So the Travels Begin!

Ah, so the travels shall commence! 

8 flights, 7 airports, 4 different climates (including being right on the equator in shorts and a tank top, a day in a temperate region, as well as 12000 feet up a mountain covered in snow), 3 hotels, 3 continents, 1 rental car, both sides of the Equator and Prime Meridian……and all to be done over the course of 7 days. My Grandma thought I was nuts.

After a splendid weekend in LA gallivanting about Hollywood, South Central, and Rodeo Drive realizing that I lack both the means and desire to live in such an atypically decadent and unabashedly superfluous city, I returned to Chicago to pack up my things, finalize the closure of my domestic life, and say my final farewells to my loving family and friends. Parting IS such sweet sorrow, but then again, saying hello after a long time away is sweeter still!

Lets arrange this to paint the picture of why I was so discombobulated when I reached my final destination of Ethiopia:

2/10: 6pm-2am: Going away party with YMEN and Friends
2/11: 7am FLIGHT TIME! CHI>LAX
2/13: 1pm LAX>SanFran, 4pm SanFran>CHI
2/15: 3pm CHI>Frankfurt, Germany,
2/16: 8am Frankfurt>Innsbruck, Switz. 11am Pick up rental car and drive from INNS to Lech, Austria

NOTE: Avalanche in Lech caused me to get stranded there, as the only road into Lech was blocked by 14 feet of snow. I stayed at the quaint Hotel Tierolerhof at the base of St. Anton, about 75km from Innsbruck, had a macchiato and some fish, and rested my weary bones for a night. It was the EU equivalent of a Holiday Inn. I was just happy to be sleeping horizontally for a spell.

2/17: 11am St. Anton>Lech  (1pm arrival in Lech, drove out to return to INNS at 3am that morning)
2/18: 6am Lech>Inns (Driving at 3am to make a 6am flight); INN>Vienna (layover); VIE>Frankfurt; Frankfurt>Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (Arrived in Addis at 9pm)

Addis for 3 months!