Near Catastrophic finish to major holiday

A week or so ago I nearly had some issue with my intentions to travel overseas with close to 9 weeks off on the count down. Somethings you can prepare for and others, you have to go with the flow and see where you end up. I dont know if I would have had to change huge parts to the trip away due to any medical procedure as I could have still been recovering or become tired.

Deciding that I required new glasses and sunnies, I went to get my eyes checked. I wanted to pick them up before I went on holiday and to look cool. Also I was overdue to get my eyes checked as you do. The spanner was thrown into the works as the optometrist was concerned over what he thought was a problem. He had a feeling that I had a detached retina or coming close to it in my right eye. I required to see an eye surgeon for a second opinion.

As time was ticking by, I wanted to get looked at and I had a referral. The first lot of people were not in the office that day. I got mum to arrange things in the afternoon as I was heading to work. By the time I arrived, I had a doctor and referral arranged. The surgeon arranged that had done my left eye when I had a detached retina way back in the early 2000’s. I did have to visit the surgeon and there was the worry that I might require surgery before I left and they knew my tight timeline. 

There were two techniques they could use and only one was going to be possible. They could get the jelly out of my eye (Sounds gross) and put in gas, which would not be ideal for a plane as gas expands. The other option was some sort of oil that would slowly correct itself but would be removed through another operation. Once the surgeon came in for a loving gaze into my eyes with a bright light. The verdict was there wasn’t anything wrong apart from vision changes. I was told no surgery required and no extreme sports while on holidays. I was very relieved as I really did not want this to happen. I cannot go diving as a I have a buckle on my left eye from the last lot of surgery. No idea what skydiving would do.

The lessons to this, is always have travel insurance well before hand in case something like this occurs. I have had mine since around September last year when I was buying flights. I slowly buy things as I go on. I was happy that I was back to getting new glasses even though my right eye had changed in regard to prescriptions. At least I would not be in Far off Europe with vision problems related to surgery and not have time off from work at the same time too. If there are major problems and I don’t see that there would be any, the surgeon has a list of people I can see within Europe that are trusted. I have all bases covered and one mega 8 week journey to look forward to, along with new glasses.

My old glasses are bent, battered from years of service especially when they get thrown off your face when walking into a fridge that has flaps. Soon I will have the new pair and can see clearly now that the sun is out. I can move on with looking at the basics towards my epic journey. No changes or challenges that are out of my control will be sorted out.

There’s an App for that – Travel Countdown

Random sunrise Gold Coast Airport 2016

The European adventure planning still keeps on giving plenty of gifts and learning experiences as I go along with sorting out my travel plans. These travel plans are down to the part of planning where you purchase tickets for transportation. I am using public transport throughout my journey through Germany and England. I am tweaking some of my trip to see what happens.

I plan early with the theory that I can be provided with cheaper tickets to the locations I am visiting. So far I have found this to be true. I compared the ticket prices between Copenhagen and Stockholm, that recently came online. The beginning of June the first class tickets are around $50 Australian Dollars with the second class being cheaper. Fast forward or rewind to two days from now and they were around $180 AUD or more. I never did check the second class tickets closer to the time, but I would assume they were expensive too. I did the same with the tickets from Hamburg to Copenhagen, but I never checked the price closer to the date.

I know my entire itinerary as I have it printed off and in paper form within a folder with an email address that I have my entire itinerary located within a folder corresponding to that particular period of travel as a backup. I was caught out twice with not having the correct information. Once was several nights away last trip in the UK as I was staying with a friend. I never printed the booking or recorded the date. The email had been sent to my regular email and the person back home in Australia had retrieved all emails onto the physical computer. So, I had ‘lost’ my booking as it was physically on my computer back home in Australia. Apparently, I had made a mistake with the date anyway, which I had wanted to find out. Mobile internet wasn’t really a thing around 9 years ago. Another was actually in Huntly, New Zealand where I had made a booking, but printed the reply off. Turned out it was a reply, but the person doing the booking did not actually make one. Luckily it worked in my favour and I ended up in a 7 bed room.

I did sign up for an app with the German railway line known as the DB Navigator app. The interesting thing is the online ticket is mostly English telling you where you are sitting and the carriage with seat number. I booked a seat for the 5 hour journey between Frankfurt and Berlin. The trip to Copenhagen from Hamburg had a mandatory reservation. I think that is for the ferry. The App seems easier to understand than the paper print off, I made. The self-check in part is also interesting and I have no idea how useful this actually is and where I would have to check in if there are no gates. Something to find when I am over there. I have to remember that Europe does things differently from Australia. I might need to observe the trains to understand what happens.

There will be other things that I might experience along the way including some keys that are accessed through an app. That will be something to see and find out how it works. I have no idea who or what places are the ones that require the keys though. Hopefully I get a physical key or card and something like my phone doesn’t ‘wipe’ the data and the door opener. Had that happen at one place constantly. As long as I have access to food on the trains then I will be happy and have no problems. There could be an app for that as well. The travel passes seem to have gone the same way like the Berlin Pass and the other ones too. We shall see what happens at the time. Shall be fun and the time is getting closer and closer.