Kathleen5/8/2013
And we are off! We flew out of Boston’s Logan airport at about 10:45 PM on 5/7. A 4.5 hour flight brought us to Sao Miguel in the Azores, from which we hopped a short flight to Pico Island. It has been raining all day here, and we consider this a good omen for beautiful weather to come. It was a perfect day to take a little nap (not much sleep last night, the Azorean airline, Sata, was decent but the leg room left a bunch to be desired for we tall American folks).
We have rented a lovely, tiny little stone cottage right on the Atlantic in a little town called Prainha on Pico island. Tonight is for tomato soup and resting up…hoping for bluer skies and more adventure tomorrow. It is fabulously green here and much of the local architecture is made from volcanic stone, which canhave a striking effect with the white mortar. We already feel at home here and looking forward to the week!
Here we are with all of the worldly possessions we will carry for the duration….I like my new Osprey bag which converts to a back-pack, but it certainly doesn’t hold a ton of stuff. Leaving the house and being done with the packing dilemma for the duration was one of the most uplifting sensations….simplify! I am wondering how long it will be before I have my packing system down and living out of this bag seems like the simplest and most natural thing in the world…I am giving it a few weeks since we won’t be moving around much in week one.
I already miss the ready access to data of any kind at any time of the day or night. It has become so natural to search the web at any whim…as I sat down to refresh my research on things to do, I realized that I don’t have a wifi connection here…..hmmmm…..could connect via cellular, but very costly on our at&t plan. Most of the places we will stay will have wifi, but I guess it is good to get away from it for a bit after-all….won’t be posting this tonight it seems:)
I am so excited for you! Can’t wait to hear more about your adventures abroad!
Sounds like you are off to a good start! I highly recommend small bags to help organize your packing as you start to figure out what you use mostly frequently and use together, even gallon size ziploc bags will do the trip. Makes it easy to grab what you need and they are clear so you can see everything.
Thanks, Christina! I think we have it. I use packing cubes to separate my clothes into categories, and small and large ziplock bags for most other things. I agree with you 100% on this, makes it so much easier to deal with! Please feel free to suggest any other tips you think of along the way, sometimes the simplest ideas make the most difference! Give Tom a smooch for me!