Random thoughts

I should stop checking travel rates for this summer. wolflady26 suggested to book about a month in advance, and by checking in ever so often I just get depressed. It seems I can't get the prices to fall under 700 Euros (about 1000 Dollars) no matter on which site I look, though the American sites usually are a tiny bit cheaper than the German ones.
Which makes it more and more likely that my trips within the US will be made by coach.

You guys were kind enough to offer me places to stay. That really means a lot, because otherwise I think I'm just about reaching the point where I'm ready to give up the whole plan. Which would suck majorly because I so want to go to Portus and meet you, and visit linnapaw and quietselkie and martianmooncrab.

I have cut down on expenses. I haven't bought a single book this year. Basically, I have only bought food.
But there is the minion's birthday and my brother's birthday this month, and my sister's birthday and another RL friend's birthday in March.
And my family seems unwilling to give me money for my birthday, if Christmas is any indication. And I hate hate hate to borrow money for things that aren't stricly necessary because after all I do have an income.

I do hope that I'll get some tax return.
There is also some money in a savings account that isn't actually doing anything right now, but it's money that my parents saved for each of us kids to use when things get rough, and that isn't really the case. It will take some more calculating and whining on my part before I overcome my reluctance to touch that money, I suppose.

Ignore me. I'm just depressed right now because I have a headache. There's been a lot of activity on the training ground yesterday and today (mostly bazookas and mortars with a side of machine gun) and as it has been very cloudy, the sound really stays close to the ground and we get the full benefit. And just to make things perfect, the kids in the flat underneath mine have been blowing up the last of their New Year's fireworks and have now taken to hammering on the walls.
I love kids. I just can't eat them whole.

Anyway, so I have a headache and see everything in black and dark grey. It will get better.
I'll go read fanfic and point and laugh at the Indiana General Assembly of 1897. (thanks to Google; the reason for pointing and laughing is here)

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!)

I've changed my plans once more.
As they're cutting off the hot water in my building (again)in August, I decided to not be there when it happens. Which means I'll be on vacation from August 7th to the 18th. I had already planned to be at my parents' from the 14th on, but I am not really feeling like spending two weeks here.
So I have one week to do other stuff that keeps me away from Hammelburg most of the time.
We'll see.

We're back!
Had a lovely time in Venice with wolflady26 and her husband and a friend this weekend.
We didn't take a gondola because they charge like 120 Euros per hour and that was a bit out of our range, but we did take a vaporetto (water bus, basically) along the Canal Grande Sunday morning, before we went into the Doge's palace.

Friday we drove down (note to self: next time I think I'd rather take the plane. wolflady26's husband did all the driving, but it was still a really long ride) and after checking in at our hotel in Marghera (much cheaper than Venice, and a really nice place, despite some moldy spots), took a bus into town.
wolflady26 required us to get lost, which we did. It was nice to walk around the sestiere Santa Croce and Cannaregio and see a bit of the less touristy Venice.
Saturday we then went into the tourist areas, saw San Marcus (really nice, but unfortunately they don't allow you to just sit down and stare up at the amazingly decorated ceiling, they basically just want to herd you through.) and the Piazza, the doge's palace from the outside, San Michele only from the boat (we tried to get there about 4 times, but the boat never stopped. Turned out we were too late, the cemetery closes at six.) and a bit of Murano.
I had to think of thehoodedcrow really often, because there were tons and tons of amazing masks, if you took the time to go to the better stores and away from the street vendors with the cheap Chinese stuff.
I bought a lovely mask in a workshop (pictures will follow). I also bought a necklace from Murano and generally spent way too much money on touristy stuff.
Saturday evening I managed to make it impossible for any of us to ever enter a certain restaurant again by sending two other guests away, not realizing the waitress was within hearing distance. But the food was so horrible, disgusting, terrible that I think seriously pissing off a waitress should be made up for by saving two unsuspecting tourists from our fate. It should have warned us that an Italian couple left because the waitress couldn't understand any Italian...

I loved Venice.
The whole atmosphere of the town is great. It isn't all clean and nice and in good repair, quite on the contrary. Some houses look like they're falling apart any minute, the channels aren't exactly clean either. But the town has a certain grace and serenity that makes you overlook the faults. Or rather, it wears the scars of a long life proudly and with an ease I haven't seen before.
I hope my pictues came out well. I didn't take my father's digital camera, just my own regular one, and had three rolls of film full on Sunday before entering the rooms of the Doge's palace. Which was alright because you're not allowed to take pictures there anyway. Which didn't keep some French tourists from stopping traffic through the Bridge of Sighs (you can't actually stand on the Bridge of Sighs, it feels rather like a narrow tunnel instead of a bridge, no matter what Byron said) by trying to take pictures of the sea through the tiniest windows.

I think I still haven't processed it all. There was so much, so many beautiful views and lovely scenes, so many peaceful and funny and relaxing and amusing moments.

Therefore, and also because I am still pretty tired, I called the nice kid this morning and told him I wouldn't go to the movies with him tonight. Instead, I'll drive back to Hammelburg sometime this afternoon and go to a photo place in town to get my pictures developed.

Time for lunch.

A few nights ago I had a dream that was about a group of people. There was a father and his son, but the rest of the bunch were mostly Egyptian gods and some Martians. The Martians looked like regular people, you could only see they were Martians when they died. Which happened like this:

The group had to leave some place they were staying. They traveled on a kind of cart that was not drawn by any animal that I can remember. On their way to wherever they were going, they were stopped by some sort of bandits. Obviously, the group had nothing of any value with them, but the bandits stopped them anyway and told them to come with them. The people did, thinking it was better not to get into any trouble with quite well-armed bandits on a dark road.
Next thing I remember is that every one of them is strapped down on a board, the boards arranged in a circle. And one of the bandits goes round with a chainsaw and cuts people's heads off. He starts with one of the Egyptian gods, then a person who looks like a human but when his head is cut off, his body becomes green and his face and mouth are kind of odd - a Martian.
Then the guy with the chainsaw tries to kill another Egyptian god, but as this one - I forgot the name, it's the god of the Nile, I think, a crocodile - has not one but three heads and they're kind of difficult to control, being crocodile heads, he decides to go for easier prey instead and walks over to the boy.

I woke up with the image of father and son screaming for mercy, the father telling them to kill him instead, to not kill the boy, to not let the boy see this, the boy crying for father, father FATHER!!

When I went back to sleep, my mind had taken control again. Sechmet, who for some reason was a man in my dream, turned into a cat and managed to get out of the shackles and get away, which distracted the bandits enough to stop killing people. I believe Sechmet, in lion form again, killed them and then freed the group. The only person actually to be dead in the end was the Martian. Gods aren't that easily killed.

I hate bad dreams. Especially as they usually return the next night if I happen to remember. This one did, but I managed to chase it away by thinking of how it all ended well (except for the Martian).
I wonder what a dream interpreter would say to this though.

Anyway.
( here be vacation poll )

( here be LJ userpic map )