Bruges, Day 3 – Paris, Day 1
Bruges, Day 3 – Paris, Day 1
Bruges, Day 3 – Paris, Day 1
Bruges, Day 2
Bruges, Day 1
Amsterdam, Day 1
Travel Day
Last night, as I was coding… Liz was also in the office, starting to pack. Because most of our place is under construction, my office area doubles as our closet.
With our upcoming travels, Amsterdam is one of our first stops. And despite the closing lyrics, hearing this song has gotten me slowly ready for our trip.
Liz and I are heading overseas next week, and I’m not quite ready for it. I mean, I am ready – in the sense that when I’m called to go and eat a lot of food, and drink wine in France… I am capable and up to the task. I mean ready in the other sense, as in: researching the things I want to see, creating the various Google Maps I want to have as handy reference, having a specific museum to day itinerary printed and folded crisply in my pocket.
I’m going on a trip next week, and had a passing thought earlier this morning that… Maybe I should go find my passport. Liz and I hadn’t discussed this yet, and so because of that I figured things were still fine.
Not only will we be able to revisit that amazing city, but we’ll also be in grand company: we’ll be traveling with Meg, Josh, Michelle, and Mike. I’ve had a lot of fun hanging out with these folks of late, and I’m really looking forward to us all sharing an apartment in Paris.
We ended up talking a lot about travel, about writing, the things we do for money and the things we do for meaning. I learned that he’s heading to teach English abroad in Thailand, and will be departing the States once more come Spring/Summer.
It’s funny how nonchalant I became, in regards to turbulence. I still got a bit nervous, but was much better on the ride home than I normally am. With all the ups and downs with the ship, it made turbulence seem like less of a worry. After a week’s worth of ocean blue, we arrived home to a rather brown and drab Chicago. Even though there was a dramatic color change… it felt good to be arriving home, and to be back on familiar ground once more.
Cruise should equal relaxation. But a part of my brain simply cannot get rid of that scene from Titanic, where the old couple is clutching hands in bed as their cabin floods with seawater.
On talking to our hotel concierge, we got a few recommendations for places to eat in the French Quarter. We weren’t sure on the overall wait time, but the concierge was able to call over to Emeril’s NOLA restaurant, and got us a reservation. It was a somewhat early dinner time for us, but since we mostly had airline crackers all day… it would be the first real meal of the day. Looking back, it was good that we got in when we did, as the place definitely filled up (with lots of folks waiting around by the time we left).
Earlier, the delay time was listed as 2:20 PM. I just realized that this was an intentional thing, as it falls just shy of 3 hours. When they announced an official delay and crossed the 3 hour mark… we were told there would be $100 refunds.