Sunday, September 9, 2012. I have paid off all my debts and I'm about to do something I've wanted to do for a very long time: travel. Lucky for me, I found someone with access to a Delta Airlines Buddy Pass, which lets me fly anywhere that Delta flies directly, with the limitation that I have to fly on Standby. That means paying customers get preference before me, whether they buy their ticket weeks or months in advance, or twenty minutes before the flight leaves. One good thing is that buddy passes have a priority system of their own: each buddy pass carries with it the year that the owner started working at Delta, which means that while someone that started working for Delta before my pass's owner can bump me, I can in turn bump someone that started after my pass's owner.

I've already started experiencing a bit of frustration; I intended to leave last Wednesday, but I got bumped twice, from a non-stop flight that only goes out once a day. I'm trying again tomorrow. It looks good so far, there are 10 first class seats available and 8 coach (economy) seats available. So, there need  to be 19 people that get preference over me (by seniority or by buying a ticket) for me to not be able to fly.

This trip, my first abroad, is to Ireland and Scotland. I'll be flying in to Dublin, leaving Atlanta around 6:45 pm and arriving in Dublin about 7:30 am local time (2:30 am back home). Due to my being bumped, I stopped trying to reserve a room and I'll just get one when I get there. I'm going to try to stay at Moat Lodge (http://www.moatlodge.ie) in Lucan (in or near Dublin, not sure how that works out) which already gets my recommendation, even though I've never been there, because they've been very friendly and helpful by email. In fact, they recommended another hotel just down the road, on the off chance that they don't have a room for me when I arrive. Interestingly, if you go to their website, there is a song about "Lucan Village" that plays, sung by a man with an Irish accent. Go figure!

I'm going to be gone 6 weeks or so. ^.^ How is that possible? A working vacation! The company I work for allows me to work remotely from home is willing to let me work anywhere in the world, as long as the work gets done. So, as long as I can find a reliable Internet connection, I'll be working full-time and sight-seeing when I'm not working. I know, I'm very lucky. Blessed, even. I'm figuring on about 3 weeks in Ireland, hopping around different areas, and about 3 weeks in Scotland.

I'm going to start my tour in Dublin, and after 3-4 days, head down to Cork (a two hour train ride southwest), where my company has a location. I'll check in there in Klonakilty, learn to pronounce Klonakilty, and see the area. After that, I haven't planned it out. I guess I'll just go clockwise around the country, and at some point meet up with a friend in Portlaoise (pronounced "port leesh") in the Midlands and take a tour of there. Then I'll either fly or take a (long) ferry to Scotland. It looks like I can stay in Edinburgh or Glasgow for the most part and take day trips, and at some point go north to Inverness in the Highlands. We'll see how well my plans actually work out.

I think I'm ready. I have most of my clothes packed and about half of my computer equipment ready. I stopped my mail, made photocopies of my credit cards, driver's license, and health and car insurance cards as well as passport (in case my wallet gets stolen). I'm also going to find a secure place online to store that information as well as important phone numbers, and yes I mean actually secure, not emailing to myself. Email is fine for phone numbers, but it's not as secure as most people think.

This is probably longer than blog posts are typically supposed to be, so I'll stop now and make another post tomorrow.