traveldiary.stracke.us

After what seems like years of planning this “round the world” journey, it may really take place. American Airlines were kind enough to send us our 26 free:!:, no it is not a misprint, tickets for the next 11 months. Believe it or not, all earned through their mileage reward program! Considering they had to write all the tickets by hand (in this age of computers), it must have been quite a feat They said they had never had anyone that got such value out of their miles. The husband is responsible for that-he is an expert! Many friends have said this may be book material, but after printing and having a general A-Z guidebook on how to do it, I’m sure the airlines would retract that “Around the World Ticket”, making the book obsolete.

I’ve been making so many reservations for hostels, apts, national parks, etc., one would think I studied ( yes– for the younger set– they also had colleges in those days), “tourism”, instead of languages.:shock: Today I was making reservations for Kruger National Park in South Africa and had a hard time communicating, even though they speak English. Heaven help me when I have to make reservations for the 2nd half of the trip, where they don’t speak English, German or Italian After spending ample time in Germany and Italy in the fall, the German and Italian should be solid again.
It’s 5 AM and I’m continuing the post! I must have what they call “Reisefieber” in German. It’s a disease that doesn’t allow you to sleep more than 4-5 hrs. a night because of anticipation of a journey.

So yesterday I decided it was time to get my hair ready for the trip. What did I do, I cut it off!
What was I thinking? Naturally I was not pleased with the result. Even though family members assured me that it looked great, I needed to mourn my 2 year hair growth experience. Looking at it logically, it will be easier to care of….but I never did like logic!
BTW, my normal hairdresser, of course, was not available, even though I had made this appointment 3 months ago. He was having his 2nd child(actually, the wife was doing the having). Now what was he thinking scheduling a birth on my day and leaving me in such a moment…..Only kidding, I guess all went well, and he is the proud Papa of his 2nd baby girl:-). Then they changed my appointment to another hairdresser in the salon. This, of course, gave me anxiety, because anything having to do with my hair does. Half an hr before the scheduled time, I receive a call, that this hairdresser was on the way to the ER because she needed stitches, since she had put a gash in her finger while cutting the last person’s hair. Ooh, glad I wasn’t reponsible! I guess she’s recuperating and hopefully doing ok. Finally I received a 3rd appointment with another hairdresser and as they say, the rest is history and history can’t be altered. We are to learn from it…what did I learn?? To forget it all….. normal, right?

Wasn”t going to start this journal until we left, but that would leave you all out of the planning stage-don’t want to rob you of that experience! Hey where are my smilies? Can’t work without them Well it’s been 2 straight days of planning and my computer eyes are definitely cro(x)ed (he,he)–lack of smilies! Yesterday we were figuring out skiing for Jan 2005 and we actually booked hotel rooms–hopefully making all family members happy . Then my hubby had this wonderful idea that skiing in the Alps next winter before going on to India would be a great idea-no the Alps are not on the way to India, but if you are connecting through London, they actually can be, as we found out-booked a flight to Munich from London and back and will be able to do a week in a wellness hotel in Austria (they spoil you rotten with saunas, aroma therapies, baths, etc) and 3 nights in London to boot-that will put those books I got on my B-day to good use(famous paintings of the world). Just watch me in the London National Gallery impress all the visitors standing next to me with my vast knowledge of the masters of art., hehe.
Today we got on the kick that we really needed to do some preliminary info gathering for South Africa and Namibia. 6 hrs later and we are booking more flights–there’s a 2 day sale on South African Airways, so we hit that right! I’m back to work. I’ve worked harder since the end of school, than before-can’t complain, it’s fun!