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This blog offially goes on a one-week hiatus starting Thursday 9-22 while I go to Ireland. While on the road, I plan to update my travel blog, at
http://followmethere.blogspot.com

Check there all week for updates and photos from my trip.

With each update, the hurricane is moving farther away.

Now that I can stop having nightmares about an Andrew-like hurricane, I can focus on my Ireland trip, which I have not done since before Charley!

Since it’s been so long, it’s like panic-time: all of a sudden we depart in a few DAYS! Stuff I was going to order online won’t get ordered, stuff I have to pack I have to FIND in this clutter-museum of a house; luggage tags, passport holders, etc.

When I leave for the trip, this and all my other blogs will go on hold and while I’m away I’ll update only one blog; a travel-blog I set up just for this trip. The URL is:

http://followmethere.blogspot.com/

This way I can update only one blog while I’m gone, I can share the trip w/ friends and family, and create a souvenir. I was TOLD we have internet in the room, but if that’s not the case, I don’t know how I’ll update the blog. But I have the best intentions.

I’m reading all these books on Ireland in preparation of my September Ireland trip. Each book goes over history extensively, so I’m like overloaded w/ history. I got one typical Ireland guide book, three books written by guys who walked or hitchiked around Ireland, etc., a book on irish customs and etiquette and just about all of them reiterate the same history over and over. I want to know the history, but not over and over and over. And two of the books intersperse the history, so you can’t really skip over it. It’s a bit mind-numbing and making it hard to get thru the books. When it’s just names and dates and events, I tend to nod off asleep. I want to finish the books cuz I never finish a book and also cuz I want to pass them on when I’m done to M, mom, my brother, etc. all of whom are going to Ireland either in September or March.

Today I was bummed out.

But later on one of the books I ordered on abebooks.com came and that made me very happy. The book that came today was
The Irish Way: A Walk Through Ireland’s Past and Present.
A seventy-some year old man walked the entire length of Ireland, and then wrote a book about his travels and the people he met. I’m really looking forward to reading that.

Then went to the mall and spent some money on some great stuff for my upcoming trip: new shoes and a real small photo backpack that will slip right into my larger rolling backpack. I’ll put all my camera gear in this and take it as a carry-on when I fly.

I’m going to set up a travel-blog so that others can enjoy daily messages and photos from my trip (give’ya the link later), but I’m also going to take a paper journal with me. Today I realized it might be fun to grab one of those $10 Polaroid I-zone cameras that take tiny photos as well as tiny adhesive photos.

Then I could stick periodic i-zone sticky photos into the journal. That’d be really cool! Yes I’m a nerd, but so what.

I go to a message board set up for fans of Ireland, where they ASK people to post if they’ve been to or are going to Ireland, so we can all chat about Ireland, and so I post and some jerk writes back not to get all excited, “it’s not all leprechuns and thatch cottages”. OH REALLY? I HAD NO IDEA! I THOUGHT IT WAS! OH NO! Fuck you. I’ll get excited if I want to. It’s my vacation. Kiss my ass. I hate people.

Thanks to some guy in Ireland who was kind enough to email me and make phone calls on my behalf, I’ve found out that the hotel we are staying at has internet in the rooms! Yay! So now I will EASILY be able to log onto my travel-journal and not only write entries, but upload photos. I’m relieved.

I will provide the link later. I’m still setting it up and deciding whether or not to buy a premium web-based blog so I can host photos on the blog itself, or if I should use a free blog with ads and no photo space and then link to photos at a photosite like webshots or fotki instead.

thinking, thinking…

I’m trying to figure out of there is public internet access in the town in Ireland where we’re supposed to be staying. I want to blog while there and upload photos WHILE THERE, not just when I get back. There’s a public library and an internet cafe, and someone was nice enough to call the internet cafe for me and inquire, and you can’t use your own computer. So how the hell am I supposed to upload pix to the net?

I may have to resort to war walking, but if it’s a small town (and I think it is small) warwalking may be fruitless. I can get one of those image-tank type of things that burns CDs in the field (literally, in a field or forest or desert), but I have no idea if these places will even let you stick a CD in. I bet they won’t.

What I might also do is “blog” to a text file on my teeny laptop throughout my day, and then when I finally hit an internet spot, copy/paste my blog entry into my travel blog so that it’s real quick, and so that also I’ll be writing things as I think of them. But if I can’t use my computer or find any means of transferring text and pictures from my laptop to a borrowed pc, I’m screwed.

It’s possible that we’ll be at a hotel w/ internet in the rooms, but we STILL have not been given the itinerary, so I have no idea. I hate not knowing. It’s terrible to be given a gift like that but NO DETAILS!

This guy who’s giving us the trip travels all the time (even to Ireland) so it’s all old hat to him, and he has NO idea that we’re chomping on the bit, dying for details so we can plan. It’s maddening.

In the past I had read this great book about Canada called “Culture Shock! Canada“. So I was wondering if there was a “Culture Shock! Ireland“, and there is. So I called around and a Borders had it. So we went to dinner and then to Borders. I got that book and surfed the wifi to find out that another book I wanted, which was $25, I could get online for like $8. Wifi rules. Who knew it would cause them to lose business! LOL.

BTW, abebooks.com is a great website. It’s a network of used bookstores so you can find books you want cheap (used) and you can find hard-to-find books.

The book I want to get online that was $25 in-store is called “The Irish Way: A Walk Through Ireland’s Past and Present“ and it’s all about this 80 year old guy who walked the entire length of Ireland and the people he met along the way. I’m dying to read that.

My mom god “Wicked Irish“, it’s a riot.

Does anyone who reads this travel alot? What I’m trying to figure out is what do I need to know before facing airport security. I have not flown since 9/11. I’m not afraid to travel, but I AM afraid of being one of those horror-stories you hear about where some overzealous uninformed aiport security person makes me drink breast milk or strip in public. I have a general idea of what is a bad idea to take on a plane: knitting needles, nail clippers, guns, etc. But you always hear weird stories about things they make people do or leave behind. I don’t want to get there and find out I have to leave my laptop or $2,100 camera with aiport security.

I’m trying to find a concise travel web site that tells me all kinds of USEFUL things about international travel, things I might not have thought of.

I’d love any tips on international plane travel and/or visiting Ireland.

I STILL have no idea of where I’ll be or what stuff, if any, is already planned for us. As soon as I know, I can plan more.

Bummer. I was hoping that there’d be some interesting meetup.com meetups while I was in Ireland. I’m not even sure if we’ll be in Dublin or what. I have no idea. But none of the Dublin meetups (that I’d be interested in) are while I am there. Oh well.

Any bloggers from Ireland read this? Doubt it. I’d love to meet up w/ some other bloggers while there. Or other Photographers. Or other computer nerds.

Ok. I feel much better today. I’m not sure if I just would have woken up feeling better, or if it’s because I was awoken by the phone w/ my mom on the other end telling me that she and I are GOING TO IRELAND for a week in September all expenses paid!

WheeeeEEEEEEEEEEE!

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