Portus pondering

[dream_labyrinth]

I could meet at least five people I know at Portus.

I could likely take my holiday at that time, as established when calling the sergeant today.

I could travel on to LA and meet holyrood. And stay for a few days, too. (Clearly, she hasn't met me yet, but don't tell her I'm a crazy axe murderer or she'll take that invitation back.)

Plane tickets from Frankfurt to Dallas would come in between 870 and over 1000 Euros, as of today. Of course, this might change. I can't even check the American airlines yet as it's still so much time until next July.

There is no way in hell I could afford staying alone in a room in the Hilton, so if I want to stay there, I need to find roommates. Hostels, at least those that are members of Hostelling International, apparently do not exist in Dallas, there are only a handful anyway in the whole of the US. To be sure, a motel or some such thing would be possible, likely.

If I stick around the US longer, I might not get around renting a car. For the first time in my life. Eeep.

I'd need a new passport. (With biometric data. And supposedly the chips degrade rather quickly and make the data illegible, which would make the passport worthless, which sucks as it is more expensive than a normal one.) I'd also let the immigration service take my fingerprints and a digital picture. And I'd need an internation driver's license.

This is going to be huge.

I'm thinking...
Many flights to Dallas seem to go via Chicago. What if I fly into Chicago and stay there for a bit, provided that linnapaw, for example, will have me; then get a possibly cheaper flight within the US. I need to check whether that could actually save me money. (Of course, I could also take a Greyhound bus. It just takes something like 20 hours. Though booking in advance, I can get the ticket for a little more than 50 $... What am I even thinking about? I must be crazy!)

Comments

[correspondguy.livejournal.com]

Chicago's not that far from Milwaukee. You could come see us, too.

[dream-labyrinth.livejournal.com]

I was just told Dallas is not too far from LA, so I won't ask how far it actually is from Chicago to Milwaukee... ;-)
Sure, if you'll have me, I'll see what I can do. :-) It'll be great to meet so many people in RL.

[correspondguy.livejournal.com]

Chicago is 90 miles, which is um...oh, about 145 K. It's about two hours at non-rush hour.

Dallas is "not too far from LA" if, and only if, you either have your own plane or a rocket-powered car.

[dream-labyrinth.livejournal.com]

:-) Two hours is not too bad, I can do that.
(145 km would be approximately an hour and a half, if you guys were allowed to go any decent speeds, though...)

I believe she said if I was in Dallas, I might as well go a little further and come to LA. So there was no actual mention of "not too far", to be exact. *g*

[holyrood.livejournal.com]

wait, you're an AXE MURDERER?? i take it back! :)

i'm pretty sure you can get a cheaper domestic flight from chicago-dallas than germany-dallas. you do not want to take greyhound. it is really, really awful (overflowing toilets, packed full of smelly mentally disturbed folks) and consistently late (i used to take it from college to home- it was advertised as taking 1.5 hours but usually took 3).

[dream-labyrinth.livejournal.com]

Hah, too late!
See, that's the trouble with Germans. If you tell one of us "Hey, if you're in the area, just drop by", an American might take that as "It was nice meeting you." A German will take that as an invitation, and we're as hard to get rid of as red wine stains on your favorite pants... ;-D

When I flew from Boston to Tampa, I had booked the ticket while in the US and it was quite cheap.
I'll just have to make sure I have a fluent explanation ready at immigration if they ask me how I intend to get from my point of arrival to my point of departure. They were quite paranoid about that even before 9/11, I'm sure it's worse now.

Ugh, okay, Greyhound doesn't sound like a great option.

[holyrood.livejournal.com]

oh, the invite is still open! just don't bring the axe. :)

looking forward to seeing your new travel plans once they are set! i will be out of the country sometime in may-june 2008 (going to france & spain for my first abroad trip-- OMG i am such a house-bound american) but if you're here in july, i hope to see you!

[dream-labyrinth.livejournal.com]

Hey, France and Spain is not too far from Germany.
You could stop by here and save me the trouble of travelling with my axe...

[linnapaw.livejournal.com]

Of course you are welcome here, but I will not have you taking the Greyhound. (I've done enough of that in my day for the both of us!)

[dream-labyrinth.livejournal.com]

*g*
Okay, I'll bow to your experience. Besides, flying will be so much faster.

I'll have to make a decent itinerary so I can keep the jet lag down, and definitely stay in one location for longer than just one night.
But that's for next year to schedule, now it's just all very general. Though you might want to make a note that I might decend upon you sometime in July... ;-)

[wolflady26.livejournal.com]

The price of airfare is totally unreliable until about a month out from your planned departure. You can look between now and then and grab a snappchen if you see one, but otherwise don't let it freak you out yet.

[dream-labyrinth.livejournal.com]

*nods*
I figured it was bound to change. And I wouldn't book this far in advance anyway, so much could change between now and then.

[correspondguy.livejournal.com]

You might also want to check out Amtrak. The US train system blows compared to British Rail, but everything runs through Chicago, so it works better from there than anywhere else.

[dream-labyrinth.livejournal.com]

martianmooncrab mentioned going to Oregon by train (yet another place to visit...) I'll definitely check it out.