On the road again

How much do I love travelling with my laptop + WiFi? The Northwest Airlines wing of Detroit Metro rawks! I thought I was going to have to join the fancy elite club for the day (at a cost of $45) to get online, but noooo. Just $7.95 will get you full-out, all-over access for the day. Yay!

So, I've been able to take care of some business--research, write and file a story for the paper back home. Yes, it's true. I conducted interviews two hours before my flight and the story is due tomorrow. What?

I'm bringing my cell phone (although don't call my U.S. number--I'll be picking up a local SIM card/number), digital camera, ipod, laptop abroad. This looks and feels so different than the first time I hopped across the pond 11 years ago. It's weird. But fun. I have become so high maintenance in a single decade. If I keep going at this rate, I'll have to hire someone to cart around my luggage.

Naw, I did pretty well. Shoes, gadgets and cosmetics comprise the bulk of my necessities. I'll be glad to have them, no doubt, and Kiki has agreed to bring my laptop back to the 'States a month before I return.

So for July, anyway, I plan to keep y'all informed and perhaps even bring some photos. You can see some of what I'll be seeing! How dang cool is that?

Well, I take off for Amsterdam in a little over an hour, arrive 8:30 a.m. local time, kill four hours doing God knows what (I got Euros burning a hole in my pocket already--left over from trip to Dublin in March), and then Praha at 12:30! Someone will pick me up (holding a placard with my name on it, yay!), take me to Kiki's and my digs for the month, and then I'll probably cash out for a good while. Kiki gets in Saturday morning. Our first stops will be: pivo!, church made of human bones, sex museum. In that order, methinks.

I'll keep you posted, although I can't promise a lot. The more fun one has, the less one writes in my experience. Living and creating take up the same energy. . . .