Finally!  Progress!

As I plan our next trip abroad (to England, Scotland and Ireland), I feel like I’ve been thwarted at every turn — I had trouble working out the itinerary in the first place, then it felt like everything was closed or sold out the day we wanted to go (perhaps I should have started planning a wee bit earlier???), trying to book our flights has been driving me crazy (why, oh why, should flying Vienna to London to Dublin to Vienna cost twice as much as flying round trip from Vienna to London?), and trying to find a reasonably priced London hotel in a decent area nearly brought me to tears today (I know, poor me).  I usually enjoy this part of trip planning, but this time, it’s been more complicated than I anticipated and too frustrating to be much fun — so much so that I talked to Dan today about canceling the whole thing, or massively shortening and simplifying the trip.

He encouraged me to keep working on it, and I did, and . . . it’s actually starting to come together.

I found and booked a great-looking London hotel, and then found one in Stratford for the second part of the trip.  (Only 7 more destinations, airfare, train tickets and 2 car rentals left to sort out!)

I still have a ton to do — we leave on FRIDAY — and I’ll hyperventilate if I think about it too much.  But, we’re making progress, and I’m starting to think we may actually get there.  Maybe.  Hopefully.

(Note to self:  plan international trips more than 1 week ahead of time.)