Saket Vora

Haven’t posted in a long time. There really isn’t a noticeable ‘ramp-up’ in the planning or prepping. I’ve been rather detached actually. The two bags have been getting filled, but nothing final yet. Some clothes are being washed. Got the Rail passes in. Got the currency in Euros and Swedish Kronors (which, compared to US dollars, looks 100x more interesting). My heavy winter snow jacket is being repaired by a really sweet lady who runs a tailoring shop on Kildaire Farm Rd. That should be finished Monday. I’m going to leave work early tomorrow and pick up my new glasses, which should be ready as well.

So far what’s at the front of my mind is wrapping up the internship at Progress Energy. I’m doing a practice run of my presentation tomorrow in front of my group, but I haven’t actually done a full out-loud walkthrough yet. That’s what I’m focusing on today. This next week is my last real one, then my final presentation is next Tuesday.

Last night Greg was in town with his family to move stuff into the apartment, and they treated me to dinner at P.F. Changs. It was a wonderful evening. Anyway. Things to take care of now.

Haven’t posted in a long time. There really isn’t a noticeable ‘ramp-up’ in the planning or prepping. I’ve been rather detached actually. The two bags have been getting filled, but nothing final yet. Some clothes are being washed. Got the Rail passes in. Got the currency in Euros and Swedish Kronors (which, compared to US dollars, looks 100x more interesting). My heavy winter snow jacket is being repaired by a really sweet lady who runs a tailoring shop on Kildaire Farm Rd. That should be finished Monday. I’m going to leave work early tomorrow and pick up my new glasses, which should be ready as well.

So far what’s at the front of my mind is wrapping up the internship at Progress Energy. I’m doing a practice run of my presentation tomorrow in front of my group, but I haven’t actually done a full out-loud walkthrough yet. That’s what I’m focusing on today. This next week is my last real one, then my final presentation is next Tuesday.

Last night Greg was in town with his family to move stuff into the apartment, and they treated me to dinner at P.F. Changs. It was a wonderful evening. Anyway. Things to take care of now.

Two days ago, I’m exploring ways on what to do between the 15th and 17th of August. After trying dozens of variations on RailEurope’s webpage, I discover that there is an overnight train from Berlin to Malmo. It’s perfect: I get 1.5 days in Berlin, then wake up the 17th morning at 8am in Malmo. From there it’s a 15 minute train ride to Lund! So last night I go to do all the bookings, and to my dismay I find that the Berlin to Malmo is sold out. It’s 9pm. Sigh. That began a 3 hour search for trains and planes and hostels between Prague and Lund. There are trains going via Hamburg and Berlin. To Copenhagen. Planes from Berlin to London to Copenhagen. Planes from Berlin to Copenhagen. Hostels in Hamburg, Berlin, Copenhagen. And finding a cheap hostel in Copenhagen isn’t easy. It was a complete mess.

So it’s getting near 12am. Dad is helping me out now. And just on a whim I go back to RailEurope to show him how the Berlin –> Malmo train is gone. And would you look at that. There it is. Available. My eyes widened and I smash the “Book Now” button and get it reserved in less than a minute. After all that hunting and planning, and in the end things fell exactly the way I initially planned it.

We’ve got the Rail Passes. I just booked my hostel in Berlin, and will get the Prague to Berlin ticket later today. This Prague apartment we’ve booked seems shady so Mom is looking for other places. This weekend I’m going to start making an inventory list and preliminary packing.

Two days ago, I’m exploring ways on what to do between the 15th and 17th of August. After trying dozens of variations on RailEurope’s webpage, I discover that there is an overnight train from Berlin to Malmo. It’s perfect: I get 1.5 days in Berlin, then wake up the 17th morning at 8am in Malmo. From there it’s a 15 minute train ride to Lund! So last night I go to do all the bookings, and to my dismay I find that the Berlin to Malmo is sold out. It’s 9pm. Sigh. That began a 3 hour search for trains and planes and hostels between Prague and Lund. There are trains going via Hamburg and Berlin. To Copenhagen. Planes from Berlin to London to Copenhagen. Planes from Berlin to Copenhagen. Hostels in Hamburg, Berlin, Copenhagen. And finding a cheap hostel in Copenhagen isn’t easy. It was a complete mess.

So it’s getting near 12am. Dad is helping me out now. And just on a whim I go back to RailEurope to show him how the Berlin –> Malmo train is gone. And would you look at that. There it is. Available. My eyes widened and I smash the “Book Now” button and get it reserved in less than a minute. After all that hunting and planning, and in the end things fell exactly the way I initially planned it.

We’ve got the Rail Passes. I just booked my hostel in Berlin, and will get the Prague to Berlin ticket later today. This Prague apartment we’ve booked seems shady so Mom is looking for other places. This weekend I’m going to start making an inventory list and preliminary packing.

Two days ago, I’m exploring ways on what to do between the 15th and 17th of August. After trying dozens of variations on RailEurope’s webpage, I discover that there is an overnight train from Berlin to Malmo. It’s perfect: I get 1.5 days in Berlin, then wake up the 17th morning at 8am in Malmo. From there it’s a 15 minute train ride to Lund! So last night I go to do all the bookings, and to my dismay I find that the Berlin to Malmo is sold out. It’s 9pm. Sigh. That began a 3 hour search for trains and planes and hostels between Prague and Lund. There are trains going via Hamburg and Berlin. To Copenhagen. Planes from Berlin to London to Copenhagen. Planes from Berlin to Copenhagen. Hostels in Hamburg, Berlin, Copenhagen. And finding a cheap hostel in Copenhagen isn’t easy. It was a complete mess.

So it’s getting near 12am. Dad is helping me out now. And just on a whim I go back to RailEurope to show him how the Berlin –> Malmo train is gone. And would you look at that. There it is. Available. My eyes widened and I smash the “Book Now” button and get it reserved in less than a minute. After all that hunting and planning, and in the end things fell exactly the way I initially planned it.

We’ve got the Rail Passes. I just booked my hostel in Berlin, and will get the Prague to Berlin ticket later today. This Prague apartment we’ve booked seems shady so Mom is looking for other places. This weekend I’m going to start making an inventory list and preliminary packing.

We currently have hotels (actually apartments…you can rent these for a couple of days and it’s much cheaper than hotels) booked in Budapest, Vienna, and Prague. Bratislava has become a day-trip from Budapest, which is fine cause Budapest isn’t very expensive. The European East rail passes should be ordered tonight. The Europe travel ends on the 15th, and I have to arrive in Lund on the 17th. The plan right now is that I take a train from Prague to Berlin, spend a day and a half in Berlin, then take an overnight train to Lund from there. I found a good cheap hostel in Berlin that I’ll book either tonight or tomorrow ($20 for the night).

As for the luggage problem I was foreseeing, currently I’ll just bring with me a suitcase and a backpack. After I arrive in Sweden and know my mailing address, my parents will surface mail all my heavy winter clothing. Should work out ok.

I think that dumb 512 MB card probably just got to the buy.com warehouse in california. Then it’ll take probably 2 or 3 days to process the return. Then another 4-5 days to get back to me. Sigh. Nader said he might be soon in possesion of a 1 GB card. Maybe I could buy that from him too….it’s not an UltraII though. Oh well. ‘Till then.