So Apparently I'm Going to Europe...

I guess this is my pre-departure post...been kinda busy.

At some point in September, I decided I would take a medium-sized trip to Europe in November/December. I'd sent my friend Felix, an eternal postdoc at the U of Geneva (I think), a message saying I was thinking of coming. After talking for many hours over the next couple of days, I decided to cross the Atlantic for the first time. It's weird - looking back over the last two months, I don't even remember when I decided to take this trip. This realization is a good thing, I feel, because it shows that I'm calming down, and just doing stuff without deep reasoning, just because I can, and I should WHILE I can. So here I am at gate 101 at LAX awaiting a flight to Vienna via Duesseldorf - my first trip to Europe.

My itinerary for now:

11/26-11/30 Vienna, Austria (Bratislava, Slovakia?)
121/30-12-6 Prague, Czech Republic
12/6-12/10 Berlin, Germany (Hamburg?)
12/10-12/13 Geneva + Zurich, Switzerland

Transatlantic flights from LAX were $816. Fantastic. Unfortunately roundtrip flights to LAX proved to be extremely shitty, at almost $200. So in the end I save ~$100, but fly on "airberlin", which seems to be a low cost carrier not offering many perks. So in a sense, it was a colossal failure, as I likely could've flown something like Swiss Air from SFO for not that much more than $1100. Oh well - live and learn!

But on the bright side, I got to see my friend Sandy's new gorgeous Malibu house. This place is seriously cool, with some crazy bathrooms designed by the glassworker who built the house. We also played two games of Collins Scrabble (as a warmup for the Mind Sports Invitational Scrabble Tournament, which we will both be at). I averaged 590, and played words like TAGMEMIC, BURLESK, and BEDLAMS. Sandy then provided me with pork belly, prime rib, duck, and risotto. Consider me sated for the 11 hour long flight ahead.

The sun came out in Malibu as I was headed back to the airport, but the iconic drive down PCH is always fun.

I've arrived plenty early for my flight. I've heard horror stories about the 6kg max weight of carryon baggage, so I've checked my new pack, and brought a Scrabble bag as a carryon. I don't think they weigh tuff at the gate, and my carryon looks smaller than everyone else's anyway. On top of that, I also secured an aisle seat for the transatlantic flight. I'm not sure if it's a control freak tendency, or just a desire not to inconvenience people, but I strongly prefer aisle seats for any flight longer than an hour or two. I just like knowing I can get up whenever I need to - no need to worry about someone sleeping in the way of my ability to get up and walk around. And I'm such a crappy sleeper on planes anyway that it's no trouble if someone next to me needs to get up. I actually asked if I could get a seat in an emptier row towards the back. As of when I got the ticket, I think the lady was able to fulfill my request, but I guess we will see when I board. Unfortunately, there are no outlets on airberlin, so I'll just have one charge worth of laptop to study as many words as I can. I also have a short book to read, my phone full of music, and hopefully SOME rest. I've also heard that personal entertainment systems are only onboard some of airberlin's fleet. I'd think there would be for transatlantic, but we'll have to wait and see.

I effectively pulled an all-nighter last night, trying to pack appropriately. I bought a backpack a few weeks ago designed for, well, backpacking. My goal is to travel lighter, and more efficiently. In Asia last year, having a huge carry bag and a small backpack did NOT work. So yes, my back will get a workout for the next three weeks, but it's a great quality pack with good support, and is quite comfortable. Anyway, I finally had all my stuff packed by about 3 AM (wake up time = 5:40 AM), and then realized I'd overpacked. So I took out a shirt, some socks, a heavy hardback book :(, and some other stuff I deemed unnecessary, and got the weight down to something more reasonable, before finally getting a little rest between 4:30 and 5:30 AM. So I've been kind of a zombie today, and my nonlinear narrative in this post indicates zombification. I don't think I ever realized just how heavy my laptop is, even though it's still lighter than most PCs. There really is something to be said for getting an iPad...

Anyway, I'll stop this post here, but will write a separate second post now before I step on the plane...My intent is to write another travel blog while I'm in Europe. No promises, but I'll try. I finished the entire Asia trip blog...and only three months late! Feel free to bug me...