this. For me, all of my buying has pretty much been of the walk up--hand over Visa--walk away with new cake of Lush Snowcake soap (have you smelled that stuff? Fantastic!). There has not previously in my buying history been the fear that it could all get taken away.
Yesterday afternoon, after I'm riding high from actually BUYING TICKETS, I have to continue to work. Way to be a buzz kill, real life; fortunately, I only have to deal with you for 4.5 more months. And as I continue to work, I miss a phone call from my travel agent.
I get the voicemail, right before they are going to close, and naturally freak the eff out. I am paranoid that I can no longer fly from Buenos Aires to Auckland, that the flights have all gone up $2K, that I somehow have not been "approved" for travel (don't ask on the last one; my freak outs and logic have never been introduced).
More than anything else, it felt like that feeling you get after a kickass first or second date, when things are friggin' awesome and you two are going to get married and have perfect little babies that will get full scholarships to every college they apply to. And then he doesn't call, and you have that feeling in your stomach, like that which you wanted most of anything in the world has been snatched away and you want to cry? That's the feeling when your travel agent calls with a "hitch." Who knew?
If, perhaps, that analogy is not illuminating enough (in which case, I may hate you), it's the same as the please-hire-me internal wail that becomes commonplace in a job search. You send off your resume, you polish your cover letter, and then you reread the job description. And you would be so perfect for this! It's brilliant! Wonderful! Please hire meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Yeah, that wail. Same feeling.
So apparently I am either dating or being hired by my plane tickets? It may not make sense, but that's what it darn well feels like - like somehow, my travel plans were rejecting me. I mean I know that I am not good enough for glacier-hiking in Patagonia, but I didn't expect the airline to know that. I was kinda planning to squeak by unnoticed.
But regardless, it really just turned out that my credit card company was not keen on the multiple, multi-thousand dollar charges showing up on my card. Heh. So I called them, got it straightened, and the tickets went through, no problem.
Little half annie/half plane ticket babies, here I come.
September 06, 2007
holy *#%!ing *#%!
i just spent two months gross pay in one swoop and there is, quite literally, no going back now.
i am officially the proud, if theoretical, owner of both one ginormous credit card charge and 10 plane tickets to take me around the world and back starting next january - theoretical because RTW tickets evidently don't come electronically, so I will have to go pick up my crisp, lovely, tangible tickets next week.
the itinerary has been floating and re-formulating in my head for months now. even after i had a departure date (january), which gave me a direction (westward, ho!), there are still so many variables that i had to play around with. some placed got dropped early on, for time - i am doing the entire world, and not hitting india, or china, or russia - and some for money, like south africa and brazil and easter island.
then i got to streamlining - dubai was in there for a long time, because come on - how cool to go sunning on the persian gulf and go see those freaking PRIVATE ISLANDS in the shape of palm trees and the continents and get henna tatoos in a bazaar and i have to stop talking about it because it will make me sad i am not going. dubai came in because one online travel place put me through there as essentially a free connection, and then i added it as a must see because it sounded cool enough. dubai left because i didn't book through that travel place, and so the cost of getting there + the cost of being there + the stories i've heard of dubai as alternately dull for us poor folk and/or unpleasant for us womenfolk made it no longer worth it.
egypt was another that was supposed to be on my rtw itinerary, but i decided that i could get there just as economically by finding a cut-rate flight from europe. so it left the overall planning, but is still being planned on for next spring.
and then there is patagonia. it's so impractical, and all accounts, it should be long, long gone from the plans. it's expensive, hard to navigate, and huge. but...i just couldn't give it up. there was no place i could substitute in that wouldn't continue to make me sad. so i kept working on it with a lovely travel agent who did not seem to want to slap me or anything, and voila. i'm going to patagonia - all the way down to see the bottom of the world. and i know scandinavia will essentially drain money directly from my bank account, but i don't care - it's my #1 must-see place, so it stays. and i'm going - all the way up to see the top of the world.
so now, in its full glory, my itinerary:
in january, i head south for about three and a half weeks of patagonia (both argentina and chile) and buenos aires.
then 3.5 weeks in new zealand
then 3.5 weeks in australia
then 3.5 weeks in southeast asia
then off to europe for about 3 months. must-sees there are greece, croatia, scandinavia and egypt. beyond that, it will just be whereever my whims take me - turkey? iceland? morocco? who knows.
at the end of july, i come home.
theoretically.
i am officially the proud, if theoretical, owner of both one ginormous credit card charge and 10 plane tickets to take me around the world and back starting next january - theoretical because RTW tickets evidently don't come electronically, so I will have to go pick up my crisp, lovely, tangible tickets next week.
the itinerary has been floating and re-formulating in my head for months now. even after i had a departure date (january), which gave me a direction (westward, ho!), there are still so many variables that i had to play around with. some placed got dropped early on, for time - i am doing the entire world, and not hitting india, or china, or russia - and some for money, like south africa and brazil and easter island.
then i got to streamlining - dubai was in there for a long time, because come on - how cool to go sunning on the persian gulf and go see those freaking PRIVATE ISLANDS in the shape of palm trees and the continents and get henna tatoos in a bazaar and i have to stop talking about it because it will make me sad i am not going. dubai came in because one online travel place put me through there as essentially a free connection, and then i added it as a must see because it sounded cool enough. dubai left because i didn't book through that travel place, and so the cost of getting there + the cost of being there + the stories i've heard of dubai as alternately dull for us poor folk and/or unpleasant for us womenfolk made it no longer worth it.
egypt was another that was supposed to be on my rtw itinerary, but i decided that i could get there just as economically by finding a cut-rate flight from europe. so it left the overall planning, but is still being planned on for next spring.
and then there is patagonia. it's so impractical, and all accounts, it should be long, long gone from the plans. it's expensive, hard to navigate, and huge. but...i just couldn't give it up. there was no place i could substitute in that wouldn't continue to make me sad. so i kept working on it with a lovely travel agent who did not seem to want to slap me or anything, and voila. i'm going to patagonia - all the way down to see the bottom of the world. and i know scandinavia will essentially drain money directly from my bank account, but i don't care - it's my #1 must-see place, so it stays. and i'm going - all the way up to see the top of the world.
so now, in its full glory, my itinerary:
in january, i head south for about three and a half weeks of patagonia (both argentina and chile) and buenos aires.
then 3.5 weeks in new zealand
then 3.5 weeks in australia
then 3.5 weeks in southeast asia
then off to europe for about 3 months. must-sees there are greece, croatia, scandinavia and egypt. beyond that, it will just be whereever my whims take me - turkey? iceland? morocco? who knows.
at the end of july, i come home.
theoretically.
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