Prologue…to the Travelogue
by Matthew Pedone
Thursday, October 16th, 2014
Trivia night. Packing night. Cleaning night. Thursday night.
Sarah had the day off, and packed her stuff. I had nothing laid out, as we'd met with our wedding photographer then had dinner with my mom the night before. Sarah tends to freak out a little before a trip, though she has gotten better over the years we've been dating. She did have her list out, and had done some "panic shopping" on Wednesday. I, on the other hand, am relatively laid back, and leave everything to the last minute. Like getting a flu shot. Or buying extra socks and underwear. Or going to the bank. Or washing all of my clothes.
Fortunately, we also needed to clean out the fridge, as we hadn't done so in a while, and didn't want to come home to a fridge full of moldy unrecognizable foodstuffs. So, while I laid out clothes and waited for the washer to finish, Sarah donned a mask and busied herself with the fridge. She finished around seven, as did I, but the washer was still going, so I declined packing until it finished, and the clothes were dry. The washer finished shortly after, and instead of just sitting around the apartment for an hour then going to bed at a decent hour so that we’d be well-rested and refreshed in the morning for our flight, we decided to go to trivia. We are not the best planners. Well, that’s not true. Sarah is great at planning, and I’m great at messing up her plans.
Trivia runs from 8-10, but tends to run long. I needed to stop at the grocery store, so that got us home later, but the dryer was done, so I folded, and got everything packed. By the time I got into bed, it was past midnight. Fortunately, our flight wasn't early the next day, but I did have to get up early to check in for our flights on Saturday. We'd both spaced checking in for Friday's flights, and ended up with poor numbers for the flight to Baltimore.
See what I mean about messing up the planning?
What follows is a day-by-day recap of plans made and unmade, of our attempts to blend in with locals but also recognize and embrace that we are, in fact tourists exploring a new city, featuring adventures in mountain forests and rocky beaches, a whole lot of walking, some fantastic food, and the journey of two people who’d never travelled together to a place neither of them had been. Allons-y!
Posted: 04.05.17