Credits and vouchers and waits, Oh My!

 It takes twice as long to rebook as it did to book the first time. Why?   Credits and vouchers.   Some of the places I booked travel before gave me credit rather than refunding my payment.   And rather a lot of them dropped the ball pretty completely on actually processing the vouchers. Which means lots of work. 

First, combing through my old bank statements to make sure there wasn't a credit I missed.   Nope.   very few of them actually refunded anything. 

Secondly, checking web sites and emails to make sure I understand where the voucher is supposed to be.  Generally it's not there. 

Third, email or phone contact to express that I actually want my credit, thank you very much. 

Fourth, once I receive the voucher, working through the issue with how to use it.  

Ouch.   Lots of time.   Some companies are better than others.   Hostelworld was fast and efficient at responding, but I don't have the credit yet.   Within 10 days they said.  Green Olive Tours in the Holy Land, and Blue Star Ferries, ferrying me to and from Patmos, were great.  Immediately responded and rebooked me. 

Expedia was the worst.  They are holding a credit of just under $100 on Aegean Airways. Aegean says they can't help me, Expedia has to.  Expedia, when I call says there is a two hour wait, would I like a call back.  Yes I surely would, but I've tried that route twice, and I have never gotten a call back.    So the other day I waited.  2 hours.  2 1/2 hours.  3 hours.  Finally the battery on my cordless phone went dead.  So I'll try them again, maybe tomorrow!  When I can wait a long time, and from my cellphone, which I can plug into a battery pack and keep going for the hours of wait time resulting.   This is not fun. 

British Airways and Alitalia both gave me refunds last spring, so I'm happy with them.  Rebooked British Airways!   

No Camping!

So today I gave in and booked a nice but overly expensive hotel for the middle night of my Jesus Trail pilgrimage.  There was a big important reason for this.  The only viable alternative to this hotel is camping.   For this single night, I was  going to carry a tent, sleeping bag and sleeping pad for four weeks. 

There was also a camping night in England, but I dropped that because I am not going to countries that I'd only be in for 24-48 hours from my itinerary (too much bother with Covid testing at most countries, to add that.)  And I'd toyed with camping on the Luther Trail in Germany, but was not sure about this. 

This really lightens my pack, and allows for adding a couple things I'd dropped off my packing list (like my scarf!)  

So goodbye tent, goodbye groundcloth, goodbye sleeping bag, goodbye air mattress!    I'll still take the camping bowl and cutlery, and a couple other small items that I'll need along the trail no matter what.   It's still a hostel-heavy trip.  But not a camping trip. 

I think this is a good thing.

Packing (yes, it is early but . . . . .)

 

This morning, I did a packing dry run.

The point was to see if 1) I have everything I need; 2) It's in a weight range I'll be able to handle, and 3) There is anything I can leave behind.  The answers were ultimately Yes, Yes, Yes. 

I got almost everything together (forgot my trekking poles, and don't yet have the flight cover/rain cover for the backpack.  Some of my stuff has changed, since I'll be doing rather more camping than originally expected (I plan to camp on the Jesus trail and likely elsewhere on the trip, depending on where I can find appropriate campgrounds).  So I added a single man backpacking tent and ultralight sleeping bag, and ground cloth.)   I changed out some clothes (heavy blue travel skirt for a lighter black one, new t-shirt and a bathing suit (tankini) that can double as a tank top.  

I did drop some things.  The scarves I was going to take; I mostly need them at the end to enter a mosque, and buying one when I get to Israel will be a great souvenir, and I don't have to carry it all the way through Europe.  I dropped a sweater:  I have a windbreaker, a long sleeved shirt and a 3/4 length shirt to put over it that I can use in Scotland, which is the only place it might be truly cold.   I dropped, then added back, a camping mattress.  Yeah, I'm 65 years old, and the ground can be hard.  

I weighed the pack, and the whole thing weighs in at about 25 pounds.  With another 5 for the daypack, even adding the trekking poles to that, we will be good.   Now I need to do some hiking wearing all this, and seeing how it goes.  

I need to unpack some of this stuff, but I'm going to leave most of it in place.

27 days. 

Tomorow you can see what all I'm carrying to last me close to four months. 

So much to do!

 On Saturday, I wrote about Rest. 

On Sunday I took some.  (sorry about skipping).

Today I am overwhelmed by the amount of stuff that still has to happen.   

I have about 10 weeks of travel right now with no reservations at all. While that is happening shortly, there are so many little bits.   My first priority are the critical pieces (Jesus Trail, Monastery in Assisi, dates with my brother) the places where I have to use credits from the first cancellation (airfare, transport to and from Patmos, prepaid tours) and the first four weeks or so.   If I don't have reservations in Rome, I'll be OK, but I do need to think through a number of things. 

PLUS there are a thousand things to do here at home.   I just finished a (four page) list of people who are contacts for each other.  Who will do pastoral care while I am gone.  Identifying who can let the supply pastor into the churches, and who will read scripture in the Lutheran Church.   Not to mention who will make decisions when I'm not able to do it.

And that does not even begin to count the cleaning.   I have an office that needs to be seriously straightened off, and a storage room that is full of stuff from the pandemic times, that needs to be sorted through, resolved, and possibly packed up. 

Lots to do. So I think I'll go. ... .

But.  28 days.  4 weeks. 

Rest

 I'm not good at rest.    I would not call myself a type A personality, I'm not that driven, but I like, a LOT, always being active.    I have not deviated from that pattern much with this sabbatical.  Oh, I have added in some sabbath days, I've tried to keep major sights to two per day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, in order to linger a bit in these places where Jesus, Paul, and the church walked.  And I have some "slow down and recharge" expectations, like getting a practice of meditation really going again. 

But I'm not good at stopping.  Even my Iona Community retreat is an active retreat, based on worship and learning more about that from a Wild Goose Worship Group point of view, "Braving the Elements."

So maybe it is good that I'm being forced into 10 days of inactivity at the beginning?    

We'll see. 

30 days left.  

Test run

Today Audrey and traveled to Harrisburg via Amtrak.   We are here to pick up our new car from Faukner Toyota, but it’s also a fun dry run for the day, just 31 days away, when I’ll take exact the same train (#42, the Pennsylvanian) to Philadelphia on the first leg of my journey overseas.

Audrey was an awesome traveling companion.  She loved everything about the train, especially the hotdogs in the cafe car!  The ride was great and took us along the Susquehanna River the last half hour, which was very pretty.

Due to rain in Harrisburg, we caught a cab instead of walking the three mules to the mall.  Then we shopped for some new clothes and finally spent a good deal of time in the play area at the Harrisburg mall.   When Grandaddy is close, we will head over to The Toyota dealer to pick up our brand new car!

What an exciting day!

It's a GO!

 Yesterday night my church council voted GO, and gave me an extra week (to accommodate quarantine in Scotland.)  I immediately got tickets (good thing, because prices are going up!)

Not ideal, two changes (Chicago and London) on the way out, but it will do.   My cousin, Loraine is going to put me up overnight between my train trip out from my home and my flight.    I'm still working the Covid test issue; best day to get it is no doubt Sunday or early Monday, if I can get results in time.  If necessary I'll get the expensive rapid test in the Newark airport. 

Today, I'll start the process of connecting the supply pastor, the local pastors, my secretary and my council chair.   

But the hot thing this week is going to be reopening and having in person worship in my church.    That's where most of my focus will go this week.

33 days

 Keep me in prayer.   33 days are left, before I leave (assuming I leave on the 12th).   I meet with my council tonight to go over both this AND our first in person worship on Sunday.

I have NO reservations until after I meet with my council tonight.    Once I get that, I need to begin booking travel like CRAZY starting with a place to quarantine in Edinburgh. 

On the plus side, I've been watching Adventures with Sarah: https://www.facebook.com/watch/adventureswithsarah/  on Facebook, and she reports positive things about the experience of Europe right now, which makes me think I won't struggle to eat, at least.   She is, right now, reporting from Croatia and Italy.  

It's going to be very different travel

 

My sabbatical is going to be very different from travel as I've experienced it in the past.    While I fully expect to have a great time, and am very much looking forward to it, I know that it will be a different experience.  These are some of the things I am considering. 

• I'll be wearing a mask a LOT.   While I expect to be able to ditch it when outside, at least most of the time, and when sleeping, the truth is I'll be required to mask up when I visit the sights I'll visit, when I travel on a plane or a train, and when I'm around people in general.  I'm going to carry a whole bunch of KN95 masks with me, in addition to a dozen or so homemade ones.   
• I may not be eating out the same way.   Restaurants might not be serving for in house consumption, or even be open!   I anticipate lots of takeout and more meals out of grocery stores.  It will be harder to take my brother and his family out for dinner when I pass through Hamburg.   There will be no friends made because we ended up sitting together at a table in a restaurant, or sharing a drink in a pub.   I won't be spending evenings listening to local music in a nightspot (although I might be able to do this for outdoor concerts.)
• I will take lots of Covid tests.  I'll need one for every flight, I'll need extra ones in Scotland and Israel (unless guidelines change.)
• My vaccination certificate will get some use.  good thing I had it laminated, and immediately stuck it in my passport. 
• Hostels might not be an option, with their large bunk rooms.   So lodging might be quite expensive.  Likewise, I might do a lot more camping.  Almost certainly I will camp most of the nights of the Jesus Trail walk.   I'm likewise not sure about the overnight ferries to Patmos.    I may end up sleeping some nights in KN95 masks, who knows.   It will be strange.
  
• As I said earlier, I'll be skipping 3 sights that I had planned on:  Scrooby in England and Leiden in the Netherlands, where the heritage of the UCC from the Pilgrims come from, and Malta, where Paul was shipwrecked.   The extra work necessary to go to these places is not worth the 24 to 48 hours planned to spend in them.   
• And I'll just regularly need to worry about taking care, everywhere, always.  Not just for my own sake, but also for the sake of others around us. 
• Not to mention, the necessity of quarantining upon coming home. 

Lots of changes, but still an experience that I look forward to!    Next blog post:  gear updates! 

 

 

Israel is opening

 The above notice on TouristIsrael.com means that Israel will now be open, as of July.   I am scheduled to be there in October, so all is good!   

I don't yet know whether I will be able to visit the West Bank (Nablus, Ramallah, Bethlehem) and I'll be connecting with my tour guide in Bethlehem and the tour company for some of my other travel to determine if that is going to be possible.

I am getting very excited!