Jigsaw Travel

"Kilometers are shorter than miles. Save gas, take your next trip in kilometers."

-- George Carlin

So, that post I made about planning travel sucking big time?  Now that I've actually bitten the bullet, made plans -- and most importantly, paid for it all -- everything's much better.

Here's the itinerary -- and yes, I'm putting it out INTO THE WORLD so all the Brit friends who want to can schedule to meet me, and so my parents and grandmother and friends and extended family will know what I'm up to:

• Fly out on the 15th of August, land on the 16th
• Staying in London through the 17th of August
• Bath the 18th of August
• Cardiff the 19th of August
• Dublin the 20st of August through the 24th of August
• London again, the 25th of August through the 30th of August
• Sleep like the dead on the 31st
• Back to the grindstone on the 1st of September

Accommodations are booked -- have been safely vetted and come highly recommended by travel experts, tour books, travel websites, and (most importantly) by people I know who've stayed there.  Most major transport is booked, too, aside from trains (which can only be booked up to 3 months in advance).

Now that I have the framework structured, I get to hyperventilate about what I want to do when I'm at these places.  I've managed to schedule some days of downtime (London and Dublin, mostly) so I can do a "what do I want to do today?" meander about town.  I'll have plenty of options, since everyone and their grandmother whose gone to Europe has opinions on what's good to do, where to go, what to eat.  And for my birthday, my parents bought me a membership to the British Museum -- no lines, in free to the special exhibits, discounts in the restaurants and gift shops, and a members-only lounge.  The hotel I'm staying at in London is on the same block as the museum.  I'm going every. Bloody. Day.  That much I do know.

Meanwhile, my trip to Bath is rather structured:  Stonehenge tour in the afternoon, then a walking tour (the mayor's office puts it on for free, how cool is that?), and the Roman bath museum before getting on the train to Cardiff the next afternoon.  In Dublin and London's second leg, I'm going to be planning a day trip to the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland and a day in Stratford-Upon-Avon.  What days those trips will be on, though, I don't know yet.

In many ways, travel planning is like doing a jigsaw puzzle.  Most people find it easier to find all the end pieces and put together the picture frame before filling in the middle picture.  I guess that makes the play the bottom right corner?

Things, I'm sure, will firm up more as I get closer to travel day.  These things always do.  It's just bizarre to look up and realize that yes, I really do have only 4 months to go until I leave.  It makes me all nervous and excited and ill and thrilled at the same time.  It's a feeling remarkably similar to dread, actually, except that it makes me fidgety and flighty instead of morose.