Riding Holiday

I've booked a last minute riding holiday in Cornwall for the week after my internship. I typed 'horse-back riding +england' into Google, found this place and decided to send off a booking request. I felt a little strange about booking a week long stay somewhere without having seen the place ...

But, the pictures on the website seem fantastic, so with any luck it will be as nice as it looks. The school has access to the coastline(s) and a bunch of riding trails around the Cornish hillsides. I'll also get to have proper lessons in show-jumping and dressage, as well as cross-country, which I've never really tried (it's pretty English). They claim to provide a "relaxing holiday with horses," so hopefully there will be some time to lounge about with books, too.

Travel "Accessories."

I decided to kill two birds with one stone this afternoon and test out my new camera while documenting some of the nerd-ier travel purchases I've made in the last couple of weeks.

Rolls and rolls of cheap film for my (Dad's) OM-1.

New glasses (I can see faces/read street signs again)!

Airplane/airport reading material: The Idiot by Dostoyovsky, Proust Was A Neuroscientist by Jonah Lehrer and Love and Other Demons by G.G. Marquez.

New iPhone earbuds and Apple travel converter set.

A Roots ticket/passport wallet (I almost didn't buy this as it seemed a bit excessive at first, but its so, so great).

Final Preparations

Hello! I've started this blog to document my time in England for myself as well as for friends and family. I'll also be using it to bookmark some of the places and things I want to remember to see/do while I'm away.

One week to go! I've slowly whittled my to-do list down to just a few tasks. Today I remembered to pick up a package of Gravol for the flight over (I forgot this last time). I don't get motion sickness but I do like to try to knock myself out about half way through the trip - after I've run out of reading material and before the boredom sets in.

Here is 'the itinerary' thus far:

• April 7: Depart.
• April 11-May 6: Publishing internship in Bristol.
• May 8-14: Riding holiday in Cornwall.
• May 15-20: London? Bibi?
• May 20-?: Copenhagen, DK to visit the newlyweds, Mark and Elaina!
• June 7: Fly home!

As you can see there are a few blank spaces and question marks - hoping to fill these with some detours, day trips and/or spontaneous train rides. I'm not very good at 'spontaneous' but I guess this is the sort of practice I need.