Longing since years and Planning since two months...All Set

Well its no secret how much I love to travel and how little I am able to compared to how much I would like to. Lol this post isn't about ranting in this direction. Its just that finally I was able to plan a trip I was hoping to plan since long. I will any day go on a back packing trip than on a luxury trip with fancy hotels. I will always prefer making my own itinerary, doing my own planning and bookings rather than hand that over to any travel tour agencies. That's my way, I love to plan trips - and believe me when you are on a budget its not a walk in the park to plan. So many things to consider, dig out relevant information, what's the best and yet cheapest possible way to travel between places, where to stay, which all places to visit amongst the endless possibilities, budget constraints, time constraints. And now to add to it - "travelling with a 2 year old constraint".  



The two months I spent planning this trip had moments of horror ( when I saw the flights rates ), despair ( I had to strike off Pamukkale from my itinerary cuz of lack of time ), confusion ( spent days figuring out how to go from Turkey to Greece - flight, island hopping ), dread ( got the visa along with our passports at the last possible day ) and a whole lot of excitement, thrill and happiness ( pretty much remaining all the time ).

Coming to packing - it was no less a feat. We obviously wanted to travel as light as possible. But with a 2 year old "as light as possible" isn't exactly light. But we still managed to pack most of our stuff in two back packs to be carried by each of us. In addition we had a laptop cum SLR bag, my sling handbag, a handbag for Ishu's immediately required stuff and lastly a toddler compact foldable pram. I was quite proud of our packing skills. The aim was to be able to carry everything and not be dependent on taxis etc.

Our flight was from Mumbai on 15th September early morning. We were to leave Pune on 14th by around 11 pm by road. Ishu was as excited for "ghumi ghumi" as we were. She slept in the car from Mumbai to Pune but was up as soon as we reached airport by 2:30  am. Our Checkin, immigration and Security got done immediately thanks to the priority status given to us for Ishu. Post this she was in hyper energetic and good mood and played till it was time to board at 5 am. After plane took off she slept off and we also tried to get some sleep.