we're leaving on a jet plane . . .

Yep. A Europe we will go go. We leave this evening and fly the red eye from Vancouver to Amsterdam and then Amsterdam to Helsinki, Finland. Paul has a conference in Helsinki that he could not be talked out of going to, and the trauma docs gave him the green light to fly after a nice x-ray of his lungs, so off we go. We will be in Helsinki from June 1st to 6th. I haven't quite figured out what I'm going to do while Paul is busy nerding it up with the other paper physics geeks, but I'm sure I'll find something. Finnish soap operas anyone? One night we're booked onto a boat cruise around the Baltic Sea which is supposed to be quite stunning.

On the 6th we fly back to Amsterdam, and then hop on another flight from Amsterdam to Barcelona, Spain, which I managed to secure for a whopping 10 Euros each. Return. Plus taxes and shiz, so it worked out to 200 Euros for the two of us round trip. We have three nights booked in Barcelona and then we rent a car and are going to drive to San Sebastian where we have four nights booked. After that we have three nights unaccounted for until we have to be back in Barcelona for June 15th for a 9am flight back to Amsterdam. We're not sure where those three nights will take us, we've agreed to just wing it and see how it goes. Then just over 24 hours to chillax in Amsterdam and enjoy the cafes and the botanical gardens Cammy is insisting we see. Cafe first, gardens second. Understood. Then flying back home, arriving back some time the afternoon of June 16th.

I have to admit, I'm more nervous about this trip then I ever have been about travelling in third world countries. After surviving being trapped in a sinking boat and stuck in the middle of a military coup, I'm pretty sure I can handle pretty much anything travelling decides to throw at me, but this broken man of mine I'm not so sure about. I guess I'm nervous about his pain tolerance while sleeping in strange beds without his special bed contraptions (way too big to take with us) and while sitting in airplane seats for long periods of time and rickety rental cars. And I'm nervous about having to lug his luggage around the pedestrian only parts of San Sebastian trying to find our hotel which may or may not exist according the reviews on the website we booked through. I'm packing extra light with a wheelie bag that can be converted to a backpack so I can take over handling his stuff if need be. It's all apart of the fun of travelling, so whatever, we'll just roll with it.

I've got my money belt (with no actual money to put in it . . . hello overdraft, my name is Katie . . .) and my airplane pillow and two books on Spain and "Spanish for Dummies" audio CD's to listen to on my ipod and we've got a shit load of ativan and funky narcotics, so yeah. Whooohoo!