I’m hanging out with Marco at Maxon, where he works. Yesterday was a holiday (Ascension Day, which is 39 days after Easter) so most people took today as a vacation day to get a 4-day weekend, leaving the office here mostly empty.
Right now I’m browsing the web, and looking up hotel rates for the next stage of my journey.
I sat down with Marco and Alice today and sketched out a rough outline of my tour of Germany.
5/17 – Marco’s
Arrive, hang out with Marco.
Acclimate to local time.
Make plans.
5/18 – Maxon and Frankfurt
Go with Marco to work and see what Maxon is like.
Visit Frankfurt in the evening, buy 5-day German Rail Pass (189€ or about $256).
5/19 – Rotenburg
Visit Rotenburg with Marco and family.
5/20 – Berlin
Take train to Berlin.
Look at Berlin.
5/21 – Berline
Continue exploring Berlin.
5/22 – Berlin
More Berlin.
5/23 – Munich
Travel to Munich.
Explore Munich.
5/24 – Munich
More Munich.
5/25 – Stuttgart, Heidelberg
On the way back to Frankfurt, explore places on the way.
5/26 – Cologne
Travel with Marco to his parents’ in Cologne.
5/27 – Cologne
More Cologne.
5/28 – Around
See stuff.
5/29 – Return
Fly back to Boston
5/30 – Work at Staples
If I’m conscious.
Still need to flesh out the details, but that’s the general outline.
Will cost 189€ for rail pass, probably 200€ for hotel rooms (~40€ x 5 nights)
Total travel costs, ~400€ (~$543), not counting plane, food, and shopping.
I’m now officially underway… I’m in JFK now, I have 4 hours until my flight to Germany leaves.
I was stressed yesterday, but now that I’m in the process I’m pretty relaxed. I’ve flown often enough that it’s a familiar, easy process and so far it’s all gone nicely.
In the connector flight from Boston to NY I sat next to a nice guy who, it turns out, also lives in Worcester. He works at Astra-Zenica, inspecting labels on bottles all day to make sure they are correct. He says if he makes a mistake, people could die, so he is under tremendous stress all the time, and often just collapses in bed when he gets home after work. He was going to JFK to get a flight to London, where he will visit a friend there and then continue on to Ghana.
I had lunch at Boston-Logan, a side salad and plain baked potato from Wendy’s. Healthy and cheap food from an airport fast food joint. Who knew? Cost $2, less than bottled water.
Man, my neck hurts. Those little planes are not comfortable.
I just noticed a Nintendo DS demo station. Interesting. Cheap enough for Delta and Nintendo to do, since it’s basically just a DS that’s plugged in and running a custom cartridge. Cool to see one in the wild.
Now I’ve got a few more hours to kill. My defective laptop battery will give up soon, and the power plugs here seem to be disabled. Bastards, can’t give a little free power to their customers…
Guess I’ll play some DS and flip though some books on Germany.
I leave tomorrow, so I’m all jittery, unfocused… stressed.
Still have some packing to do, but I’m not too worried about that. I’m more worried about the things I *haven’t* thought of… some regulation or procedure that will make me miss my flight or get stuck at customs…
Plus, I want to bring Marco a present… what to get him that they don’t have in Germany?
Suggestions I’ve gotten so far are Maple Syrup and Fluffernutter…
Also, I’m *still* waffling on travel methods… do I get a rail pass? do I rent a car? do I just buy train tickets as I need them? And now it’s down to the wire… choose! Quick! Now! Schnell! Aaaargh!!!
Carl played the song Lost in Germany for me… hopefully not my anthem there…
My trip suddenly looms, I leave next Wednesday, less than a week away!
Things to do:
[X] Get plane tickets
[X] Get passport
[ ] Plan Itinerary
[X] Buy German -> US power adaptor
[ ] Buy extra memory card for camera
[ ] Research cellphone use in Germany
[ ] Pack clothes
[ ] Pack gadgets
I plan to travel moderately light, so for gadgets, I’m thinking
* eBook reader
* Nintendo DS
* Camera
* Laptop
* Cellphone
So much to do! Guess I’d better get organized for a change.