Deux! :O

Posted on December 17, 2008

Deux is for two, which means today is my last day of work for two whole weeks and I seriously need the time off. It’s been a whirlwind sort of year with a lot of changes (especially at work), which is actually a good thing, but it’s been stressful at times so I’m looking forward to the break.

It also means I only have two days left before the flight (technically since I fly out late in the evening I have thee, but really, who’s counting?). Last night I booked my car to the airport and put together some maps and other info I felt like I needed to get me on my way. This afternoon I’ll pick up a couple of converters from my friend Kevin on the way home and then I should be ready to pack! I have a couple of days to get things ready, pack, clean, see what’s what and what I forgot but really I feel like I’m pretty much ready to go. It’s not like I’m heading to a 3rd world country or anything so if I forget something I feel like I need, I should be able to just buy it. So I don’t feel stressed about that at all.

The things I absolutely must remember I have piled on a counter ready to go. I think. lol I’ll spend some time tomorrow going through them to make sure. Passport, itineraries, confirmations, contact information. Addresses of hotels, consulate information and a map of the general area I plan to be in, though I’m likely to venture outside of that comfort zone after a little while. It’s only a couple of weeks, but I usually pack a lot into a short time. Or at least I try to…though this time I really may just want to slow down a bit and enjoy specific things more deeply. I may never get back to places like the Louvre and the Musee d’Orsay and I very much don’t want to leave feeling like I didn’t see all I wanted of them.

~60 hours to go. Whoa.

I seriously cannot wait.

T-11

Posted on December 8, 2008

11 days remain and honestly, I think I’m awestruck by that. When did that happen?

The leaves have begun to settle from the trees in preparation for what seems to be an icy winter, the fall colors all but lost in the ice blue sky. It’s snowed already this year, earlier than usual…perhaps joining into the mad rush toward the holidays like stores and the hordes of shoppers they hope to attract. I don’t mind, I love this time of year.

I think I’ve sorted out my issues with Rail Europe, though I will never work with them again, I think…opting instead to deal directly with Eurostar and others when I can. That’s fine; live and learn, right? I have bus/rail passes (le Metro and the Tube) as well as my actual tickets for the Eurostar to London and back, I’ve registered with the consulates, mapped out a few things (a dozen more to go!) and picked up a few necessary items for the course, I think. I’ve been studying the vocabulary (1,000 words) with some success and some…not so much but that’s alright. I’ll do my best to communicate clearly and hope I don’t end up accidentally buying real estate. And even then, hey…vacation home. And who doesn’t need un maison de vacances en Paris?

I’m excited and nervous and just trying to be open about the whole trip. I think every day I see notes and photos from people who went and it seems like no big deal to them…maybe it’s something that you just can’t convey easily in a photo or a word, or maybe it’s just another city and I’ll feel the same. I really don’t know, but I suppose it doesn’t matter. I can’t imagine not being moved by a place with such rich history and passion, but you never know. The point is to go and find out.

And I’ve wanted to go my entire life. T-11.

Baited and Switched

Posted on November 30, 2008

I’m exceptionally disappointed with Rail Europe right now. I expect a certain amount of underhandedness and shady practices from US carriers, it’s almost their trademark these days. Offered fares fluctuate but the moment and on-line travel sites promise everything but the sun for one price only to drown you in “fees and additional charges.” It’s such a common practice that most people don’t even mind anymore and some will even defend it.

I don’t know why I expected more from Rail Europe, though. Silly me. A few days ago I used their on-line booking website to reserve travel from Paris to London and back for a small leg of my journey. There were multiple fares available, some with first class passage, some with a mix of first class seat without meals, etc. I opted for the comfortable seat, with some flexibility in exchange/refund and no meals. The total was just under $400US. Not bad, not extraordinary, but acceptable.

I immediately got a form letter “non-confirmation” letting me know someone would need to review my order, but not to worry, all was well. If your new to travel, this is red flag #1. Anyone that has a form letter that states everything needs to be reviewed by a “travel specialist” should give you something to think about. I knew what was coming, though: this fare is no longer available, next best, blah blah blah. You should also be weary of flashing notes like “ONE SEAT LEFT AT THIS PRICE!” on sites like Expedia and Travelocity, and especially Cheap Tickets (I never use them anymore, they’re the worst with “fees” doubling the advertised prices). Go and check the airline booking website directly when you see this. Every time I have, I’ve found that the plane is less than half-booked. At that point, call the airline directly and see if they can offer you a better fare than the site. You may be surprised at how many “one seats left” at that price they actually have.

And of course, this morning the E-mail came. To the tune of almost $600US instead of $400. Of course, if I don’t mind traveling 9 hours later, or another day, they can drop it a bit to almost $500. Sigh.

It’s possible that the site isn’t updated with enough frequency that seats sell out during booking, etc. But honestly? The whole process is simply crap.

All travel companies base fares on a formula and algorithm that predicts peak usage and need in rder to maximize profits. Gone are the days of 250 first class seats, 500 2nd class seats and 1500 steerage seats with 3 fixed prices for each. Depending on the time you order, the time you travel and the number of people looking up prices, a 1st class seat can cost you less than a 2nd and availability for any can fluctuate between all available and none, only to go back to all again, depending on the formula. It’s a high-tech bait and switch and EVERYONE knows it.

According to the E-mail I got, the seats I requested are available, with the options I wanted: just not at the price I was quoted.

Um.

Really?

Why?

If they were available when I put in my credit card number, and hit PURCHASE, and the seats are still available now, why did I have to wait three days for someone to contact me and tell me they actually cost more? Would you accept that if that happened to you at Walmart or Target? Would you be OK with picking up a loaf of bread on the shelf marked at $2.39 only to be told when you get to the register that it’s no longer available for $2.39 and is now in fact $3.59?

Car companies get away with it, marking one price on the sticker and then telling you it’s much more based on demand when you go to buy it, travel companies do it with a wreckless abandon that’s something close to criminal and event vendors do it for tickets to concerts and for some reason we accept it. Why do you think some web sites won’t give you the price of some “sale items” until you add them to your cart? (Here’s a hint: they’re tracking product demand and price tolerance). I’m wondering how long it’s going to be before my frozen waffles have “See manager for pricing” instead of “$2.99.”

Incidentally, I checked the rates directly with Eurostar, the train I should be traveling on and not only are the lesser rates still listed as available, they’re for better seats. So shame on you Rail Europe. I really expected more from you. But really, you’re no better than your US counterparts, are you?

Vingt et Deux

Posted on November 27, 2008

22 days remain and the trip is really starting to feel real to me. Yesterday I ordered another CF card (4 GB) so that I would have lots of storage for long trips when I might not get much of a chance to dump photos, and today I did what I could to book my rail travel between Paris and London as well as pick up travel passes for the Tube and the Metro. I got all three ordered but haven’t gotten confirmation on the Eurostar tickets. They sent me an email and said it would take 24 - 48 hours to confirm - hopefully there aren’t any problems with that. Getting to London is kind of important…otherwise I’ll be sleeping on the Rue de Castiglione.

Today is Thanksgiving and it’s absolutely gorgeous outside. A bit on the cool side but mild winds and a lot of sunshine. I’m hoping Paris will be similar when I get there, though I expect it will at times be cold and rainy, which is ok, too. I’m really looking forward to the Eurostar trip as well so I hope they can get me a confirmation soon.

This week I need to print out itineraries, vouchers and passes, and perhaps maps with routes on them so I can get acclimated. Historically it’s taken me a couple of days to start to understand the infrastructure of a city and begin to find my way, but both London and Paris are nothing short of complex so I might need a little help. I think a few sure figures with absolutely necessary paths (airport to hotel, hotel to train stations, etc) would probably give me a good start. I also need to check what clothes I have and what layers will go with what so I can make sure I don’t short myself or overpack, two things I’m prone to doing, especially the latter. I want to travel as lightly as possible but it’s 14 days, and socks alone would pretty much take up enough space to cancel out the idea of “light travel.” I think if I can stay dry and use hotel laundry if available I can cut things down a little with a bit of planning. We’ll see how it goes.

Other than that I need to make work coverage arrangements, collect important emergency information into a single safe place to carry with me and then make bill arrangements and hopefully that’s it!

Anything I’m forgetting? It’s so hard to know until you’re on the plane.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Thanksgiving and a safe, beautiful weekend!

:)

Posted on November 23, 2008

26 days to Paris, 32 days til…

T-48

Posted on November 1, 2008

Around this time in 6 weeks 6 days I should be on French soil, standing some place perhaps along the Champs-Élysées or seated in some small bistro, sipping an early evening wine and watching the day’s traffic shift to the night’s shadows, tourists to vampires in the City of Lights.

Last night I celebrated Halloween with some friends in a few local clubs and bars, a child of the night traveling by taxi (a scary feat on any night, much less Halloween) from one haunt to the next, wrapped up in the spirit of the holiday and the vibrance that comes with so many people focused on being a part of it all. It’s not my usual scene - I feel like I’ve sort of outgrown that stage and though the people I was with were fun, no matter who you’re with you always think about the one’s who aren’t there and you wish could be, but it’s nice to step back into it nonetheless once in awhile, to visit I suppose.

I managed not to drink too much or do anything I wished I could forget, and even came away with a few things to laugh at remembering, like the cabby playing “She Spoke French” for the cab ride, a man in a giant 7 foot panda costume or the people dressed as a bunch of bananas waiting outside to get in as we left. And while I don’t really expect to see people dressed as bananas on the streets of Paris (but hey, you never know, right?) I am looking forward to a whole new set of experiences to write about, people to observe and places to photograph.

Fra Giovanni Giocondo wrote, “Courage you have, and the knowledge that we are all pilgrims together, wending through unknown country, home.”

I like that.

Potential

Posted on October 11, 2008

With 69 (hehe) days left I can’t believe it’s almost down to 2 months! Where did the time go? I got kind of sidetracked in life again and haven’t been studying the language like I should…but I have a feeling I’ll pick that up again soon.

The days have grown shorter, and each morning as I leave for work, a cool, damp air drifts about me, filled with the first hint of mid-fall. It settles on windows, perspiration on an overworked brow, frozen in the night and thawed before first light. Autumn is here and I’m ready for it. The summer was too long, something I wouldn’t mind forgetting.

I’ve been looking through photos on Flickr, exploring other people’s shots of their travels to places far and near and worrying that after everything I’ll walk away with nothing more than a memory and some snapshots that anyone could’ve taken - not that every shot must be a work of art - but it’s a valid concern. I very often have trouble truly expressing what I see or hear or think, and more often than not I look at a photo I took and I’m disappointed. I don’t say it often, it’s boring to hear. But it’s the truth. Evem the photos i love I usually feel like something isn’t right, something just wasn’t captured. Perhaps that’s simply the nature of photographs. We capture everything there is in a scene in an instant, ending the kinetic aspect of it all. If we do it right we suspend everything at its maximum potential, as if every dot on the page is one fraction of a second from the next second in its life, frozen perfectly on the verge of something. Look at any great photograph or painting and you’ll see it. Great works always seem like you could reach out and touch them and they might reanimate, continuing on into the exact moment after they were locked in place.

Consider Jean Béraud’s painting “Paris Street Scene.”

Potential.

69 days.

Tick Tock

Posted on September 22, 2008

Only 88 days now. Insane. When did that happen?? IN just under 90 days I should be underway if all goes to plan.

Therein lies the rub, though. “According to plan.” This has never been my strong suit, and historically things have so often gone so far from “plan” as to build an unnatural superstition in me. Deep down, I tend to tell myself it’s because I don’t actually think things thorugh completely, I make assumptions about situations and people because I expect people to be less random and chaotic than me. Thus, if one element behave erratically, my light-weight web dissolves, a frail ether in a strong wind.

As often as not, though, it’s something completely out of my control. So I try to keep positive and be general. I do have tickets & hotel rooms (so far as I know), and as of right now, the airline still exists and is operational.

So 88 days. I hope to be in Paris.

Practice Trip

Posted on September 5, 2008

I can’t believe I’m already getting close to double digits now! Only 105 days left, just 15 weeks until I go. Unbelievable. I know I have no real concept of time (I never have had) but I look over here at previous posts and I’m just amazed that months have passed.

Last weekend I took an impromptu trip to San Francisco and had a really great time. I also learned a couple of things about myself (especially the traveling me) and realized that certain aspects of the Paris trip would be similar, I think. I walked tons, explored and basically just did whatever I wanted, picking up a tour here and there and just finding my way. I talked with random people, made conversation with complete strangers and just blended in as much as I could. I stopped moving only when I felt like it, with no real schedule or design, and when I was in motion I did what I could to stay in motion. Catch a bus, too slow? Walk, keep going. Wrong street? Take the next one, they all lead somewhere and you can always call a cab. Know where you started, know where you have to end up. Everything in between is adventure.

And that’s the way I treated it: like an adventure. Nothing was lost or a waste. If I got lost it meant I saw something I hadn’t seen before, went someplace new. Last weekend I was genuinely happy and it showed, I think. People just smiled at me and said hello, and I did everything I could to enjoy it. While I don’t know that France (and London, actually) will be as easy to move through in this way, I can imagine this is just how I’ll try to be.

That’s kind of how I discovered something about me. Some time on the flight back I think I finally gave into a thought I’d been pondering for awhile. At our core, we really never do change. We grow, shrink, learn, get programmed, jaded, whatever. But some piece of us is always us, and I think it’s from birth. I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately.

A friend of mine once said she didn’t really think of me as a loner, that she believed I needed people and a group as a part of who I am. I wonder. She’s right that I’m not a loner, but I do have a certain lone wanderer thing going on. I think back to when I was a kid, even a very little one and I realize some things really haven’t changed. As far back as 3 I can recall running off on imaginary adventures, just me and the world, exploring, losing myself in a city, a culture, another planet or place. I would see it on TV or hear someone talk about it and I would fall asleep playing it out in my head.  Before I was 5 I was doing as much of that as I could for real…slipping off in to woods or a new street or lost basement or attic or wherever, as long as I was in motion. By ten, dissappearing was the game of the day, just so long as I found my way back by dark. If I was inside an apartment complex, even dark wasn’t a barrier.

Sometimes I would drag whatever friend I was closest to at the time (I almost always had one or two, but no more who were close) along for the ride, but more often than not, it was just me, lost in wherever. I honestly wonder if I went alone because I preferred it that way, or because the reality is that finding a kindred spirit willing to go without a plan (or with a very loose one subject to change) and find adventure is a little harder than just going. I really don’t know the answer to that one. I can tell you it makes me wonder about a lot of the choices I made early on in life, though. How did I not end up in the Peace Corps or as a tomb raider? Seriously, right? I’m still not 100% positive how that happened. I guess maybe I just did what I thought I was supposed to do.

Regardless, I’m a lot more settled now, despite whatever genetic hard-wiring takes me from a coffee shop in Decatur to a plane taking off for San Francisco in just three hours. Perhaps it’s through that elusive thing called time, or just life’s use, or hell, maybe it’s just hard to raid tombs without bus fare. I don’t know.

I know I still fall asleep almost every night thinking up some adventure.

And even Indiana Jones had a real job.

T-18

Posted on August 16, 2008

It’s a little under 18 weeks to go now and I’m anxious in a good way, I think. I’m really starting to look forward to the trip, though I still have a few small feelings of reservation about it all. It is, afterall a new country for me, a whole new experience, and one that I will be taking on entirely alone. And while that definitely has a certain amount of adventurous appeal, it’s a little disconcerting, too. It’s oddly comforting to have this little space on the Internet to keep connected to. You can bet your sweet croissant that if I get lost in France, you are all getting lost with me. LOL

So I’m still looking forward to it all, to Christmas and New Years in the incredible City of Lights, to traveling down the River Seine, to the fashionable shops and restaurants on each side (Rive Gauche and Rive Droit), and mostly to just being in Paris.

I’m developing such a wanderlust these days and 18 weeks seems like 18 years. Which reminds me, I need to book a couple more fun tours to do while I’m there. 18 weeks to go!!!

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