Up at First Light
Due to Germany’s position on the globe I will be up before first light tomorrow. I live at 48 degrees North, which means that the sun will rise at 5:37 am. At this point I need to be at the train station headed to Frankfurt. So I will wake up even before the sun is up to drag myself down to the tram and into town.
Leaving on a Jet Plane
There is a point to this though. Also due to Germany’s position, I have to take a flight tomorrow quite a ways west. This will be a stressful thing for me for many reasons. As most readers of Grounded Traveler know, I have not flown much in the past 10 years, though I started last fall on short flights. Tomorrow will be my first transatlantic flight since 1999.
I am armed with my valium tabs and iPod and book. The last time I flew that far, seat back televisions weren’t even in first class let alone in economy; so I am looking forward to that too. It is a 9 hour flight, so much longer than I have done recently, but I know I can manage.
Wedding Bells
As clever twitter people have known for a while, I am getting married. I met the most wonderful girl through this blog. Here is our story on HER blog:
So the main reason to going back will be our wedding. Yay.
TBEX
The planned trip to the US was made long before we decided to get married in order to coincide with TBEX in Vancouver. You have no idea how many odd looks I get when I tell people that the next week after my wedding we are going to a blogging convention. 🙂
Looking forward to meeting a lot of other people from the travel blogging world as well as a nice trip with my girl. I have a bunch of new business cards to hand out too. This should be fun.
Home Sweet Shed
The last goal of going back to the US is to try to clean out the shed at my parent’s. I left a fair amount of crap there when I left. Since I have decided to live here, it makes no sense to keep a lot of it in storage. So I will take a short trip to my home town and rumage through the shed full of stuff digging for the gems in the pile to take back and arrange for the rest to be sold or given away.
What does this all mean??
Well, I have been insanely busy with plans for this trip and ongoing renovations that my posting schedule has slipped to once a week instead of my normal 2. I have a number of drafts that I should be able to keep up once a week during the trip.
If you are coming to TBEX, by all means say hi to Ali and me.
Otherwise, I may not be on twitter as much as I normally am, but I will be back. No fear. (Or hopefully not so much on the flight.)
Woo hoo I’m getting married.
June 15, 2011 @ 5:32 pm
congrats on the flying (!) and on the wedding 🙂
hope you managed to enjoy some of vancouver (my ‘home’ city for just now) outside the convention
June 22, 2011 @ 7:29 pm
Oo your home city. It was beautiful (the pieces we did see). Nope, we didn’t really plan enough extra time to see anything but the conference. We did however see the very cool fans acting great on the Friday June 10 game. It was neat to see people out celebrating the win.
June 15, 2011 @ 12:25 am
I’ve been hearing that a lot; I think I wanted to go more to see old faces and some new ones. I could have *almost* managed a flight, but it was looking rough. I’d rather save the cash for this summer and my upcoming expat plans 🙂
June 14, 2011 @ 4:21 pm
Holy guacamole. That’s crazy that you haven’t taken a transatlantic flight! Totally worth it; I can’t believe you guys gat married. I think that is absolutely LOVELY! Congrats! Enjoy your time back home; I wish I had made it to Tbex to meet you guys!!!
June 14, 2011 @ 6:26 pm
I have now flown the transatlantic as well as the transcontenential. I still don’t like it and we just learned that when my sinuses are acting up I am even more sensitive to hte very tiny movements of the plane which freak me out.
It would have been great to meet you at TBEX, but from an info point of view you didn’t miss so much.
June 13, 2011 @ 8:34 pm
AHHH You guys are too cute! Congratulations and it so awesome what the internet can bring now!
June 14, 2011 @ 6:24 pm
Thanks Erica. 🙂
June 3, 2011 @ 1:46 pm
Wow, congratulations — that’s so exciting! I hope you have a great time in the US and I look forward to hearing about all your stories once life calms down again.
June 8, 2011 @ 5:08 pm
Thanks for that. Yes, life calming down would be nice.
June 1, 2011 @ 11:36 pm
Congrats! So exciting… just told my mom how two travel bloggers found love through eachothers sites!
We are going to TBEX too and would love to meet up. See you in Vancouver!
June 8, 2011 @ 3:40 pm
What did your mom say?
Yes definitely TBEX.
June 1, 2011 @ 8:39 pm
Congrats to both you and Ali! I didn’t realize you were getting married, that’s wonderful news! And how perfect that you’re both going to TBEX, sounds like a match made in heaven. Safe travels.
June 8, 2011 @ 3:38 pm
Thanks for that. Actually she made me buy the TBEX ticket before I knew I could actually make it due to the flights. It is indeed fitting to finally be going as her husband.
May 31, 2011 @ 7:24 pm
Good luck! Have a good time and enjoy the ride. I am looking forward to more posts when you are back.
June 8, 2011 @ 3:37 pm
Thanks. The ride is going well. I’m definitely getting material for more posts.
May 30, 2011 @ 9:38 am
Hey, I just wanted to chime in and congratulate you, Andy, on your upcoming marriage! How cool to have met your fiancee through your blog! I wish you well in your travels.
June 8, 2011 @ 3:36 pm
Thanks, Ariana.
May 30, 2011 @ 6:20 am
I had no idea you were getting married. Congratulations! I’ll go read the story on her blog now 🙂
June 8, 2011 @ 3:36 pm
Wow. I thought everyone knew. Yes, definitely go read the story. 🙂
May 28, 2011 @ 4:52 pm
Congratulations (again) to both of you. I hope I see you at TBEX!! Have a wonderful, wonderful wedding day!!
May 30, 2011 @ 3:06 am
Thanks. We will just need to make a point to meet.
May 28, 2011 @ 12:38 pm
That’s very exciting! Congratulations and safe travels.
May 30, 2011 @ 3:06 am
Thanks for the well-wishes..
We were walking through the mall today and I thought about your reverse culture shock post mentioning how tvs are everywhere. It is strange. There were monitors playing something or another in so many places. As well each store had it’s own loud music playing. Really? Do I need a soundtrack to shop for jeans?
May 28, 2011 @ 12:07 pm
Good luck on the flight, enjoy your movies :).
Have a fantastic wedding you two, can’t wait to meet you at TBEX (in Seattle actually!).
May 30, 2011 @ 3:04 am
The movies in the back of the seat were awesome for distractions. That was the best part. I got to see Harry Potter, which I had been looking forward to.
Yup, looking forward to meeting you on the train too.
May 28, 2011 @ 5:41 am
Congrats on the wedding again! You’ll do fine on the flight! See you at TBEX!
May 30, 2011 @ 2:57 am
Thanks.
May 28, 2011 @ 2:31 am
Wish you a nice flight to the US, maybe you’ll discover you actually enjoy it:)
I think long flights are actually more enjoyable than short ones – and I love them because I know the plane is taking me faaaaaar away, love the feeling!!!
Congrats on the upcoming wedding, well yes I read Ali’s post before:) The ring you chose is beautiful and I was smiling all the way through the post! Amazing, such a romantic story.:)
Enjoy TBEX, can’t wait to see pics/posts about it and the wedding too of course.:)
May 30, 2011 @ 2:57 am
Nope, still don’t enjoy flying, but it wasn’t such a bad flight. The long flight, once the anxiety of being on a plane passes, is mostly bored. I get those sort of feelings on trains. I like the idea that I can get off in a different station in potentially a different country.
Thanks for the well wishes.
May 28, 2011 @ 1:36 am
Safe travels and good luck with all the traveling before the big day! Can’t wait to see a wedding photo and hear more about your celebration and wedding!
May 30, 2011 @ 2:54 am
Thanks for the support. Yeah, as I told Sally, I am sure I will do something wedding recap related.
May 28, 2011 @ 1:04 am
Hi Andy – I was wondering yesterday when I saw you were going to the states and Ali said something about you arriving ‘tomorrow’ how you were going to do that without flying. It all makes sense now. The things you do when you’re in love -eh? I’m really excited for both of you. Good luck on the flight. It will be worth it! And have a wonderful wedding.
May 30, 2011 @ 2:52 am
Thanks for the well wishes. She is totally worth the flight and anxiety and jetlag. Now that I am here I am feeling so much more relaxed.
May 28, 2011 @ 1:03 am
Awww, I’m so excited for you two! (And a little bit jealous that you get to go to TBEX. I wish I didn’t have to work until the end of June or I’d totally be there). Can’t wait to read both of your wedding recap posts. (You ARE writing wedding recap posts? Tell me you are!)
May 30, 2011 @ 2:50 am
Sucks that you can’t make it to Vancouver. Yes, I am sure the wedding will get some sort of post here.
May 28, 2011 @ 12:26 am
Congratulations! That’s so exciting!!
I have fear of flying too, although better than it used to be – through being forced to fly a lot I eventually accepted that it was never as bad as I anticipated. Still not fond of it though…not at all!
May 30, 2011 @ 2:49 am
You are right, the anticipation can indeed make it worse than it actually is. But for me that anticipation and the first bit of the flight before you realize that it isn’t as bad as all that is part of what freaks me out.
No way I am going to like flying, but it is nice to know that I can.
May 28, 2011 @ 12:16 am
I feel a little silly commenting on this one, but oh well. I am so incredibly excited for you to get here! And you’re going to be just fine on the flight 🙂
May 30, 2011 @ 2:47 am
Thanks. I appreciate the comment anyway. Now I feel really weird responding to it, as I sit next to you. 😉
May 27, 2011 @ 9:01 pm
Congrats again! I’m sure it’ll be an exiting trip! Here’s to a safe, boring, not bumpy flight with lots of good movies! Enjoy a free coffee/tea at Frankfurt airport. Last time I was there, I was so surprised that Lufthansa has put up all these FREE stations where you can get really good cappuccinos, lattes, and many different kinds of tea. Nice touch 🙂
May 30, 2011 @ 2:47 am
Thanks for the well-wishes. I wasn’t flying Lufthansa so no tea/coffee I saw.