Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Pre-trip jitters

My trip is about to start and I’m having last minute jitters.

Of course the weather is a big part of it. Just reading the news online and taking a peek at evening news is enough to raise my eyebrows in despair. I feel for all the travelers who have founded themselves stranded in different parts of the world. Somebody I worked with can’t get out of Texas, Houston (destination: London, UK), a lot of people were forced to spend a night in Frankfurt, Germany or Paris, France. Eurostar queues in England seem to be devastating and there’s no guarantee that they will score a ticket for the date they want.

I just checked arrivals/departures for Moscow Sheremetyevo Airport, it appears the same flight that I’ll be taking on Thursday was cancelled yesterday although Milan Malpensa was not closed. The flight from Krasnodar to Moscow was a bit late yesterday as well as today, albeit (and thankfully) only slightly late. Also, just for comparison's sake, I checked Airberlin’s departures for today – none of the flights are on time, some delays are over 2 hours.

My big concern is to take off on time from here. When I booked my flights back in September, 2 hours 50 minutes seemed like the perfect stopover time, especially after 10-12-hour night stopovers that I had on my last trip to Europe this summer. But now I’m not so sure anymore. I also will have to check in my baggage twice, it’s not possible to check it in for both segments (as the second flight is a code-sharing flight), but I wouldn’t dare do that as both Aeroflot and Alitalia are not known for being fantastic with baggage. ;)

Anyway, although I’m not feeling especially perky right now, I’m sure it’ll work out in the end, there’s always another flight, I guess. (I’m going out on a limb here.)

At the same time, I feel great if a bit overwhelmed about the trip anyway. Milan! Cologne! Munich! Karslruhe! Berlin! Oslo! Stockholm! (And potentially also other destinations.) This trip can bring nothing but good experiences, new connections and hopefully friends, meet-ups with old friends, holiday spirit, some shopping fun.

I’m halfway through with my packing. I still have some things to iron (argh) and a couple of clothing items I haven’t decided on (basically the dilemma is, do I want to look cute or warm?). I’ll be taking some presents for a couple hosts and friends and although they look small, all of that adds weight… But what can you do, eh? Christmas is Christmas.

I have said goodbye to some friends already, also a couple of meet-ups are planned for tonight and tomorrow. I’m getting a little bit sad about this (and don’t recognize myself, to be honest), but with all the communication means this days, we’ll all stay in touch maybe one or two will come visit me in Berlin.

Anyway, I hope all’s well with those who are preparing for their trips as well, let’s hope the weather will improve and let us all have a good time wherever we will find ourselves.

Useful reads:
Holy Crap, What Have I Done (Pre-trip jitters)
Preparing to Travel To-Do List

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...