Prague, Part 2: A Mad, Mad House

OK so I am home from Europe, and I have written almost the entire blog. But I decided I wanted to wait for pictures, and wasn't going to have them on my computer until I got home, hence little posting in quite awhile. I'll try to do one a day from here on out...

So after three days of the familiar Scrabble tournament environment, I walked the three km to my new hostel, the MadHouse Prague. And let me tell you, this hostel is probably one of the coolest hostels in the world. It caters to solo travelers, and the “employees” (mostly travelers who never left – including the owners themselves) take everyone out for some kind of nightlife…every night. Plus: cheap beer, a kitchen, a cool hangout lounge, and a really central location, and more. Quite frankly, by the time Thursday came around, I really didn’t want to leave. I wish every city had a place like this one.

I quickly met two travelers my age from Orinda (plenty of mutual acquaintance), as well as a large number of Aussies. Them Aussies are everywhere! That evening, I won five of six games of beer pong (what up), and then we went to a student bar nearby. It was fun, but the cigarette smoke in Prague is pretty crippling for me.

Trolling:

The next day, Tuesday, I finally willed myself out of bed around 11 AM. The shower on our floor was busted, so I had to trek downstairs to clean off – anyone who knows me knows I am useless without a morning shower. Once I was finally bundled up, I made my way to Choco Café, as recommended by Sandy. I had a hot chocolate with a chocolate from the Dominican Republic. But this was unique hot chocolate – it was literally pure chocolate. Overload, but amazing.

 I walked to the Old Town Square, and moseyed through the Christmas Market. Some Czech dude was doing a great rendition of “What a Wonderful World”. I found the meeting point for the free tour, and noticed a couple of my hostelmates were headed towards a different tour. We’d discussed meeting up for this one, so I nudged them in my general direction. It was snowing, but the tour was very informative, and I got to walk all over New Town/Old Town/Jewish Quarter. It’s ironic that the Jewish Quarter is now the swanky, most expensive part of Prague. A couple of pictures of Prague:

Clock Tower:

 "Old New" Synagogue:

After the tour, my hostelmate-now-friend Nic and I wandered into a Czech restaurant. We had some tasty goulash! Then back to the hostel for more beer pong.

Nightlife on this night included drinks at a trendy bar, where I learned some good stories about the MasterChef Australia judges from an Aussie at the hostel who is in the Melbourne hospitality industry. I love hanging out with Aussies because then I can nerd out about MC:AUS.

After drinks, we headed to a rock and roll club, which played lots of newer rock (right up my alley). Nic almost gave himself a concussion when he tried to dance on a table and hit a motorcycle tire, so we retreated back to the corner and talked/drank with some other solo travelers (an organic farm worker from Kansas, and a Kiwi-Perthian. When we were finally too tired to drink anymore, we went for late night burritos (yes, late night burritos in Prague), and then called it a night around 4 AM.

I leave you with this picture:

TravelBlog Special Edition: The SleazyJet-Schoenfeld Extortion Saga

If you want to skip to the punchline of this travel war-story, here you go: EasyJet is a complete fucking SCAM. Don’t be fooled by their cheap façade. Take a train or (ideally) a bus instead.

There are two important things to know about me:

1) Don’t sell me stuff I don’t need.

2) Don’t take advantage of me or the people I care about...

We arrived to the S-Bahn station for Schoenfeld airport about 45 minutes before the flight to Geneva. We knew we were cutting it close, but we didn’t realize that the S-9 train that goes there is notorious for not following the schedule.

So Felix goes with his carryon luggage to the flight, and I wait in the short line to check my baggage. I finally put my baggage on the counter, and the guy tells me to bring it to a different counter. I bring it there, the guy complains that I have no tag, and then sends me where I came from. Then another worker lady informs me that I have missed my flight (note: it is 8:25, my flight leaves at 8:56). I think this is ridicuious, and she continues that checked luggage ends 40 minutes before the flight ends, I take no issue with this policy in theory (and I did show up 35 minutes before the flight), but when she insulted other people later for not knowing these rules ahead of time, I was appalled as it says NOTHING about the 40 minute rule on your boarding pass. Maybe it said it online when I bought my ticket, and if so, I claim responsibility for that, but for fucks sake, put it on the bloody BOARDING PASS.

So this lady clearly wants nothing to do with me. I seem to remember EasyJet doing some sort of gate-checked luggage. I ask if I can do that, and she says yes (note, she didn’t OFFER to let me do this, which I find pretty annoying). It will costs me 50 euro to gate check my bag at the gate. Well shit, what are my other options? I ask how much it will cost if I skip the flight. She informs me that I will have to pay a flight change fee, which I recall being at least 50-75 euro. So OK, I’ll eat the 50 euro, there’s still hope.

She runs my credit card. Doesn’t work. Debit card. Doesn’t work (yes - I called BofA before my trip, and they know I’m in Berlin). She’s clearly annoyed with me, and then three guys come up behind me also late for the same flight – and they’d come from POLAND – a 3 hour drive. So now I ask, thinking I’ve run out of nine lives here, if I can pay cash. I CAN? REALLY? Why didn’t you tell me that in the first place? Fortunately, I have a 100 euro note left over. Hope is still alive. She sends me to the ticket counter so that they can complete the cash “transaction” (extortion is a better).

Finally I have everything set, and can go through security. As I leave, I hastily explain to the Polish guys to ask about gate checking, but I’m not sure they knew what it was, and I had to look out for myself at that point because it’s now almost 8:40.

First lady has no idea what gate checked luggage is. Fortunately I get across what is going on to her, and get into the short line. In line, people are willing to cut to the front. Of course now I can’t bring on any of my liquids, which makes me really sad, as I had to give up a present I was planning to bring home:

My best friend Noah’s step-grandpa has been very sick for awhile, and I had bought some bottles of Flensburger Pilsner in Hamburg (Flensburg is said step-grandpa’s hometown) to take home with me for Noah’s family. But no, gate checked luggage counts as hand luggage. Of course the baggage lady has to be rude about this fact. Not sure if it’s the same way in the states, but the guy actually checking the baggage offers to split the beers with me, which is normally a funny joke, but I’M TRYING TO GET MY FLIGHT. She glares at him, takes my beer, and scowls at me again. Everyone in line is yelling at her because this rule is clearly groundless.

But fine, it can’t be changed. I HAVE TO GET TO MY FLIGHT. I inform the guy that my flight is in five minutes, and he laughs. Thanks for the well wishes…It’s funny, I’ve primarily had only good experiences with TSA workers in the US. No issues in Canada either. First time at a European airport…OK well n(airport)=1 + n(workers)=5 or so are pretty small sample sizes, so I’ll reserve judgment. And maybe I can find some Flensburger in Zurich, or something!

Up to this point, I can’t fault you if you truly think this is entirely my fault. If you’re one of those people, I hope you’ll pay full attention here:

So I spring to my gate, arriving about 8:50, and the ENITIRE FLIGHT IS UNBOARDED, and herded like sheep into a tiny RyanAir gate. Felix is incredibly relieved to see that I’ve made it. In fact, the flight is pretty clearly delayed. So I WAS in fact there within 40 minutes, but EasyJet opted not to update the departure time to reflect the fact that we wouldn’t be leaving on time. If they had, I would not have been charged 50 euros, and could’ve checked my bag. Instead, I gather that my bag was the first fucking bag on the plane.

Not to mention that my lungs are all fucked up from all the smoking I’ve had to be around the last 10 days, so I’m completely out of breath, and now don’t have my bottle of water. Actually, writing this an hour later, I STILL haven’t had any water. Just on principle because I’m not paying EasyJet another fucking cent for water (2.50 euro for a bottle, to be precise).

We ended up boarding our flight 20 minutes late. As I described above, if I checked in 35 minutes before a flight that is 20 minutes late, that should be like saying I checked in 55 minutes before my flight. But thanks to EasyJet, that delay was not registered, and I almost missed my flight, and essentially bribed them 50 euro to get on the plane. See it however you want – 35 or 55 minutes, and you want to tell me I’ve missed my flight? Fuck your company.

While we were waiting in line, Felix relays his own annoying story. EasyJet allows one bag of a certain size onto the plane. He has a backpack and a piece of luggage. So the lady who didn’t know what a gate-checked bag was (and works security at an airport, hah), got mad at him for that. So he puts the backpack in the luggage, with all his stuff in it. This of course makes everything OK - *sigh*. When he got to the gate, they made the same stink, as he’d taken his backpack back out. He said that the gate lady was shocked when she found out he could just put his backpack in the luggage. But he’s flown EasyScam many times before, and knew the rules of the game, so he was prepared.

Of course when we did board the flight, I got to experience EasyJet’s wonderful boarding procedure. Assigned seats, let people board all at once, from the front AND back of the plane. Because that strategy will work SO, SO, SO WELL. Has nobody taken a psychology class? A math class? Any class that will give you any idea how people operate? I guess not. So the flight took a good 30 minutes to board, and I guess the plane was sitting there in the below-freezing water, that they had to spray the plane with hot water. Because that sight is really reassuring. I did luck into an aisle seat somehow – I’ll take the small victory. Anyway, we eventually took off, and the Polish guys were nowhere to be seen – shit.

Not really sure if I can dispute anything since I paid in cash. I’m out about 75$ US, but I’m on the flight, and so is my baggage. It’s a war story alright, all a part of traveling, but I’m pretty disappointed in this airline.

I guess the Easy in EasyJet simple means that when they’re done using you, and extorting you, you’ll feel so easy. That’s more or less how I feel right now. The irony of this situation, is that the only reason I immediately thought to ask about gate-checking my bag, was from reading myriads of horror stories on the internet about EasyJet’s baggage policies, back when I was buying this ticket in September. Yet again, Yelp [and other customer service sites] don’t lie. My research saved my ass, even if I did have to pay out my ass for it. Yet again, I have adapted and problem solved a situation on my own in a foreign country – that means I’m maturing, and staying focused, which means this trip is continuing to be an incredible success.

I will never fly EasyJet again. If you are traveling in Europe, I hope you will think twice before flying with this extortive company because what they do is just not OK.

Anyway, I get to Geneva tonight, spend tomorrow in the city (SWISS FONDUE TOMORROW NIGHT!!!!!!!!), Wednesday on the train (stopping in Berne and Lucerne, I believe), Wednesday evening and all of Thursday in Zurich (CouchSurfing – the cheapest hostel is 50 euro!) My host seems incredibly kind, and is even willing to put up with the fact that I have to get up to go to the airport at some ungodly early hour Friday morning – and she lives near the airport, and is picking me up from the train station on Wednesday. Awesome.

For about an hour there, I really felt like I’d had it with Europe and was ready to come home…but nah, traveling rules and I’m excited for my three days in Switzerland!

On the whole, the people we met in Germany could not have been nicer. The unprompted advice and kindness we were shown by people who clearly love the cities in which they reside, natively or not, was really warming to Felix and me (amongst the freezing weather!)

And to those of you world travelers out there (I’m looking at you, Jesse Day) what’s backpacking without some absolutely inane travel complications?

Oh look I failed at travelblogging

So when I last left off, I had one day left in Vienna.

Matt and his girlfriend wanted to see the Freud museum, so we decided to have lunch at a pay-as-you-go student-loved Pakistani place (4 stars on yelp). It was fantastic. The Freud museum was very cool, though I wish they had talked more about the cocaine part of Freud's existence.

After, I split off to go visit a cafe. I ended up at the touristy Cafe Central, and had sachertorte + hot chocolate. Very rich, but tasty, and a fun experience.

I then got completely lost trying to find the Rathaus. Eventually, I got back within the range of the first district's free wifi, and found it eventually. It was absolutely gorgeous, and the Christmas market was pretty cool, albeit dominated by tourists. I took some pictures, and then headed back to the flat.

Matt and I went to a student run Christmas-drink party, where we met up with one of his friends, as well as some couchsurfers he knew from Portland! I had gluhwein (yum!) and punsch (fairly yum, as well!) It was very cold, though, and they ran out of alcohol, so we headed to a local bar, and shot the shit for awhile. Eventually, it was time for bed, though, as I had my bus ride the next morning.

Fast forward to the next morning. Finding the bus was really easy! I talked with a guy from Winnepeg, and then sat down in my seat. The seats were clean, the bus was pretty new, the personal TVs worked great (I watched Fast Five), they gave free hot chocolate, and the bathroom was easily accessible. A brief stop in Brno, and we did it all again (minus the movie part - was feeling more like music).

Arrived in Prague, and got a little bit confused with the tram system, and eventually just took the metro to Vysehrad, near the tournament hotel, and walked to my hostel. I was very happy that I had my own room to chill in. The owner was so kind - she was older, and said 'please' after every sentence. Unfortunately, the grocery store was not where she said it would be, so I was forced to wander around until I found a corner store. Apparently the corner stores in Prague are run by Vietnamese immigrants, so they don't speak Czech OR English...

I bought what I thought was herbed cream cheese, but it turned out to be horseradish flavored. That + some salami and bread was dinner. I wasn't really all that hungry, anyway. I went to bed late, studying words and watching Breaking Bad.

I'm going to skip the next two days (Saturday/Sunday), as I really have nothing to say about the Scrabble tournament. This is a travel blog, not a Scrabble blog. I will pick up from my walk to the new hostel (Monday evening) in my next post. In real time, I am leaving Prague tomorrow, and should be able to catch up on the train ride to Berlin, tomorrow.

I am exhausted, and sick of the cigarette smoke. The cigarette smoke in Prague is overwhelming. My voice gets hoarse everyday.

I'm growing up so fast...

They say that new experiences abroad help you to cope with new situations, and give you new perspectives. Already today, I handled the unforeseen issues really well.

I decided not to stay at the Corinthia Towers in Prague. My dad was willing to cover me for the event, but when I found a quaint little hostel a pretty 1 km from the hotel that had private rooms for $24 US/night, that seemed a much better strategy. Knowing how my colds work, I should be recovering by Friday, and good enough to stay at the MadHouse Monday-Wednesday. Granted, that won't be the same as the weekend, but playing Scrabble all day, partying all night, and being sick? That could end horribly, and I've accepted that plans change. Though that said, I think I have a fever right now, and my colds don't usually involve fever. *shrug* - I'll pay close attention to it in the coming days. It would be nice not to be sick during the Scrabble tournament - you know, with getting really sick during this year's Nationals after seizing a two game lead halfway through the tournament, but again, I'll do what I can.

It's almost 11 PM, and I woke up at 4:45 AM, so my hope is that I will adjust a fair amount tonight. That is, if I can make this fever go down. Oh ibuprofen, you and your many uses. We'll see.

Anyway, this evening I was able to book all of my remaining bus/train rides (at good prices!), change the hostel for part 1 of Prague, and update my budget completely, so despite feeling like I am burning up, I am really happy with myself for handling this situation maturely, effectively, and intelligently.

But I did get out today and do some fun stuff!

I had a street-stand debreziner in a tasty roll, and then Matt and I headed to the north outskirts of town. There we hiked up into the Viennese vineyards, saw panoramic views of Vienna, and sat and talked for awhile, basking in the view, and enjoying the 50ºF weather! Seriously, I could've worn shorts today, but it's gonna be the warm-highlight of the trip...things are about to get colder.

On the descent from the vineyards, I took one hill a bit too quickly, got my foot stuck under a small root, and went flying. Jeans got a bit muddy, but I fortunately missed all the rocks.

The tram ride home was a fascinating glimpse into the relationship among and betwee between Austrian school children and immigrant Turkish school children - right after Matt had told me about the growing diversity and influx of immigrants into Austria.

We stopped at a supermarket on the way home, and Matt inquired as to whether I might make some guacamole (we'd been talking about health foods, fruits, veggies, etc.) Apparently Austria's avocados are from Israel, and they oxidize right before your eyes - though once you add the lime juice, the process is delayed greatly. It turned out well, and the flatmates really enjoyed it! One of them, Felix, made a zucchini soup, which was much welcomed for my sore throat. Delicious. Also had .65-Euro supermarket pizzas that were actually pretty darn good. Matt dips his cheese pizza in ketchup! I was blown away! Interestingly, Heinz ketchup is much more expensive in Vienna.

We were going to have punsche at a Christmas Market tonight, but it seemed like it would work out better for everyone tomorrow, so instead I got the productive stuff done.

OK yeah I'm not feeling so well, and I've been staring at this CPU WAY too long. ibuprofen time!

Also: just got a CS invitation in Zurich from a rather pretty girl who is brand new to CS and has no friend or references. I'm gonna assume she is legit! :)

What did I get myself into?

Flight summary: I didn't sleep on the flight to Dusseldorf. I slept at Dusseldorf airport for 2 hours, then boarded my flight to Vienna, and kinda slept. AirBerlin was pretty darn good for a budget airline - the food was edible, seat next to me was empty, there were entertainment systems, wine turned out to be free, and the attendants were very nice.

I found my way to my host's flat in the outer neighborhood of Simmering with no trouble. Don't be fooled by the name, it is very cold in Simmering. The building was pitch black, and the door #s were hard to read, so it took me a good 15 minutes to find the correct flat. But I did eventually! I met my host and his housemates, we talked for awhile, and then I went to sleep around midnight. Kinda fell asleep between 12 and 4, then was wide awake until 7, when I finally conked out until 1:30 PM. Shit.

Oh, and to make matters worse, my body began feeling rundown as well, after going over 50 hours with hardly any sleep. At the time I thought I was getting sick, but as I write this, I think it's just me being rundown.

So once I finally got out of the house, I did some touristy stuff. I visited Schonnbrun Palace, and St Stephen's Church. It is quite something to ascend from a downtown metro station only to see a massive church in front of you. Pretty cool moment.

After, I made my way down a shopping street to the Haus der Musik, as recommended by Kenji. I spent a good three hours at this interactive museum, refreshing myself on the Viennese schools of classical music, how hearing works, and trying lots of cool experiments with soundscapes, wave modulation, etc...I went fairly late, so it was pretty empty, although a big group of tourist kids caught up to me and made too much noise (I am a crotchety old person, yes), so I ended up letting them get ahead of me so I could enjoy the rest in peace. My body started to give out, so I soldiered on with ibuprofen.

Upon getting home, my host was back from his exam, and he and I + another housemate talked music, and jammed/rocked out to some SOAD. He then made an austrian soup for dinner. I hadn't eaten since the flight to Dusseldorf, so I had a can of Ottakringer and four bowls of the soup. We talked US (he recently CSed down the west coast) and Austria for a couple of hours, then the housemates and I played some Mario Kart before bed.

I was out instantly around 12:45. And then I woke up at 4:45 AM. And never fell back asleep (writing this almost six hours later). My ill-symptoms hadn't gotten any worse, and they always do if I am actually sick, so I'm pretty sure that there is no contagiousness in me - I'm just rundown. And look at the evidence - it doesn't lie.

But I made the decision to change my booking in Prague. I had 6 nights booked at a crazy party hostel, but I fail to see what good could come of staying in a party hostel during a weekend when I'm recovering from being rundown. In fact, I could potentially make things much worse. And I'm supposed to take the Scrabble tournament seriously, right?

So I changed my reservation at the hostel for Monday-Thursday, where it should be slightly tamer during the week. This of course leaves me with nowhere to stay Friday/Saturday/Sunday night. Worst case scenario: I shell out a lot of money for my own room at the Corinthia towers. Best case scenario: someone still needs a roommate. But I think staying at a calm hotel will work better than a crazy party hostel. Also, I just found out that the temperature in Prague will be below freezing, so even more reason to lay low over the weekend.

I really didn't think I'd have this much trouble adjusting. I guess it really is that much harder going East than West - I didn't have this problem in Thailand! I know I sound like I am complaining an awful lot, but I am glad I am here, and am excited for this trip. I just want to finish adjusting my Prague plans so that I can be at more peace with my updated situation. The 45 degree F weather in Vienna is just fine though, and it's only partly cloudy today - and 50!

Gotta get ready to go now - meeting up with my host downtown for some street food, and then he's going to show me a good viewpoint of the city. Maybe I'll hit up a cafe afterwards, but I want to call it an early night tonight. Gotta get my mojo back, and not let this rundown-ness turn into an actual sickness. Will update.

Why this trip?

I already mentioned that I'm trying to make more spontaneous decisions in life, and just do stuff for fun, without thinking too much about them. So that is a central theme of this trip, but there are some goals I hope to achieve.

In a sense, this is a solo trip. Yes, I will travel with Felix for 4 or 5 days, and I will see Scrabblers that I know in Prague, as well, but I am doing this journey on my own, and I want to see what happens.

See, traveling alone scares the hell out of me. I've always been convinced that I'd only have fun traveling if it was with my friends. My time in Southeast Asia last year was so amazing in part because I got to experience the whole thing with friends. But I also met lots of cool people in Bangkok, a few of whom I'm still in contact with a year later. So maybe this sentiment is true, or maybe I'm just nervous to travel by myself. I intend to find out what traveling alone is really like.

So with that in mind, I am going to try out two methods of lodging: CouchSurfing and hosteling. I will be CouchSurfing in Vienna this week, and hosteling next week in Prague. They're definitely different ways of traveling, but I am excited to see how they work out. I also plan to CS in Zurich at the end of my trip. I'll be staying with some Austrian dudes this week. Should be cool?

Anyway, I guess there isn't that much deep I hope to get out of this trip - I mostly just want to challenge myself to try taking a trip on my own, especially if I ever want to consider LIVING abroad...

That and I'm trying to envelop this idea of living a spontaneous life. This trip is possibly the most spontaneous thing I have done, so we'll see.

For now I'm just exhausted. I can't wait to be at my host's house in Vienna, so I can get a good night sleep, and start out strong Tuesday. Assuming they are open, I intend to visit Schonbrunn Palace and Haus der Musik. And eat food. That's all I got for now though.

Oh, and I'm talking with Felix right now, and it looks like we are buying tickets to Hamburg, so I'll see two German cities this trip.

OK - enough blogging, time to get ready for the flight. Thanks for following along! :)

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...