I did something way out of the ordinary for myself. I spontaneously booked an 8-day vacation for me and my daughter to Barcelona.
I'm definitely a planner. Sometimes an over-planner. So buying plane tickets for a vacation outside of the country within a week is kinda crazy for me.
But how it happened... I had been working alot and hadn't been able to take my daughter on a summer trip like we usually do. Last weekend, she reminded me that summer break is almost over (her school starts the first full week of August!) and we were running out of time. I thought we would do something simple. Maybe visit another state for a long weekend or something like that. I asked her where she wanted to go, and she thought about it for a minute and said Spain. Oh gosh!
I didn't believe that Spain was realistic so I went along with it for the sake of playing it out. I asked what she wanted to do there, and she said the beach and shopping. So... looking on the map, Barcelona would work in that case since it was on the water and not land-locked like Madrid.
I told her that I probably couldn't afford a vacation to Spain right now without having saved-up for it. I took a quick look at roundtrip airline tickets and yep - most of them were starting at $2,400+ EACH. So I figured I was off the hook. But I did tell her, IF I found roundtrip airline tickets that were $1,400 or less, then I would buy them. I had other conditions too - no more than 1 connection (my origin airport is lame and always has a connection so nonstop would be impossible) AND no ridiculous layover AND I wanted the oversea flight to be on an Airbus.
Last weekend I did the online searching for flights. I didn't think I would be successful, but since I didn't have hard dates to meet - except to beat the start of school - I did play around with the dates and noticed that it changed the pricing significantly. I kept playing with the dates, and bam! Found roundtrip flights that met all my conditions and budget. And I booked it.
We have to leave on Sun July 7, and we don't come back until Tues July 16. So not alot of time to physically or mentally prepare.
I spent most of this week, preparing my workplace for my absence. Getting work done ahead of time and passing-off work to delegates. I also have a ton of other travel to-dos besides packing, that I'm starting to get incredibly anxious about.
Here's my to-do list. I'm getting very worried that I'll forget to do something crucial. Can you think of anything that I might have missed?
- Passports
- Book hotels (I used my hotel points for this, so didn't cost me any $$$)
- Book tickets for popular tourist attractions
- Activate credit card and debit card for international use
- Activate cell phone with international service
- Child Travel Consent Form (my husband has to sign this with a notary public since he's not travelling with us, to basically say that I'm not fleeing the country and kidnapping my child)
- European adapter plugs
- Medications
- Physical map of Barcelona (I'm paranoid about my cell service not working, so I do believe in carrying a physical map around with me)
- Download Google Translate since I don't speak any Spanish
Hm.... and I'm trying to think what else I need to do? Do you think I'm forgetting anything? I only have 2.5 days left before leaving. Lol, this has escalated quickly.
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