The Saga that is my trip to Africa
When I first started planning this trip to Africa the plan was to do the 10 day gorilla trek in Rwanda. Who hasn't seen Gorillas in the Mist and thought "I would love to see the mountain gorillas" (hmm, I suppose there are many people who haven't thought that). I thought about it and then convinced my friends that if we are going to Africa we should go to more than one country. So we extended our trip to include going on Safari in Tanzania. We all agreed and did the happy dance.
The agency planning our trip to Tanzania worked on getting us air fare that wouldn't cost an arm and a leg since the overall trip to Africa is pretty outrageous in cost. The flight connects thru Rome. Since we are going to be in Rome my friends and I decided that we would stay a couple days in Rome (I went there a few years ago but hey never hurts to visit again though it's not one of my favorite places). Okay so now we are up to 3 countries - Italy, Tanzania and Rwanda.
Today I called the travel agency to ask if I could change my tickets to leave out of Westchester County Airport, which is 10-15 mins from my house and a $15 cab ride, instead of JFK which is 35 mins from my house and a $100 plus tolls cab ride. The agent told me he would check and get back to me. He called back about a half an hour later and told me that it was a good thing I called because the Ethiopian connection of our return flight home had been cancelled and we were booked on a flight leaving Ethiopia 27 hours later. However, the airline had hotel accomodations set up for us in Ethiopia and they would also provide a guide to show us around Addis Ababa. The guide will pick us up at our hotel, show us around and then bring us back to the airport for our flight home. Though it's only one day I am totally stoked to be able to see some of Ethiopia.
So my little one country trip is now 4 countries in the following order - Italy, Tanzania, Rwanda and Ethiopia. I am beside myself with excitement. I can't wait for November 9th (well, not looking forward to the anti malaria drugs but I will deal :-)
For the trip to Australia next year to drive SexyP and EJ crazy visit SexyP, EJ, Mel and anyone else we can rope into coming to see us, I am trying to convince the rest of my vacation party that we should go to Australia, New Zealand and Fiji. Because, frankly, WHY NOT!! Will have to consult with the Australian ladies to see how much of Australia we can see in 5 days :-)
Now off to find the form I need to fill out to bring to the Ethiopian Embassy on Monday in order to get a visa so I can actually leave the hotel and see the country a bit :-)
L8R
A/