Canadian Airspace

And so it begins. I'm currently over Canada somewhere to the north east of Calgary, on my way to England via Iceland. Got a bit of a scare in the ticket line: apparently the fine folks in London are afraid of people coming there to mooch off their social system, and don't like you flying in without a return ticket. I'm still not sure when I'll be home, so I don't have one of those, but it sounds like the printouts I brought showing the rest of my trip so far are going to keep me covered. At worst, I may just have to guess at a return date and buy a ticket there at Heathrow.

Plans have changed a bit since I last wrote [ed: pre-trip, so it won't be included here]. Italy is in (4 nights in Rome and 2 in Venice)as is Greece (including Rhodes!). I'm hoping that by Rome (or preferably before then) I'll have a better idea of how quickly my money is disappearing, and whether or not I'll be able to add Istanbul to the itinerary.

I've been up since 04:00 this morning, and I'll have most of the day ahead of me when I land in London, so it's time for a nap.

20:17 (PST)

Well, that was a failed nap. Based on our ETA in Reykjavik, I snoozed for all of an hour or so. I think I'll be cutting my connecting flight short as it is, so my caffeine will probably have to wait until London. They were offering coffee on the plane awhile back, but since I wanted to try and sleep, and didn't want to wake up the folks next to me with the extra trips to the bathroom, I passed on it.

For weeks leading up to the trip, people kept asking if I was nervous... my response was always "no" or "not yet." The nerves finally kicked in at 04:00 this morning when my alarm went off, and again after clearing security and waiting for departure next to the gate. I think--I hope--that once I get there, I'll be fine; barring getting horribly lost and/or delayed, all the necessary bits (involving travel & lodging) are planned out, leaving me to focus on the important part: having fun, and making this trip a worthwhile life experience.

Back to reading (The Jungle Books, by Rudyard Kipling) for now, more writing when there's more to write about.