Thursday, May 31, 2007

luck 'o' the irish...

Well, after a rousing few days in the NYC/Jersey area with friends and family of Billy's, we finally headed to the LaGuardia airport on Monday to catch our flight to Shannon, Ireland. We checked in only to discover that because Billy did not have a specific seat assigned to him and the flight to Philly, he'd be forced to fly standby. Nevermind that we'd made the reservation 1.5 months ago! (Philly is only a 40 minute hop, which was equi-distant from Billy's mom's house at NYC, and we'd have preferred to get on the flight there, were it not for the $200 change fee to miss the first leg of our flight) So, we waited for most of the others to board. I was waiting with Billy to make sure he'd get on the flight, when they announced that due to the number of folks and the amount of luggage on the little commuter jet, no more passengers would be allowed on board, as they'd exceeded the weight restriction. Suddenly neither of us had a seat on the flight! Along with 7 other folks who also were connecting to international flights (as we imagine all the others on the plane were, too - who goes through the hassle of luggage, security, etc, just for a short 2 hr or less drive?), we were a bit irate at the prospect of missing our connection to Ireland. But, never fear! Because we'd been involuntarily booted, we got a FREE LIMO RIDE to the Newark airport, where we hopped on a direct flight to Shannon with another airline (at USAirway's expense), AND we got free roundtrip vouchers for anywhere in the US. Our flight arrived to Shannon before our bags, which had already been loaded onto the other plane did (we found out that the original flight we'd been scheduled on was delayed an additional 3 hours and were glad we'd been booted after all). At first it seemed like it would be a hassle to get our bags back, but instead it freed us up to take the bus straight up to Galway to meet up with Billy's family, and let us wander around the cobbled narrow streets without carrying our backpacks. The airline brought them straight to the house that evening. Ireland was short and sweet... we'll write more later.
Countryside between Galway and Dublin:
Dublin sunset, below

Wingman and Bear have begun to get acquainted




Check out the Dublin airport en route to Berlin - this was at 4:30 am!

Sunday, May 27, 2007

countdown: 23 hours until departure...

Tomorrow we leave NYC at 3, only to spend 5 hours laying over in Philly before we have an overnight flight to Shannon, Ireland. Thus far, we've had some fun adventures this side of the pond, including:

conducting the Mentos/Coke explosion experiment (as seen on TV/at the Albany Free School) with Billy's dad and brother Andy

seeing Manhattan from boat with Billy's mom and her boyfriend Alex


snooping around awesome chess shops in Greenwich Village

spending time with Billy's friend Wetzel and getting the full tour of the Red Bank/Little Silver, New Jersey area, where the two of them went to jail from ages 14-18. Oops, we mean school.

It's been absurdly hot: high 80s and 90s. The rumbling clouds outside becry a hopeful change in the weather. Meanwhile, I'm off to do one of the final pass-overs (again) to figure out what I can leave here. Photos of the above soon.

6/3/07 addition: finally, we've downloaded photos, so also included below are some pre-departure classic shots of hanging out with friends in Albany, the Skype command center at Billy's mom's house for contacting our foreign friends, packing, and Billy undertaking a massive change in appearance to impress upon the German authorities that we are, in fact, the beloved activists they invited to come to the G8 demonstrations (check out Corinne's jar full of Billy's hair... she keeps a jar for each one of her "clients"... an art project is pending...)




Friday, May 18, 2007

countdown - t minus 3 minus 7 = t minus 10


Ok, comrades. The time has come. I've quit my horrific abusive office job in Seattle, after saving money (and hopefully some self-respect). In 3 days, I join my dear companion Billy in Albany, NY. A week later, we leave this continent for others, namely Europe and Africa. Back to living out of a backpack.

Prospective trajectory (in some particular order that does not necessarily reveal chronology, nor dimension, nor joy): Ireland, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, North Pole (kidding, but not by much), France, Northern Spain, Benelux, Italia, Romania, Hungary, Czech Republic, (airplane), Mozambique, South Africa, Angola, Namibia, and perhaps (fingers crossed, Erin) Uganda.

We'll be visiting a number of friends, family, some radical communities, wwoofing in Sweden at the Kulturstationen, and going with our friend Prexy on a trip to Southern Africa that focuses on relationship-building and knowledge-sharing amongst those who seek alternatives to the violent and oppressive systems we're still all learning to claw our way out of. I'll try to post some photos along the way, and perhaps an interesting story or two (hopefully by the droves).

There aren't looking to be many bikes involved on this trip, but Wingman is coming along, nonetheless.

The photos are:
1) above - the delightful sunny room in my Seattle collective house I'll be leaving behind for a summer sublet(rock it, Lindsey).
2) below - the adventurers, Libby & Billy. Or, for the lazy, Libbilly.



Health, hugs, and hilarity for all!
Libby