Austria Trip, Austria Trip, Austria Trip...

For those of you out there who love to travel, I don't know what's wrong with you!  Maybe I need lessons or something, but it never fails... a few days before any impending vacation, I flip out.

The days prior to any vacation look like this:

"What is our hotel going to be like? Do we need our own towels? Is there a coffee machine?"
"How does the bus work?  How late does it run? What if I can't figure out how to get places?"
"What is there to do there?  How much does it cost? How long does it take??"
"What is there to eat? What food should I bring? What clothes do I pack?"

And an hour later I'm sitting in front of the computer with 10 browser windows open, each with at least 5 tabs, trying to find every site on the internet with information about the place I'm going.

I sit and make a list of all the things we need to do, how much they cost, where they are, how to get there, why it's cool.

Then I take that list and try to make a schedule- not just a general schedule- down to the minute.

And still, as I'm traveling to my destination, I have my pen out and I'm scribbling things in the margins and crossing things out.

When I get there, I go to the tourist office, find all their information, make another list, make another schedule, cross-reference it with the first schedule, and finally... I'm ready for the vacation.

EXCEPT... I forgot thing 1 and thing 2, which I immediately must find a store to purchase in case they are needed.  AND, its colder/warmer than I thought, so all those clothes I packed, well, they aren't going to do any good because I will wear the same thing every day so that by the time I return home I will stink.  ALSO, I didn't realize that half the things on my list actually don't fit into the schedule because it takes longer to get to the places than I thought or their opening times have changed but they didn't put it on the website.

SO...

I might as well have not done any of the prep-work because we pretty much wing it once we're there... finding things to do as we walk past them or because some other tourist mentions them to us.  I shouldn't have packed a suitcase because I only wear what I had on when I arrived and bought any other necessities, AND, I've already ruined my schedule with so many scribbles and foldings and unfoldings and somehow dropping  it in a puddle that even if I wanted to use it, it's useless.

Why, then, do I continue to torture myself?  Maybe it's the thought that eventually, all that work is going to pay off... Maybe it's because in the back of my mind, my subconscious doesn't like to travel and is trying to put me off of planning any more trips... Maybe I'm just crazy...


Saturday we leave for Austria.

At this moment, I have already made my first list and my first schedule, and revised them twice.  I have a map with so many stars and circles and highlighted things that I don't even know what's what.  There is a pile the size of Mt. Everest in my guest room of stuff we need to bring.  I will go shopping today to buy everything else that is on my 3 page list of stuff we need to bring and don't have yet.

Tomorrow I will pack everything, think that I forgot some items that are checked off on my 10 page list (but maybe I checked them off by accident), unpack everything, repack everything, decide on a few more things to bring (which will require me to unpack and repack again so that everything fits into my allotted number of bags), and make a list of all the things I need to remember to do before we leave (like take out the trash and turn off the lights).

Saturday I will wake up and inevitably feel the need to unpack and repack one more time, just to make sure we have everything.  We will leave and follow my "things to do before we leave check off list" but I will feel like I left the stove on and have to come back in to check.  Then we will start driving, but I will forget something really important like my sunglasses and we will have to turn around and come back to get them.  Then we'll leave again, but I'll feel like I didn't lock the door and I'll have to go back and check.

I will probably spend the whole vacation staring out of my apartment window at the Alps.  Maybe I will venture onto the ski slopes.  But after all that planning, I just need a relaxing vacation!!