Laundry time...

I have to keep laundry on the brain or I'll forget to go get it before the laundromat closes!

This weekend has been pretty low-key, but eventful in it's own way. A few months ago I bought a ticket to London for a 2 week vacation. (I still can't believe that I was able to do that. I have traveled quite a bit, but not by myself for so long.) But, being in Europe, I had to try to hang out with one of my best friends who happens to live in France, so Phill and I began to try to figure out a way to work that into my trip. At first I was thinking we could meet in Paris like the last time I was abroad. We were going to go with that plan until he suggested that I take the train to Strasbourg where he lives. I was pretty excited about the idea since it was a new place; and after Wikipedia-ing it, it looks to be quite a beautiful and diverse city, so how could I say no? I still wanted at least a day in Paris though, so I then began looking around at flight days and times and really just playing around on Kayak to see where I could go for really cheap. Well, Dublin happened to be pretty inexpensive and I figured I could spend a couple days there and then hop back to London. So, in my head, it was set. London, 3 days-Strasbourg, 3.5 days-Paris1.5, days-Dublin, 2 days-London, 4 days. Quite the whirlwind when you really think about it. Friday I had the day off, so I decided that rather than get out of bed at a decent hour I would knuckle down and finalize my travel plans, including purchasing plane tickets. After looking at many sites and realizing the extra cost of checked baggage on these tiny but cheap flights, I started to realize that I might have to settle on the destinations. So, in the spur of the moment, I decided that rather than going back to Paris just to fly out the next day, I would just stay for a couple extra days. Phill has classes and other responsibilities, so I will stop bugging him on Sunday and have some Parisian adventures until Wednesday, then back to London for another 5 days. I'm pretty happy with this decision, even though it means that I'll only be adding one country to my list, I will be adding another city and some great experiences. Phill and I have traveled together in many different settings and locations, but neither of us has visited where the other lives, it should be interesting. And it will be nice to actually have a sense of my surroundings since he knows the city so well. So, now I'm staring at my printed boarding pass from London to Paris and trying to remember where I have stashed all of my important things like my passport and emergency credit card and thinking about how excited/nervous/in shock I am that I will be on a plane by myself for I'm not sure how long in just 3 short weeks. It's a bit surreal really. My plan is to meet a very attractive European man who will fall madly in love with me so we can get married and travel the world together and eventually make the cutest babies ever when we settle down in some beautiful country surrounded by beaches and parks and dogs running around...haha, or not. But either way, it will be a trip to remember. I can not wait!

And now, my laundry awaits!