Countdown -- 23 days til boarding

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The months became weeks and now the weeks have become days. We (you know, Nick aka cruentum and I) have finally pulled everything together in a nice neat package of preparedness (literally, I made us packets of the below items to print and put in our travel notebooks) and we're now free to get excited about our coming vacation together.



Continental airline tickets confirmed? Check! This will involve layover in Newark, 2.5 hours going, a miserable 5 hours coming back due to schedule change. Hiss. Anyone near that airport? I will be miserable, tired, depressed, miserable, did I say miserable? but company would be welcome for a spot of coffee or hugs. Lotsa hugs. (Then again, why would anyone want to be around that? So don't feel guilty if you live close but want to avoid me like the plague. I will be BUMMED!)

Arrive in Hamburg, snog Nick madly in front of possibly hundreds of people (who cares?! not I! not he!) then head into Hamburg for some quick fun. No, not that kind, geesh! The bagel kind! Or maybe currywurst. Probably bagel.

Back to Hamburg airport, leave again at about 2 that afternoon. Yup! Back on a plane. So, airline tickets to London confirmed? Check!

Arrive in London, Heathrow airport. Get luggage, head for hotel under Nick's supreme guidance as he is very good at figuring out subways, tubes, trains, etc. I am not. So, he leads, I follow (we are such a great team!).

London hotel confirmed? Check! Quick freshen-up here, because of course, we must get out in London! I let Nick choose what show we would go see, and he quite happily picked a favorite entertainer of his.

Confirmation email to get tickets for Derren Brown-Enigma, at the Adelphi Theatre? Check! (and here I thought we'd go see Burn Gorman in Oliver! but this is going to be awesome!)

Stumble (or at least I will after so many hours on planes) to London hotel, keenly aware that we won't see much else of London. Very sad. Vow to come back and 'do London properly.' Next morning...back to airport!

Ha, no more flights, just to pick up car. Fooled ya.

Car rental confirmation voucher printed? Check! (still in awe of how cheap car rental is, omg, only 218 US for a week? crazy) And yes, I am doing the driving. Of course. I am a control freak. And yes, go ahead and laugh--I rented an automatic. I do not know how to drive a stick! I would kill it! That would not be smart! Hence, the automatic. And a/c of course. (I *am* a Texan...must have my a/c where I can get it).

Saying lotsa prayers though I am not religious, we next head out of the airport (which we've both street-viewed numerous times, talk about fun!) and head bravely ON THE LEFT SIDE OF THE ROAD OMG! for the M-4 and CARDIFF!

We have all day to get there. I hope we don't need all day to get there. Much singing and happiness (to mask the nervousness of being in a 'wrong car') will take place on the M-4, possibly also other things sightseeing on the way. Except, already street-viewed it, and there isn't anything exciting to look at anyway, really.

(So different from US highways--Where is a Starbucks? I need my sixth coffee! Right now! "Wait another mile, there will be another one, Nick." Sigh. Should we pack a thermos for our journey?)

Barrowman CDs (yes, plural) set aside for packing? Check!

Arrive (safely!) in Cardiff! Follow the previously-mapped-out plan to get to the B&B, Ty Rosa, voted Cardiff's Best Gay B&B for who knows how many years! (For some reason, my co-worker Stephnie is amused by us staying there. She knows very little about the real me, obviously.) And yes, we street-viewed that too and know exactly what it looks like--and it is right next to a bus stop!

Confirmation email for Ty Rosa? Check! The Caerphilly Castle room is waiting just for us! And so is the B&B dog, Max! No, he is not a beagle, but a gorgeous black lab. DOG IN PLACE! YES! That will help me handle being away from my own puppies, keep the edge off of missing them terribly and worrying insanely that my kids will forget to feed them, water them, put them outside, scratch their bellies, etc. And yes, I really am worried they will forget. I fully expect the huskies to be insane when I get back. Sigh.

(We get to share a bathroom with another couple! Oh boy!)

And then, from that point until we leave Cardiff on the 10th, the planning is up to Nick. Because, of course, that's always Nick's responsibility. I am sure that stalking sightseeing will be involved, and I want to have a pint at pub, and we WILL be going to Tesco's cuz grocery stores in foreign worlds are FUN.

We will be exploring the Brecon Beacons (I believe Nick has a hiking day set out for us), and I insist we visit the Doctor Who exhibit thing, and say hi to the invisible lift. Do not expect pics of Nick standing on it. He would sooner jump off a pier. (Not advisable--a friend's daughter did that the other day, and broke her ankle.)

I, however, will likely stand on it, because I could care less what people think!

We'll also be armed with Cardiff-y questions to be answered for fic writing for ourselves and others. It is still up to debate if we will really do any running from point A to point B just to see how long it takes. (Perhaps we should pack that stopwatch after all...already have my compass, just in case!).

I don't have a camera unless I manage to scrounge up enough to buy one, so Nick will be in charge of taking pictures as he has a fantastic camera that he got when he was here and I got robbed and his was stolen and we replaced it with a really awesome camera. He'll be working on thesis stuff each morning, so I will try my best to do Thoughtful Daily Logs during that time, and share all I can about how a Texan (me) and a German (Nick) attempt to immerse themselves (okay, ourselves) into a totally alien culture (though we're as prepared as we can be for the adventure, and Nick even speaks some Welsh now! I do too! Bore da! SEE?)

Any tips between now and our leaving (or even when we are there, we will not be completely offline) are welcome! VERY WELCOME!

C

Comments

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No...am sorry punkin! We are zooming straight to Cardiff where we will be staying, spending our days doing a bunch of hiking about. I for one am already planning another trip someday where we have more time but we're pretty tight on this trip!