Traveling to Croatia Part One

One of my chief anxieties about traveling with only one other person was whether I’d be good company to Libby while it’s just the two of us. I tend to be a more quiet travel companion, while Libby is an excellent conversationalist. While the feeling has now passed, I had a rather impressive panic over whether I would be tolerant for six days or not. I’ve come to accept that Libby probably knows me pretty well at this point, and we’ll manage.

I rented a small camera as I always do when I take this big trip. I’d picked it up Thursday and didn’t attempt to use it until I was about to leave for the Cape to attend an awards ceremony where Mom would be getting an award (woot!). I noticed the camera was reading “memory full” and I racked my brain to try to figure out the issue. Most obvious is the card in the camera is full, but formatting/deleting it didn’t make a difference. I detoured to pick up my brother Christopher on the way and he fiddled with it as well. He even called the rental company to ask them if they had a clue. They didn’t really.

So now in addition to needing to eat and run the next morning to get back home and finish the small amount of packing I had left to do, I now had the added anxiety of knowing we (I was also driving Christopher back home the next day) would have to stop at the rental place, which was a rather substantial detour.

I didn’t sleep well last night, thinking of all the things I didn’t want to forget, and worrying about the camera – what if they don’t have a replacement? What if they have a replacement but won’t give it to me because I have the battery charger back at home in Medford? Would Libby and I want to kill each other after six days (we’re both rather independent)? In the middle of the night I realized I only packed TWO PAIRS OF PANTS WHAT WAS I THINKING I HAVE TO ADD ANOTHER PAIR WHEN I GET HOME! How tight will the timing be to get to the airport after I drive home from the cape with the camera rental shop detour and will I have time to do the things I need to do (take out the trash, do the final packing, change, fix my hair..)

In the end, I arrived at the airport two hours ahead of departure time. Check in and getting through security took a whopping seven minutes. So, I found myself in a tiny gate with one little kiosk, with one hour and fifty minutes to kill.

This won’t do. I left the gate and wandered the terminal which was equally unexciting, for a little while to pass the time.

I try to be as organized as possibly to avoid buying little things that add up when I travel. Snacks, water, etc. It was at this point that I realized I forgot a super important item;

Insulin? No.

Passport? Well, no. But I did forget my headphones which are extremely important for me when traveling.

Not even out of Boston and I’m already dropping $20 on ear buds in the airport (and then I was given some for free on a later flight – I figures!). I also broke my sunglasses (THIS IS WHY I CAN’T HAVE NICE THINGS!), but that’s OK because it looks like rain for our entire trip.