July
2008
Pip Pip! Cheerio!0
I’m sad to say that I haven’t posted since February. I suppose it was around that time in which I became completely swallowed up by my graduate work. It was a rough semester… I’m certainly glad it’s over. While I could go on and on about the intricacies of the semester, I would rather talk about something that is much more interesting: our upcoming trip to EUROPE!
It’s official, Kyle and I are leaving for Europe in exactly four weeks! While this is insanely exciting, I’m starting to freak out a bit. I have a lot of planning to do. While I was very proud of myself for getting our plane tickets and booking (most of) our hotels, I still have a lot of work to do. Although I don’t plan on following a strict itinerary, there are some things I would like to prepare for.
If there is one thing I have learned in college, it is this: when stressed, make a list.
Things I need to do in preparation of our trip:
- Figure out transportation:
- What the hell is the difference between an Oyster card and a travel/paper card? Which one should we get? (Looks like the Oyster card is our best bet- At this point- I really don’t care if it is or isn’t, I’m just sick of doing the research.)
- How do we get from Heathrow to our hotel?
- Become somewhat familiar with the tube stations and their proximity to the places we’d like to go.
- Figure out transportation to/from the Lake District (see below).
- Get Eurostar tickets to Paris. Find out how to get to the Eurostar station from our hotel.
- Find out how to get from Eurostar in Paris to our hotel.
- Become somewhat familiar with the Metro stations and their proximity to the places we’d like to go.
- Find out how to get from the Eurostar station in Paris to our hotel in London (it will be a different hotel- near Gatewick).
- Figure out how to get from our hotel to Gatwick.
- Find someone who is kind enough to take us to/from the airport, or see if taking Yolobus is plausable. Kyle’s Ma is taking us, and my Ma is picking us up.
- Research day trip to the Lake District. I really want to go, but I’m not sure it’s practical. But is a trip to London and Paris practical to begin with? Nope. So why not indulge? Per the experienced travelers on the Fodors forum, save Lake District for another trip. 5 days is barely enough time to explore London itself.
- Come up with flexible itineraries for each day. Okay, I’m not a psycho who has to follow an itinerary down to the very minute, but I don’t want to spend all this money getting over there, and then waste time by not being organized. Plus, I will schedule in time for spontaneity ;)
- Buy an electrical converter (or whatever) so Kyle can charge his laptop and I can use my hair dryer.
- Buy a laptop charger for the plane. I’m not sure we’ll be able to use it, but if we can, it’ll be nice that we have it. Decided not to, as the chargers for Kyle’s MacBookPro are $50.
- Take a looksy at my Mom’s luggage, see if we can use it. It’s pretty hideous, but it will work!
- Make sure my mom can watch Piddy while we’re gone. Piddy’s going to her grandparents’ house while we’re gone! They had better not spoil her too much!
- Make a list of things to pack. Make sure I have said things.
- Make copies of pertinent documents (passport, credit cards, etc.).
- Make sure I have fun things to do on the plane. Bring a book (or two?), some magazines, iPod, etc. Have Kyle put Spaced and other shiz on his computer. What great fun it would be to watch Spaced on our way to London!
- Buy tickets to see King Lear at the Globe Theater. That’s right, mother fucking King Lear at the mother fucking Globe Theater.
- Look into buying tickets online for cruise on the Seine. If you purchase them online they take 4 euros off (making it 7 euros each, not bad!). But I want to make sure the dates/times are flexible if you buy them online.
- Look into trip to Versailles. How much will it cost? Is it worth it? What am I talking about, it’s Versailles! Of course it will be worth it! We’ll probably hold off to see Versailles until next time…
- Make sure my camera has enough memory for the entire trip. If not, buy another memory card. (Kyle assured me that we don’t need another one.)
- Make sure rent/bills are paid before we leave.
Wow. Lots to do. And I’m sure I’ll come up with even more. I had better get busy!
Ooh! I already remember one more thing!
16. Book hotel near Gatwick on last night.