There's Never Enough Time

This year, for a change, I didn’t rush off to Europe a week after school ended (I am a teacher not a student, and if you are a student who has the funds to travel to Europe in the summer, then I hate you). I actually had about 3 weeks to fully submit to the total collapse that comes with finally ushering the children off into summer break. Which means, of course, I had plenty of time to pack and prepare for this trip. Which brings me to my first travel tip:

*SuperNova Travel Tip: There is never enough time to prepare for your trip, so quit running around in circles and give up the To Do list.

It should be noted that it’s possible that my travel tips will repeat from trip to trip. However, since I doubt that any of you have memorized my past travel tips or compiled a list, I’m not too worried about doubles. If you are following my travel log with an eerie attention to detail, then I say that reminders are good for everyone (as I slowly back away from you).

And while we’re noting things, I’d like to note that this will be my very first travel log written as a part of a duo instead of as a solo traveler. This summer I will be traveling with my love, Mc, which I am extra excited about because he has never before left the US. This could be because I will get to see Europe for the first time again through his excited and unjaded eyes or it could be because it will be fun to mess with him. We’ll see how it goes.

Anyway, despite the fact that Mc and I felt we had plenty of time to pack, at midnight the night before the day we left I was convinced that I’d never be done. This is the point every summer at which I roll my eyes and say aloud, “What the hell, I’ve done this a thousand times, you’d think I’d remember how long it takes to pack!” Meanwhile, I’ve already forgotten how long it took us to pack.

*SuperNova Travel Tip: Make a list.

I have a terrible habit of waiting to pack until the night before/morning of. Which is fine except when you realize that you need to pack something that you are out of and the store stubbornly refuses to be open at 3am. I travel often enough that I made a checklist in a Word document and have it saved on my computer (finally, after several trips of sitting down, staring at the ceiling, and trying to remember what I need to bring [I always forgot pajamas]), which I contemplated posting for all to use and share until I realized that there are a number of very personal items on there that I absolutely need to remember to pack but that you do not need to know I have. So, as noted before, make a list.

We made it to the airport with no trouble (thanks Mom!) and thus began our million hours of traveling, the strangest part of which was that it was much cheaper for us to fly straight from the US to Amsterdam and then from Amsterdam to London than it was for us to just fly straight to Amsterdam.

*SuperNova Travel Tip: Do not try to understand airlines, your brain will aneurism.