Katie's coming to Prague!!!!!

And I'm staying until Sunday. Katie's going to fly in on Thursday, which is when the conference ends, and then we'll have all day Friday and all day Saturday to explore, sightsee, etc. Then on Sunday, I fly back to the states.

Here's a more detailed itinerary:

November 6 - I depart from Charlotte, NC at 10:00 AM and get to Dullas at 11:45 AM.

November 7 - Half-day conference orientation. We depart Dullas at 5:50 PM and get to Frankfurt (fingers crossed on some pretzels) on Monday.

November 8 - Arrive in Frankfurt at 7:30 AM. Depart Frankfurt at 10:30 AM, arrive in Prague at 11:30 AM. Tour of Prague at 3:00 PM. Conference begins this evening.

November 9 - It's Jenn's BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!! YAY!!!!!!!!! (Conference)

November 10 - Conference

November 11 - Conference during the day, closing ceremonies, KATIE COMES!!!

November 12 - Katie and I explore Prague

November 13 - Katie and I explore Prague (the remix)

November 14 - I depart from Prague at 1:50 PM, and end up in Charlotte many (18+) hours later at Charlotte

November 15 - Troy's BIRTHDAY!!!!!

Needless to say, it will be an exciting conference and a fabulous trip.

$1 = 17.5420 Czech Koruna.

Looong Travel Day

We made it!

All in all, our international travel was pretty reasonable. IAD moved pretty quickly, and we got there in time to eat dinner in this cute little sandwich shop. Katie briefly lost her watch post security, but someone found it and returned it to an information booth, so Katie is no longer watch-less. The flight left on time, and Caitlynn and Katie sat next to each other (I was wedged up a few rows between two larger gentlemen... a very relaxing way to spend six hours, let me tell you). Katie did get motion sickness toward the end of the flight, but rest assured everyone, she has made a full recovery.

Heathrow was the best I have ever seen it. Almost relaxing (but only because we just happened to already be very close to our gate... otherwise, I'm sure it would have been more on the miserable side). The next flight was only three and a half hours, but once again, I was between two gentlemen who spent most of the flight falling asleep, falling over, and hogging the armrests. Oh, airlines.

Customs was more or less non-existent. We weren't asked to fill out any paperwork or declare anything. We just stood in line and got stamped (despite the fact that he was a little gruff, he did excellent stamp placement on my passport). We then rushed to get our bags and rushed to the metro. Twelve stops and one line change later, we got off and made our way down the block to the hotel. Athens kinda reminds me of Milan, or at least where we're staying here reminds me of where we stayed there.

The hotel is quite nice. We have three single beds in our room, plus our own bathroom and shower. It's very convenient to the metro, and there's wifi and a continental breakfast included. Plus, we have a balcony. Can't beat that.

Later, I'll post about what we did after we checked in to our room (because that only took us until around 4:00 pm).

Last Post from Egypt 1/6/10

Hey everyone,

It's 4:15 in the morning, and we're leaving Farah's house in around 15 minutes to head to the airport. My flight leaves at 7:30, and gets in to Paris at 11:30 local time. I leave Paris at 1:30 pm, get to JFK at 4:30 pm local time. At 6:15 pm I fly from JFK to Boston. Man, am I happy that I'm not flying through Heathrow (totally closed due to bad weather) or Geneva (Baggage Handler Strike - though I am only doing carry-on back.

I'm looking forward to being stateside, but I really want to thank Farah and her family for letting me come stay with them and showing me what Egypt is all about, from the tours and museums, to the food and culture. Thank you so much!

Egypt was awesome. Now if I can only get some sleep on the flights home...