And what an adventure it was! The sheer number of changes to my original plan for this Balkans Bonanza was astounding. As unexpected as those many changes were, all but a very few were wonderful beyond imagination! I think as this story unfolds, you will find some humor, some shock, a bit of hard work, definitely some stress, a lot of magic, and even a little….

If you are just joining in and are a new-to-me reader, this was the original, planned out itinerary; keep this in mind….

All travel has to start with the setting out bit. I know for many readers that is the “boring part”. However, if you are new to travel, I hope you can find some nuggets of information that might be helpful for your own adventuring. For the more seasoned folks I have following along, maybe the excitement I was feeling to be headed to several brand-new-to-me destinations will be contagious and get you planning your own next travels soon!

Every trip I’ve taken for many years has been carefully planned and curated. When I have it all just the way I like it, and how I think it will go, I print up little travel cards with all the deets I might need. Laminated and put on a little ring, they are easy to tote around and refer to for confirmation numbers, flight details, ideas for places to eat, etc… With the details at my fingertips, I was ready to go!

Are you?!?

For once, I was not needing to get up in the middle of the night to catch a 5:30AM flight. Instead, I leisurely finished up getting the house ready for my return (I mean who doesn’t love to come home to clean sheets and a fresh roll of TP ready for use? Yes, I have some thoughts on foreign TP that I’ll get to.) and loading the bags into Mom’s car. I’d arranged for family to take me to the airport for a 5:30PM drop-off for my non-stop cross-Atlantic at 8:40PM.

BBQ was the dinner of choice for the family, so my belly was full setting out. Good thing too, I skipped dinner onboard knowing it’d likely be abysmal on British Air. Speaking of British Air, here’s what I know. You cannot check-in online with them with an American passport. I did confirm this with other Americans both departing and returning. They will require an airport check-in process with a passport check. They will also look at your passport immediately prior to boarding at the gate, so have that out.

It wasn’t until 2 days prior to leaving that I made the final decision to pack with a checked bag. Try as I might, I just couldn’t fit all that I needed to in my smaller rollie and shoulder bag. So, I ponied up the $70 each way to check the bigger one and really was okay with that. This was a long trip and I didn’t want the stress of not having room for souvenirs or having to leave things behind coming or going.

Now a quick word on my rollie that I do have and use for pretty much ALL of my domestic travel and even some international destinations:

I bought these off of Amazon (the bag and the cover):

and love it! However, it does have some flaws that I want to pass along. I love the charging ports built into the bag. I’ve definitely been guilty more than once of leaving behind cords and/or charging bricks in the airport- never again. You throw your own charging brick in the bag and can charge easily during those long waits to board without having to hunt for an outlet. However, there are at least two issues I found with this bag… the built-in USB-A port arrived not working. It’s fine, I still have the C port and it works great. The other, bigger flaw is that if you decide to gate check your bag, you will have to remove the brick which may mean a bit of unpacking/re-packing. Just keep that in mind. Otherwise, the lunch-bag hangar on the side and the cup holder are genius additions.

Remember! NO charging bricks are allowed at ALL in checked luggage anymore and the ones in your carry-ons CANNOT go into the overhead bins. Easy enough to remove the one from this bag. They have to be in the seat-pocket in front of you or easily visible on top of your personal item. Lastly, you can’t use the onboard power ports to charge your banks either. These are relatively recent changes in air travel that you need to be aware of.

With TSA pre-check, I was whisking through security to BNA’s International Terminal, the T Gates, in no time. Shockingly, my carry-on was not pulled aside which is almost always on my pre-flight checklist. Would this be an omen of smooth travels? Does the government have your best interests at heart?  Would it surprise you that I left my passport in the bathroom just before going through that security? Only for about 2 minutes, and in a bathroom that no one else came in or went out of since me, but there’s nothing like a jolt of adrenaline when you’re about to board a long-haul and already have a bit of pre-flight intestinal upset. If you know what I mean. It was about that time that I realized I also forgot my little pink puffer vest in mom’s car that I usually use as a pillow.

Poop.

Now, judge me if you will, but I’ve come to really enjoy that pre-flight cocktail. It’s also part of my pre-flight checklist. To me, I guess it so loudly screams, “VACATION TIME!” No more homefront worries (ok, there were quite a few on this particular trip, but that’s getting ahead of myself) and a nice way to get into the mindset of leaving the realities of everyday life behind and stepping into someplace where the drudgery of cooking, cleaning, and bill paying are forgotten.

Sadly, the one I ordered in Nashville’s T Terminal sucked. It was too strong and tasted like turpentine. Ah well, I had a nice chat with a Scottish traveler who loved Music City. He shared that the friendliness of the people really stood out to him. #lovewhereyoulive

With still an hour to go in the gate area, I busied myself with doom scrolling and people watching. Which are basically the same thing. Half an hour before boarding, the crew of 17 sallied up to the gate all ablaze in their smart navy and reds and boarded. Meanwhile, our Trash Panda (industry slang for the A350 for its “mask” in front) was standing at attention to welcome us. I had a window seat and settled in nicely, popping a sleeper as I did. I watched exactly zero of the shows I’d downloaded, skipped the meal, and before I knew it, was landing at Heathrow. I know this may come as a shock, but I was exhausted. They just don’t make airline seats like they used to. Then again, the passengers don’t smoke like chimneys either.

Deplaning took a bit of extra time as the flightdeck informed us we couldn’t go all the way to the gate because “the auxiliary parking power had failed and they had to keep one engine running”. Always good to know your aircraft is in good working order! The delay wasn’t long and I have no idea how something like that gets fixed, but it was, and we all got off to go our own ways. For me it was straight to one of these bad boys.

Heathrow’s Terminal 3- where most of the longhaul, international flights operate out of have 10 or 12 of these sleeping cubbies that are free on a first come, first served basis. I had a 3-hour layover so you better believe I took full advantage of it! I was too tired to try and find or use a lounge, and in some ways a little cubby to get horizontal in was even better. It was free and I could stay in it as long as I wanted, which is not true of the airport lounges. Rant in a future chapter…

This chapter is becoming a bit long and there is someone else I should let get a word in edgewise. The biggest change of all was the addition of another traveler. But I’ll leave that introduction, and their own arrival stories, for another chapter. As for my own “getting there”, I’ll pick it up next time with another surprise and my first impressions of Prague, so stick around. If you haven’t subscribed yet, please fill out that JOIN field with your email and you’ll get notified when the next chapter goes up. Make sure to check your spam folder for the confirmation link!

I have turned off public commenting for the time being as I am still getting my feet wet in this new-to-me blogging platform. But I did add a “Get in Touch”/“Message” area where you can send me comments and feedback at the bottom of my home page. From the individual posts you can go to the upper lefthand corner and click on the link “What in the World?!- with Liesa” which should return you to my landing page where you can find the comments area at the bottom.

Stay tuned for another traveler’s adventures in getting to Prague!

The Thames River from above:

Here is a breakdown the of the expenses so far for this trip:

Airfare which INCLUDED a seat choice for an extra $182 AND checked luggage R/T: $1400

A crappy airport cocktail- $20 incl tip

Miscellaneous that are optional expenses which may or may not impact you: Uber(s), Airport parking, pre-flight meal