Preparation

Laura and I are in Terminal 5 of Heathrow awaiting our plane to Stockholm at the moment. We got up much too early to catch a bus from Oxford to Heathrow this morning. At least we made it with plenty of time. Surprisingly, security is much more strict here in Heathrow than I've ever experienced in the US. By the same token all of the security seems more like intimidation than actually secure. This is because Laura and I noted numerous methods that could be employed to completely undermine the process - somewhat worrisome. As psychologists will tell you, psychotic behavior is usually driven by a desire to "beat the system". The more challenging we make "the game" the more likely people are going to try to beat it.

Well, our gate has just been called - we'll check in soon!

Ohhh the pain of being a fool...

Thinking that I was being smart and responsible I purchased my plane tickets for this coming summer trip back in early February at a price of $1,550. In comparison to the cost of tickets that I've purchased over the last couple years it was a bit higher but all the travel advice I got was to buy early because airline ticket prices are going to jack WAAAAY up when oil prices climb. I figured that the advice was sound and decided to jump on it.

Unfortunately, it wasn't the cheapest that the tickets were going to get. Back in March I checked the same itinerary and found that the price had dropped to $1,223. I immediately shot an email off to British Airways in the slim chance that they'd be willing to refund me the difference. Of course the answer was "No". A couple days later the price was back up and I figured that it was just a fluke.

Last night I checked the flight again... $950. That's 33% cheaper than I originally paid. Now I feel very foolish. The difference of $600 is roughly equal to one of my two-week paychecks in the winter. I should have purchased my tickets through Orbitz or another site that offers a price guarantee. Stupid me!

Just got off of the phone with Mateja. Looks like we've set our dates more firmly for Bosnia/Croatia. I'll be arriving in Beograd the evening of July 2 from Vienna, Austria and then we'll be setting off for Sarajevo the next morning.

The plan:

Sarajevo - July 3 & 4
Mostar - July 5
Dubrovnik - July 6 & 7

Then we're going to catch a ride down south into Montenegro in order to hop a night train to Nis on the 8th.

We haven't yet figured out how large our group is going to be. So far we have Mateja, Andreja, one of Mateja's friends and me. Andreja's girlfriend might come along. And then there's always the possibility that we'd increase our size by one more though that could start to get somewhat unruly when booking hostel rooms... Once Mateja lets me know the size of the group I'll be making the various bookings. I found some killer locations and I hope the rooms are still available in the next week or two when Mateja gets back to me.

I'm really interested to find out what the experience will be like for a group of Serbs traveling through Bosnia and Croatia. Since the hostilities of the 1990s are still fresh on some people's minds it might get uncomfortable from time to time but I would imagine it's a pretty important experience. After all, Serbia, Bosnia and Croatia were at one point located in the same country - Yugoslavia. Mateja's best guess is that Serbs traveling with an American will be safe from any sort of aggressive Bosniaks/Croats and an American traveling with a group of Serbs will be safe from any aggressive Serbs. Not that I ever really worry about people assaulting me but it's nice to think that such diplomatic immunity might play into it.

This particular leg of my trip is really psyching my out. When I went through Sarajevo and Mostar in 2005 the weather was terrible and my traveling companions had hit the doldrums so it wasn't the most exciting time to be there. All that despite the fact that I was there researching the effects that the wars of the 1990s had on ethnic relations and Sarajevo was pretty much ground zero for the worst of the fighting. So, I'll be making up for that missed opportunity - especially neat because Mateja's friend has a Bosniak friend who's going to be showing us around.

Dubrovnik was also a major disappointment in 2005 because I had one of the worst migraines of my life. Not sure what brought it on but I ended up having to sleep for 80% of our time there. Again, I'm looking forward to rectifying that disastrous visit. Dubrovnik is well on its way to becoming one of the hottest tourist locations in the world and I'd rather see it before it's basically impossible to enjoy. Though with it's prominent feature on the Travel Channel it might already be too late. Not to enjoy but you understand what I'm saying... It might be crammed with tourists. Screw it, it'll be beautiful anyway.

I'm off to bed now. Laura's coming home from New York tomorrow and I have to pick her up in the evening. I'm looking forward to seeing her even though I'll only have her for the duration of the ride home - she's got to go to bed and work in the morning.

It's March 27. It'll probably say that somewhere else in the post but I wanted to be sure. Still a couple months from takeoff and I'm making sure I have everything in order. I'm hoping that this attempt at keeping a journal actually sticks with me. I've tried this a couple of times before but never could keep it up. Hopefully the fact that I've decided to purchase a little NetBook to tote around with me will make chronicling the journey easier. It's a little MSI Wind U120. Good battery life and light as hell. I just have a couple things to add to this, the first entry....

THE PLAN: Alright, so, the general itinerary. The trip is broken into two segments:

June 6 - June 28, when I'll be traveling with Laura.

June 28 - August 6, when I'll be traveling alone.... *ominous music for my mom*

June 6, 2009 - Laura and I will fly via British Airways from Sea-Tac, WA to London, U.K. leaving at 9:50pm.

June 7 - 10 - Sight-see in London

June 11 - Take a train to our friend Chris's house in Oxford. We'll probably hop off in Windsor to peek at the castle during the day.

June 12 - Laura and I will be renting a car in Oxford and driving to Warwick to stay at a nice Bed and Breakfast called the "Agincourt Lodge". Hopefully it's as nice as it claims to be.

June 13 - Laura and I will drive from Warwick south through the Cotswolds and spend the day taking in the sights before ending up back in Oxford at Chris's house.

June 14 - Get an early start for our extended drive north to St. Andrews, Scotland where Claire is living and going to school. According to ViaMichelin the drive should take about 7 hours. Hopefully that's counting on dawdling elderly drivers going slow and we'll be able to make the trip in 6...

June 14, 15 - Laura, Chris and I will be staying with Claire in St. Andrews. Likely drink entirely too much and have a good time.

June 16, 17 - Drive an hour and a half south to Edinburgh and stay at the St. Christopher's Inn right there in the old town. It has one of the highest rankings on Hostel World so hopefully it lives up to the hype.

June 18 - EARLY morning drive to York. We only get one day here so we want to make the most of our tourist time.

June 19 - EARLY morning drive back to Oxford to return the car by 1pm - otherwise we'll be charged $60. Spend the rest of the day finally getting a chance to really explore Oxford. My mom insists that we visit the pub that was frequented by C.S. Lewis, et al. The Eagle and the Child. Hopefully it'll be worth it.

June 20 - Laura and I will catch a train from Oxford to Heathrow airport. Then catch a flight to Stockholm, Sweden.

June 20, 21 - Stay at a Hostel in Gamla Stan (Old Town), Stockholm. We'll be here for the Summer Solstice. I hear there are intense parties in Stockholm on the Solstice.

June 22 - 27 - Laura and I will be staying with my sister Anne, her husband Daryush and their daughter Ella. I hope Ella still remembers me. I'm excited to see them and to hang out with Daryush's ex-pat Iranian family.

June 28 - Laura flies home and I fly to Poland. I hope that our departure in opposite directions is painful and not at all a relief after spending three weeks in constant contact...

June 28, 29 - Krakow, Poland. When I was in Prague back in 2005 I almost jumped a train to Krakow but decided against it. Now I'm finally going and staying in a hostel that is about 50 meters off the main square.

June 30, July 1 - Vienna, Austria. A city that I've been through on train at least once but never got a chance to actually see it. It'll have to be a quick sightseeing trip because I arrive in the afternoon on the 30th and leave first thing in the morning on July 2nd. I'll basically just have one day to explore.

July 2 - This is where the trip gets fuzzier. I'm taking a train to Serbia and meeting my friend Mateja (and hopefully Milos) and staying with his family there in Belgrade for at least one night. Then we're probably heading to Bosnia, Croatia and Montenegro for about 7 or so days. Just have to make sure we're back by:

July 11 - Milos's birthday in Nis, Serbia. Milos lives in a rural-ish area outside of Nis and I guess he's throwing a big outdoor party for his birthday. At least I'll know a few of the people there so it won't be too odd being the one native English speaker/American.

July 11 - August 1 - Hang out in Serbia. Not sure what we'll be doing. I'm hoping for a tour of the Serbian parliament on July 28th, I think. We might do some low-impact travel around Serbia. That's all up in the air. Maybe I'll do some work with Mateja's NGO...

August 1 - Night Train to Salzburg, Austria. The train doesn't go all the way. I'll have to transfer somewhere along the line.

Ausut 2, 3 - Salzburg, Austria. Staying in the shadow of the Castle. Just off of the old town. I guess this place is like Disneyland. At least the music should be good.

August 4, 5 - Lucerne, Switzerland. I asked for advice regarding which Swiss city I should visit on the Lonely Planet travel forum and Lucerne was the winner. I think my dad has been here. I hear good things. I'll be fairly worn out from travel by this point probably and I'll spend most of the time relaxing.

August 6 - Catch a plane back home from Zurich, Switzerland.

I'm going to keep an electronic map updated with the locations that my travels take me so we'll be able to see just how much reality diverges from my plan. A lot of stuff is set in stone but there will be plenty of space for spontaneity.

Oh, and my credit card information was stolen this morning. Some ass-hat tried to charge more than $1,000 in Hong Kong. Thankfully Chase refused the transaction and I'm likely going to need to get a new card. It's a pain but at least it happened now rather than while I'm in Europe.

PS - I need to accumulate more experience on here. I see a ton of neat options to customize my posts. At some point I'll do that.